Price Hikes! Holy Hot Dogs!

[-The-True-North-]

Hmm. Weird

[Tralfaz1138]

3 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

Did you use an old MNVV? That was  bought prior to the end of PIF?

 

If so, it's been reported that is the only way to get PIF

Oof.  I bought my MNVV a day or two after PIF ended.  Guess I should have jumped on buying that sooner (but after hearing about PIF ending I didn't think when I bought my MNVV would matter).

[-The-True-North-]

1 hour ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

Oof.  I bought my MNVV a day or two after PIF ended.  Guess I should have jumped on buying that sooner (but after hearing about PIF ending I didn't think when I bought my MNVV would matter).

It's not guaranteed. This just happened to one person, so it's speculation right now till more people confirm.

[Wildcatllamas]

I'm booked on the England to Iceland in July of 2025. When I booked I thought the price was high at $6800 for a Sea Terrace with a MNVV. 

 

Today a friend asked me what the price was for a Sea Terrace on that cruise. It is now $8030. So I looked at one on NCL, with their current promo, that is close to that one and a balcony there with my 10% military would be just about $5000. 

 

It's going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out over the next year.

[jon81uk]

9 minutes ago, Wildcatllamas said:

I'm booked on the England to Iceland in July of 2025. When I booked I thought the price was high at $6800 for a Sea Terrace with a MNVV. 

 

Today a friend asked me what the price was for a Sea Terrace on that cruise. It is now $8030. So I looked at one on NCL, with their current promo, that is close to that one and a balcony there with my 10% military would be just about $5000. 

 

It's going to be interesting to see how this all shakes out over the next year.

Does that NCL fare include tips, WiFi and soda? I get some of the current pricing is crazy but could add $600-1000 just getting the equivalent of Virgin’s standard package. 

[Wildcatllamas]

1 minute ago, jon81uk said:

Does that NCL fare include tips, WiFi and soda? I get some of the current pricing is crazy but could add $600-1000 just getting the equivalent of Virgin’s standard package. 

Yes it did. I always like to get as close a comparison as I can. 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, jon81uk said:

Does that NCL fare include tips, WiFi and soda? I get some of the current pricing is crazy but could add $600-1000 just getting the equivalent of Virgin’s standard package. 

NCL's "free at sea" deal is about as close to VV as one can find with a package.  It is limited wifi but essentially unlimited drink including juice and sodas, tips, some specialty dining.  You can add unlimited wifi for $30 per night of cruise.  I'm not advocating one or the other, just doing a price comparison.

[-The-True-North-]

Holland America also has a bunch of similar itineraries with have it all.

[5by5]

Now that Virgin pricing has gone ballistic, is there a best strategy for locking in the best price? 

 

Is it just to book early and keep checking for specials and any price drops before your cruise? Then rebook?

 

Thanks!

 

Tony

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, 5by5 said:

Now that Virgin pricing has gone ballistic, is there a best strategy for locking in the best price? 

 

Is it just to book early and keep checking for specials and any price drops before your cruise? Then rebook?

 

Thanks!

 

Tony

My agent periodically posts on FB and send notifications to clients of any "lower than the current norm" of sailings available,  Also, anyone who has already booked at the lower rates and then can't cruise for whatever reason can "sell" their reservation to someone else with all the perks intact except DBE.  Again, I've seen these advertised on FB and also thru my TA when it is one of her clients who can't cruise,

As to random searches on the web, VV comes out with new "sale" prices every couple of months, but the deals rarely vary much in total.  It is more a matter of how they do the sale--one month it is 70% off second person, the next month it might be 35% off all cruises.  One time we were able to do a cancel and rebook with a $400 savings and another time turn a "bottle of bubbly" into a $130 cruise fare savings, but never anything HUGE.

Edited January 25 by cantgetin

[-The-True-North-]

3 hours ago, 5by5 said:

Now that Virgin pricing has gone ballistic, is there a best strategy for locking in the best price? 

 

Is it just to book early and keep checking for specials and any price drops before your cruise? Then rebook?

 

Thanks!

 

Tony

Best strategy is to compare with other and possibly better cruiselines.

 

Look at HAL, Princess, & Celebrity.

 

VV is no longer the BEST value 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, -The-True-North- said:

 

VV is no longer the BEST value 

I agree--VV is a good product, but not necessarily the best value.  On the other hand, most lines have greatly increased prices recently.

[-The-True-North-]

4 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

I agree--VV is a good product, but not necessarily the best value.  On the other hand, most lines have greatly increased prices recently.

Very true.

 

Look at a few sites to get a good gauge of prices. Last minute deals on vacations 2 go or cruise plum.

 

There seems to be more frustration with VV than there was a year ago too. 

[cantgetin]

10 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

There seems to be more frustration with VV than there was a year ago too. 

I think that a year ago, many people were still in the world of "they are a new cruise line with some kinks to be worked out" and the prices were great.  At least those that I chose were about half of a similar cruise on another line with the best "apples to apples" comparison I could make.  The price factor overcame a lot of the frustration.

Now we are at a spot where  some of the problems still remain--IT problems and customer service prior to the cruise, to name a couple of big ones.  OK, shoreside sailor services has improved, but isn't great,  And prices have gone thru the roof.  I understand that they were initially underpriced and things couldn't stay where they were, but if I'm going to be paying top dollar, I expect everything to be top tier.

[rj59]

I've been faithfully following cruise prices for almost a decade, since as a price-conscious inside-cabin solo passenger I need to in order to find deal that allow me to cruise more often. Things are just so popular now that demand is very high on all cruise lines. I used to be able to count on dirt-cheap last-minute NCL fares until now, and discounts on Princess and HAL to Mexico, but now almost all Mexico trips on all lines are getting sold out. You not only have a generation perfect storm of the elderly and boomers having had travel curtailed and a lot of wealth and bucket lists to burn through, but also families (god, look at Disney prices, both land and sea), young people new to cruising and getting drawn in by social media and Instagrammable ships and experiences, and then China and Japan allowing their tens of millions of tourists to go abroad again, also with lots of money to spend. 

 

Again, all the framing of sales is meaningless, like 70% off second passenger or free drinks all the tricks they use to tempt you. The only thing that matter is cost per passenger, and cruiseplum is the best at searching, not only for listing hot deals, but also their search showing total cabin price and cabin price per day, including taxes/fees. 

 

For NCL, they are masters of sucking up extra money, whether it's go-karts, V/R games (games on VV are free), selling future deposits, and hiding hidden costs. So the free wifi is something like 75 minutes, and the free drinks package includes $21/day automatic gratuity added on. Also, VV has free soda machines, and NCL will only pour out part of a can of soda--they won't give you a full can. They're also mostly sailing at over 100% capacity, which makes for a miserable experience, really bored/uncaring/brusque crew members, hours-long lines at the front desk, hours-long lines to disembark, and on my last sailing embarkation started at 11:30, but rooms weren't ready until 4:30, and weren't on any day of the cruise before then--more NCL cutbacks. In the dining room there was a table of 20 or so young boys left by their parents to scream, fight, throw things, and I couldn't hear my waiter or anyone at my table. NCL also has a ship-within-a-ship, so the Haven much of the front of the ship--I was physically pushed away from an elevator when boarding one time, a crew member saying it was for Haven guests only. That said, they have a really good brew pub (leaderboard posted for who had had the most beers on a cruise), and it was pretty fun to have breakfast on deck in St. Petersburg sitting next to Johnny Cash and Elvis, or eating next to Ringo on another cruise. 

[benjaminnicholas]

Frankly, and I have enjoyed 6 cruises with VV, I don't see their current pricing as anywhere near what you get when you're on-board.  There's no correlation.

 

I can no longer drink the kool-aid when they price themselves like this.

 

At these prices, you can get into much higher end ships with MUCH better service.

 

While it's not an apples to apples comparison, I'm doing Viking Expedition in late April when I had originally thought about doing another VV cruise.  While I'm paying more with Viking- but not much more, honestly- I'm getting a lot more that I wouldn't have gotten cruising on VV.

 

We shall see how this all shakes down for VV.

[Lustate]

I must have said this a thousand times by now lol

It's still cheaper on VV than you can get on land for the same services. The friendliness, openness and generally crew, who all want to help rather than being paid to smile make the place my ideal go-to holiday. 

[-The-True-North-]

2 hours ago, Lustate said:

I must have said this a thousand times by now lol

It's still cheaper on VV than you can get on land for the same services. The friendliness, openness and generally crew, who all want to help rather than being paid to smile make the place my ideal go-to holiday.

HARD DISAGREE.

 

Not at the new prices. We age going back to land based vacations, and they are cheaper.

[_tacocat_]

3 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

Not at the new prices. We age going back to land based vacations, and they are cheaper.

samesies - VV's caribbean ports kind of blow to begin with, so for warm weather vacations, we're just planning land based vacations where we actually want to go.  maybe we'd consider another voyage in europe, but getting from LA to barcelona or athens is a giant pain too!

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, _tacocat_ said:

  maybe we'd consider another voyage in europe, but getting from LA to barcelona or athens is a giant pain too!

And adds a lot of cost as well as hassle.  On our next cruise, our plane fare was more than the cruise....and I'm glad I got it months ago because it is unbelievable now.

[-The-True-North-]

2 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

And adds a lot of cost as well as hassle.  On our next cruise, our plane fare was more than the cruise....and I'm glad I got it months ago because it is unbelievable now.

As far as it goes for Canadians, European cruises are the better bargain.

 

Flights to Miami are $450, while Flights to Barcelona are $800.

 

Itineraries and ports in Europe are also so much better.

 

Caribbean cruises out of Miami are hot garbage and near pointless to us. 1 week at an all inclusive at a 5 star resort is cheaper since airfare to Miami is so much. 

[soccersharon]

7 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

As far as it goes for Canadians, European cruises are the better bargain.

 

Flights to Miami are $450, while Flights to Barcelona are $800.

 

Itineraries and ports in Europe are also so much better.

 

Caribbean cruises out of Miami are hot garbage and near pointless to us. 1 week at an all inclusive at a 5 star resort is cheaper since airfare to Miami is so much. 

Agreed!  Been on so many Caribbean cruises, that Europe is the better way to go  

[CineGraphic]

8 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

Caribbean cruises out of Miami are hot garbage and near pointless to us.

 

We've been to the islands many times, but we'll book them when the price is right and enjoy the empty ship while everyone's on shore. The ship, crew, and warm weather are the attractions for us.

[benjaminnicholas]

13 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

samesies - VV's caribbean ports kind of blow to begin with, so for warm weather vacations, we're just planning land based vacations where we actually want to go.  maybe we'd consider another voyage in europe, but getting from LA to barcelona or athens is a giant pain too!

 

THIS.  Their Caribbean ports of call are dull, dull, dull.  

 

Their Euro ships have much more interesting itens, albeit not so much so that I'd choose them to sail the Med.