Is the Mardi Gras cheap or the Liberty expensive ?

[stormgrey11]

Curious, I am looking at a few  7-Day Western Caribbean itineraries in March of 2025 out of New Orleans and Port Canaveral and see that the Liberty is more expensive than the Mardi Gras in balconies. I always thought tat the Mardi Gras would cost more being a much newer ship with more bells and whistles !

[mz-s]

Canaveral has much more competition than NOLA.

[dolphinsfan246]

Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell. 

[BlerkOne]

Lots of dem

and at Port Canaveral

 

Cruise Ships Sailing at 110 Percent Occupancy from Port Canaveral

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/04/cruise-ships-sailing-at-110-percent-occupancy-from-port-canaveral/

[Saint Greg]

And depending on the time of year, Carnival is the only game in town. NCL is just there in the winter. I believe that's the case with RCL as well. Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans.

[groundloop]

46 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans.

 

Yep, I totally agree.  I'm not a big fan of the Conquest Class, I liked the cruises out of New Orleans better when they were on Dream.

[Lee Cruiser]

That's strange.  I have compared balcony prices on several cruises for next September and Mardi Gras and Celebration are considerably higher than several other ships including: Horizon, Magic, Vista and others.  I can't do Sunday to Sunday, so haven't check Liberty, but have done Valor and it's much cheaper (per day) than Mardi Gras as well.

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

And depending on the time of year, Carnival is the only game in town. NCL is just there in the winter. I believe that's the case with RCL as well. Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans.

Disney will be sometimes 

[Saint Greg]

37 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Disney will be sometimes 

I think that’s about every other winter.

[KmomChicago]

8 hours ago, dolphinsfan246 said:

Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell. 

This right here. I was looking at summer cruises from Tampa and even though the ships are older and smaller due to navigation limits, the high season prices are a bit shocking. Obviously they’re filling up. 
 

We are all ruled by the US school schedules. One week can see drastic price differences, particularly when there’s limited capacity at that specific port. Obviously if you have the spring break sailing on the better ship, I would grab it as prices could easily rise from here on, and most ships typically sell out every year during that timeframe. 

Edited May 3, 2023 by KmomChicago

[angelsfort]

the Liberty is changing home ports in December 2024 - she's going to start sailing out of New Orleans.  so that takes the competition in Port Canaveral out of the picture.

[CruizinSusan70]

13 hours ago, angelsfort said:

the Liberty is changing home ports in December 2024 - she's going to start sailing out of New Orleans.  so that takes the competition in Port Canaveral out of the picture.

The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC.  In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises.  Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS.

 

In PC, there are 5 options.  RCI Wonder OTS, Mardi Gras & NCL Epic all doing 7 day cruises and the Vista and RCI Adventure OTS doing 6/8's.  Plus there are more 3/4 day options out of PC as well, so it does come down to supply and demand as usual.

[firefly333]

On 5/2/2023 at 8:21 PM, BlerkOne said:

Lots of dem

and at Port Canaveral

 

Cruise Ships Sailing at 110 Percent Occupancy from Port Canaveral

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/04/cruise-ships-sailing-at-110-percent-occupancy-from-port-canaveral/

Port Canaveral passed miami last year as the busiest cruise port in the world... ..and imo prices show it. 

 

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/02/port-canaveral-now-the-world-s-busiest-cruise-port

 

 

[BlerkOne]

11 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC.  In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises.  Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS.

 

 

Liberty will still be a relatively new ship for New Orleans and in demand. The other two are overpriced anyway.

[CruizinSusan70]

11 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Liberty will still be a relatively new ship for New Orleans and in demand. The other two are overpriced anyway.

Overpriced is debatable.  For the slight  increase in price compared to the Liberty, you do get the "perks" from NCL.  But then, you need to sail from NOLA, which like Galveston is primarily a drive to port.

[BlerkOne]

40 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Overpriced is debatable.  For the slight  increase in price compared to the Liberty, you do get the "perks" from NCL.  But then, you need to sail from NOLA, which like Galveston is primarily a drive to port.

Unlike Galveston or Mobile, NOLA has a local International airport. Perks from NCL are never free and come with mandatory charges.

[KmomChicago]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Port Canaveral passed miami last year as the busiest cruise port in the world... ..and imo prices show it. 

 

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/02/port-canaveral-now-the-world-s-busiest-cruise-port

 

 

WOW. I was on Big Red Boat back when Canaveral was barely a cruise port, like AT ALL.  Having sailed out of the newer port area on both Oasis and Mardi Gras I really have no idea where the old Premier terminal was even located; no resemblance to what little I remember.

[CruizinSusan70]

2 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Unlike Galveston or Mobile, NOLA has a local International airport. Perks from NCL are never free and come with mandatory charges.

Whether NOLA has an international airport or not, they have in the past, are currently and will be in the future a secondary embarkation port which is skewed towards people that drive there.  

 

When you cruise on NCL you can sometimes get perks free fares and even if you do have to pay a higher fare that includes the perks, you are not forced to pay the gratuities if you wish to decline the perk for their drinks package.  If you actually cruised on them in the past, which I will infer you never have, you would have known this.

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Whether NOLA has an international airport or not, they have in the past, are currently and will be in the future a secondary embarkation port which is skewed towards people that drive there.  

 

When you cruise on NCL you can sometimes get perks free fares and even if you do have to pay a higher fare that includes the perks, you are not forced to pay the gratuities if you wish to decline the perk for their drinks package.  If you actually cruised on them in the past, which I will infer you never have, you would have known this.

Another swing and a miss.

[angelsfort]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:32 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC.  In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises.  Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS.

 

In PC, there are 5 options.  RCI Wonder OTS, Mardi Gras & NCL Epic all doing 7 day cruises and the Vista and RCI Adventure OTS doing 6/8's.  Plus there are more 3/4 day options out of PC as well, so it does come down to supply and demand as usual.

my point was in direct response to the comment from  dolphinsfan246 where they said "Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell."

was adding to it- that the Liberty can charge more because they no longer have the same competition in NOLA that they had in Port Canaveral.  Mardi Gras will still have that competition and therefor needs to lower their prices a bit to compete with the other ships / lines that sail out of PC.

[mysticbluebmw]

Dates maybe, if they’re not the exact same week. Also could be ports, if not the exact same ports. 

[Lizzie482]

Also, Mardi Gras (not the ship, the event) is March 4 in 2025.  Every school aged kid is out of school the week of Mardi Gras, so cruises out of New Orleans are always SUPER expensive around that time.