stormgrey11 Posted May 2, 2023 #1 Share Posted May 2, 2023 Curious, I am looking at a few 7-Day Western Caribbean itineraries in March of 2025 out of New Orleans and Port Canaveral and see that the Liberty is more expensive than the Mardi Gras in balconies. I always thought tat the Mardi Gras would cost more being a much newer ship with more bells and whistles ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mz-s Posted May 3, 2023 #2 Share Posted May 3, 2023 Canaveral has much more competition than NOLA. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dolphinsfan246 Posted May 3, 2023 #3 Share Posted May 3, 2023 Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted May 3, 2023 #4 Share Posted May 3, 2023 Lots of dem and at Port Canaveral Cruise Ships Sailing at 110 Percent Occupancy from Port Canaveral https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/04/cruise-ships-sailing-at-110-percent-occupancy-from-port-canaveral/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Saint Greg Posted May 3, 2023 #5 Share Posted May 3, 2023 And depending on the time of year, Carnival is the only game in town. NCL is just there in the winter. I believe that's the case with RCL as well. Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groundloop Posted May 3, 2023 #6 Share Posted May 3, 2023 46 minutes ago, Saint Greg said: Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans. Yep, I totally agree. I'm not a big fan of the Conquest Class, I liked the cruises out of New Orleans better when they were on Dream. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Cruiser Posted May 3, 2023 #7 Share Posted May 3, 2023 That's strange. I have compared balcony prices on several cruises for next September and Mardi Gras and Celebration are considerably higher than several other ships including: Horizon, Magic, Vista and others. I can't do Sunday to Sunday, so haven't check Liberty, but have done Valor and it's much cheaper (per day) than Mardi Gras as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted May 3, 2023 #8 Share Posted May 3, 2023 2 hours ago, Saint Greg said: And depending on the time of year, Carnival is the only game in town. NCL is just there in the winter. I believe that's the case with RCL as well. Hopefully one of these days Carnival will figure out they need to put a bigger ship back in New Orleans. Disney will be sometimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Saint Greg Posted May 3, 2023 #9 Share Posted May 3, 2023 37 minutes ago, BlerkOne said: Disney will be sometimes I think that’s about every other winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KmomChicago Posted May 3, 2023 #10 Share Posted May 3, 2023 (edited) 8 hours ago, dolphinsfan246 said: Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell. This right here. I was looking at summer cruises from Tampa and even though the ships are older and smaller due to navigation limits, the high season prices are a bit shocking. Obviously they’re filling up. We are all ruled by the US school schedules. One week can see drastic price differences, particularly when there’s limited capacity at that specific port. Obviously if you have the spring break sailing on the better ship, I would grab it as prices could easily rise from here on, and most ships typically sell out every year during that timeframe. Edited May 3, 2023 by KmomChicago 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare angelsfort Posted May 4, 2023 #11 Share Posted May 4, 2023 the Liberty is changing home ports in December 2024 - she's going to start sailing out of New Orleans. so that takes the competition in Port Canaveral out of the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruizinSusan70 Posted May 5, 2023 #12 Share Posted May 5, 2023 13 hours ago, angelsfort said: the Liberty is changing home ports in December 2024 - she's going to start sailing out of New Orleans. so that takes the competition in Port Canaveral out of the picture. The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC. In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises. Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS. In PC, there are 5 options. RCI Wonder OTS, Mardi Gras & NCL Epic all doing 7 day cruises and the Vista and RCI Adventure OTS doing 6/8's. Plus there are more 3/4 day options out of PC as well, so it does come down to supply and demand as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly333 Posted May 5, 2023 #13 Share Posted May 5, 2023 On 5/2/2023 at 8:21 PM, BlerkOne said: Lots of dem and at Port Canaveral Cruise Ships Sailing at 110 Percent Occupancy from Port Canaveral https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/04/cruise-ships-sailing-at-110-percent-occupancy-from-port-canaveral/ Port Canaveral passed miami last year as the busiest cruise port in the world... ..and imo prices show it. https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/02/port-canaveral-now-the-world-s-busiest-cruise-port 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted May 5, 2023 #14 Share Posted May 5, 2023 11 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said: The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC. In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises. Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS. Liberty will still be a relatively new ship for New Orleans and in demand. The other two are overpriced anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruizinSusan70 Posted May 5, 2023 #15 Share Posted May 5, 2023 11 minutes ago, BlerkOne said: Liberty will still be a relatively new ship for New Orleans and in demand. The other two are overpriced anyway. Overpriced is debatable. For the slight increase in price compared to the Liberty, you do get the "perks" from NCL. But then, you need to sail from NOLA, which like Galveston is primarily a drive to port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted May 5, 2023 #16 Share Posted May 5, 2023 40 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said: Overpriced is debatable. For the slight increase in price compared to the Liberty, you do get the "perks" from NCL. But then, you need to sail from NOLA, which like Galveston is primarily a drive to port. Unlike Galveston or Mobile, NOLA has a local International airport. Perks from NCL are never free and come with mandatory charges. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare KmomChicago Posted May 5, 2023 #17 Share Posted May 5, 2023 3 hours ago, firefly333 said: Port Canaveral passed miami last year as the busiest cruise port in the world... ..and imo prices show it. https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/02/port-canaveral-now-the-world-s-busiest-cruise-port WOW. I was on Big Red Boat back when Canaveral was barely a cruise port, like AT ALL. Having sailed out of the newer port area on both Oasis and Mardi Gras I really have no idea where the old Premier terminal was even located; no resemblance to what little I remember. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruizinSusan70 Posted May 5, 2023 #18 Share Posted May 5, 2023 2 hours ago, BlerkOne said: Unlike Galveston or Mobile, NOLA has a local International airport. Perks from NCL are never free and come with mandatory charges. Whether NOLA has an international airport or not, they have in the past, are currently and will be in the future a secondary embarkation port which is skewed towards people that drive there. When you cruise on NCL you can sometimes get perks free fares and even if you do have to pay a higher fare that includes the perks, you are not forced to pay the gratuities if you wish to decline the perk for their drinks package. If you actually cruised on them in the past, which I will infer you never have, you would have known this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted May 6, 2023 #19 Share Posted May 6, 2023 1 hour ago, CruizinSusan70 said: Whether NOLA has an international airport or not, they have in the past, are currently and will be in the future a secondary embarkation port which is skewed towards people that drive there. When you cruise on NCL you can sometimes get perks free fares and even if you do have to pay a higher fare that includes the perks, you are not forced to pay the gratuities if you wish to decline the perk for their drinks package. If you actually cruised on them in the past, which I will infer you never have, you would have known this. Another swing and a miss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare angelsfort Posted June 1, 2023 #20 Share Posted June 1, 2023 On 5/5/2023 at 4:32 AM, CruizinSusan70 said: The OP was comparing the Liberty out of NOLA vs the MG out of PC. In NOLA for that time frame, there are 3 options for 7 day cruises. Carnival Liberty, NCL Getaway and RCI Brilliance OTS. In PC, there are 5 options. RCI Wonder OTS, Mardi Gras & NCL Epic all doing 7 day cruises and the Vista and RCI Adventure OTS doing 6/8's. Plus there are more 3/4 day options out of PC as well, so it does come down to supply and demand as usual. my point was in direct response to the comment from dolphinsfan246 where they said "Supply and demand. Mardi Gras has way more rooms to fill, and a lot more competition in Port Canaveral. Liberty doesn’t have much competition in the 7 day market from NOLA, and less rooms to fill. I’ve learned over the years you can generally get better deals on the bigger ships because they have more rooms to sell." was adding to it- that the Liberty can charge more because they no longer have the same competition in NOLA that they had in Port Canaveral. Mardi Gras will still have that competition and therefor needs to lower their prices a bit to compete with the other ships / lines that sail out of PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mysticbluebmw Posted June 2, 2023 #21 Share Posted June 2, 2023 Dates maybe, if they’re not the exact same week. Also could be ports, if not the exact same ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie482 Posted July 18, 2023 #22 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Also, Mardi Gras (not the ship, the event) is March 4 in 2025. Every school aged kid is out of school the week of Mardi Gras, so cruises out of New Orleans are always SUPER expensive around that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
near the beach Posted August 17 #23 Share Posted August 17 Newer ships are usually more expensive than the older ships. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare starstruck05 Posted August 17 #24 Share Posted August 17 1 hour ago, near the beach said: Newer ships are usually more expensive than the older ships. Just to note this post is over a year old but new ships aren't necessarily more expensive than older ships. For a rough example. I'm paying 3k for the Spirit to Alaska next year where I paid just past 2k for the Mardi Gras this past New Years. Both are prime cruises. However Spirit has way less competition so can charge more. Living on the Liberty soon and paid about $1500. It's too many factors involved to really compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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