What is a Good Price?

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Zetta83 said:

The carry over is for RC. If you achieve 2500 pts in a year starting 1 April, you get PRIME status for the rest of the year + the following year till 31 March.

 

This gives you 1 free cruise + free drinks in the casino. Along the way, if you get 1200pts in a single sail, you get limited interior for 2 + tax if you book at Next cruise. 

 

How much is 2500 pts? 1 pt = $5USD in slots. So $12.5k USD if you played slots and not win a single pull. I cannot account for luck and do not know the payback percentages of cruises. 

That last bit is why I don't play pokies on ships. Any Australian state has a payback %, yet the cruise lines don't announce one, nor any affiliation to a US statute. Each machine % can be changed on any given day.

[MicCanberra]

They are programed to pay out but always overwhelmingly in the house' favour.

[Sparky74]

45 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

They are programed to pay out but always overwhelmingly in the house' favour.

The first rule of gambling is that the house always wins. In the long term at any rate. Individuals may occasionally beat the system but human nature means that they rarely quit while they're ahead.

[MicCanberra]

57 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

The first rule of gambling is that the house always wins. In the long term at any rate. Individuals may occasionally beat the system but human nature means that they rarely quit while they're ahead.

Yes, and what they win is usually coming from other players' losses not necessarily the house.

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

The first rule of gambling is that the house always wins. In the long term at any rate. Individuals may occasionally beat the system but human nature means that they rarely quit while they're ahead.

Well said. I am glad that neither I now my husband, like gambling, not even bingo.

[Sparky74]

13 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Well said. I am glad that neither I now my husband, like gambling, not even bingo.

We don’t gamble nor do we drink alcohol. I don’t even want to connect to the Internet when I’m on a cruise so those "plus" packages aren’t much use to us. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Well said. I am glad that neither I now my husband, like gambling, not even bingo.

Us neither. It's fun if you're winning but otherwise it's boring! So we don't bother because we rarely win! 🤣

[Jean C]

On a Carnival cruise we had to walk through the Casino to get from A to B and often stopped to watch a lovely, very pleasant man regularly playing roulette, he always attracted quite a crowd as he bet big amounts, he was such a pleasant, happy guy - he'd win some and lose some, $100 notes being fed into the slot regularly. Then on Diamond Princess we went to the casino to watch the roulette again and were shocked that an obviously drunk guy was allowed to play until his wife came along and dragged him away!  We saw him in the lifts a few days later and asked how he got on in the casino, he said he won some and lost some - that's not what we saw!

[Jean C]

PS, gambling not for me, but I don't judge anyone if that how they like to entertain themselves, problem gamblers excepted 🙂

[Sparky74]

On 10/17/2023 at 6:25 AM, Sparky74 said:

OK, so this is a "how long is a piece of string" question but what do YOU consider to be a good price for a cruise NOW. 

 

DW & I don’t have kids and still work full time for modest incomes. (I'm nearly 50.) Pre-C we’d search for inside guarantee cabins for less than $100/person/night. We now typically spend more than that but everything’s gone up in price. Fortunately our income has also. 😁
I prefer to pay a bit extra for oceanview if the cruise is more than a couple of days. And in the last 18 months we’ve sprung for balconies when the price difference hasn’t been excessive. 😱
 

What are YOUR magic numbers? What do YOU consider a good deal? 

Well, six months later and it would seem that $100/person/night cruises are getting few and far between.
I’ve not been actively tracking prices lately but I clicked on a link in an email from Carnival and their "sale" fares are higher than I expected. 
This old thread came to mind and I’m wondering, what are your magic numbers NOW; what do you consider a good deal NOW?

[2022cruisey]

We have $160 pp per night in a balcony on RCI.  I think that is a good price.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

I have $189 per night for a solo balcony on Princess. I'm sure its a once never to be repeated price!

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

I have $189 per night for a solo balcony on Princess. I'm sure its a once never to be repeated price!

It is an altered one way itinerary that sails in less than two weeks.

It is an anomaly that you won't get within double that price on any other Princess cruise.

 

 

[arxcards]

I still see $100pp per night inside as a line in the sand.

 

For insides on Luminosa, I am seeing 3 & 4 night cruises for around $150pp per night, but that is offset by $500 of OBC (VIFP offer) which looks like it gives a nice discount, but OBC is money spent, not a cheaper fare.

 

P&O is also around $150pp per night for non-refundable deposit fares. No OBC. They have more consistent prices with their balconies, but they are still not offering bargain basement pricing. I went looking for some cheap pricing that was around for Pacific Explorer departing Cairns to PNG, as well as end of season relocations back to Brisbane & Sydney. No bargains to be found, as it looks like P&O has pulled the pin on them sometime in the past couple of weeks and added some Explorer cruises into Brisbane.

 

Brisbane to Sydney 2 nights on Explorer in July is $198pp, so you can get a sub $100pp per night domestic cruise, albeit in winter, coming up to final payment, on the oldest ship, it is P&O, and an airfare to be added.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

32 minutes ago, arxcards said:

It is an altered one way itinerary that sails in less than two weeks.

It is an anomaly that you won't get within double that price on any other Princess cruise.

 

 

As I said, its a once never to be repeated offer. I sail in a month, just too good to pass up. Its even cheaper today as they have some BF balconies but I like BE to be away from the noise.

[Jean C]

I paid $169 per night for an upcoming 17 night cruise on Princess, for a chosen balcony cabin. 

 

I generally consider around $200 per night pp for a balcony to be what I consider reasonable. Some go over a bit, some under, but we choose by itinerary and timing rather than spur of the moment bargains (have to travel from NZ so cheap last minute from Aus isn't cheap for us) 🛳 

[ceeceeDee]

We're paying around $250 pp per night for a Byron mini suite (M1 grade) on Encounter for 10 nights at Christmas (with $200 OBC). Given that it is school holidays, I think that is not a bad price. $250 is the 'base rate', we have a plus package on top of that so spending a bit more. Our original booking price (18 months out) was considerably more, but after about 6 weeks P&O advertised a 'sale' so we cancelled and re-booked for the exact same cabin. Lost our deposit (a whole $2 and the OBC was reduced from $400 to $200) but we saved over $1000 on the original price for the two of us. So much for booking early to get the best deal!!!🙄 Although, I must say that the latest advertised price for that cruise is a couple of thousand more than either our original price or the one we now have.

[Hogbay]

Simple, Port taxes and fees with a upgrade .😁

[MicCanberra]

With the various packages and such it is hard to get anything decent for under $200-250.

[Bubbeh]

Any cruise out of Freo or into is going to be expensive.  We're booked on a 10 day Princess Coral Coast Cruise in September which has cost $6900 for a balcony for 2 of us - for those challenged by numbers that $690 a day which divides to $345 each.  However, there are no airfares or pre/post cruise accommodation involved. There are very few people in the world who enjoy a whiskey or a wine more than me yet, after doing the sums, we've never bought drinks packages or any of the other packages.  I'm perfectly happy with the 'free' coffee and tea, don't do specialty dining or bother with Wi Fi etc.  In fact the only thing I'll ever pay for once I'm on board is drinks and the odd ice cream.  

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Bubbeh said:

Any cruise out of Freo or into is going to be expensive.  We're booked on a 10 day Princess Coral Coast Cruise in September which has cost $6900 for a balcony for 2 of us - for those challenged by numbers that $690 a day which divides to $345 each.  However, there are no airfares or pre/post cruise accommodation involved. There are very few people in the world who enjoy a whiskey or a wine more than me yet, after doing the sums, we've never bought drinks packages or any of the other packages.  I'm perfectly happy with the 'free' coffee and tea, don't do specialty dining or bother with Wi Fi etc.  In fact the only thing I'll ever pay for once I'm on board is drinks and the odd ice cream.  

The final Freo to Freo cruise for Coral. It is a little on the dear side, but it has sold out and you are aboard and I hope you get to enjoy her us much as we did. There is N/C soft serve at the solarium pool and different ice creams in the dining room each night, so maybe a little more value for you.

 

I would certainly be paying the premium to cruise from home too. At this stage, we have only been tempted to fly across the country for a Freo cruise once, and that was when airfares were more reasonable. I hope you can get some more ships based in Freo in the years ahead.

[Bubbeh]

11 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I hope you can get some more ships based in Freo in the years ahead.

What a lovely thing to say, thank you. 

[MicCanberra]

WA has so much to offer, but it does tend to be spread out. A cruise is a great way to v8sit Broome, Exmouth, Geraldton, Esperance and Albany if you don't have a lot of time and or don't want hours of driving.

[OzKiwiJJ]

It's sad that Princess doesn't have a second ship wintering over here like it did when we first started cruising. Top end cruises are perfect for winter cruises and could be alternated with return trips out of Fremantle to Darwin or even Singapore when the ship is in WA, and Queensland, PNG, and South Pacific itineraries out of Sydney/Brisbane. We loved being able to cruise up to Queensland in winter in 2022.

[MicCanberra]

Sweet dreams are made of this.