Price of October cruise now higher

[Markanddonna]

We had an Oct 2020 14 day cruise booked and the total was $2,980- port fees & gratuities.  It is now $4,216. The gratuities went up dramatically because we would have received the free drink promo (which we would not have selected.)  The base price for our cabin selection also rose about $300 pp. 

 

Just interesting to observe, but we cancelled the cruise and received our down payment back. 

[jcollin]

I've been watching a Xmas cruise and the price went up for that as well.  And today they took away the $200 OBC as well as reduced the # of specialty dining nights from 3 to 2.  I would have expected the price to go down when they take away a few perks, guess not.

[brovol]

Ships may be required to sail at a certain percentage less than capacity to satisfy post COVID-19 "social distance" requirements.  This is pure speculation on my part, so not claiming to have any insight.  But if true, cruise lines may up prices a bit, and keep the number of passengers (as well as crew) down.  It may help them increase demand a bit, by limiting availability.  They are certainly going to have a certain percentage of die-hard cruisers wanting to sail ASAP, and if capacity is limited, they may actually get away with prices higher than what you might expect given the circumstances.

 

Just a thought.

[ColeThornton]

5 minutes ago, brovol said:

Ships may be required to sail at a certain percentage less than capacity to satisfy post COVID-19 "social distance" requirements.  This is pure speculation on my part, so not claiming to have any insight.  But if true, cruise lines may up prices a bit, and keep the number of passengers (as well as crew) down.  It may help them increase demand a bit, by limiting availability.  They are certainly going to have a certain percentage of die-hard cruisers wanting to sail ASAP, and if capacity is limited, they may actually get away with prices higher than what you might expect given the circumstances.

 

Just a thought.

 

More speculation on my part here also but I think when cruising returns higher prices with a less than full cruise experience will be another nail in the cruise industry coffin.  Seems to me also that social distancing onboard a ship will be almost impossible to maintain. 

 

I, for one, don't want to wear a facemask when I'm sampling food while standing in the buffet line.  😉

[seaman11]

that stimulus check hit. , i put on hold an oct cruise myself. 

[seaman11]

4 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

 

More speculation on my part here also but I think when cruising returns higher prices with a less than full cruise experience will be another nail in the cruise industry coffin.  Seems to me also that social distancing onboard a ship will be almost impossible to maintain. 

 

I, for one, don't want to wear a facemask when I'm sampling food while standing in the buffet line.  😉

i think you are wrong, ppl have been cooped up for months, they are going to want to cruise again.  some are panicked and wont, that is true but many will.  

[fireman17]

I have a cruise booked in a MA mini-suite or club balcony they are calling it now on the Bliss for Oct 18th. My cost included flight and cost now is $1500 more without flight. 

[Hobby3333]

Doesn’t matter.   There will be any cruises sailing in October, November or December.  We have a much larger problem to fix than when ships will sail.  I don’t believe that it will be safe to sail until there is a sound treatment or vaccine.   JMO.  If we try to reopen the economy by May, it might push cruising back till mid 2021.  

[allyfrizzle]

2 minutes ago, Hobby3333 said:

Doesn’t matter.   There will be any cruises sailing in October, November or December.  We have a much larger problem to fix than when ships will sail.  I don’t believe that it will be safe to sail until there is a sound treatment or vaccine.   JMO.  If we try to reopen the economy by May, it might push cruising back till mid 2021.  

Do you know if cruising has resumed in Europe?

[ColeThornton]

4 minutes ago, allyfrizzle said:

Do you know if cruising has resumed in Europe?

 

 

I don't believe there is any cruising anywhere on the planet right now. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by ColeThornton

[seaman11]

13 minutes ago, Hobby3333 said:

Doesn’t matter.   There wont be any cruises sailing in October, November or December.  We have a much larger problem to fix than when ships will sail.  I don’t believe that it will be safe to sail until there is a sound treatment or vaccine.   JMO.  If we try to reopen the economy by May, it might push cruising back till mid 2021.  

according to who ? if you dont feel safe to sail , that is understandable, but many will want to by oct , im sure of it. 

[kessdarln]

I was in the middle of an email to my PCC to upgrade me from TA Mini to Suite and when I went back to get the quote, the price went up $3000 in less than 2 minutes, and the same 4 forward suites are still choices.  Disappointed.

[HoosierShipmate]

We had a cruise booked for spring break, cancelled three days prior (we cancelled using their offer, they were waffling) so we didn't get the 125% or 150% credit. We got 1:1.  Now looking at cruise fares they're significantly higher. I don't think it has anything to do with reduction in capacity. I think it has EVERYTHING to do with them having 125%/150% 'gift certificates' out in the marketplace on their financial books. These are liabilities to them. If they jack up pricing, they write that down quickly and get them off the books AND with people like me they have the additional revenue if I'm forced to pay $1500 for a cabin that used to cost $1000.  The free at sea is BS too, because you prepaid that gratuity at 1:1 and are going to get hit at the higher rate.  Bottom line, they're a business and I get that.  So I'm stuck holding a bunch of gift certificates which are basically a loan to NCL, wondering how I can strategically use them going forward without essentially paying 125% or 150% of the price I normally would allocate to a line of this caliber in an already shaky world where they could go bankrupt at any moment leaving me holding the bag.  And the 20% discount by the way was factored in my math. They're either at capacity pricing, or it's so early they're holding prices high, OR there are so many like me booking up cabins they can pull it off.  Not really in the best mood, but really want to cruse.  Which is exactly why they as business folks will get that price in the long run from many folks, likely me as well.

[sanger727]

How long do people with FCC's have to book now? Is it till the end of this year or longer (I realize they have longer to sail). It would be interesting to see if there are massive price drops the day after the FCC booking date expires.

[pokerpro5]

The prices are up for one reason and one reason only.

 

Nobody is booking with cash right now.  Nobody.  For obvious reasons.

 

So who is booking?  People like all of you with FCCs.

 

And since they gave away so many 125-150% FCCs, guess how they're making up for it?

 

This is why you should take a refund and not screw around with the belief that NCL is taking care of you with extra value.  It's a huge screw job.

 

Demand will be FAR LESS for cruising when it gets going.  FAR less.  Prices will be cheaper, not more expensive.  They'll have a hard enough time attracting customers for cheap prices, let alone marked up ones.

 

You're being played.  If you have a FCC, do NOT book now.

[GA Dave]

If the latest news that this actually came from a lab in Wuhan is true, there won't be any cruising for pleasure for a very long time. 🚀🚀🚀https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-china-compete-us-sources

Edited April 16, 2020 by GA Dave

[zqvol]

I would not be too concerned with pricing right now. Until ships begin sailing again they are going to price cabins as high as they think they can get away with, but if they don't sell those prices are going to come down.

[zqvol]

2 hours ago, GA Dave said:

If the latest news that this actually came from a lab in Wuhan is true, there won't be any cruising for pleasure for a very long time. 🚀🚀🚀https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-china-compete-us-sources

 

I give that report as much credit as I give anything that comes out of that fake news factory. I am not concerned at all.

[z4oslo]

6 hours ago, pokerpro5 said:

The prices are up for one reason and one reason only.

 

Nobody is booking with cash right now.  Nobody.  For obvious reasons.

 

So who is booking?  People like all of you with FCCs.

 

And since they gave away so many 125-150% FCCs, guess how they're making up for it?

 

This is why you should take a refund and not screw around with the belief that NCL is taking care of you with extra value.  It's a huge screw job.

 

Demand will be FAR LESS for cruising when it gets going.  FAR less.  Prices will be cheaper, not more expensive.  They'll have a hard enough time attracting customers for cheap prices, let alone marked up ones.

 

You're being played.  If you have a FCC, do NOT book now.

 

I think you are wrong. 

They need to be more profitable in the future to be able to handle the debt.

Base price will be higher, and they will also charge more for every other service, there is no way around it.

 

This goes for everything else as well, airplane tickets, Hotels etc etc.

Everyone that runs a business, small or big will ahve to raise their prices to be able to handle the debt they are making atm.

 

In the future prices for just about anything will go up in price, and there will also be less competition because many comanies will cease to exist

 

Layoffs and cost cutting will not be enough, companies will need to raise their prices as well.

 

I run a company myself, and in the first two weeks, Ive had to go though layoffs, cost cutting, negotiatingwith banks and others we owe money, and we have raised prices, starting with high volume items and services.

 

Thats my humble opinion.

Sorry for butchering the english language, its obviously not my first language 🙂

 

Edit: forgot to mention, but i also think there will be less cruise ships in the future.

I havent studied the individual cruise lines and their owners, but my gut feeling is the Costa Cruises will go under first, mainly because a: most of their ships sail in mediterranean (there will be no cruises in Europe in 2020 imo) and they have a rather bad reputation.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by z4oslo

[backsbanny]

I truly believe that in the near future cruise prices will go down.A lot of offers since they will have to convince people to get back on board.In regards to Costa, i dont believe that they will have trouble.In my mind i believe that cruises in Europe will start before US since it seems that the worst part of the virus has already passed at this point in the Mediterranean area.Costa also is under the umbrella of Carnival,so no worries there.I worry more for NCL at this moment rather than Costa...


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[spanishguy1970]

On 4/15/2020 at 1:57 PM, ColeThornton said:

 

More speculation on my part here also but I think when cruising returns higher prices with a less than full cruise experience will be another nail in the cruise industry coffin.  Seems to me also that social distancing onboard a ship will be almost impossible to maintain. 

 

I, for one, don't want to wear a facemask when I'm sampling food while standing in the buffet line.  😉

and who would want to spend their cruise wearing a mask, sitting far away from each other, worrying about someone coughing at every corner....nothing relaxing about that...LOL

[knight2096]

 

9 hours ago, pokerpro5 said:

The prices are up for one reason and one reason only.

 

Nobody is booking with cash right now.  Nobody.  For obvious reasons.

 

So who is booking?  People like all of you with FCCs.

 

And since they gave away so many 125-150% FCCs, guess how they're making up for it?

 

This is why you should take a refund and not screw around with the belief that NCL is taking care of you with extra value.  It's a huge screw job.

 

Demand will be FAR LESS for cruising when it gets going.  FAR less.  Prices will be cheaper, not more expensive.  They'll have a hard enough time attracting customers for cheap prices, let alone marked up ones.

 

You're being played.  If you have a FCC, do NOT book now.

 

BINGO!!!

Edited April 16, 2020 by knight2096

[sanger727]

16 hours ago, z4oslo said:

 

I think you are wrong. 

They need to be more profitable in the future to be able to handle the debt.

Base price will be higher, and they will also charge more for every other service, there is no way around it.

 

This goes for everything else as well, airplane tickets, Hotels etc etc.

Everyone that runs a business, small or big will ahve to raise their prices to be able to handle the debt they are making atm.

 

In the future prices for just about anything will go up in price, and there will also be less competition because many comanies will cease to exist

 

Layoffs and cost cutting will not be enough, companies will need to raise their prices as well.

 

I run a company myself, and in the first two weeks, Ive had to go though layoffs, cost cutting, negotiatingwith banks and others we owe money, and we have raised prices, starting with high volume items and services.

 

Thats my humble opinion.

Sorry for butchering the english language, its obviously not my first language 🙂

 

Edit: forgot to mention, but i also think there will be less cruise ships in the future.

I havent studied the individual cruise lines and their owners, but my gut feeling is the Costa Cruises will go under first, mainly because a: most of their ships sail in mediterranean (there will be no cruises in Europe in 2020 imo) and they have a rather bad reputation.

 

 

Do you sell a product that your customers can't live without? That's the only way I could see raised prices working over the next year. Yes, I've found food prices going up; but since I have to have food and they have gone up across the board, I pay it. Cruising, and vacations in general, are a completely optional leisure activity that you only engage in if you can afford it. Even if there is less competition among the cruise industry and increased prices across the board; they still have to show enough "value" to entice people to book a cruise vs a road trip and airbnb. And with many customers having reduced incomes; I don't see how higher prices will be viable moving forward. There's always a cheaper option when it comes to a vacation. 

 

I think that the prices are temporarily inflated to make back the money they "gave away" with the higher FCC and "20% off" offers. As long as people are booking at those prices they will stay. Once the market will no longer bear those increases they can either cut the prices and be less to barely profitable or not sell and become non-profitable.

[boatseller]

Winner, winner.  They're just re-capturing FCC bookings.  When those subside, they will reprice to capture genuine new bookings.  So I'll hold my FCC until a deal comes through.

[JayfromBNA]

I revised a previously booked Encore Thanksgiving 2020 cruise out of NYC.   We were booked in oceanview, but revised reservation to a balcony, rate actually went down, but dining perk did go to two nights and that's not the end of the world.  Not sure if we'll actually cruise, but at this point, I need something to look forward to.