Celebrity prices are TRULY OUTRAGEOUS!

[grandgeezer]

3 hours ago, K12Guy said:

Well, locally most decent hotel rooms are running $300 to $500 a night. And if you kick in three meals for the day at the hotel restaurant that will bring it up to another $300 each day. Make it $800 daily. And that's not the concierge level or penthouse. So, if we could get a decent stateroom with no other perks for $200 each ($400) per day, that would be great. Add another $200 for grats and such and it's still a decent stay.

 

I also live in the Phoenix area and there are plenty of hotels far superior to a cruise ship cabin for a lot less money than you pay. When we travel we don't eat at the hotel restaurants, and we don't eat three meals a day, most of the time just two. The food is far superior to the ships and again for a lot less money. If the ships restaurants were on land, we wouldn't even ride by them.

In early December we went to Vegas and stayed at Mandalay Bay for $145 per night, for the two of us,  which included taxes and resort fees. We had a car so we ate away from the casinos and spent about $100 per day for food, for the two of us,  and it was better than ship food and the service was outstanding.  That makes it $245 per day for the two of us.

In case you missed it, we are on MSC Seaside in December, staying in the Yacht Club Deluxe Suite and are paying less than $200 p.p. per day which includes tips, internet and deluxe drink package that includes the minibar.

 

[yorky]

3 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

 

I also live in the Phoenix area and there are plenty of hotels far superior to a cruise ship cabin for a lot less money than you pay. When we travel we don't eat at the hotel restaurants, and we don't eat three meals a day, most of the time just two. The food is far superior to the ships and again for a lot less money. If the ships restaurants were on land, we wouldn't even ride by them.

In early December we went to Vegas and stayed at Mandalay Bay for $145 per night, for the two of us,  which included taxes and resort fees. We had a car so we ate away from the casinos and spent about $100 per day for food, for the two of us,  and it was better than ship food and the service was outstanding.  That makes it $245 per day for the two of us.

In case you missed it, we are on MSC Seaside in December, staying in the Yacht Club Deluxe Suite and are paying less than $200 p.p. per day which includes tips, internet and deluxe drink package that includes the minibar.

 

We travel quite a lot and to be honest I don’t find your prices to be the norm. We are staying in Miami two nights before the cruise and in Fort Lauderdale two nights afterwards all in what I would concluded truly good quality hotels. Rooms plus food plus drinks work out around £700 per night. I’m no big fan of main dining rooms in cruise ships these days and we tend to often dine in Murano, purchasing a package in advance. I would love to know just where you can dine all day in the average tourist city at Murano standard for $50 a day for all your meals. We are dining out tonight at a very good quality seafood restaurant in Glasgow and our bill including tip will be £150. For around £50 for a three course meal for two including drinks we would be looking at a very, very  average chain restaurant.

[villauk]

2 minutes ago, yorky said:

We travel quite a lot and to be honest I don’t find your prices to be the norm. We are staying in Miami two nights before the cruise and in Fort Lauderdale two nights afterwards all in what I would concluded truly good quality hotels. Rooms plus food plus drinks work out around £700 per night. I’m no big fan of main dining rooms in cruise ships these days and we tend to often dine in Murano, purchasing a package in advance. I would love to know just where you can dine all day in the average tourist city at Murano standard for $50 a day for all your meals. We are dining out tonight at a very good quality seafood restaurant in Glasgow and our bill including tip will be £150. For around £50 for a three course meal for two including drinks we would be looking at a very, very  average chain restaurant.

 

 

£700 a night !

[yorky]

12 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

£700 a night !

 

Mandarin Orientals don’t come cheap

[The_Big_M]

Mandarin Orientals also are of a higher standard, and substantially more space than a $200/night cabin.

[Georgie562]

  

Celebrity prices are TRULY OUTRAGEOUS

 

this is really true. I've done Celebrity from San Juan twice in the price range of about $750 per person (perks, taxes, fees included) . This same cruise is now $1,200 per person from when I booked back in 2014 and 2016.

[yorky]

3 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

Mandarin Orientals also are of a higher standard, and substantially more space than a $200/night cabin.

Of course they are. However pick any good quality hotel, plus all day food, plus all those drinks including beer, wine, spirits, cocktails, juices in any really popular tourist destination and you won’t get change from $500. I did say two to three times the Celebrity daily price dependant on the quality of the hotel in an earlier post.

”Personally we still find Celebrity prices ok if we sail the Caribbean, ours works out at £122 pp per night. A good 4/5 star  hotel with all meals and drinks is at least double that and nearer three times as you move up to a true 5 star. Add in the entertainment and it’s still good value in our view.”

Edited February 13, 2019 by yorky

[K12Guy]

12 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 

I also live in the Phoenix area and there are plenty of hotels far superior to a cruise ship cabin for a lot less money than you pay. When we travel we don't eat at the hotel restaurants, and we don't eat three meals a day, most of the time just two. The food is far superior to the ships and again for a lot less money. If the ships restaurants were on land, we wouldn't even ride by them.

In early December we went to Vegas and stayed at Mandalay Bay for $145 per night, for the two of us,  which included taxes and resort fees. We had a car so we ate away from the casinos and spent about $100 per day for food, for the two of us,  and it was better than ship food and the service was outstanding.  That makes it $245 per day for the two of us.

In case you missed it, we are on MSC Seaside in December, staying in the Yacht Club Deluxe Suite and are paying less than $200 p.p. per day which includes tips, internet and deluxe drink package that includes the minibar.

 

It's all perspective, right? We pay much more that some people for our adventures and attractions and we really enjoy suites on Celebrity. We had booked an MSC cruise and then cancelled due to the size of the ship. We prefer smaller ships and of course they tend to cost more. A gallon of fuel costs pretty much the same for most ships, I would think.

 

Enjoy your MSC cruise and let me know what you think about the ship and the Yacht Club experience, please.

 

 

[grandgeezer]

2 hours ago, K12Guy said:

It's all perspective, right? We pay much more that some people for our adventures and attractions and we really enjoy suites on Celebrity. We had booked an MSC cruise and then cancelled due to the size of the ship. We prefer smaller ships and of course they tend to cost more. A gallon of fuel costs pretty much the same for most ships, I would think.

 

Enjoy your MSC cruise and let me know what you think about the ship and the Yacht Club experience, please.

 

 

 We were in a Yacht Club Deluxe on the Seaside suite last year and we are hooked. We also did a a Grand Suite on the Allure last year. They both far exceeded our expectations and they cost much less than Celebrity. The size of the ship doesn't bother us. We are now hooked on suites as long as the prices are reasonable.  We will probably never do one on Celebrity unless the price would drop considerably. The entry level suites on all the lines don't interest us.

[philamyc]

16 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

In case you missed it, we are on MSC Seaside in December, staying in the Yacht Club Deluxe Suite and are paying less than $200 p.p. per day which includes tips, internet and deluxe drink package that includes the minibar.

How are you doing that? Inside cabin?

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, philamyc said:

How are you doing that? Inside cabin?

 No, the deluxe suite that has the balcony. It helps being very flexible in travel plans and luck plays a big roll in it also.

[TFLG]

18 hours ago, yorky said:

We travel quite a lot and to be honest I don’t find your prices to be the norm. We are staying in Miami two nights before the cruise and in Fort Lauderdale two nights afterwards all in what I would concluded truly good quality hotels. Rooms plus food plus drinks work out around £700 per night. I’m no big fan of main dining rooms in cruise ships these days and we tend to often dine in Murano, purchasing a package in advance. I would love to know just where you can dine all day in the average tourist city at Murano standard for $50 a day for all your meals. We are dining out tonight at a very good quality seafood restaurant in Glasgow and our bill including tip will be £150. For around £50 for a three course meal for two including drinks we would be looking at a very, very  average chain restaurant.

 

$50 a day per person is pretty hard to do in most big cities unless you eat at fast food/chain places (chilis etc).  But $100 a day per person is easy and you can eat in some pretty good places (drinks excluded). Murano is $50pp just for dinner and unless you have a bevy package drinks are extra  (and we all know those drink packages are not really free). 

Even in Vegas if you get off the strip you can eat in some fantastic places for $50-$75pp (Herb and Rye steak house you can get a HUGE 18oz awesome ribeye for $30 during happy hour) way better than the dry aged in Tuscan.  Happy hours and Groupon can cut that cost considerably.

But factoring in the entertainment and especially the drink packages I find cruises on par with a decent land vacation.  I can book cheap cruises and cheap land vacations. 

£700 per night seems really high unless you are staying at some swanky hotel.  We are at the Crowne Plaza in FLL in a couple of weeks and it's only $200/night we will spend another $200 of food and drinks (at least half of that will be drinks). So only $400/day (about £300).  BTW, My mum and dad just booked a trip to Glasgow, 2 weeks in the Carlton George hotel and premium Economy air was only around $4000.  They changed from a British Isles cruise which was nearly $8k for just the cruise. 

 

BTW, what are you doing tipping in Glasgow?

[philamyc]

I would love to find a YC Suite for the price of an Aqua class cabin, but I can't find anything less than 600 a night. I can do Aqua for 400-500 a night routinely. 

[yorky]

4 hours ago, TFLG said:

 

$50 a day per person is pretty hard to do in most big cities unless you eat at fast food/chain places (chilis etc).  But $100 a day per person is easy and you can eat in some pretty good places (drinks excluded). Murano is $50pp just for dinner and unless you have a bevy package drinks are extra  (and we all know those drink packages are not really free). 

Even in Vegas if you get off the strip you can eat in some fantastic places for $50-$75pp (Herb and Rye steak house you can get a HUGE 18oz awesome ribeye for $30 during happy hour) way better than the dry aged in Tuscan.  Happy hours and Groupon can cut that cost considerably.

But factoring in the entertainment and especially the drink packages I find cruises on par with a decent land vacation.  I can book cheap cruises and cheap land vacations. 

£700 per night seems really high unless you are staying at some swanky hotel.  We are at the Crowne Plaza in FLL in a couple of weeks and it's only $200/night we will spend another $200 of food and drinks (at least half of that will be drinks). So only $400/day (about £300).  BTW, My mum and dad just booked a trip to Glasgow, 2 weeks in the Carlton George hotel and premium Economy air was only around $4000.  They changed from a British Isles cruise which was nearly $8k for just the cruise. 

 

BTW, what are you doing tipping in Glasgow?

Of course you can always find cheaper options, happy hour or  Groupon type deals and eat cheaper. I’m just looking at good hotels, in good tourist areas. We personally don’t spend our time looking for the cheapest happy hour type deals when on holiday. We book Murano as part of the speciality package so £27 per person, my price per day includes the beverage package. Not sure what you mean about not tipping because it’s Glasgow ? We always tip the staff for good service and always have. We would never just walk away leaving nothing.

[yorky]

5 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 No, the deluxe suite that has the balcony. It helps being very flexible in travel plans and luck plays a big roll in it also.

 

5 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 No, the deluxe suite that has the balcony. It helps being very flexible in travel plans and luck plays a big roll in it also.

Have to admit that pricing it up I can’t get near that figure, 

[grandgeezer]

10 hours ago, yorky said:

 

Have to admit that pricing it up I can’t get near that figure, 

 We booked the cruise in December. The price has almost doubled since then. Word must have gotten out on how big of a deal it was. We check prices all the time hoping a deal pops up again, it has twice in the last 1 1/2 years.

[Captain-John]

On 2/13/2019 at 6:37 AM, yorky said:

Personally we still find Celebrity prices ok if we sail the Caribbean, ours works out at £122 pp per night. A good 4/5 star  hotel with all meals and drinks is at least double that and nearer three times as you move up to a true 5 star. Add in the entertainment and it’s still good value in our view.

 

That's almost exactly the figure we are paying for our Caribbean cruise next April. Whilst I couldn't quite spend your figure of £700 a day at a hotel, I still see the value in cruising, even adding airfare (for those of us on the 'wrong' side of the Atlantic), specialty restaurants, spa access and excursions into the equation.

 

On 2/13/2019 at 6:53 AM, villauk said:

 

 

Itinerary does make a huge difference. Unfortunately, we then have the higher airfare on top of those lower Caribbean prices as our local (European cruises where air is far less) usually are much higher in pricing - Edge has been way higher in Europe, even from the initial release. 

 

 

Absolutely agree it's a trade off - but recently, I've found Med cruise + relatively cheap airfare roughly equals transatlantic airfare + Caribbean cruise total. I'm regularly seeing any halfway decent European/Med cruise for well over £1K each, for a week.

 

NCL's Europe pricing at the moment is crazy.

 

On 2/13/2019 at 7:12 AM, yorky said:

We travel quite a lot and to be honest I don’t find your prices to be the norm. We are staying in Miami two nights before the cruise and in Fort Lauderdale two nights afterwards all in what I would concluded truly good quality hotels. Rooms plus food plus drinks work out around £700 per night. I’m no big fan of main dining rooms in cruise ships these days and we tend to often dine in Murano, purchasing a package in advance. I would love to know just where you can dine all day in the average tourist city at Murano standard for $50 a day for all your meals. We are dining out tonight at a very good quality seafood restaurant in Glasgow and our bill including tip will be £150. For around £50 for a three course meal for two including drinks we would be looking at a very, very  average chain restaurant.

 

We're sailing Reflection next year and plan to purchase a dining package too (we're the other side of Stirling to you). We are planning on 6 days pre-cruise in Miami, but I note you're splitting your time between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Having stayed in both previously, I just planned on commuting to Ft. Lauderdale from Miami for a day or two but will give some serious thought to staying for a few days after the cruise too.

 

16 hours ago, philamyc said:

I would love to find a YC Suite for the price of an Aqua class cabin, but I can't find anything less than 600 a night. I can do Aqua for 400-500 a night routinely. 

 

If you're dedicated, you can find YC for sub-$500 a night on some itineraries at some times of the year as grandgeezer did. But you need to be quick to spot the deals!

 

 

Edited February 14, 2019 by Captain-John

[yorky]

2 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

 

That's almost exactly the figure we are paying for our Caribbean cruise next April. Whilst I couldn't quite spend your figure of £700 a day at a hotel, I still see the value in cruising, even adding airfare (for those of us on the 'wrong' side of the Atlantic), specialty restaurants, spa access and excursions into the equation.

 

 

Absolutely agree it's a trade off - but recently, I've found Med cruise + relatively cheap airfare roughly equals transatlantic airfare + Caribbean cruise total. I'm regularly seeing any halfway decent European/Med cruise for well over £1K each, for a week.

 

NCL's Europe pricing at the moment is crazy.

 

 

We're sailing Reflection next year and plan to purchase a dining package too (we're the other side of Stirling to you). We are planning on 6 days pre-cruise in Miami, but I note you're splitting your time between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Having stayed in both previously, I just planned on commuting to Ft. Lauderdale from Miami for a day or two but will give some serious thought to staying for a few days after the cruise too.

 

 

If you're dedicated, you can find YC for sub-$500 a night on some itineraries at some times of the year as grandgeezer did. But you need to be quick to spot the deals!

 

 

To be fair we are not paying £700 a night, although if we had all meals and drinks at the Manderin it would be around that. Most of our hotel stays were paid for using our air miles. We are staying for a couple of nights in Fort Lauderdale at a hotel called “the pillars” after the cruise, more boutique in size and attention to detail.

[villauk]

9 minutes ago, Captain-John said:

 

That's almost exactly the figure we are paying for our Caribbean cruise next April. Whilst I couldn't quite spend your figure of £700 a day at a hotel, I still see the value in cruising, even adding airfare (for those of us on the 'wrong' side of the Atlantic), specialty restaurants, spa access and excursions into the equation.

 

 

Absolutely agree it's a trade off - but recently, I've found Med cruise + relatively cheap airfare roughly equals transatlantic airfare + Caribbean cruise total. I'm regularly seeing any halfway decent European/Med cruise for well over £1K each, for a week.

 

 

 

 

 

We’re sailing for 13 nights in August on the east coast of the US for less than 7 nights in the Med on Edge - no brainer.

Edited February 14, 2019 by villauk

[Captain-John]

7 minutes ago, yorky said:

To be fair we are not paying £700 a night, although if we had all meals and drinks at the Manderin it would be around that. Most of our hotel stays were paid for using our air miles. We are staying for a couple of nights in Fort Lauderdale at a hotel called “the pillars” after the cruise, more boutique in size and attention to detail.

 

Thanks, will take a look.

 

4 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

We’re sailing for 13 nights in August on the east coast of the US for less than 7 nights in the Med on Edge - no brainer.

 

Yep - wonder what does it - port fees? Supply and demand? Probably more likely the latter. A shame - I'd be cruising every few months if we had access to the same deals as our American cousins are privy to. Even better if you're within spitting distance of a port.

[villauk]

1 minute ago, Captain-John said:

 

 

Yep - wonder what does it - port fees? Supply and demand? Probably more likely the latter. A shame - I'd be cruising every few months if we had access to the same deals as our American cousins are privy to. Even better if you're within spitting distance of a port.

 

Yes, so would we, even more so if we were retired 🙂.

[grandgeezer]

2 hours ago, Captain-John said:

 

Thanks, will take a look.

 

 

Yep - wonder what does it - port fees? Supply and demand? Probably more likely the latter. A shame - I'd be cruising every few months if we had access to the same deals as our American cousins are privy to. Even better if you're within spitting distance of a port.

 I'm not seeing any deals, at least not on Celebrity. We are retired so we have all the flexibility in the world. Last year we did a 14 day cruise on Allure of the Seas, in a Grand Suite, and 14 days on MSC Seaside, in a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite, for about the same cost per day as an Aqua cabin with two perks.  We used to take at least four cruises a year (all on Celebrity or RCL), now we've just done the two mentioned above in the last 2 1/2+ years with another 14 days on the Seaside, in the YC Suite, this October, with basically the same pricing.

[philamyc]

34 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

 I'm not seeing any deals, at least not on Celebrity. We are retired so we have all the flexibility in the world. Last year we did a 14 day cruise on Allure of the Seas, in a Grand Suite, and 14 days on MSC Seaside, in a Yacht Club Deluxe Suite, for about the same cost per day as an Aqua cabin with two perks.  We used to take at least four cruises a year (all on Celebrity or RCL), now we've just done the two mentioned above in the last 2 1/2+ years with another 14 days on the Seaside, in the YC Suite, this October, with basically the same pricing.

Now, I think those cruises are about 100-150 dollars more a night than that Aqua cabin. (at least for the deluxe suite, you might get the same price for an inside cabin). I ran some numbers:

 

For a five night Caribbean cruise (Aqua)in January 2020 on the Infinity with all 4 perks - 402 a night.

For a five night Caribbean cruise (Aqua) in January 2020 on the Equinox with all 4 perks - 440 a night

For a 10 night Hawaii (!) cruise (Aqua) on April 29 of this year on the Equinox with two perks - 351 a night!

 

The corresponding cruises for a YC club deluxe suite on the Divina were 622 and 587 a night.

 

I did try a 7 day on the reflection and that was a whopping 729 a night in January of 2020, so obviously that is a terrible deal.

 

I just can't swing 600+ a night, so that leaves the YC out for me. I mean, I guess I could swing it, but I wouldn't feel good about it. 🙂

Edited February 14, 2019 by philamyc

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 2/12/2019 at 9:16 PM, K12Guy said:

Where else can you get a hotel room with all meals included for $200 per night? Waffle Motel? Seriously....

Sorry, but you entirely missed the point of my posting: not that $200 per night is exorbitant, but rather that the OP's listed cruises at $36 to $60 per night were atypical.

[DebInAntigua]

On 2/12/2019 at 9:16 PM, grandgeezer said:

To compare apples to apples your hotel room has to be the size of a walk in closet. The post you quoted says $200 per person per day. That’s a total of $400 per day. Where can’t you get a room and meals for that? Seriously....

 

 

 

We found that staying in Miami for a week cost more than our 7 day cruise on the Equinox! (at a moderate hotel, not upscale)