Celebrity Cruise Pricing

[barbeyg]

I figure that the cruise lines are 'testing the waters' to see what people are actually willing to pay for a cruise.  If they sell cabins at these highly inflated prices, then all is good to them because the excess can be used to pay down their massive debt from the Covid shutdown.  If they can't sell for these prices, they will have to adjust their expectations.  It really is, ultimately, up to the consumer.

 

We have one cruise we paid more for than we wanted to, and will watch pricing on it.  It was just a trip that we really, really wanted to take.   Otherwise, we shop around Celebrity and RCI, and if the prices aren't what we are willing to pay, we figure there are so many other travel choices to explore.  And we will spend our dollars on those, if cruise lines are too pricey for us.  I'm personally willing to wait them out, see if the pricing moderates, and when we retire, book close to sailing date for discounted rates, if those are available.  

[Cruise a holic]

Prices are crazy.  The ships are catering to those who can afford it- especially suite guests.  We as, upper middle class, have typically sailed in entry level suites on celebrity and Royal.  In the future, we will consider regular balcony cabins.  We truly enjoy cruising and will continue to cruise.  

Yes, the industry as many others was hit with losses during covid, but now will recover.  They will not lower the pricing after all debt has been paid but keep as huge profits.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[Team Stag]

This thread got me curious; so I did a little research.  In 2013, we booked a balcony (Caribbean 7 day) on the Reflection (at the time 1 year old ship); the cost per person for a balcony was $1000 (before port taxes and fees).  Booked this year on the Beyond (1 year old ship) - balcony (kind of) (Caribbean 7 Day) - cost: $1000 / person (before port taxes and fees).  

We all know the prices today are not that of 2013.  When I look at the price of flights, hotels, theme parks and restaurants - all are considerably higher than they were in 2013.  Eggs, fuel (although it was high in 2013), meat, seafood are much higher than 2013.  So we understand getting on a ship in 2023 at the same price as 10 years ago; there will be some differences.  The steak I had a Christmas dinner was twice the price it was at the same restaurant in 2013.  Why should Celebrity be any different?  We continue to look at all vacation options and continue to return to Celebrity due to the value.  Sure - the MDR isn't what it was in 2013.  But they also have made a lot of cuts since we started cruising in 2003 (remember when there was a crab leg night??? although that might have been a Princess cruise).  But when I get on the ship, I have an idea of the experience I'm going to have vs paying a lot more for an unknown all inclusive or extensively planning a multiple night week somewhere else.

As far as 2025 pricing, we all know the prices move dynamically.  As we approach 2025 cruise final payment, people will cancel, interests will change and price will move based on what the market is willing to support.

When I look at 2025 pricing, I look at that simply as a tool for the executives to raise the stock price.  Terms like "bookings are strong" - "predictive revenue is really high / higher than the past" etc.  While cruising is our passion : to the RC executives - it's a business.  And the higher they raise the stock price, the more money they have to pay down debt, buy new ships, (and get paid bonuses) etc.  The golden rule of selling something "Never give away price; because you will never get it back".  People are always happy to pay less for the same thing; but rarely want to pay more.  Just my 2 cents.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Team Stag

[TeeRick]

10 hours ago, Tigerfnan23 said:

We are on a Celebrity cruise right now and priced a similar cruise for the same time next year since we were enjoying ourselves on this one.  All things being basically equal it looks like about a 50% Increase which just isn't something we would do, so I suppose we will either hold off on cruising for a while or look at other cruise lines, which we really don't want to do.  Its unfortunate since Celebrity has managed to nail what we are looking for in a cruise experience, but at some point we just can't justify paying that kind of money.

Yes definitely look around. By your comments it seems that you truly enjoy Celebrity- except prices!  Maybe that 50% increase will be moderated later this year.  Maybe not.   You can reserve a cabin with a refundable deposit and just see if you get a price that is better to your liking before final payment.

[Cruise till you drop]

1 hour ago, barbeyg said:

I figure that the cruise lines are 'testing the waters' to see what people are actually willing to pay for a cruise.  If they sell cabins at these highly inflated prices, then all is good to them because the excess can be used to pay down their massive debt from the Covid shutdown.  If they can't sell for these prices, they will have to adjust their expectations.  It really is, ultimately, up to the consumer.

I think you’re right and interestingly, we booked a Panama Canal cruise on the Edge leaving later this month and we booked an SV cabin about 2.5 years ago. I went to the site and priced out a lesser room (Infinity Verandah) and it came to 20% higher than what we paid.  Also interestingly there are many of those rooms still available.

 

So my opinion is that Celebrity’s pricing experiment isn’t working as there is a limit to what people will pay

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Cruise till you drop

[HMR74]

34 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

I think you’re right and interestingly, we booked a Panama Canal cruise on the Edge leaving later this month and we booked an SV cabin about 2.5 years ago. I went to the site and priced out a lesser room (Infinity Verandah) and it came to 20% higher than what we paid.  Also interestingly there are many of those rooms still available.

 

So my opinion is that Celebrity’s pricing experiment isn’t working as there is a limit to what people will pay

 

 

it was about a year ago that X increased its spread on SV's across the board. Went from a niminal spread over a regular veranda to several hundred dollars over depending on the cruise itinerary and expected demand.

 

I stated my theory on another thread that a lot of folks have seen their 401ks and regular portfolios do real well , until last year,  and thus feeling flushed with values spent more. We will see how that plays out into the future. The Federal Reserve is tightening its easy money policy with the goal  of reducing demand so prices go down. Put 2 and 2 together and if the Fed is successful, we will see lower cabin prices and less than 100% occupancy, although by next January we will finally have used our FCC and are not planning anything cruise  after that.

 

A side issue is that a bunch of brokerage houses are calling for higher oil prices soon as well as higher commodity (and food) prices so that is not great for pricing in the future.

Edited March 1, 2023 by HMR74

[NevadaCruiser2023]

1 hour ago, TeeRick said:

Yes definitely look around. By your comments it seems that you truly enjoy Celebrity- except prices!  Maybe that 50% increase will be moderated later this year.  Maybe not.   You can reserve a cabin with a refundable deposit and just see if you get a price that is better to your liking before final payment.

It'll be the rocket/feather approach to pricing. The prices will shoot up like a rocket and then float down like a feather until it reaches equilibrium. 

[TeeRick]

1 minute ago, NevadaCruiser2023 said:

It'll be the rocket/feather approach to pricing. The prices will shoot up like a rocket and then float down like a feather until it reaches equilibrium. 

Like gas prices......

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 minute ago, TeeRick said:

Like gas prices......

And eggs...just saw they have dropped below 3 dollars for a dozen at our Walmart.  Two weeks ago they were nearly 7 bucks!

[HMR74]

46 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

And eggs...just saw they have dropped below 3 dollars for a dozen at our Walmart.  Two weeks ago they were nearly 7 bucks!

 

Eggs were 1.20 a dozen a year ago. The famous Consumer price index, which is used for union and regular pay raises as well as social Security raises, only counted 80 cents of price increase for eggs.

 

I have a theory on that too-beef and fish got too expensive and people had breakfast for dinner on the cheap. pushing up demand.

 

There is a saying on wall street.

"the cure for high prices is high prices and the cure for low prices is low prices". in other words when prices are hogh demand drops and vice versa when prices are low demand picks up. The iron clad law of supply and demand in a free economy and free market.

 

Or the Warren Buffet way-buy when there is blood in the streets. eg, when wall street prices are sick we should be buying and when everyone is optimistic we should be sellers.

 

But FOMO reigns, Fear Of Missing Out (on big gains or going on a great cruise)

 

Shop Therapy??

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by HMR74

[phoenix_dream]

Just did some cruise shopping this morning.  This year and last we were able to swing sky suite cabins. For next year we booked a b2b in Aqua which cost more per day than any of our suites. Very disappointing.  We have 8 cruises booked for this year. Next year so far we have 2 and that may be it. We love cruising but these increases are substantial.  That said,  many of the suite categories we looked into were fairly booked up. So some people are able and willing to spend the big bucks. We'll see how long that lasts. With all the new ships to fill one wonders if this pricing can survive.  And I feel it unlikely they will sell ships anytime soon as there is no market for them IMHO.  And then there is the challenge of ports like Bar Harbor,  Key West, and Monterey and others overseas who want to limit or eliminate port calls.  Wonder how that will factor in over time?

[NevadaCruiser2023]

2 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Just did some cruise shopping this morning.  This year and last we were able to swing sky suite cabins. For next year we booked a b2b in Aqua which cost more per day than any of our suites. Very disappointing.  We have 8 cruises booked for this year. Next year so far we have 2 and that may be it. We love cruising but these increases are substantial.  That said,  many of the suite categories we looked into were fairly booked up. So some people are able and willing to spend the big bucks. We'll see how long that lasts. With all the new ships to fill one wonders if this pricing can survive.  And I feel it unlikely they will sell ships anytime soon as there is no market for them IMHO.  And then there is the challenge of ports like Bar Harbor,  Key West, and Monterey and others overseas who want to limit or eliminate port calls.  Wonder how that will factor in over time?

I'll bet that most of those suites that are "booked up" will never survive to final payment.  It'll be interesting to see the prices then. 

[D C]

On 2/19/2023 at 6:22 PM, High on the Seas said:

For the first time in years My wife and I won’t be booking a future cruise while on the ship. We have a B2B for a total of 14 days in Aqua class later this month that cost a total of $6710. Last year when I was onboard I booked a 14 day B2B in Aqua for 2024. The price had increased to $8138. A comparable 2025 cruise comes in at $10991 for 14 days. I understand the cruise industry has had its share of issues due to the pandemic but at these prices and needing to add airfare and trip insurance this is no longer an affordable vacation compared to other options. Raising prices 63 percent over a 2 year period is going to drive customers to an alternate vacation option.  I’m pretty sure there must be others with sticker shock also. Looks like a trip to sunny Florida will be in our future in 2025.  Happy cruising to those with bigger wallets.

They've priced us out as well, and with the cutbacks onboard, we're not even considering X until they get their ***** together.  "Less for a LOT more" is not going to draw our business.  

[phoenix_dream]

On 3/2/2023 at 5:07 PM, NevadaCruiser2023 said:

I'll bet that most of those suites that are "booked up" will never survive to final payment.  It'll be interesting to see the prices then. 

Curious why you think that, especially considering many are likely booked with nonrefundable deposits? Also, even with ships capacities not full, on all the many sailings I've been on recently the suites were all full, and most of them sold out before move up came into play.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

2 hours ago, phoenix_dream said:

Curious why you think that, especially considering many are likely booked with nonrefundable deposits? Also, even with ships capacities not full, on all the many sailings I've been on recently the suites were all full, and most of them sold out before move up came into play.

I'm willing to pay to get exactly what I want.

[sgmn]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:32 PM, Mark_T said:

They did throw the UK a bone on that one ...

 

 

Still useless for booking in 2024/25 but something for those booking closer in at least...

Thanks, didn't realise that. Too late now, maybe they'll bring it back for the future. Even one price drop would be helpful 

[Twinsmomct]

A couple of questions.  
 

Some of you have mentioned “repricing.”  What is that?

 

When you call Celebrity after having already booked a cruise but want to take advantage of a discount they are offering, i.e., 75% off second passenger, do they take the 75% off the price of the cruise when you first booked it or the price at the time you call for the additional discount?

[grandgeezer]

54 minutes ago, Twinsmomct said:

A couple of questions.  
 

Some of you have mentioned “repricing.”  What is that?

 

When you call Celebrity after having already booked a cruise but want to take advantage of a discount they are offering, i.e., 75% off second passenger, do they take the 75% off the price of the cruise when you first booked it or the price at the time you call for the additional discount?

It comes off the MSRP price. You’ll see that at the top of the page , of the last page that show you the breakdown of all the pricing items, before you go to book it. Because of that you will problem see little change in the price.

[goofysmom99]

1 hour ago, Twinsmomct said:

A couple of questions.  
 

Some of you have mentioned “repricing.”  What is that?

 

When you call Celebrity after having already booked a cruise but want to take advantage of a discount they are offering, i.e., 75% off second passenger, do they take the 75% off the price of the cruise when you first booked it or the price at the time you call for the additional discount?

As long as it's before final payment, if the net price of your cruise drops, you can have it repriced.  If your current pricing has onboard credit associated with it, it might not be included in the new pricing, though.  It's best to do a dummy booking on the Celebrity website, click all the items all the way through to the page where you'd book it, and you will be able to see what is and isn't included in the current pricing to compare to what you already have.  If it's to your benefit, then it's time to call.