Highest Prices We Have Seen

[mcrcruiser]

14 hours ago, farmecologist said:

We have never sailed on HAL before.  However, I was sent a mailing for the "Have it all early booking bonus".  So I looked up an interesting itinerary ( "7-day tropical Caribbean" ) for early December, 2024.  The Final price with taxes and port fees was $3198.  The kicker to get you to book is the "have it all" bonus, of course.  However, after reading this thread, I'm not sure these prices are a "good deal" at all..even with the perks.

 

Thoughts?  3200 seems high to me compared to what we used to pay...even with the great perks.  And it is a LONG way out in the future.  Do any of you book these "early booking" deals? 

 

I'm hesitating on this because we are value based travelers...and my gut is saying $3200 is too much for a 7 day Caribbean cruise.  I think we are spoiled though as we were able to book Viking river cruises *with free international airfare* for a little over 5K...and they threw in their drink package as well.  Given the free airfare, that is an astounding deal to us.

 

Sorry for my rambling...but just wanted some thoughts on the HAL "have it all early booking bonus" deal and wanted to provide some context.  👍

 

 

 

We have done river cruises & that deal you got from viking was excellent .We agree that $3200 even for a balcony cabin on a Caribbean cruise is way too high ,especially on a HAL ship . You also need to be aware of spring breakers  now . Our adult daughter & her husband booked the Wonder of the Seas for April 9th sailing .We have yet to hear about their experience but ,I do know that they did not pay any where near to $3200  for their ocean view balcony  .That is a new mega ship by Royal Caribbean Cruise line

[farmecologist]

14 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

All true & when we priced out the 7 night  Mexican riviera cruise it was based on HAL's Advantage Fare almost $3000 for 2 pax  vs  the same cruise in 2019 At $1700 for 2 pax ,The is a huge price increase & imo  certainly not a good value

 

Exactly!  I think all of us 'old timers' can agree that cruise pricing has went up an astounding amount.  Too many comments seem to be folks remembering past pricing ( including myself ).  I'm not convinced current pricing is going to come down any time soon.  Too much 'revenge travel' still going.  Additionally, post pandemic, the cruise lines seem to be attracting a NEW set of cruisers who truly do think current pricing is a 'good deal'.  If they can get away with that, pricing isn't coming down...

 

After reading the comments to my post above, it seems like early booking bonus HAL is a "good deal" in today's pricing world if you will take advantage of the perks.  On the flip side, when you book that far out, you are betting that pricing won't come down.  I'm not sure I'm willing to take that chance. 

 

With that said, the early booking HAL bonus has a "price guarantee" and someone also mentioned that the deposits are fully refundable up to a point?  Has anyone ever taken advantage of the "price guarantee" on these early bookings?  

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2023 by farmecologist

[farmecologist]

7 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

We have done river cruises & that deal you got from viking was excellent .We agree that $3200 even for a balcony cabin on a Caribbean cruise is way too high ,especially on a HAL ship . You also need to be aware of spring breakers  now . Our adult daughter & her husband booked the Wonder of the Seas for April 9th sailing .We have yet to hear about their experience but ,I do know that they did not pay any where near to $3200  for their ocean view balcony  .That is a new mega ship by Royal Caribbean Cruise line

 

Yes, I agree...that Viking deal was amazing.  However, Viking is playing a dangerous game...many of us will now be 'expecting' deals like that going forward.  😁

 

On the topic of cruise pricing....of course we could get a "better price" on a Caribbean cruise.  However, we wanted to try HAL and like their itinerary.  And with the entire industry pushing 'perk packages' now, it is extremely difficult to get an apples to apples comparison these days.  Basically, you need to have a feel for what a good base value cruise is on all cruise lines, then factor in the value of the perk packages on each line, etc...  Some perk packages include gratuities, some don't, and the list goes on and on.... Researching cruises has just become really exhausting compared to the past!  👍

 

 

[Boatdrill]

Interesting article from Travel Weekly about cruise booking trends.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruising-booking-curve-still-unpredictable?utm_source=eNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eltrdb&oly_enc_id=0784C2292756F9E 

[mcrcruiser]

1 hour ago, Boatdrill said:

Interesting article from Travel Weekly about cruise booking trends.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruising-booking-curve-still-unpredictable?utm_source=eNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eltrdb&oly_enc_id=0784C2292756F9E 

Nice article on the cruise industry .Always a test of time to see how this all works out ,in the end if year financials of CCL & RCL . I never followed Norwegian 's numbers