Carribean cruise pricing

[Kittyonions]

Hope that regular Marella cruisers can offer some advice here. After having a P and O cruise to the Arabian Gulf In January cancelled, we decided to look for alternatives . Found a Discovery 2 cruise which looks quite interesting, but whilst we have been discussing with friends the price seems to fluctuate on a daily basis. Is this normal for Marella cruises? Have checked an almost identical cruise from Barbados with P and O, which is £700 per person cheaper. The only difference seems to be the drinks inclusive on Marella. Would appreciate any suggestions as to if this cruise price is likely to stabilise!

[Vitalsign]

Gosh that sounds a lot Is the flight included with P & O? And are you looking at comparable cabins? Also how many sea days does P & O cruise have? Marella usually only have one per week.

[Vitalsign]

Kittionions was your cruise cancelled due to Iran capturing tankers? We are worried that this might happen to us on the Far East repositioning cruise back to Palma We get on in Dubai and the ship would have to pass through the strait of Hormuz where the Iranians are particularly active. Our friends get on a week later in Muscat so maybe they might just cancel our first week and add more ports of call in Egypt or the Med 

[Kittyonions]

Hi Vitalsign,

yes, you are correct, it was due to the current situation in the gulf. Apparently, it is Due to the fact that P and O fly the red ensign ( and have a great big union flag painted on the bow) that puts their ships at  risk. Other cruise lines continue to operate, and in fact we were offered to switch to Costa cruises who are also owned by Carnival.

To get back to my original post, have just checked and prices have changed again due to TUI new discount code. However, 12th Jan 14nights balc on Exp 2 £2249, against 18th Jan 15 nights balc on Britannia £1764. You are correct that P and O have 4 sea days, against 2 on TUI, but don’t feel that this justifies such a large price difference.

Hope you enjoy your cruise to the Arabian Gulf. We have visited the area on both Celebrity and Costa, and very much enjoyed both. If you have a port call at Abu Dhabi, don’t miss the Mosque visit, it’s fantastic!

[Vitalsign]

Thanks for your reply Kittionions - what you say makes sense so I'll keep my fingers crossed I've been to the mosque in Abu Dhabi when I did a weeks cruise on Marella Celebration from Dubai. I went with a girl friend so this is why we are going to do this cruise from Dubai cos hubby hasn't been there

Im still amazed at the price difference have you looked at Discovery 2 out of Barbados I bet it's cheaper It's a lovely ex RCL ship and has good reviews I've been on her and loved the ship

 

Thomson Spirit           Oct/Nov 2005  Repo Palma to Sharm el Sheikh  

Thomson Celebration   Jan 2007  Red Sea Magic 

Ocean Village             Feb 2008  Western Caribbean & Central America 

Ocean Village             Aug 2008  Eastern Med 

Ocean Village 2          Feb 2009  Eastern Caribbean  

Ocean Village             Mar 2010  Eastern Caribbean 

Thomson Dream         Feb 2011  Eastern Caribbean & Cuba

Thomson Celebration  Aug 2011  Eastern Med  

Thomson Celebration  Apr 2012  Red Sea Magic  

Thomson Celebration  Apr/May 2012  Repo Sharm el Sheikh to Marmaris

Thomson Dream         Feb 2013  EasternCaribbean  

Thomson Majesty       Nov/Dec 2014  Colourful Coasts Canaries

Thomson Dream         Jan/Feb 2015 West Carib Panama & Cuba  

Thomson Dream              Apr 2015  Transatlantic Sunset 

Thomson Majesty           June 2015  Hellenic Classics 

Thomson Celebration      Sept 2015  Adriatic Affair

Thomson Dream        Jan 2016  Mayan Treasures/Cuban Revolution

Thomson Dream              April 2016  Atlantic Adventure

Thomson Dream              June 2016  Iconic Islands/Adriatic Explorer

Thomson Celebration      Jan 2017 Cities of Gold

Thomson Dream               April2017  Atlantic Daydream

Thomson Spirit                 June 2017 Classical Greece

Thomson Majesty             Sept2017 Med Medley/Treasures of Med

Marella Celebration         Jan 2018  Caribbean Gems/Coral Islands

Marella Discovery 2         April 2018 Cuban Fusion

MarellaDiscovery 2          April 2018 Atlantic Discoveries

Marella Dream                 May 2018 Spanish Delights

Marella Discovery 2        June 2018 Aegean Meze

Marella Dream                 Sept 2018 Mediterranean Medley

Marella Celebration          April 2019 Caribbean Dreams

Marella Celebration          April/May 2019 Atlantic Quest

Marella Discovery            June 2019 Adriatic Explorer

Marella Discovery            April 2020 Golden Cities and Sands

Marella Discovery.           April 2020 Red Sea Experience

The 

Edited August 29, 2019 by Vitalsign

[Kittyonions]

That’s exactly the one I am looking at Vitalsign! See from your history you have cruised a lot with Marella, would suggest you also check prices with P and O. We are on our first Marella cruise to Adriatic in October, and see you did that cruise in June. Do you have any tips for us?

However, still hoping someone can give some advice re the pricing for Barbados!

[Vitalsign]

We did the trip to Lubyanka and Lake Bled from Koper which I'd not done before as I'd already done this cruise twice before with hubby. I was with a girlfriend the June cruise. Venice we did the half day private launch in Venice (3rd time) I know my way around now!! Split we walked into town and then along the front turned right at the little church and walked up until we turned right again into the old town and then back to the ship for afternoon tea as we didn't change any money.

Dubrovnik we did the half day trip up the cable car followed by a guided tour of the old city Also didn't change any money so took plenty of water it was 48 degrees!!!! Luckily for you it won't be that in October. On the previous 2 occasions here we just got a taxi into town and looked around ourselves You can easily get a bus in the port but you have to pay in Croatian money but not for the taxi - they take Euros. Previously we had drinks and a snack for four of us and paid by card.

kotor - the highlight of the trip previously twice we have done a speedboat ride up the fiord back to the Med which was fabulous but this time did a half day guided tour. Although Montenegro are not un the EU their currency surprisingly is the Euro

As you can see unless we are going to a beach in Europe or the Caribbean we always use the ships tours We once did Rome on our own and missed loads of things due to not really knowing where we were going and taking too long to get to places of interest and worrying about not getting back to the ship on time.

So prefer to pay probably extra than do our own thing.

any questions please ask

[ormy]

Cable Car not working these days, apparently its been like this for some time - we visited in June.  Wonderful place though.

[Vitalsign]

I was on it first week in July this year

[edinburgher]

Pricing you quote in #4 works out roughly around £34pppd.

 

Even if you only enjoy a pre and post dinner drink and a glass or two of wine with dinner you are already not far off that if paying individually.  Given that cocktails, beer, juices and other soft drinks are also included and the Caribbean is hot, you will likely be thirsty, so would probably come out ahead.

 

Could of course be different on a "cold water" itinerary.

[jayw]

‘Flash sale reductions’ on Discovery 2 for Caribbean cruise in January. Price is now £109 MORE than on 20th August. Same date, same cabin, same airport. What is going on?? Any suggestion welcome. 

[2BACRUISER]

All selling websites have algorythms in them so every time you look its logged the more you look the higher the price goes. I noticed this when booking flights with Jet 2. Was looking to fly to Barcelona and at home every time i checked the price had gone up, came to work and looked at Jet 2 on works computer and was the low price i originally looked at so booked it from work. The algorythm remembers your computer address, i reckon its the same with TUI.  Try from a different location not just another computer at home as it will still have the same IP addrress. hth

1 hour ago, jayw said:

‘Flash sale reductions’ on Discovery 2 for Caribbean cruise in January. Price is now £109 MORE than on 20th August. Same date, same cabin, same airport. What is going on?? Any suggestion welcome. 

 

[nancyneptune]

Just been looking at the Transatlantic cruises with Marella from Scotland. Only two available and the number of days on the cruises have been reduced compared with previous years.  Cruise on the Explorer this winter is similar to the itinerary on the Celebration in April but with less ports in the Caribbean. 

 

The other option to Jamaica. Hardly worth going all the way to the Caribbean for only three ports. No option to add a week in the Caribbean before the cruise unless you are prepared pay for a flight which you won't use.

 

Always loved doing the re-positioning cruises whether to the Caribbean, the Med or the Canaries but with the reduction in the number of days and ports and the price increases we will wait a while yet and check out other lines. Would only consider Marella now if the price drops considerably.  P& O seem to be better value especially with tips included now.  P & O food was always much better too.  We are not big drinkers so AI doesn't suit us as we feel we would be paying to subsidise those who do sit round the pool drinking from morning to night, and P & O drink prices are very reasonable anyway.

[Vitalsign]

We did the Transatlantic on Celebration this year and it was 3 weeks to Dubrovnik with 5 ports of call in the Caribbean As we couldn't add a further week on line we went to TUI TA and they added the final week in the Caribbean to our cruise and deducted the flight costs They had to ring HO but they got permission as long as we promised not to use the extra flights they deducted -as if!!! We got a very good deal only downside was that the cabin we wanted was booked the first week but was available for the Transatlantic and they wouldn't let us book a cabin for the first week and then the cabin we wanted for the Transatlantic If you compare prices the older ships are much cheaper than the new ones

[nancyneptune]

2 hours ago, Vitalsign said:

We did the Transatlantic on Celebration this year and it was 3 weeks to Dubrovnik with 5 ports of call in the Caribbean As we couldn't add a further week on line we went to TUI TA and they added the final week in the Caribbean to our cruise and deducted the flight costs They had to ring HO but they got permission as long as we promised not to use the extra flights they deducted -as if!!! We got a very good deal only downside was that the cabin we wanted was booked the first week but was available for the Transatlantic and they wouldn't let us book a cabin for the first week and then the cabin we wanted for the Transatlantic If you compare prices the older ships are much cheaper than the new ones

 

 

That was good that they did it for you without having to pay for a flight you wouldn't use. 

 

They refused to do it for our friends last year who were on the Transatlantic. They wanted to add an extra week on board when the ship got back to the Med but they had to pay for a flight that they could not use. 

 

Think it all depends on how well the cruises are selling.  If there are lots of cabins available they may be a bit more flexible. 

The T A can call H O but it very much depends who takes the call. Some are more helpful than others. 

 

Don't really mind the older ships, just be happy to get a good itinerary at a sensible price. 

 

Looking at CMV ,and P & O but can afford to wait a bit to see if Marella comes down in price after the code 150 finishes as that  is usually the case.

 

 

[Vitalsign]

It  is different for adding an extra week on at the end of the Transatlantic as it's classed as a summer cruise and the Trans is classed as a winter cruise The TUI TA told us this at the time of booking

[Kittyonions]

Thanks for the advice Nancyneptune regarding the pricing being reduced after code 150 finishes. Any idea how long these “flash sales” usually last?

Agree with you, JayW that the pricing for the Caribbean cruises seem to change almost daily

[soobs]

still happy with what i have paid not seen anything cheaper even though I wanted Manchester not Birmingham P & O not comparing at the moment and I doubt they will as the itinerary is not as good and AI sort of seals the deal as it give greater flexibility even if not a drinker!! Happy first time Marella cruiser