Is jacking up the prices on last minute cruises working for Carnival?

[asalligo]

I have always been a last minute cruiser and until this year that has always worked for us, but of course this year, prices are crazy high for last minute cruises with Carnival and this has not just been the spring break season. How is Carnival capitalizing on this though? Who is paying 2k to get on a four day cruise on the Paradise last minute. Are they flooding casino deals out last minute to fill ships? Other cruise lines are still putting out last minute deals, saw a Balcony room on RCCL to Alaska last week for 1500 and a great Holland and Princess deal this past month that I could not get free for. 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by asalligo
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[firefly333]

Deals on rcl few and far between but I dont  check alaska. Carnival had some great deals last year for alaska. Might again.

 

But overall I've been saying for quite a while carnival prices are very high. I cant ever find anything under $100 a day out of Galveston.  Maybe florida will be cheaper as I'm planning a move late 2024.

 

I agree there used to be last minute lower prices on carnival after final payment before covid but I dont see any deals out of ports I watch. Carnival seems to have decided to cater to low priced casino deals from what I can tell. Prices for non casino deals are high. It's how it is. Take it or leave it. Take up gambling. 

[Joebucks]

Cruise prices generally have been, and will continue to be determined by supply and demand. There are still people out there that think cruise lines are giving cruises away for free. Prices are up everywhere. They also continue to shrink their fleet. Do they always do it perfectly? No. However, they are generally not looking to have empty rooms sailing.

[carsastic]

I have not been on a carnival cruise in a while .. I have been to Vegas several times within the last 6 months.  I recently started looking at carnival cruises and I have a ton of offers for cruises from casino . Not sure if that is tied to my play at MGM. Or they have alway been there , but they are advertising very cheap for a 3-7 day c$uise 

[mz-s]

Well the ships seem to be sailing full, so I guess in some sense it is working out for them.

[firefly333]

28 minutes ago, carsastic said:

I have not been on a carnival cruise in a while .. I have been to Vegas several times within the last 6 months.  I recently started looking at carnival cruises and I have a ton of offers for cruises from casino . Not sure if that is tied to my play at MGM. Or they have alway been there , but they are advertising very cheap for a 3-7 day c$uise 

Which proves my pt, carnival is targeting gamblers, not regular people. Their demographic is gamblers. My friend who went with me complained how hard it was to get a machine in the casino. 

[asalligo]

I must admit I will be gambling next cruise and I have not in the past much. I am going to try to get those offers. 

[mz-s]

They definitely want known spenders on their ships, gamblers are low hanging fruit and Carnival knows how to cater to them. I would have loved to see them position Costa by Carnival as a sort of Virgin Voyages competitor - but perhaps now is not the time for them to branch out into new ventures. As it is Costa by Carnival is just a way for Carnival to add berths without spending too much to renovate the ships.

[cruisinqt]

I think Carnival has changed their strategy since the pandemic. All of the cruise lines, having been shutdown for 2 years, are hurting pretty bad financially so they’re looking to make up for all of their losses as quickly as possible. Carnival seems to be trying to do so by appealing to their main moneymakers, the gamblers, so they’ve revamped their casino players program. They are trying to get as many gamblers as they can on the cruises because they spend way more money than other regular guests. I’m not a huge gambler but I’ve been getting some insane offers with lots of very cheap last minute cruises. I used to never get offers like this because I’m not a whale I’m more of a guppy lol. I bet the minimum and limit my spending. But even nobody’s like me are getting great offers so I think Carnival is betting on the gamblers to help them get back on track financially. And they’re saving their last minute cheap cruises for gamblers as a perk for them so maybe there won’t be cheap last minute cruises for non gamblers anymore. 

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

I think Carnival has changed their strategy since the pandemic. All of the cruise lines, having been shutdown for 2 years, are hurting pretty bad financially so they’re looking to make up for all of their losses as quickly as possible. Carnival seems to be trying to do so by appealing to their main moneymakers, the gamblers, so they’ve revamped their casino players program. They are trying to get as many gamblers as they can on the cruises because they spend way more money than other regular guests. I’m not a huge gambler but I’ve been getting some insane offers with lots of very cheap last minute cruises. I used to never get offers like this because I’m not a whale I’m more of a guppy lol. I bet the minimum and limit my spending. But even nobody’s like me are getting great offers so I think Carnival is betting on the gamblers to help them get back on track financially. And they’re saving their last minute cheap cruises for gamblers as a perk for them so maybe there won’t be cheap last minute cruises for non gamblers anymore. 

 

Guppies are what casinos want because more often than not they don't come home with any money.

[staceyglow]

The goal of every cruise line is to sail full while maximizing total fare revenue. If it is getting close to the sail date and they have a lot of unsold cabins, they are going to lower fares. If they have very few unsold cabins, they are going to raise fares. It's as simple as that. 

[LatinaInTexas]

A couple of months ago I had some decent offers but I decided I would wait and book last minute to get a better deal. Big mistake, like you said no last minute deals to be found except the $50 last minute casino deals which are actually too last minute, sailing from the next day to maybe 3 days out.

My next booked cruise is on NCL in May. I booked 2 months ago and as of yesterday the fare has doubled, crazy times.

[cruisinqt]

2 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Guppies are what casinos want because more often than not they don't come home with any money.

I never thought of it that way but you’re probably right it makes sense. 

[cruisinqt]

2 minutes ago, LatinaInTexas said:

A couple of months ago I had some decent offers but I decided I would wait and book last minute to get a better deal. Big mistake, like you said no last minute deals to be found except the $50 last minute casino deals which are actually too last minute, sailing from the next day to maybe 3 days out.

My next booked cruise is on NCL in May. I booked 2 months ago and as of yesterday the fare has doubled, crazy times.

It’s the same situation for me. I booked an Alaskan cruise almost a year ago with Royal and I just checked the price and it’s more than doubled for me too. Cruise prices are crazy right now 

[Thenagers]

I am a gambler. I never got great deals before Covid. They leaned in hard to gamblers during the restart because of kids not having vaccines available for so long. Less families. They offered my husband a free interior for our spring break cruise and he hasn’t cruised since 2019. We are putting my daughter and her friend there. I took my son last summer on a free oceanveiw offer and now have a free balcony this time. They have found a captive audience and they must feel that we lose enough to make this worthwhile? I have 3 more booked through May 2024. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, staceyglow said:

The goal of every cruise line is to sail full while maximizing total fare revenue. If it is getting close to the sail date and they have a lot of unsold cabins, they are going to lower fares. If they have very few unsold cabins, they are going to raise fares. It's as simple as that. 

Yes, simple economics. It is called the law of supply and demand.

[fuddrules]

6 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Guppies are what casinos want because more often than not they don't come home with any money.

If they comp my cruise $800 and they get $400 out of me in the casino, I'm good with that.

Edited March 23, 2023 by fuddrules

[BlerkOne]

6 hours ago, asalligo said:

I must admit I will be gambling next cruise and I have not in the past much. I am going to try to get those offers. 

I have $100 last minute offers all over, but too late for the cruises I have already booked under much higher prices. Of course, they are for inside/oceanview cabins and we normally book balcony cabins, but we can adjust. I may just try booking last minute cruises while they last.

[mz-s]

23 minutes ago, fuddrules said:

If they comp my cruise $800 and they get $400 out of me in the casino, I'm good with that.

 

I hear ya, that's where I'm at right now. I gamble with about $500-1000, same as my wife, and we cruise (inside rooms which is fine for us) for free.

 

16 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I have $100 last minute offers all over, but too late for the cruises I have already booked under much higher prices. Of course, they are for inside/oceanview cabins and we normally book balcony cabins, but we can adjust. I may just try booking last minute cruises while they last.

 

Do it if you can, my wife and I booked 2 last-minute cruises last year when we had plenty of built-up vacation time. There's nothing like booking a trip on Thursday that leaves on Monday.

[BlerkOne]

17 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Do it if you can, my wife and I booked 2 last-minute cruises last year when we had plenty of built-up vacation time. There's nothing like booking a trip on Thursday that leaves on Monday.

I'd probably be solo unless they let me book two of the inferior cabins. I wish last minute biz air to Europe (or anywhere) was $100. With airlines cutting flights, I see prices going up.

[john91498]

it does seem carnival is tightening up on free or reduced cruises. We had 2 free cruises in 2021 and 2 cruises last year. So far for 2023, we have 2 reduced cruises but no free cruises.

[foggyphils]

I booked a last minute casino cruise yesterday for this Saturday out of Galveston on the Vista with a free inside cabin promo. The cruise has been sold out for 3 weeks. My assumption is if someone cancels last minute, they throw it over to the casino promo? The code FLC is almost impossible to book online because it's usually for 1 last minute cabin. I had to get my PVP to check daily, sometimes more than once per day so she could grab the cabin once someone let it expire in their cart. She called me yesterday to tell me she had the one cabin left on hold and I had to make a decision in 15 minutes. (I was basically open to any Galveston cruise in March or beginning of April.)

[jerseyjjs]

9 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Guppies are what casinos want because more often than not they don't come home with any money.

 

12 nighter on the Venezia balcony cabin offer is $565 with $300 OBC....so, $265.   If I book without casino offer, it's $2770.  So if I lose $2,500 on the cruise, I feel like I'm breaking even.

[Pika8347]

1 hour ago, foggyphils said:

I booked a last minute casino cruise yesterday for this Saturday out of Galveston on the Vista with a free inside cabin promo. The cruise has been sold out for 3 weeks. My assumption is if someone cancels last minute, they throw it over to the casino promo? The code FLC is almost impossible to book online because it's usually for 1 last minute cabin. I had to get my PVP to check daily, sometimes more than once per day so she could grab the cabin once someone let it expire in their cart. She called me yesterday to tell me she had the one cabin left on hold and I had to make a decision in 15 minutes. (I was basically open to any Galveston cruise in March or beginning of April.)

Lucky you! I'd love to hear your casino review when you return. 

[Pika8347]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Yes, simple economics. It is called the law of supply and demand.

Exactly!