Cost of Cruising in Australia vs USA & UK

[Matkai]

Hi Everyone,  Currently pricing up cruises and noticed that cruising from Australian Ports (Fremantle in particular) e.g. 13 Night of Magestic Princess from Fremantle to Sydney for 2 people in standard balcony room (no upgrade or perks) almost $8,000 and then you would have to factor in cost for flights back from Sydney to Perth on top of this price?  

Am I just looking at the wrong fares or is it normal to pay more from Australia than overseas?

[Aus Traveller]

13 nights for 'almost $4,000' is around $300 per night per person. That sounds expensive to me. Presumably you priced it on Princess standard not Princess Plus? I understand your comment that the cost of flights back to Perth add significantly to the cost of the cruise, just as it does if we cruise from the east coast to Perth, or if we book a trans-Pacific cruise.
 

It is difficult to compare fares on Australian cruises with those out of USA. Several factors make their cruises appear much, much cheaper - their base fares don't include fees and taxes, and gratuities must be paid on a per-day basis. Even with these added, USA cruises are usually cheaper simply because of competition.

 

P.S. I just checked on a travel agent website (one that specialises in cruises) for the cruise you mention. Balcony cabins are $3,408 and deluxe balconies $3,538. We can't mention travel agent's names, but it would be worthwhile shopping around on the internet.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Aus Traveller

[SinbadThePorter]

There is something going on. My feeling is that advertised prices are much higher now than they were before covid.

 

Before covid I would have regarded $150pp/day as an expensive twin inside cabin, now they are regularly $200-$250 on Northern Explorer and Round Australia cruises. NZ cruises are not much better. Even an 8 day Sydney to Hobart on Majestic is 217pp/day for inside.

 

I'm hoping that once more ships arrive then competition will force the prices down. Of course, there are only really two cruise corporations that carry 90% of passengers, so I don't know if competitive pricing will occur if Carnival and Royal don't want it to, since both companies are loaded down with debt.

 

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by SinbadThePorter

[OzKiwiJJ]

Round Australia cruises and their sectors are usually more expensive than other cruises. 

 

Cruises at peak holiday times are also often more expensive, especially NZ cruises. 

 

On the other hand the restart cruises have been much cheaper than 2019 fares were. We have a Vista Suite on Coral booked for an upcoming cruise that is cheaper than a regular balcony cabin was on Majestic Princess in October 2018.

[Aus Traveller]

Prices have gone up. A P&O cruise to Vila on 5th November is now virtually double the price we booked a balcony cabin for. Our cruise next Saturday was also at a great price - it was originally going to Vila. I didn't check to see the price recently. Can't check now as it is shown as sold out.

[SinbadThePorter]

Majestic, Feb 17th 2023, 10 day, Sydney to Nth Qld, Interior twin $218pp/day.

Coral, Sep 5th 2024, 10 day, Coral Coast, Interior twin $248pp/day.

Grand, Mar 21st 2023, 10 day, Southern Explorer, Interior twin $197pp/day.

Royal, Oct 23rd 2023, 10 day, Sydney to Nth Qld, Interior twin $203pp/day.

 

I might be misremembering, but to me these would have been standard balcony prices before covid.

 

The restart cruises have been good value, but they should have been since this was a restart with a new crew in the middle of winter. The prices next year do not look good to me.

[Hammer61]

21 hours ago, Matkai said:

then you would have to factor in cost for flights back from Sydney to Perth on top of this price?

They are not that bad, we cruise Sydney to Perth in February, mid day flight back with Virgin is about $250, thats with baggage, 1 x 23kg.

 

1 hour ago, SinbadThePorter said:

Royal, Oct 23rd 2023, 10 day, Sydney to Nth Qld, Interior twin $203pp/day.

You must be looking at the Princess plus prices? I have my eye on this one, standard Balcony are $2479 ($247.90 per night) but that is Princess plus, room only its $1978 ($197.80 per night)

 

Prices overall do look quite a bit higher though for the 2023 season in Australia/NZ, im in no hurry to book as expect we may see prices come down a bit if demand is not their, October 2023 is still well over a year away, in general i never book that early unless its a great deal or i really want the cruise. 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Hammer61

[OzKiwiJJ]

Prices were already starting to climb in 2018. When we did our March 2019 Celebrity NZ cruise we looked at booking Celebrity again for our next NZ cruise (we were trying to do an NZ cruise every two years to catch up with my brother) but the fares were much higher than the current cruise, and the two previous ones. 

 

I hadn't been tracking the Princess cruises as closely as we had been doing all sorts of different itineraries and switching between inside cabins and balcony cabins depending on itinerary. Of course I do have the fares from cancelled cruises we'd booked and there was definitely an increase in the balcony fares for Round Australia cruises.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I think we will have to accept higher fares for now. After 2.5 years of no cruises here the cruise lines need to claw back some of that lost income if they want to stay in business. A lot of things are going up in price these days which will add to their operating costs.

[Aus Traveller]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I hadn't been tracking the Princess cruises as closely as we had been doing all sorts of different itineraries and switching between inside cabins and balcony cabins depending on itinerary. Of course I do have the fares from cancelled cruises we'd booked and there was definitely an increase in the balcony fares for Round Australia cruises.

The Around Australia cruise always sells out very quickly so Princess can increase the prices a fair bit and still sell it. Makes good business sense.

[arxcards]

On 8/21/2022 at 7:02 PM, Matkai said:

Hi Everyone,  Currently pricing up cruises and noticed that cruising from Australian Ports (Fremantle in particular) e.g. 13 Night of Magestic Princess from Fremantle to Sydney for 2 people in standard balcony room (no upgrade or perks) almost $8,000 and then you would have to factor in cost for flights back from Sydney to Perth on top of this price?  

Am I just looking at the wrong fares or is it normal to pay more from Australia than overseas?

Not that it saves any money. Just to note that a lot of people/travel agents package these cruises with the Indian Pacific for a train/cruise or cruise/train holiday.

[arxcards]

23 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

Majestic, Feb 17th 2023, 10 day, Sydney to Nth Qld, Interior twin $218pp/day.

Coral, Sep 5th 2024, 10 day, Coral Coast, Interior twin $248pp/day.

Grand, Mar 21st 2023, 10 day, Southern Explorer, Interior twin $197pp/day.

Royal, Oct 23rd 2023, 10 day, Sydney to Nth Qld, Interior twin $203pp/day.

 

I might be misremembering, but to me these would have been standard balcony prices before covid.

 

The restart cruises have been good value, but they should have been since this was a restart with a new crew in the middle of winter. The prices next year do not look good to me.

Those prices include the plus package:

  Plus Beverage Package (drinks Up To $12 Each)

  Wi-fi (1 Device Per Guest)

  $50 onboard spending credit per person

For the base price of your Majestic one, you can drop $50 per day down to $168pp for a twin inside. Balconies start at $222pp. Inclusive packages on Princess were only ever a limited promotional thing on selected cruises prior to covid.

 

Now with the added cost to fuel and other supplies, base pricing is on the way up. On the flip side though, if you are flexible it is a good time to sit and wait for deals to come along. Not going to happen for the lap around Oz cruises though.

[MicCanberra]

Generally the prices are up but then, there are still some bargains to be had. One thing that is really driving up the prices is including the drink and wifi packages. Sometimes it is worth just to pay as you go rather than chasing the expense to get your money's worth.

[SinbadThePorter]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Those prices include the plus package:

 

My mistake. I keep forgetting that Princess stopped showing the on-line base price up front some time ago.

 

The prices still seem to be up somewhat on pre-covid.

[OzKiwiJJ]

41 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

My mistake. I keep forgetting that Princess stopped showing the on-line base price up front some time ago.

 

The prices still seem to be up somewhat on pre-covid.

It depends on what you choose to see. When I do a search on my phone and the results come up it gives me the choice of seeing the Plus fares or the Standard fares.

[SinbadThePorter]

27 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It depends on what you choose to see. When I do a search on my phone

 

As far as I can see there isn't such an option on the PC version. It's not until you have clicked on the cruise and then selected the stateroom type that you know which price you have been looking at.

[Aus Traveller]

4 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

As far as I can see there isn't such an option on the PC version. It's not until you have clicked on the cruise and then selected the stateroom type that you know which price you have been looking at.

In the version I use on my PC, I can click on either 'Princess standard' or 'Princess plus' before I click on actual cruises. I always go for standard - we prefer to buy our drinks as we go.

[SinbadThePorter]

18 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

In the version I use on my PC, I can click on either 'Princess standard' or 'Princess plus' before I click on actual cruises. I always go for standard - we prefer to buy our drinks as we go.

 

Darned if I can see it. I'll have to put it down to male pattern blindness, i.e. the older you get, the harder it is to see the bleeding obvious. 🤓

 

I always go for standard too. I don't drink enough to make Plus worthwhile.

[Aus Traveller]

This is what appears at the top of the page when I look at the Princess website.

 

Our "Princess Plus" fare includes our Princess Plus Beverage Package and Wi-Fi!

Fare Type:

Fare TypePrincess Plus

Fare TypePrincess Standard

[SinbadThePorter]

19 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

This is what appears at the top of the page when I look at the Princess website.

 

Is that on the Search Results screen? This is what I see.

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

That's different to what I see on my laptop.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Very strange!

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Is that on the Search Results screen? This is what I see.

 

 

When I go onto the same screen (shown above), below the box that has Cruise Destinations, Date & Length etc and the number of guests etc and above the first cruise shown, I have the option of choosing Princess Plus or Princess standard. It's obvious the screen doesn't appear that way for you and I have no idea why.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Sinbad, try clearing your cache and see what happens then.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

That's different to what I see on my laptop.

 

That's exactly how it appears on my PC. Yes - a screen shot was better than trying to describe it. 🙂