Fares Gone Crazy

[W283386]

We enjoy the 5 day cruises.  Last year we booked a balcony cabin (in February) for a December 8th cruise on the Infinity with two perks for $1440 leaving from Ft. Lauderdale.  This year the same cruise, ship, cabin and itinerary is $2025 and leaving from Miami.  That is over a 40% increase.  Looks like it will be an Air BNB in Florida this year.  Plus no need for parking or medical insurance. 

[philamyc]

12 minutes ago, W283386 said:

We enjoy the 5 day cruises.  Last year we booked a balcony cabin (in February) for a December 8th cruise on the Infinity with two perks for $1440 leaving from Ft. Lauderdale.  This year the same cruise, ship, cabin and itinerary is $2025 and leaving from Miami.  That is over a 40% increase.  Looks like it will be an Air BNB in Florida this year.  Plus no need for parking or medical insurance. 

You might check the ones for 2021. We are booked on a 4 day in Aqua1 with two perks for 1,936 and a five day with the same perks for 2125, both in January. I know it's more than you spent, but at least it's Aqua class.

[diesel1973]

Just got an e-mail from Virgin Cruises with their schedule and some rates. With the prices they are showing they are pretty proud of their cruises also!

[waterbug123]

Supply and demand.  Maybe there are fewer similar cruise options this year, so the cruise line knows they can charge a premium.  Or perhaps demand is up and sales are exceeding last year's so again, they can charge a premium.

[GoodScout]

One thing that weighs in my decisions: With Celebrity, I know what I'm getting and I'm not gambling. 

With an AirBnB, things might be great. Might be a horror story. I don't get many vacations, so I'll be darned if I'm going to gamble with it. 

[Redtravel]

Supply and demand will eventually find a price that sells cabins.  Fare have gone wild.  We looked at fares in November for a Caribbean cruise in Jan. 2020.  Same cruise is now double.  We did not book it.  Am I sorry?  No.  I could wait and see if fares drop or move on to other vacation options. While Celebrity does a nice cruise, it doesn't compare to other lines that I often book.  The new higher fares and amenities cutback make it very easy to book other cruise lines.  My next booked cruises are not on Celebrity. 

[killsport]

Interesting pricing. If your dates are flexible, I got an AQ with two perks on the 5-day Infinity for $1657 (total for 2). It is the 3/23/2020 sailing.

[grandgeezer]

I hope the people who are complaining about pricing are voting with their wallet, otherwise it's just a waste of time as Celebrity just don't care as long as the cash is flowing in. When that stops maybe they'll do something. We voted with our wallet over 2 1/2 years ago and are doing just fine.

[Luvcrusn]

Continuing the can you top this trend. We booked an Aqua A1 on Feb 8th for a March 2020 10 day cruise for $2299 pp with premium drinks, prepaid gratuities, unlimited WIFI for 2 and $950 OBC. Same cruise less than one week later was $2399pp only classic beverage and prepaid gratuities, no WIFI, and only $500 OBC. Scratching my head and being grateful we booked a week ago.

[Tourist1292]

The price keeps changing over time. It dropped around 10% within a month for my upcoming cruise in May as it is not selling well. This may be related to the timing and availability.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

There are last minute deals to be had too, especially when X's prices were unrealistic for too long.  Our Aqua Cabin for a 12 night to Hawaii was $3,600 roughly a year ago, and dropped to $1,599 before final payment.  Asking for unreasonable prices for too long, equals sales well below market, to make up the difference.

[4774Papa]

Ridiculous prices.

We take mainly two week cruises.  We are retired.  We now prefer Repo or TA cruises that don't bundle pricing with promos that we don't want.

 

Still in comparing Celebrity with Royal C for TA cruises from Rome to FLA in 2020, we found Royal was 40% cheaper for essentially the same cruise.

 

The cost of a veranda on all of the 2020 TA cruise runs from $1999 up to $3000 with most costing $2000 or more pp.

https://www.celebritycruises.com/itinerary-search?dates=2020-04,2020-10,2020-11&destinations=T.ATL

 

These are not the bundled cruise but sooo expensive.  

 

Checking Royal C.  The cost for a balcony for all the 2020 TA cruises runs from $1099 up to about $2000 with the average being about $1500 pp

 

The Rome to FLA cruises on Royal are $1099 and on Celebrity $2049.  Not sure when we will ever take another Celebrity.

[gerelmx]

As mentioned supply vs demand, check other itineraries, different month of the year, etc.

One example of lower rates is the Eclipse to Hawaii from Vancouver or the return trip from Honolulu (sept/Oct 2019). We booked a Veranda 2B on December 2017, my booking have been modified 3 times because of  price drops, now we are in Concierge C2, $1,650 less in each leg plus 2 additional perks. The other side the Silhouette B2B booking for next spring break, CAT 2B now is $1,100 more each leg than in June 2017.

[yorky]

1 hour ago, grandgeezer said:

I hope the people who are complaining about pricing are voting with their wallet, otherwise it's just a waste of time as Celebrity just don't care as long as the cash is flowing in. When that stops maybe they'll do something. We voted with our wallet over 2 1/2 years ago and are doing just fine.

We certainly only book cruises with Celebrity that we think are value for money, 85% are not in my view and I don’t ever see us paying Edge prices. When it reaches 100% we move on to another cruise line, there are plenty of alternative choices and that choice gets bigger every year. We will always cruise and would never put loyalty before value.

[Zoedokey]

On 2/14/2019 at 12:34 PM, W283386 said:

We enjoy the 5 day cruises.  Last year we booked a balcony cabin (in February) for a December 8th cruise on the Infinity with two perks for $1440 leaving from Ft. Lauderdale.  This year the same cruise, ship, cabin and itinerary is $2025 and leaving from Miami.  That is over a 40% increase.  Looks like it will be an Air BNB in Florida this year.  Plus no need for parking or medical insurance. 

We did this 5 day on the Infinity this past Dec 17, and paid 900 for an oceanview with drinks package and 300 onboard credit.  I don't expect to get that kind of deal again, especially now that they are paying to upgrade the entire fleet.  

[mfs2k]

2 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

 

I hope the people who are complaining about pricing are voting with their wallet, otherwise it's just a waste of time

 

As long as people are booking cabins at the cruiseline's desired pace,  prices will stay high.

 

If people are "voting with their wallet", prices will drop until cabins sell again.

 

It's all done by very sophisticated computer systems nowadays which have more Artificial Intelligence than most of us have in human intelligence.

 

The best time to book a cruise is during a recession when you're unemployed.  Prices drop a lot then.

[mfs2k]

35 minutes ago, Zoedokey said:

We did this 5 day on the Infinity this past Dec 17, and paid 900 for an oceanview with drinks package and 300 onboard credit.  I don't expect to get that kind of deal again, especially now that they are paying to upgrade the entire fleet.  

 

December 17-24 is a very off peak week to travel. The first 3 weeks of December is a slow period for most resort areas.  

 

 I bet prices tripled the following week from 12/24-12/31. 

[emandjoe]

We booked a 7 night cruise for Feb 2020 while onboard in January with 2 perks. When Celebrity changed promotions and added all 4 perks, the same cruise was about $1,000 more.(which showed me clearly how they price the perks)  With the new current promotion, the price is even higher. I check daily to see if the price drops because I cannot believe how much it has increased since last month for a cruise a year out. 

[kearney]

I hate when you see "free perks", they are included... just not free. I booked a cruise using senior discount... then I asked about whether or not there were any perks... which i had seen on the Celebrity website. The TA told me that they were not available at the price I was paying.... but I said... they said free... The difference was enough that I could not justify paying the extra. Now when we booked Edge..there was no senior or resident discount... in that case if you wanted Edge you paid the price... but at least it did come with 2 perks.... making the price... at the time... high but not as bad as it would have been

[mfs2k]

9 minutes ago, kearney said:

I hate when you see "free perks", they are included... just not free

 

TNSTAAFL

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."  (Coined from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." Ended up on the Martian flag. )

Edited February 15, 2019 by mfs2k

[Stateroom_Sailor]

11 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

TNSTAAFL

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."  (Coined from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." Ended up on the Martian flag. )

 

Occasionally they miss the mark.  I remember in 2014 we did the Summit repo from San Juan to New Jersey, and we got the 123GO! sale with all 4 perks in Aqua for cheap!  So many people booked, that prices soured after the sale had ended.  Our cruise got categorized as a reposition cruise, so was ineligible for any further promos.

 

Total free lunch for us, and everyone else paid afterwords.

[NantahalaCruiser]

Just have to do comparison shopping as in many other areas of life.

 

When we were looking about 3 weeks ago to book a 7-Night July 2020 Southbound Alaskan cruise, I initially thought of Princess; but:

 

the Royal was $2489 for their top regular balcony (deluxe but not mini-suite) with zero perks

the Millennium was $2499 for an Aqua (A1 at the A2 loyalty price) with two perks

 

Booked the Millennium with Blu and Classic Beverage Package at effectively $140 less than the Royal (when you subtract off the OBC)

 

Guess the demand must be greater for Princess than Celebrity in Alaska

[mayleeman]

5 hours ago, mfs2k said:

 

TNSTAAFL

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."  (Coined from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land." Ended up on the Martian flag. )

Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I thought? Or was the moon culture just the adoption of the philosophy?

[Stateroom_Sailor]

2 hours ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

 

 

Guess the demand must be greater for Princess than Celebrity in Alaska

 

Glacier Bay, Haines, Sitka options, plus extensive cruise tour alternatives with the infrastructure to offer them at reduced rated.

[Cruise Junky]

Our next two big trips are land vacations. I’ve booked far better accommodations on land than a 250sq ft box at sea for far less money.  My vacations don’t need to be cruises.