Anyone been checking out pricing on Europe....

[bajathree]

....MAN....prices have been falling like crazy.....I wish I didn't use all my air miles:( Celebrity has pretty much dropped in half....only problem is, try to find flights....the flights are exceeding the cost of the entire cruise......actually airfare to just about any port in Europe alone is exceeding what I am paying for a balcony on Oasis for June or July this summer:eek: Me thinks the second half #'s may not be looking all that great when they come out:eek:

[klingoncruiser]

Lots of competition, increasingly expensive air fare. Look like a long summer for all the cruise lines. They will have to rely on the Europeans to fill the ships it would seem. Kind of crazy to pay more to get to the cruise that take the cruise.:rolleyes:

[hockeyken]

:eek: Yeah. Looked at a 12 day Eastern Med. on Brilliance, in Oct, similar to what we did last year. A GS is only $5000 !! We booked at $ 8800 ( Nov 11/10) and ended up at $6500 after 2 price drops. Haven;t looked at airfares though.

[bajathree]

:eek: Yeah. Looked at a 12 day Eastern Med. on Brilliance, in Oct, similar to what we did last year. A GS is only $5000 !! We booked at $ 8800 ( Nov 11/10) and ended up at $6500 after 2 price drops. Haven;t looked at airfares though.

 

You may not be all that bad for Oct....but anything airfare to Europe June/July/Aug is just:eek::rolleyes:

[Jaybo12]

Booked for NOS in June and our airfare was equal to our balcony room booking.

[Texas Teen]

Prices are dropping in Europe because there are too many ships there! :eek: Royal Caribbean is flooding Europe with more & more ships each summer while we are left with fewer and fewer choices each summer. :( There is no Gulf coast ship in the summer, and there will be no ship out of San Juan in the summer of 2012!

[richstowe]

Deciding tonight on a 11 day Mariner from Rome. Great Great deals BUT the air is a killer.

 

The air will be more then a guaranteed ocean view (Y) when you deduct OBC

and WAY more then an inside cabin.

 

Besides great deals from RCI there are deals even in July from all the cruise lines.

 

This seems like a repeat of the huge discounts on Alaskan cruises that were available in the last 2 years.

 

Those who got good Alaskan deals could also get reasonable airfares. Not so with Europe this summer.

 

Was going to fly to Paris from Montreal and fly Ryanair to Rome .It's just too much of a pain.Life is too short!

[richstowe]

:eek: Yeah. Looked at a 12 day Eastern Med. on Brilliance, in Oct, similar to what we did last year. A GS is only $5000 !! We booked at $ 8800 ( Nov 11/10) and ended up at $6500 after 2 price drops. Haven;t looked at airfares though.

Air should be lower by then.

[RoyalDiamond]

Perhaps there are too many ships in Europe.....! Maybe, hopefully, they (Rccl, Celebrity, etc.) will learn that they need to give more options for U.S. cruises during the summer months!

[rosie#1]

Deciding tonight on a 11 day Mariner from Rome. Great Great deals BUT the air is a killer.

 

The air will be more then a guaranteed ocean view (Y) when you deduct OBC

and WAY more then an inside cabin.

 

Besides great deals from RCI there are deals even in July from all the cruise lines.

 

This seems like a repeat of the huge discounts on Alaskan cruises that were available in the last 2 years.

 

Those who got good Alaskan deals could also get reasonable airfares. Not so with Europe this summer.

 

Was going to fly to Paris from Montreal and fly Ryanair to Rome .It's just too much of a pain.Life is too short!

 

I am also looking at one of the cruises on the Mariner in Oct. The prices have not gone down on the Baltic cruise I booked. I am debating if I want to make the switch. I used miles so I can switch flights. It is really hard to turn down the prices.

[zooma]

:eek: Yeah. Looked at a 12 day Eastern Med. on Brilliance, in Oct, similar to what we did last year. A GS is only $5000 !! We booked at $ 8800 ( Nov 11/10) and ended up at $6500 after 2 price drops. Haven;t looked at airfares though.

 

How did you get the credit for those price drops? Had you booked directly with RC, and then just called to request the change? thanks for any tips, in case ours goes way down as well!

[anagram]

if you fly with ryanair watch the luggage size better with easyjet for luggage 20KGS both charge though and they are both tightening up on hand luggage size.

[cw2go]

Just booked Liberty out of Barcelona for June 18th. Airfare for us has not changed in a year. I have been checking weekly so with our Military discount from RCCL this was a great deal and we snatched at it. Europe here we come, only wish we could do a longer route.

 

Smiles, :p

Patty

[hmallett]

What's interesting is that from this side of the pond, I keep looking at the Caribbean cruises and thinking how cheap they are compared to the Europe ones!

If only the flights weren't so expensive... :rolleyes:

[marci22]

Opening prices for summer 2012 are cheaper than in years past as well.

 

I was looking at airfare last night. I found a RT EWR BCN for $1200pp, (end of July return Aug) although there weren't a huge amount of seats left. I paid around $980pp in August 2008.

[theman1]

What's interesting is that from this side of the pond, I keep looking at the Caribbean cruises and thinking how cheap they are compared to the Europe ones!

If only the flights weren't so expensive... :rolleyes:

 

The same - I am always looking at Caribbean cruises prices and telling how lucky people living "behind big water" are. Prices there are much lower then in Europe......

[Ex-Airbalancer]

With Caribbean cruising what is there really to see :confused:

 

Besides doing a Southern Caribbean once I would rather do all inclusive resort since it much cheaper, flight/tranfer and booze is included, and no naughty room

[emdia43]

What's interesting is that from this side of the pond, I keep looking at the Caribbean cruises and thinking how cheap they are compared to the Europe ones!

If only the flights weren't so expensive... :rolleyes:

 

 

Have you seen this week's Promowave?

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/RCI_Sales_Event/rci_sales_event.pdf

 

Bargains galore.

[Tamerella]

Surprisingly, our June 4th Liberty of the Seas cruise out of Barcelona has gone UP in pricing since I booked it!! Also....the ship is pretty much sold out now so I don't anticipate the price going down!!

 

Fortunately, I had a lot of miles to use for the flights so I saved on that.

[BeeBerry]

Prices are dropping in Europe because there are too many ships there! :eek: Royal Caribbean is flooding Europe with more & more ships each summer while we are left with fewer and fewer choices each summer. :( There is no Gulf coast ship in the summer, and there will be no ship out of San Juan in the summer of 2012!

 

 

I'm pretty sure it's mainly the Med cruises which are dropping in price - probably because they were way too expensive to start with considering there is so much choice, and not just RCI's ships!!! :eek: RCI were being very greedy pricing 7 day Med cruises at £100's more per person than an equivalent 7 day Caribbean.

 

I noticed that the prices for the longer Mariner cruises dropped a lot after the Egypt ports were removed - a lot of people probably cancelled due to that, as Egypt was a major draw on those longer cruises.

[bajathree]

Funny that you guys across the pond are looking at prices here on Caribbean sailings thinking they are lower than in Europe:confused: Are you guys looking at June-Aug sailings in the Caribbean:confused:.... because I am seeing pricing in Europe on 7 nighters MUCH cheaper on both Royal and X than Freedom/Oasis/Allure for the same time period.......wonder if US pricing is less than Europen pricing:confused:

 

Also both Royal and X are promoting tons of European sailing they have for June, even into July to those in the industry at very discounted rates.....so there is obviously plenty plenty availability across the pond.

[Jumbiecruiser]

Doesn't surprise me. Cruise lines have two choices. Leave ships here in the US and discount or take them to a new market and discount to bring in more first time cruisers. Good deals are out there but airfare will be the key.

[griffy116]

We are trying to decide on an itinerary for summer 2012 for a Europe/Med cruise. We haven't been able to check the price on some of the itineraries. We called RCCL and were told the ship we chose was chartered for the entire month of June. That just sounded crazy so I called back and got another rep who said prices wouldn't be available until later as they haven't firmed up the ship, itineraries or price. Price of some of the cruises look good, but we are anticipating airfare to be greater than the price of a balcony room, with our discounts. GRRR...and why would the staff at reservations tell us an entire ship is booked for an entire month and not realize somethings not right with that idea???? Training, please!!!

[BeeBerry]

Funny that you guys across the pond are looking at prices here on Caribbean sailings thinking they are lower than in Europe:confused: Are you guys looking at June-Aug sailings in the Caribbean:confused:.... because I am seeing pricing in Europe on 7 nighters MUCH cheaper on both Royal and X than Freedom/Oasis/Allure for the same time period.......wonder if US pricing is less than Europen pricing:confused:

 

Also both Royal and X are promoting tons of European sailing they have for June, even into July to those in the industry at very discounted rates.....so there is obviously plenty plenty availability across the pond.

 

 

Are you comparing like for like though? The only thing comparable (ship-wise) to the Freedom/Oasis/Allure those months in the Med is the Liberty which is doing 7 nighters out of Barcelona. I just looked at prices with my TA and a balcony is either the same and sometimes £200 more for the Liberty than the Allure! That’s about $320 difference. And I don’t even want to look at the prices for the Independence as they are horrific enough even before the kids are off for the summer.

 

I have no idea what the prices are for those cruises in the US (I’m too lazy to look :p) but believe me summer holiday time in Europe is not cheap. The good deals to be had are late spring, when the weather is hit-and-miss, and on the older less-desirable ships....

[PCWalton1]

Doesn't surprise me. Cruise lines have two choices. Leave ships here in the US and discount or take them to a new market and discount to bring in more first time cruisers. Good deals are out there but airfare will be the key.

 

It has been pointed out on CC before but they can afford to discount the Europe cruises as they make up for it on ship sponsored tours. The tours on a Med cruise are much more expensive than tours in the Caribbean (in many cases hundreds of dollars more) and an article quoted here on CC stated 85% of those cruising in the Med use the ship sponsored tours. So the money spent per person is substanially higher. Cruise lines are just chasing that dollar, or Euro. :)