So Pacific Cruise Cheaper for Australians? By a LOT! Why is this?

[ChicagoDude]

I know there is a lot of talk about cruise booking prices for Americans being less than in other locations.

 

We were looking at a cruise of the South Pacific from Sydney in July. The price for Americans starts at US$5815 (including taxes). The Australian-booked price is US$4100!

 

First time I've seen this kind of huge disparity, especially in favor of the Australian-based tourist.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2015 by ChicagoDude
meh

[icat2000]

So can you book with Princess Australia or did they so no. :D

 

Australian prices even including gratuities.

[ChicagoDude]

So can you book with Princess Australia or did they so no. :D

 

Australian prices even including gratuities.

 

Yes, they said these were Australian prices only.

[icat2000]

Yes, they said these were Australian prices only.

 

Well seems like a win-win if you can book directly with Australian Princess office. You can't do the reverse, being an Australian and booking directly with Princess US office.

Edited January 20, 2015 by icat2000

[ChicagoDude]

Well seems like a win-win if you can book directly with Australian Princess office. You can't do the reverse, being an Australian and booking directly with Princess US office.

 

You *can't* do the reverse - they will not take bookings at this price EXCEPT from Australians.

[Waynetor]

We found the same thing when doing round trips from Sydney. Our price never went up or down for over 6 months. The Australians we talked to paid less and their price had the gratuity built in while ours as normal was added on board.

Seems strange marketing as Australians are often on here complaining about how much more they pay for other cruises.

[dogtags]

Those price differences are common in the travel industry, with pricing adjusted for each market. As an American living abroad, I booked a rental car with mileage and insurance included, booked through a European agency. When I arrived at Alamo, I was told that the rate and package was not valid for US citizens. (They allowed the rate, but said the insurance coverage would not be valid.)

 

It'll be interesting to see if Princess AUS will sell you the cruise at their rates once they know you are US/Canadian citizen and resident. If so, all Americans would be inclined to book through the AUS office. I'd think US agencies would be unhappy about that, but we'll see.

[GandM-nq]

Booked on Emerald for a Mediterranean cruise and I noticed a pricing discrepancy there too - in our (aussie) favour using the current US/AUD conversion. Maybe discrepancy is because of recent currency fluctuations? I know our dollar has hit the skids lately, but still.....

 

And gee. You wouldn't want to take a third and fourth either! Looks like the kids need stay at home. Or adopt them out to a Aussie family for the cruise.

[icat2000]

You *can't* do the reverse - they will not take bookings at this price EXCEPT from Australians.

 

Sorry, misunderstood your first post. Oh well. Swings in roundabouts then.

[icat2000]

We found the same thing when doing round trips from Sydney. Our price never went up or down for over 6 months. The Australians we talked to paid less and their price had the gratuity built in while ours as normal was added on board.

Seems strange marketing as Australians are often on here complaining about how much more they pay for other cruises.

 

Yeap. Princess thinks we only want to float around South Pacific or do endless trips back and forward to NZ. Not this cruiser.

[AE_Collector]

Being Canadian and constantly watching what is happening between Princess US versus Canadian prices as well as the current exchange rates I am going to say that there is a simple explanation.

 

Princess sets its "foreign prices" quite some time before the actual cruise and then sticks by it until the cruise no matter what the currencies do in the mean time. What was the US$/AUD$ exchange rate say a year ago? Par or even above par for the AUD$. What is it now, barely 80 cents US to the AUD$ (much the same thing has happened to our Canadian $).

 

Thus, when the prices were set the AUD$ may have been above par thus the pricing is less in AUD$ than in US$ making it a terrific deal in AUD$ at the moment. Enjoy it while it lasts as fairly soon cruises in AUD$ will cost considerably more than in US$ when the next pricing review happens. Same here in Canada.

 

They are currently charging us a 10% premium in Canadian where as the true price should be a 20% premium. That is exactly the situation that you are looking at in this price comparison.

 

Terry

Edited January 20, 2015 by AE_Collector

[rkmw]

Those price differences are common in the travel industry, with pricing adjusted for each market. As an American living abroad, I booked a rental car with mileage and insurance included, booked through a European agency. When I arrived at Alamo, I was told that the rate and package was not valid for US citizens. (They allowed the rate, but said the insurance coverage would not be valid.)

 

It'll be interesting to see if Princess AUS will sell you the cruise at their rates once they know you are US/Canadian citizen and resident. If so, all Americans would be inclined to book through the AUS office. I'd think US agencies would be unhappy about that, but we'll see.

 

us aussies cant use a US agent to book a cruise from the US so its only fair that the US people cant book with an Australian agent

[AE_Collector]

A Future Cruise Consultant onboard once told me that Canadians are the only nationality that Princess allows to book in Canadian or in US. Not certain if that is true or not other than that I know that I can book in either currency.

 

Terry

[GandM-nq]

Being Canadian and constantly watching what is happening between Princess US versus Canadian prices as well as the current exchange rates I am going to say that there is a simple explanation.

 

Princess sets its "foreign prices" quite some time before the actual cruise and then sticks by it until the cruise no matter what the currencies do in the mean time. What was the US$/AUD$ exchange rate say a year ago? Par or even above par for the AUD$. What is it now, barely 80 cents US to the AUD$ (much the same thing has happened to our Canadian $).

 

Thus, when the prices were set the AUD$ may have been above par thus the pricing is less in AUD$ than in US$ making it a terrific deal in AUD$ at the moment. Enjoy it while it lasts as fairly soon cruises in AUD$ will cost considerably more than in US$ when the next pricing review happens. Same here in Canada.

 

They are currently charging us a 10% premium in Canadian where as the true price should be a 20% premium. That is exactly the situation that you are looking at in this price comparison.

 

Terry

That would hold true if the prices were static. But I thought cruise lines adjust their web prices from time to time to reflect currency fluctuations, cabin availability etc.

 

And certainly that don't explain the difference in 3rd and 4th passenger in cabin prices in ChicagoDude's post. $4599 USD v $1799 AUD per extra pax in cabin!

[Ron the Rev]

Exchange rates fluctuate so much I guess someone has to draw a base line.

The same must go for the price of oil being used by the liners, I wonder if the prices will drop because of that ( I doubt it). Just as an aside it always seems that we in the UK pay top dollar over and above others. Ah well, it's only money and there are no pockets in shrouds. Happy hols.:)

[MrYellowDuck]

The assumption that prices start the same and then vary to allow for exchange rates are is not correct; this would represent pricing as it was in 1950s America.

 

Prices are set to maximise profit. People who live in different territories have different propensities to buy at different price points. Prices are set as high as they can be subject to the constraint of filling the boat. In fact there are lots of prices for the same experience. The only challenge for Princess and other companies is to try to stop customers being able access (and ideally see) these alternative prices.

 

Every decent retailer does this to their customers - they set out to not disappoint by offering prices that are lower than their customers will willingly pay. Because there are lots of different sorts of customers this means there needs to be lots of different prices for the same thing.

 

One place this can be seen is when cruiselines start to dump capacity very close to the sailing date. Another places this can be seen is via websites if you can mascaraed as connecting from different locations around the world.

 

For my employer I do exactly what I am describing here. Although, for the use-case I have I can hide that there are multiple prices for the same thing in a way that it's only possible to see the option I want you to see.

[claudio]

We got same problem in reverse we cant get a 499 7 day carribean cruise in Australia

we also cant get booze package or buckets of beer or elite afternoon drinks

but we do have pre paid tipping

[AE_Collector]

That would hold true if the prices were static. But I thought cruise lines adjust their web prices from time to time to reflect currency fluctuations, cabin availability etc.

 

And certainly that don't explain the difference in 3rd and 4th passenger in cabin prices in ChicagoDude's post. $4599 USD v $1799 AUD per extra pax in cabin!

 

As mentioned by others and myself, exchange rates don't directly affect cruise pricing on a daily, weekly ir even monthly basis. They are set far ahead of time leading to times of good or bad cruise rates as compared to the current real exchange rate.

 

Of course there are many other things that affect pricing at any given moment including regional rates, your age, loyalty level etc. We book cruises for my mom to come along with us on occasion. She doesnt do email so our email address is registered as being hers as well. We get email offers for her that sometimes have better pricing than we can get which always surprises us dince she has done 6 Princess cruises and we have done 21.

 

There seem to be some scenarios where 3rd & 4th pasengers in a cabin get extremely low prices and others not so much. We recently received an email promotion for 3rd & 4th pasengers with a headingof "Save as much as 50%". Usually in such advertisements this would mean one would have to search for quite awile to find one offer hiding in there somewhere that is actually 50% off but in our case the first one we saw was closer to 80% off of the 1st & 2nd passenger prices. Maybe we should take our kids! Uh, no maybe not.

 

Terry

Edited January 20, 2015 by AE_Collector

[Kinkacruiser]

Perhaps this is the reason that the higher priced/longer cruises are opened at 15 + months....Princess needs to sail with a full load.

My the way, it's a bonus if Australians see a price drop in that wait period.