Sticker Shock

[deliver42]

I just did a mock booking on the celebrity Edge Alaska cruise for Sept,2024.With the all In on a regular Infinity veranda the price came to $5600.00, then another $950.00 for a refundable deposit. Celebrity has gone beserk. I love Celebrity, but not at these prices. They are $2000.00 higher than Princess AND Holland America for the same package, and I get a real balcony. I've been on Princess, and like their product. Haven't tried HAL yet. I realize  the Edge is a newer ship, but so is the Discovery Princess. In fact, it's newer than the Edge. There was no Celebrity alternative from Seattle in that time frame. All the itineraries were similar, except for Glacier Bay that Celebrity can't enter.

[2chiefs]

2 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

I just did a mock booking on the celebrity Edge Alaska cruise for Sept,2024.With the all In on a regular Infinity veranda the price came to $5600.00, then another $950.00 for a refundable deposit. Celebrity has gone beserk. I love Celebrity, but not at these prices. They are $2000.00 higher than Princess AND Holland America for the same package, and I get a real balcony. I've been on Princess, and like their product. Haven't tried HAL yet. I realize  the Edge is a newer ship, but so is the Discovery Princess. In fact, it's newer than the Edge. There was no Celebrity alternative from Seattle in that time frame. All the itineraries were similar, except for Glacier Bay that Celebrity can't enter.

Sticker shock usually occurs when the ship in question is getting close to being sold out. Seems that there is a logarithm in the reservation system that jacks the price up as the ship gets booked close to full. I wouldn't rule out an entire cruise line based on the pricing of a single cruise. You are smart to shop around.

[deliver42]

I would never eliminate X based on this cruise because i love the line, but it now makes more sense than ever to shop around.

[terrydtx]

Our Sky suite on the Edge in January today is $2000pp more than what we booked in February 2022.  In fact, Aqua Class cabins are now more than our SS costs. Celebrity has priced us out of any future bookings. We can now book a longer cruise on Oceania with similar itinerary for less than a SS on Celebrity.

[Luvcrusn]

6 minutes ago, 2chiefs said:

Sticker shock usually occurs when the ship in question is getting close to being sold out. Seems that there is a logarithm in the reservation system that jacks the price up as the ship gets booked close to full. I wouldn't rule out an entire cruise line based on the pricing of a single cruise. You are smart to shop around.

They have gone berserk. I just did a mock booking on a cruise we have booked to check cabin  availability. I was looking for a particular cabin we like. Clicking on a cabin in our same category with all the same additions (AI, refundable deposit, etc.) the cruise priced out more than double the fare we booked back in January. There is still a very large inventory of all categories of cabins from inside to top suites showing as available. 

[Spif Barwunkel]

You also have the Summit and the Solstice available at that time for less money. If you have to do an E-Class ship with other choices available, pay the price and don't grumble.

[2chiefs]

17 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

They have gone berserk. I just did a mock booking on a cruise we have booked to check cabin  availability. I was looking for a particular cabin we like. Clicking on a cabin in our same category with all the same additions (AI, refundable deposit, etc.) the cruise priced out more than double the fare we booked back in January. There is still a very large inventory of all categories of cabins from inside to top suites showing as available. 

So much for my logarithm theory. 🙂 

We are booked on the Beyond for this coming Christmas departing Dec 22 which we booked well over a year ago. Before it was completely sold out, our cabin class had doubled in price. It doesn't even show up on the website anymore so I assume it's completely sold out. 

[jelayne]

12 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

They have gone berserk. I just did a mock booking on a cruise we have booked to check cabin  availability. I was looking for a particular cabin we like. Clicking on a cabin in our same category with all the same additions (AI, refundable deposit, etc.) the cruise priced out more than double the fare we booked back in January. There is still a very large inventory of all categories of cabins from inside to top suites showing as available. 

If they don’t sell at the higher price they will eventually drop the price.  We have 2 cruises booked where we booked the day booking opened.  

Booking #1 filled quickly and prices for Sky Suites escalated about 50% and held for a long time ( periods of sold out) now after final payment and cancellations a Suite Guarantee is $600 less than we paid, but we got the suite we wanted.

 

Booking #2 When booking opened the price was quite high but we anticipated prices would come down so we went ahead and booked.   We have taken advantage of 2 price drops on our suite category totaling 13%.  Recently the price increased $500 above the low but there hasn’t been a noticeable uptick in booking so hoping for another price drop before final payment.

[karmamule]

In my experience the price differences between older ships and newer ships within a cruise line have grown more extreme in the last few years. We booked a suite on Icon of the Seas for next year and it was more expensive than any Celebrity cruise we've booked. I looked at older RCL ships for the same sort of length/itinerary and they would have been WAY WAY less. 

 

itinerary can still be a big factor too of course: the prices we were seeing on Summit were significantly higher than what we saw on Apex in the Caribbean because our Summit cruise was one of a handful out of Boston vs the well-served Caribbean itineraries with lots of competition.

[2chiefs]

5 minutes ago, karmamule said:

In my experience the price differences between older ships and newer ships within a cruise line have grown more extreme in the last few years. We booked a suite on Icon of the Seas for next year and it was more expensive than any Celebrity cruise we've booked. I looked at older RCL ships for the same sort of length/itinerary and they would have been WAY WAY less. 

 

itinerary can still be a big factor too of course: the prices we were seeing on Summit were significantly higher than what we saw on Apex in the Caribbean because our Summit cruise was one of a handful out of Boston vs the well-served Caribbean itineraries with lots of competition.

True!!

[Luvcrusn]

16 minutes ago, jelayne said:

If they don’t sell at the higher price they will eventually drop the price.  We have 2 cruises booked where we booked the day booking opened.  

Booking #1 filled quickly and prices for Sky Suites escalated about 50% and held for a long time ( periods of sold out) now after final payment and cancellations a Suite Guarantee is $600 less than we paid, but we got the suite we wanted.

 

Booking #2 When booking opened the price was quite high but we anticipated prices would come down so we went ahead and booked.   We have taken advantage of 2 price drops on our suite category totaling 13%.  Recently the price increased $500 above the low but there hasn’t been a noticeable uptick in booking so hoping for another price drop before final payment.

Prices on the cruise I'm talking about have increased over 200% on an S-class ship in 7 months with a great deal of availability in all categories still unbooked. That just doesn't make sense. I didn't do the math, but looked at all cabins available across the board and if I had to guess, I'd say more than 50% of the ship is unbooked.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Luvcrusn

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, deliver42 said:

I just did a mock booking on the celebrity Edge Alaska cruise for Sept,2024.With the all In on a regular Infinity veranda the price came to $5600.00, then another $950.00 for a refundable deposit. Celebrity has gone beserk. I love Celebrity, but not at these prices. They are $2000.00 higher than Princess AND Holland America for the same package, and I get a real balcony. I've been on Princess, and like their product. Haven't tried HAL yet. I realize  the Edge is a newer ship, but so is the Discovery Princess. In fact, it's newer than the Edge. There was no Celebrity alternative from Seattle in that time frame. All the itineraries were similar, except for Glacier Bay that Celebrity can't enter.

Let us know which sailing you will ultimately book...

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

Our sailing on The Reflection in a few weeks is 35% more than what we booked All In plus Specialty Dining packages...

 

Oh well... happy we did it when we did...

 

bon voyage

[Lastdance]

My upcoming cruise on December 1 is almost $7,000 more for a sky suite on Beyond.  We booked it when it was released.

[Tyler414]

I booked a 10 day 2024 Caribbean on Beyond in June 2022 SV, premium drinks/Wi-Fi and $800 OBC for just shy of $6000.  My parents decided they want to join and it’s over $7000 basic drinks/Wi-Fi and no OBC for a less desirable cabin and location.  Book early…

[islabahia]

Celebrity needs to rethink their pricing.  If it weren’t for the fact that we had $$$ worth of FCC’s we would have cancelled our ABC cruise next December.  This will be our last X cruise.  Oceania and Regent are next on our list.

[tfred]

There are hundreds of thousand potential cruise customers that are now land based resort users. Those people are spending upwards of $1k/night for a very similar experience to cruising and those locations are full. Price out any Marriott resort in Florida or the Caribbean with food and booze. They are not used to nor expecting a butler, unlimited prime rib and lobster tail, unlimited entrees or free drinks from 5-7 pm   
 

X is going to align land resort experience and pricing with cruise ship. They think they have a comparable product that they don’t have to give away or load up on a bunch of unexpected goodies for new customers. 
 

moan all you want about private butlers and prime rib as X will spend any money on attracting new high spending customers who are out there. 

[tfred]

11 minutes ago, islabahia said:

Celebrity needs to rethink their pricing.  If it weren’t for the fact that we had $$$ worth of FCC’s we would have cancelled our ABC cruise next December.  This will be our last X cruise.  Oceania and Regent are next on our list.

We have looked them too. An issue for some is that the embarkation ports are not “easy” to get to.   It is very easy to fly to Miami or Fort Lauderdale for a one week vacation on a cruise . Not so easy to get to Barbados or Saint Martin without an extra stop or two. 

[terrydtx]

25 minutes ago, islabahia said:

Celebrity needs to rethink their pricing.  If it weren’t for the fact that we had $$$ worth of FCC’s we would have cancelled our ABC cruise next December.  This will be our last X cruise.  Oceania and Regent are next on our list.

We booked our 2025 South America Oceania Marina cruise in 2022 and today our same cabin is the same price when we booked last year in November. When we booked, we got the House wine and beer package included. Last month Oceania added a $500pp shore excursion credit to our cruise, so in reality our cruise cost dropped $1000 total. We booked the Marina for 18 nights in a Concierge class cabin for $200pp less than the 14 nights Celebrity Equinox cruise in a SS with a similar itinerary. We are done with Celebrity after our 2 Australia cruises in January, they have priced us out of their Sky Suites.

Edited August 11, 2023 by terrydtx

[TeaBag]

We have usually booked AQ, but lately it is getting too expensive.  I have looked at cruises where it is twice the price of a balcony cabin.  What is going on?

[terrydtx]

Just now, TeaBag said:

We have usually booked AQ, but lately it is getting too expensive.  I have looked at cruises where it is twice the price of a balcony cabin.  What is going on?

Back before Covid we could book an Aqua Class cabin for a couple hundred more than a Concierge cabin, which was worth the cost with access to Blu.

[Luvcrusn]

5 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

We have usually booked AQ, but lately it is getting too expensive.  I have looked at cruises where it is twice the price of a balcony cabin.  What is going on?

It's even more ridiculous. Our AQ cabin is now booking for 3x the price we paid with identical add ons and less OBC. Still tons of available cabins in all categories. We'll no longer be looking only at X when booking future cruises. There's lots of other options for vacations.

[Luvcrusn]

7 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Back before Covid we could book an Aqua Class cabin for a couple hundred more than a Concierge cabin, which was worth the cost with access to Blu.

Exactly. It is now far less expensive to book a balcony and specialty dining for every night of the cruise than to book Aqua. Makes NO sense.🙄

[Orator]

Prices would go down if ample people wouldn't book cruises.  Celebrity cares only if someone pay the prices, simply supply-demand.  It's business not loyalty!

Edited August 11, 2023 by Orator

[Jeremiah1212]

40 minutes ago, islabahia said:

Celebrity needs to rethink their pricing. 

 

They are rethinking pricing. And it's going to increase. Read that last 10Q filing. There is very little reason to lower prices right now. They will continue to press harder until bookings weaken.