Europe not selling so well....

[Cruise Junky]

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/p...bbean/167430/1

[80sramfan]

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/p...bbean/167430/1

 

 

airfare will do that.

[Cruise Junky]

airfare will do that.

 

And a lower US dollar

[klingoncruiser]

Gee.... I am shocked that this happened....... NOT! :rolleyes: You could see this coming a mile off. They got greedy and expected Europe to be a massive draw to Americans. Not at the price of air fare and still struggling to make ends meet here in the states. (Hint to cruise lines....if ya have to collapse the cruises out of the west coast due to the economy and unrest in Mexico, could you not see that translating to Europe?)

 

I would love to go to Europe, but sheese... I pay more to fly there than cruise for two weeks. Lots of people at work fret about the wars and unrest across north Africa.

 

Oh well.... back to the future I guess. Bring a few back home and plop them down in the Caribbean where people can drive to the port and spend that money saved on air fare at the ports and on the ships.

[Snorkel Dawg]

Living in the midwest it's expensive enough just flying to FL to get onboard.

How about some different 7 day Caribbean itineraries (Celeb & RCL)?

Not everyone can afford Europe, ESPICALLY right now!

[rolfecms]

Not mentioned in the article is the increased total number of ships in service by all cruise lines. The new mostly larger vessels have been increasing by 12 or so every year for the past few years and they have to go somewhere.

 

The problem is not just fewer passengers but more ships chasing those fewer passengers. In this economy how many ships carrying 2,000+ passengers can the Caribbean support in the summer months, or any other area when all the cruise lines send their ships there?

 

It means more choice and good deals for those who can afford the flights.

[Hollywood Traveler]

Gee.... I am shocked that this happened....... NOT! :rolleyes: You could see this coming a mile off. They got greedy and expected Europe to be a massive draw to Americans. Not at the price of air fare and still struggling to make ends meet here in the states. (Hint to cruise lines....if ya have to collapse the cruises out of the west coast due to the economy and unrest in Mexico, could you not see that translating to Europe?)

 

I would love to go to Europe, but sheese... I pay more to fly there than cruise for two weeks. Lots of people at work fret about the wars and unrest across north Africa.

 

Oh well.... back to the future I guess. Bring a few back home and plop them down in the Caribbean where people can drive to the port and spend that money saved on air fare at the ports and on the ships.

Go 'Roos!

[Topo Gigio]

That's exactly the reason that Royal Caribbean pulled Navigator at the very last minute out of Europe!

[Bridge Maven]

A few other factors...

 

While some Americans will repeat the exact same European Itinerary, most don't because of expense. On the other hand, there are a lot of Americans who take Caribbean, Bermuda, and Alaskan cruises over and over again because they are close to home, more affordable, and more relaxing.

 

A large segment of the summer cruising market consists of families whose opportunity to travel are limited by the school calender, and they are looking for cruises that their children will enjoy.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Not only are airline tickets expensive airlines like American and Delta have been performing miserably. My friends and I have experienced long delays. Considering that the average summer rate is $1100 now and you get treated pretty badly by the airlines- lost luggage, delays, bad customer service, lack of onboard functioning movies, etc. etc. People are tired of it.

 

Also, I think that the cruise lines were banking on more European customers and they are being hurt economically as well. I love Europe but it is just too expensive now for most America tourists and they are building bigger ships that are harder to fill.

 

Another thing is that the poor crew members are paid in US dollars and they can't get as much for their dollars any more in their home countries. Its a sad reality.

 

Cruise while you can because the price of gas is going to make it more difficult too.

[texkan]

Living in the midwest it's expensive enough just flying to FL to get onboard.

How about some different 7 day Caribbean itineraries (Celeb & RCL)?

Not everyone can afford Europe, ESPICALLY right now!

 

Would be great to have Celebrity sailing from Galveston, TX. - We did our first two cruises from Galveston (first cruise RCCL, second Celebrity Galaxy). Many cruisers from the Mid-west as they could drive to Galveston.

 

We have to fly to FLL to sail Celebrity in the Eastern Caribbean. Would like to sail in Europe but the airfare is just more than we can afford.

[phoenix_dream]

I think the other factor is the shore excursions. In the Caribbean you can just catch a quick (and cheap) taxi and have a fun day at the beach. If I were to go to Europe (which I would love to do if I could afford it), I would want to take excursions to see the sights. I also would be more inclined to take ship excursions in countries where I did not know the language. In short, I would be spending a heck of alot more on my shore days than in the Caribbean. All in all, a very pricey vacation at a time when I can least afford it.

[John73]

I'd love to see X focus back on the Caribbean during the summer months. I really enjoyed my W. Caribbean cruises last summer. I'll consider European cruises this summer but only on a Exciting Deal tuesday special. I wouldn't consider paying the prices they're asking for Med cruises at normal rates. With all the S-class ships over there this summer its no wonder they'd have more capacity than customers.

[John73]

Adding on...

 

And, on a Tuesday special my airfare would have been only $200 less than the cruise fare. I think Celebrity and RCCL may have to re-think the move to European destinations.

[itsandreas]

I think the other factor is the shore excursions. In the Caribbean you can just catch a quick (and cheap) taxi and have a fun day at the beach. If I were to go to Europe (which I would love to do if I could afford it), I would want to take excursions to see the sights. I also would be more inclined to take ship excursions in countries where I did not know the language. In short, I would be spending a heck of alot more on my shore days than in the Caribbean. All in all, a very pricey vacation at a time when I can least afford it.

 

I'm sure that this is a silly question but what do people do in the US based/Carribean cruises?

 

Not coming from the area I'm not if there is anything there ... apart from the occasional beach maybe?

[Moeve]

Prices in the carib are not any better nor are the loads since we are suddenly hearing about passengers being upgraded from regular balconies to suites and from insides to balconies...... not something we saw all too foten over the last few months.

[bellybutton530]

Will Celebrity learn from this blunder??

 

Probably not.

[bajathree]

I believe the original thought way back to move all these ships across the pond was when the economy as we "knew" it collapsed here in the US.....if you remember things "were" looking much better in Europe.....or so they thought:rolleyes: It didn't take long for things to start to fall apart there also....even worse than here in some parts....however this was on a delay from when everything happened here in the US and the decision had already been made to move these ships. About 6 months ago the CL's obviously saw the market soften up with Europeans and started to heavily push TA's to start to market Europe to the US....then followed the sudden rise in gas prices....thus airfares. There is no doubt that they are in panic mode to fill all these ships....and with whom:confused: CL's are almost giving away many of these sailings to TA's.....but the airfare is 2 to 3X the cost of the cruise itself:rolleyes:...so even that didn't seem to work very well. Personally I don't see anything different for 2012....unless gas prices fall we are going to be looking at a very similar picture next year....I am shocked that the CL's aren't pulling ships out for next summer.....as a matter of fact RCCL is even adding. IMO if the CL's were smart they would run a very serious Europe Promotion this Sept for spring/summer 2012 Europe travel. I have no idea how they think they are going to get people to currently book Europe 2012 at current issued pricing when you can easily see that the same sailings this summer are currently pricing at half that and they still can't fill them.

 

As for the Caribbean....even with all the severely reduced capacity, there is a huge amount of double occupancy inventory still available for Royal for both July and Aug.....so not sure moving ships back to the Caribbean is the answer. Bottom line....not enough demand and to much supply.....globally

[itsandreas]

I removed the orginal message.

[Infi]

Celebrity's kind of caught between a rock and a hard place here. They kept Solstice here last year, but she didn't sell well, was frequently undercut by the competition (Princess), and they had to slash rates to fill the ship last minute. That's enough to make anyone hesitate about keeping a ship here year-round. But if they send all the ships to Europe, they'll probably be stuck with the same airfare issues as this year. Airfare isn't getting any cheaper, but they'll still have plenty of ships in Europe to fill in 2012.

 

The only thing I can see X doing to fill the ships is by offering air packages with the cruises. I know HAL has begun doing that this year for the summer sailings. The air's still not cheap, but it might entice some who normally wouldn't have attempted Europe.

[bajathree]

When you see the mouse run (remember Disney made the decision to pull out of Europe for 2012) follow;).... Disney are the genius's of marketing.....they don't do things for no reason.

[bellybutton530]

There are alternatives to the Caribbean.

 

How about some closed-loop Panama Canal itineraries?

 

What about coastal cruises?

 

How about some transatlantic cruises during the summer?

 

Sail a ship out of one of the Gulf of Mexico ports, such as Galveston or New Orleans.

 

 

Personally I think it is time to stop building those megaships. But that is just me....

[teajak]

There are alternatives to the Caribbean.

 

How about some closed-loop Panama Canal itineraries?

 

What about coastal cruises?

 

How about some transatlantic cruises during the summer?

 

Sail a ship out of one of the Gulf of Mexico ports, such as Galveston or New Orleans.

 

 

Personally I think it is time to stop building those megaships. But that is just me....

I agree on all counts, also how about from Tampa to the East coast? A lot of us retired seniors would like that.

[4774Papa]

We booked our first cruise last July (in the Med). Our airfare from JAX to Venice was about $1240 per person. My Daughter travels a lot, and said last Summer the airfares to Europe went up fair amount.

We just did a cruise out of Barcelona in March and airfare from JAX was $740 per person. We are booked on another Med cruise out of Civit. (Rome) next Feb and right now the airfares JAX to Rome appear to be about $1050 a person. That would appear to be an increase, but I am not sure that fares to Rome would not normally be higher than to Barcelona?

 

As for bookings on European cruises. NCL has indicated to me that cruises almost always book up fully, as was our last one out of Barcelona. Our X cruise next September out of Amsterdam is a popular one and X offered no special discounts. They seem to think it will book up fully.

 

I know both our NCL cruises had a fair number of Europeans. With the dollar dropping, prices to them look great.

[CruisingChick]

There are alternatives to the Caribbean.

 

How about some closed-loop Panama Canal itineraries?

 

What about coastal cruises?

 

How about some transatlantic cruises during the summer?

 

Sail a ship out of one of the Gulf of Mexico ports, such as Galveston or New Orleans.

 

 

Personally I think it is time to stop building those megaships. But that is just me....

 

Love your post. I would love to do a summer TA and I agree stop building megaships.