Everything... project Leonardo/Prima class!

[BenCoudon]

4 minutes ago, Red-Sol said:

The way actual bookings are going it's more like "wishful thinking" 🤣

Despite those unbelievable high prices, as long as people continue to book cruises on the new ships, the cruise line will be laughing.  On many 7 day cruises, you can book an interior cabin for about $1,500 for 2.  You can do 5 cruises in an interior cabin on the Getaway for the cost of one cruise on the Prima or the Viva.  It looks line NCL didn't expect that much frenzy on Prima bookings when they released the booking last May. Prices were higher than normal (which is usually the case for inaugural cruises)but still decent (as per my standard).  Few days later, they smelled the jackpot and doubled the prices. They did not make the same mistake twice and when the booking on the Viva became available, prices were similar to the increased prices of the Prima.

And cabins that were sold at the initial price are now offered at double price when people cancel their initial booking.  We might see an offer from NCL offering 25% FCC to passengers that booked on day one if they agree to cancel their cruise 😁😁😁.  

 

Finally, I believe that the main reason NCL was able to sell those cabins at those prices is because lots of people had significant amounts of FCC in the bank and had to spend them.  Therefore, booking a cabin at 20k for 2, when you apply 10 or 12k from the FCC, the amount of cash out of the pocket was much lower and often lower than the normal price of a cruise.  But I don't think the sales on the Viva are as good as they were on the Prima.  And, in less than 1 year, the 3rd Leonardo cabins will be up for sale. It will be interesting to see the pricing.  Lots of people are interested in inaugural sailings.  But as we will have inaugural sailings 6 years in a row, I think that several people will skip their turn on some of them.  I am skipping the Viva inaugural season.  

[coastcat]

5 hours ago, Red-Sol said:

The way actual bookings are going it's more like "wishful thinking" 🤣

Well, of the 73 Studios on Prima, 67 are booked for the first transatlantic. Other categories have low availability, too. Then again, final payment date is still a few months away. I wonder how/if prices will drop then? They're sure not going to get new bookings at the current jaw-dropping rates.

 

 

[KeithJenner]

10 hours ago, brigand13 said:

Has anyone on the 8/17 cruise been able to make dining reservations??  I'm on the 10/31 sailing out of Galveston, so I'm a LONG way from being able to make mine, but I was curious about the earlier one since were inside 120 days until that cruise (and IIRC, 120 is when folks can normally start making reservations).  

Not available yet.

 

NCL have now opened reservations for European cruises, so it seems to now be just the Prima that isn’t offering them.

 

I suspect that they will open up at some point in the next couple of months and there is a good chance yours will open on time.

[KeithJenner]

I went on the UK site to see what our cabin would cost to book now (17th August cruise) and whilst it is listed again, every category is showing as sold out.

 

They must have only actually opened up sales in some areas.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

7 hours ago, coastcat said:

Well, of the 73 Studios on Prima, 67 are booked for the first transatlantic. Other categories have low availability, too. Then again, final payment date is still a few months away. I wonder how/if prices will drop then? They're sure not going to get new bookings at the current jaw-dropping rates.

 

 

 

They're banking on the FOMO factor. Not a fan of gouging - though some will say things such as "what the market will bear",  "supply and demand", etc

 

I say - NO THANKS!

 

Tom

[FreestyleNovice]

[FreestyleNovice]

 

 

Source: max_elegantiae on IG.

 

On Instagram someone made a good point of the somewhat bad state of the (hull art) paint job. Touching up happened at Meyer Werft too but not in this multitude or is it me, I am not an painter but I would send in the artisti in a later stage.. 

[hallux]

26 minutes ago, FreestyleNovice said:

On Instagram someone made a good point of the somewhat bad state of the (hull art) paint job.

I was noticing that, it's as if they used the wrong paint that doesn't stand up to the sea air.

[FreestyleNovice]

15 minutes ago, hallux said:

I was noticing that, it's as if they used the wrong paint that doesn't stand up to the sea air.

 

Yeah, we know it's a more soft tone meant by the artist but.. now it looks faded and tired. Especially with that awful ammount of patches..

[RVACruiser43]

4 hours ago, hallux said:

I was noticing that, it's as if they used the wrong paint that doesn't stand up to the sea air.

If they couldn't use the correct paint, I wonder what else is going to be an issue.  I am getting a spider sense tingle 🙂  We may have a very interesting TransAtlantic crossing.  Will This builder go down in the records as Beating the Epic builder?  Ooops my love of Meyer W is showing

[Sailing12Away]

Does anyone know what the deal is with that acme balcony door to a non-existent balcony? 

[geleisen]

4 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with that acme balcony door to a non-existent balcony? 

New feature.
Balcony use requires an upcharge. 
Rumours suggest Platinum and above will get a discount, but too early to know. 

They will have a weekly pass available and will be complimentary to guests sailing in the Haven, but additional daily gratuity will be required. 

[Sailing12Away]

Window washer thing a ma jig going there possibly? Where's our ship experts.... curious minds and Wiley E. Coyote wants to know.

[hallux]

37 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Does anyone know what the deal is with that acme balcony door to a non-existent balcony? 

Looking at this pic

6 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

 

It appears to be filled in.  Maybe it was left out for construction access and has since been installed?

[renji]

On 4/19/2022 at 8:10 PM, BenCoudon said:

Despite those unbelievable high prices, as long as people continue to book cruises on the new ships, the cruise line will be laughing.  On many 7 day cruises, you can book an interior cabin for about $1,500 for 2.  You can do 5 cruises in an interior cabin on the Getaway for the cost of one cruise on the Prima or the Viva.  It looks line NCL didn't expect that much frenzy on Prima bookings when they released the booking last May. Prices were higher than normal (which is usually the case for inaugural cruises)but still decent (as per my standard).  Few days later, they smelled the jackpot and doubled the prices. They did not make the same mistake twice and when the booking on the Viva became available, prices were similar to the increased prices of the Prima.

And cabins that were sold at the initial price are now offered at double price when people cancel their initial booking.  We might see an offer from NCL offering 25% FCC to passengers that booked on day one if they agree to cancel their cruise 😁😁😁.  

 

Finally, I believe that the main reason NCL was able to sell those cabins at those prices is because lots of people had significant amounts of FCC in the bank and had to spend them.  Therefore, booking a cabin at 20k for 2, when you apply 10 or 12k from the FCC, the amount of cash out of the pocket was much lower and often lower than the normal price of a cruise.  But I don't think the sales on the Viva are as good as they were on the Prima.  And, in less than 1 year, the 3rd Leonardo cabins will be up for sale. It will be interesting to see the pricing.  Lots of people are interested in inaugural sailings.  But as we will have inaugural sailings 6 years in a row, I think that several people will skip their turn on some of them.  I am skipping the Viva inaugural season.  

I think that is correct…I have an FCC at 100% (not 125) for nearly 9k from a much longer cruise so am using it on entry level Haven on the 5 day Prima.  There are only so many cruises I can take in a year and I also have credits to use on RCCL, Celebrity and Cunard!    So will live with an overpriced Haven cabin because I would lose the credits… if the credits were usable in 2023, it would be quite different….I bet prices will decrease, but not for those cabins with hot tubs!

[KeithJenner]

22 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

I went on the UK site to see what our cabin would cost to book now (17th August cruise) and whilst it is listed again, every category is showing as sold out.

 

They must have only actually opened up sales in some areas.

Now available in the UK.

 

We paid about £4,200 for our room and it is now selling for over £9,000.

 

Surely these prices will fall significantly in the few weeks before sailing if they want to fill it up any further.

[kessdarln]

On 4/19/2022 at 5:10 PM, BenCoudon said:

Despite those unbelievable high prices, as long as people continue to book cruises on the new ships, the cruise line will be laughing.  On many 7 day cruises, you can book an interior cabin for about $1,500 for 2.  You can do 5 cruises in an interior cabin on the Getaway for the cost of one cruise on the Prima or the Viva.  It looks line NCL didn't expect that much frenzy on Prima bookings when they released the booking last May. Prices were higher than normal (which is usually the case for inaugural cruises)but still decent (as per my standard).  Few days later, they smelled the jackpot and doubled the prices. They did not make the same mistake twice and when the booking on the Viva became available, prices were similar to the increased prices of the Prima.

And cabins that were sold at the initial price are now offered at double price when people cancel their initial booking.  We might see an offer from NCL offering 25% FCC to passengers that booked on day one if they agree to cancel their cruise 😁😁😁.  

 

Finally, I believe that the main reason NCL was able to sell those cabins at those prices is because lots of people had significant amounts of FCC in the bank and had to spend them.  Therefore, booking a cabin at 20k for 2, when you apply 10 or 12k from the FCC, the amount of cash out of the pocket was much lower and often lower than the normal price of a cruise.  But I don't think the sales on the Viva are as good as they were on the Prima.  And, in less than 1 year, the 3rd Leonardo cabins will be up for sale. It will be interesting to see the pricing.  Lots of people are interested in inaugural sailings.  But as we will have inaugural sailings 6 years in a row, I think that several people will skip their turn on some of them.  I am skipping the Viva inaugural season.  

I've used my FCC in Jan, but I want to try a new ship, and have never done TA.  Was so excited to get a TA Spa Balcony at $6100+ for one...  and now looking at that price I decided to try a new ship TA on a different line for 1/2 the cost.   Still excited to go on Leo class but I think that high $$ should be saved for the Haven one day since I'm not in a tax bracket with $20,000 pocket change 😄 

[BenCoudon]

19 hours ago, KeithJenner said:

Surely these prices will fall significantly in the few weeks before sailing if they want to fill it up any further.

I'm far to be sure that the prices will fall in the few weeks before sailing.  Nowadays, it is difficult to understand how they manage unsold cabins.

Before the pandemia, it was normal to see price drops a week or so prior to sailing if they had unsold cabins.  But now, it seems not to be the case

 

I will take as an example my recent cruise on the Bliss (14 days, January 23)

We were only 1300 passengers with a capacity of over 4000.

As a solo traveler, I pay the price of 2 persons.  I used my FCC to pay a club balcony cabin around $8000.   But with lots of sea days, I really wanted to get a Haven cabin.  But the cost was $26,000.

Paying $18,000 more was beyond my budget. But I would have paid up to $8000 more to secure a Haven Cabin As there was over 20 Haven cabins unsold, I was pretty sure that they would have a price drop.   But it never happened.  

At the end of the day, my upgrade bid (total of $3,200) was accepted and I got my Haven Cabin.  If they would have dropped the price, I would have paid twice as much than what cost me the upgrade bid.

So other than their regular offers (that everyone get when they book a cruise), it appears that they are not in the mood to drop the prices even if they have unsold cabins few weeks prior to the cruise.  We shall see what happens in september.  The september 23 TA appeears to be rather full but still many cabins available for my first leg (September 13-23)

[littlelulu01]

The prices have always been all over the board.  I remember seeing the Jade garden villa two week med in 2016 selling for 64k (double occupancy) - just depends on itinerary and who’s willing to pay.  I’m sure once Prima starts sailings out of Florida, they’ll be price drops. The TA will likely have some cancellations and a few haven suites opening around final payment.  I’m guessing bidding will have to be strong and even then it’ll be difficult to win a Haven bid.  Getting the best price on airfare, hotels, cruises… has been very unpredictable since Covid.  Frustrating for sure. I just figure everything everywhere is just going to cost a ridiculous amount anymore. We paid $178 to get a family of five take out mixed plate in Hawaii a couple weeks ago.  Service was surly, It was junk and nobody even ate it. 

[karmamule]

One reason we went nuts reserving several cruises last year while COVID still loomed large was we thought as it wanes prices would skyrocket so buy while they were cheap. By far the cruise we saved the most on with that strategy was our Prima sailing next January that we booked on either the 1st or 2nd day it was available. Some of those rates are just insane!

[KeithJenner]

On our current cruise (Jade) the prices collapsed in the few of weeks prior to the cruise. 
 

We got a bargain upgrade to a two bedroom suite about a month out, but two weeks later you could book a haven one for considerably less than we paid.

 

As far as I can tell, the policy seems to be price high and then sell very cheap a few weeks out. Of course the Prima may be different, especially if they don’t actually want to sell many more cabins for these cruises. It depends a bit how many final payment cancellations they had.

[Karaboudjan]

I respectfully suggest that discussions about pricing and itineraries be moved to separate topics.  These don't seem very pertinent to what I believe was the spirit of this topic.  

[twisterfreak2280]

Do we know who the captain and CD is yet?

[FreestyleNovice]

 

[FreestyleNovice]

2 hours ago, twisterfreak2280 said:

Do we know who the captain and CD is yet?

 

Cruise Director: Simon Akinwolere