Hey Carnival! If you are going to hike up the price of cruises, why don't you....

[BlerkOne]

34 minutes ago, FastShip24 said:

Why not. We are paying for it

or Why single them out? Cruising is optional. Some things aren't.

[Lee Cruiser]

On 8/11/2023 at 5:36 PM, fyree39 said:

We’re slowly working our way toward AI cruising with EVERYTHING included: drinks, tips, dining, excursions, everything. 

I certainly hope not. For those of us who don't drink, having drinks included would just means paying a lot more for the same.  Also, not sure  excursions will ever be included as these vary  greatly.

[CruizinSusan70]

8 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

I still maintain that, on average, Carnival cruisers will drink more alcohol than Princess cruisers. That alone explains Carnival's alcohol package costing more on Princess. But we have already seen one increase in the cost of the Princess packages and I wouldn't be surprised to see more.

 

Princess Platinum and above get a 50% discount on WiFi, so there's that.

 

It seems like more people threaten to pulls tips on Princess, so that is one reason for Princess to bundle them into packages where they can't be removed.

 

As I've said before, Carnival Corp offers a number of different cruise lines, with something for everyone. Choice is good.

 

Actually there have been two increases in the price of the Plus package on Princess.  It started @ 40 a day, for about a 6 month period was 50 a day and it's now up to 60 a day.   The 50% wifi discount on Princess really only comes into play with the standard price cruiser that doesn't have the Plus or Premier package which includes unlimited wifi.

 

Will agree with you that the average Carnival cruiser will consume more alcohol than the average Princess cruiser, but have to disagree with the mindset that more people on Princess remove tips than people on Carnival.  I know there are a higher contingent of cruisers on Princess from non tipping cultures that remove them, but the lines at guest services on the last sea day on your typical Carnival cruise is full of people removing tips.  As we both know, CCL is the gateway to cruising and with this comes the extremely frugal cruiser that keeps their expenses as low as possible such as not owning a passport, never flying to their embarkation port, dragging on 12 packs of soda and possibly removing tips.

[CruizinSusan70]

8 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

 

Carnival definitely offered bundled fares earlier this year.  The promotion was open to everyone and was on their front page for a time.  These were NOT the lowest fares, which the system defaults to.  You had to scroll through the various fares to see them.  Chrome doesn’t do that but Edge and Firefox does.

 

And regarding NCL… they have free at see and non free at sea fares.  The latter are not available on every cruise, generally show up later, but are far cheaper.

But where did you get the ridiculous assumption that it was 1600-2000 for tips for the NCL package. Like I said before, I have cruised on them 8 times with the FAS promotion and have a 9th sailing booked.  The sail away rates are sometimes available early on, just like they are on my current booking, which is 21 months out.  The only time you can get the perks free sail away rate is either early on or after final payment is due.  On my sailing, it's the same exact rate, with zero savings. 

 

I will still stand by my assertion that Carnival has never bundled Cheers to everyone, since I have never personally seen it on the 9 times I've cruised on Carnival since Cheers came out in 2012 combined with my 5 current future bookings.

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

 As we both know, CCL is the gateway to cruising and with this comes the extremely frugal cruiser that keeps their expenses as low as possible such as not owning a passport, never flying to their embarkation port, dragging on 12 packs of soda and possibly removing tips.

and also caters to gamblers.

 

I would have thought we both know Carnival's target market are novice cruisers who tend to spend more. In my experience, the people I see most vocal at Guest Services removing tips tend not to be cruise virgins.

 

Carnival's price point is low, but the Fun Factor is high and has something for everyone. As cruisers mature, they may decide a different cruise line better suits whatever their needs are.

[BlerkOne]

2 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The 50% wifi discount on Princess really only comes into play with the standard price cruiser that doesn't have the Plus or Premier package which includes unlimited wifi.

 

 

It very much factors into the break even calculation and whether there is value to either package to an individual.

 

[CruizinSusan70]

14 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

As cruisers mature, they may decide a different cruise line better suits whatever their needs are.

We currently have more future cruises booked on Princess than we do on Carnival and if we like the 28 days that we have booked on the Sun, then future cruises on the Sun and Star will be more prevalent for us than the Mardi Gras or Celebration.

[Itried4498]

On 8/13/2023 at 4:53 PM, icft said:

I understand what you are saying, but at 70 I have seen this play a few times.

 

I don't think airline price discounts on some routes is indicative of anything other than normal business. Air travel is just approaching pre-covid levels and the problem is not lack of people wanting to fly, it is lack of pilots and air controllers. Minor fluctuations on some routes don't mean much in the larger scheme of things. Ask friends who have traveled recently how many had flights delayed or cancelled because the crew "timed out." Pre-covid that was something you rarely heard. Now we hear it from our friends on a regular basis. 

 

Great post!  But I will point out that earlier in summer, during their 2Q earnings calls, both Frontier and Spirit Airlines -- the nation's two largest leisure-orientated airlines -- reported that YOY ticket revenues had declined due to softening demand.  As I mentioned earlier, demand is thawing throughout the whole travel industry.  

 

Price increases since 2019 are incredible -- hotel rates in certain segments within Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida, etc. have literally doubled.  It's hard to believe that this is sustainable over the long term.  I'm in the camp that it was largely pent up demand, and now that Americans have went through their savings, prices will begin to stabilize -- and probably decline.

 

Cruise execs who droll over the inflated price of a Walt Disney World vacation as the baseline will price themselves out of the market.

[BlerkOne]

The decline in airfares is only temporary and in limited markets. International fares are still high. Life will pass you by waiting for low fares.

[tidecat]

4 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

Cruise execs who droll over the inflated price of a Walt Disney World vacation as the baseline will price themselves out of the market.

Perhaps it's a good thing that Carnival (Corporation) is winding down its shipbuilding program. Not having a bunch of extra capacity will mute any softening in prices. The ships currently under construction have bookings that already exist for well into 2024 (if not further).

 

If demand cools off too much there may be some more accelerated retirements. The window to dispose of Carnival Paradise may have closed as Paradise is scheduled for drydock this fall, but I would not be surprised to see Sunshine retired at the end of 2024 rather than go to drydock in January 2025.

[Itried4498]

22 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The decline in airfares is only temporary and in limited markets. International fares are still high. Life will pass you by waiting for low fares.

 

It's in the leisure markets, which is the relevant piece to this market.  Business and wealthy travelers are always going to travel up front between Los Angeles and New York, even if in less frequency.  But the drop in demand to Florida, etc. is concerning.  Spirit acknowledged it did not know if things would turn around, although it would operate as if they would.

 

 

 

 

[BlerkOne]

1 minute ago, Itried4498 said:

 

It's in the leisure markets, which is the relevant piece to this market.  Business and wealthy travelers are always going to travel up front between Los Angeles and New York, even if in less frequency.  But the drop in demand to Florida, etc. is concerning.  Spirit acknowledged it did not know if things would turn around, although it would operate as if they would.

 

 

I'm not surprised there is a drop in demand to Florida. The decline in prices, even for leisure, is temporary. Book this fall if you want a deal or forget it.

[sparks1093]

I haven't followed this thread very much but just looked at an 8 day cruise for 2/2025 to the ABC islands. $2300 for a balcony cabin. I don't consider that to be a hike in price at all.

[tidecat]

8 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

 

It's in the leisure markets, which is the relevant piece to this market.  Business and wealthy travelers are always going to travel up front between Los Angeles and New York, even if in less frequency.  But the drop in demand to Florida, etc. is concerning.  Spirit acknowledged it did not know if things would turn around, although it would operate as if they would.

 

 

 

 

Given the trends of the past few years, how many of those people who used to fly to Florida now live in Florida? I would suspect that number is not trivial.