Celebrity Cruise costs????

[macedontraveler]

Currently looking at several cruises for April 2012, & noticed that Celebrity is now comparably priced to Carnival. What has changed? Are they having trouble competing with the mega-ships or trying to change their image? Is the demographic base not spending in the current economy? Will they cut staff & will the level of service be impacted? Tried looking at the financial statements, current & pre-bookings itineraries and so forth. Could only find that there are concerns about low Mediterranean bookings. Any ideas?

[cruisestitch]

Interesting - can you give us some specifics? Are the per-day costs the comparison you are using? Please tell us more.

[miched]

Does it cost any more or less for Carnival or Celebrity to operate a cruise going to the same place?

 

Some times it is just perceived value. People will pay more because they think that they are getting more.

 

Does the Captain, chef, entertainers, staff and crew get paid that much more on X? Does it cost that much more to built a X ship than a Carnival.

 

Does X pay their entertainers more?

 

Does the fuel cost more for X than for Carnival?

 

What about the liquor, beer, and other beverages? I think that they both pay the same but they have different prices on board.

 

Food wise I don't think that the cost difference is that much between them for any significant cost differential.

 

Some of the fixed cost can be spread out more on larger ships so that will justify higher prices for smaller ships but people also pay a premium to sail on the latest and greatest to be among the first.

 

It comes down to supply and demand. It is better to have a warm body that may spend some extra than an empty cabin that generates nothing.

 

The other is with the lower prices you may entice the value or bargain shopper to try your line and see that there is a difference hoping to win some over as loyal customers.

[Denny01]

Interesting questions but most could only be answered by Cruise Line professionals and most Lines don't share this type of info with other Lines or the general public.

 

My personal opinion is some of the differences in prices is more due to the crew/passenger ratios and the number of passengers the Line puts on a comparable sized ship.

 

Den

[Essiesmom]

Med cruises have gone soft because of cruises not going to Egypt. EM

[Andy]

Currently looking at several cruises for April 2012, & noticed that Celebrity is now comparably priced to Carnival. What has changed? Are they having trouble competing with the mega-ships or trying to change their image? Is the demographic base not spending in the current economy? Will they cut staff & will the level of service be impacted? Tried looking at the financial statements, current & pre-bookings itineraries and so forth. Could only find that there are concerns about low Mediterranean bookings. Any ideas?

 

Hi Macedontraveler !

 

It would be great if you told us what type of sailing you were looking at (i.e. Caribbean, Transatlantic or Europe). In Europe's case, most every Cruiseline has most of their fleet deployed in Europe in 2012. As I've been predicting for quite a while, they've placed too many of their eggs in the Europe basket, and it's going to come back and bite them now. Some lines have recently redeployed a ship or two back to the US, and Celebrity should redeploy at least 1 ship back to the US. What Celebrity is waiting for, is beyond me. Every day they wait, is another day less they have to sell the new itinerary/inventory, and at lower prices. The clock is ticking.

 

Regarding the economy, for many prospective Cruisers, things remain weak, and I'm sure that's part of the equation. As far as your concerns about recent cuts in crew, food & service... that's not happening. It's more a matter of supply and demand. The more cabins they have to sell on any particular sailing, the more pricing will likely decline.... until they find a price-point that fills the ship.

 

I hope this is helpful !

[jodie84124]

I read recently that all cruise ships were 'giving up' on the LA market and moving their ships elsewhere. I thought it strange as I always thought the Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo cruises out of LA would be doing well. I guess the economy is affecting a lot of things.

 

Jodie

[cruisestitch]

A big part of the problem with sailing southward from LA is that it is highly likely that you'll have two days of rough, unsettled weather until you get to warmer climes, and two days of the same coming home. Perhaps there have been too many bad experiences, and folks who won't do those itineraries again.

[Greghouseo]

Med cruises have gone soft because of cruises not going to Egypt. EM

 

Errr very few "Med" cruises go to (or went to Egypt)

Simplifying considerably there is your traditional Western Med itinerary takes in places like Florence/ corsica/Barcelona/Florence/Monte Carlo etc

Eastern Med Venice/Croatia/Greek Islands/Turkey etc

 

There are a few cross over "Holy Land" cruises takes in a bit of Greece/Turkey/Cyprus/Israel and formerly Egypt.

 

The problem is not related to Egypt being taken out if itineraries it is caused in part by the ludicrously expensive costs of flying transatlantic to Europe (Celebrity is traditionally more American in demographic than RCI at least in Europe).

A lot of Americans have also taken the view that they do not want to travel anywhere close to the Middle East.

 

It is not related to taking Alexandria out of itineraries

[macedontraveler]

More details... We are 1 of 3 couples looking to cruise together in the Caribbean next April. After lots of homework we narrowed it to Princess (we've sailed with them before), Royal and Celebrity. Royal & Celebrity are sister lines along with 2 others and Princess is part of the Carnival (P&O) group. Given that (number of ships, passengers & staff and similar routes), I doubt that overall costs of labor, fuel & food/beverages are much different for the companies, even taking into the difference in size of some of the ships. Which leads us back to supply & demand. Has the era of the mega ship significantly impacted Celebrity's smaller ships to such an extent that they would cut prices so greatly (those figures you can check for yourselves) to attract passengers and how does that impact service & value. And further, if the response isn't there, how long will RCC keep them afloat?

[Liz315]

More details... We are 1 of 3 couples looking to cruise together in the Caribbean next April. After lots of homework we narrowed it to Princess (we've sailed with them before), Royal and Celebrity. Royal & Celebrity are sister lines along with 2 others and Princess is part of the Carnival (P&O) group. Given that (number of ships, passengers & staff and similar routes), I doubt that overall costs of labor, fuel & food/beverages are much different for the companies, even taking into the difference in size of some of the ships. Which leads us back to supply & demand. Has the era of the mega ship significantly impacted Celebrity's smaller ships to such an extent that they would cut prices so greatly (those figures you can check for yourselves) to attract passengers and how does that impact service & value. And further, if the response isn't there, how long will RCC keep them afloat?

 

Actually the costs of fuel and food and many of the other commodities that cruise lines use by the tonnage do in fact vary. I would speculate that these companies buy and sell these things through the futures markets. You could very well be sailing w/ fuel that was paid for in 2008 when oil was trading at $56.00 per barrel. I'm sure they have traders that do just that, buy on the dips and sell short on the spikes to lock in the best prices for their companies. So the costs could flucuate tremendously from cruise line to cruise line. If they've done well in the markets then they have hedged their positions and may be well able to supply their ships at a lower cost than their competitors. Also as a business owner I know that I've had quite a few increases in the the costs of my products that I have absorbed with out passing these increases on to my customers. When times are tough many businesses lower their profit margins and still offer the same great service and products at competitive prices. Your profit margins decrease but your still standing at the end of the day, your loyal customers are still happy and hopefully you've increased you customer base. So maybe Celebrity is trying, like everyone else, to stay afloat:D in these tough economic times by offering a great product at a great price. This may just be a temporary gift! Also,labor costs may differ depending on what country the help is from, just a guess though. There are lots of variables in the price structure of many of these companies, supply and demand being just one of them. Which ever you pick have a great cruise.