evag Posted July 2 #1 Share Posted July 2 I am hoping that an insider with NCL or someone in the maritime industry answer this and people just speculating and guessing why. Many of the stops are in Baltic countries that were formerly in the Soviet Union, the original prices range from 15-24K which is why now the fare is discounted around 90%, did they really think that NCL passengers (unless Haven) pay that much?? That’s why you usually see Silversea and Oceania and that ilk going to the more unusual and exotic places. The only thing I can think of is that maybe because it’s near the war torn Ukraine, they had to pay extra on their insurance for the ship. The irony is I think that even if you purchase travel insurance it doesn’t cover itinerary changes, it’s a pity one is more likely to purchase the cruise to destinations rather than amenities and there may be a strong chance that if the war intensifies ship will change itinerary. Also why is it that the Star is usually the one that goes to the more exotic destinations but doesn’t have all the amenities that the newer ships have (I only care about the solo lounge) is it because it may be the smallest and thus more easily get into most ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulsteinvik Posted July 2 #2 Share Posted July 2 (edited) Recently the NCL Vice President mentioned in an interview on the Getaway that the few Baltic Sea cruises they are offering this year were one of the best-booked cruises, contrary to the expectations. He said that in 2022 and 2023 it was difficult to fill the ships in this area because of the war, but people are booking Baltic Sea cruises again. Therefore, he also mentioned that a larger ship will most likely be stationed in the Baltic Sea in 2026 for more departures in this area. They added recently also 2 Baltic cruises on NCL Prima for Sep/Oct 2025. Edited July 2 by Ulsteinvik 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evag Posted July 2 Author #3 Share Posted July 2 (edited) 1 hour ago, evag said: Thank you U, but that doesn’t answer why they are so much, Baltic countries in Eastern Europe living costs are much lower than Western Europe but from what you said, the only thing I can think of is that maybe because for the most part since these are new countries that seasoned cruisers have not traveled to yet, the port charges could be very high to capitalize on that desire. Maybe Dawn is chosen for exotic new ports because on destination oriented cruised people spend less time and money on board as they are interested in the country not the amenties. During the Ebola crisis, there was 30 day cruise from Sth Africa to England starting a $999 pp double occupancy, hardly anyone gambled and also when I went to Asia and Brazil not too many people when to casinos like the Caribbean ones. Edited July 2 by evag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yakcruiser Posted July 2 #4 Share Posted July 2 Supply & Demand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complawyer Posted July 2 #5 Share Posted July 2 price, like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. we did a b2b last year, southampton to copenhagen, copenhagen to stockholm, with stops in estonia. lithuania. latvia, gdansk, helsinki, etc. 3 people, 2 bedroom suite, at what i thought was a reasonable price. (dont ask, i dont remember) that being said, however what specific cruise/ date/ ship are your referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrumpyNor Posted July 3 #6 Share Posted July 3 13 hours ago, complawyer said: that being said, however what specific cruise/ date/ ship are your referring to? It is stated in the title of the thread, and that particular cruise seems to have a very "normal" Baltic cruise price. Not much more/much less than most Baltic cruises on NCL.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asawi Posted July 3 #7 Share Posted July 3 46 minutes ago, TrumpyNor said: It is stated in the title of the thread, and that particular cruise seems to have a very "normal" Baltic cruise price. Not much more/much less than most Baltic cruises on NCL.... I agree! Being Swedish I would very much like to be able to cruise relatively close to home. But northern Europe cruises in general are very expensive. And although this cruise goes to places with low living costs (Baltic) it also goes to seriously expensive places (Scandinavia). And of course it's also supply and demand! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zqvol Posted July 3 #8 Share Posted July 3 I looked up OP’s cruise based on other post and didn’t see anything unusual about the pricing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complawyer Posted July 3 #9 Share Posted July 3 i apologize for missing the question title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
European_CruiseGirl Posted July 3 #10 Share Posted July 3 (edited) It’s very basic supply and demand and for many companies dynamic pricing. The more people are interested in a particular cruise the higher the price is. There are very fee NCL cruises available to that area so they are able to price the cruises high - someone will always pay the price. A cruise ports living costs don’t matter at all in the pricing. Edited July 3 by European_CruiseGirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
complawyer Posted July 3 #11 Share Posted July 3 i would also like to point out to evag, that since the suites are sold out, the upper category cabins still available are balconies. i did mock booking, and a balcony cabin for 2 with all the goodies offered and the regular cruise insurance is approximately $8600. (slightly less however) + DSC which would total $400. total cost o f this sailing is $9,000 + whatever else you decide to purchase. obviously, if you wish to stay in an oceanview or inside cabin, the costs goes down considerably. $900 per person per cruise/$450 day. Currently, that's probably about the same price as a week in disneyworld in one of their less expensive hotels. 10 day cruise, since all food and beverages are included in that price, i dont think in total, that's a bad deal unless you plan to spurge onboard. also, (and this is a personal preference) when we took this cruise last year, we hired a cab at each port, 1/2 the cost of the ncl shore excursions, always got back to the ship in plenty of time, we always showed the driver the shore excursion notes from the ship, he took us wherever we wanted to go, stayed as long or as short as we wanted, and we were on our way again. by the way, the ports listed are all amazing, beautiful, and imo a must see. unfortunately we missed berlin, as the announcement was made that the weather precluded us docking there. oddly enough, we were blown away by gdansk. never expected a city to be that beautiful. also, we tried to bribe the driver into going to st petersberg, no such luck (LOL) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsnotjustme Posted July 4 #12 Share Posted July 4 These prices shown on NCL web site do not match your numbers of On 7/2/2024 at 4:01 PM, evag said: the original prices range from 15-24K which is why now the fare is discounted around 90%, did they really think that NCL passengers (unless Haven) pay that much?? These prices shown on NCL web site start just over $2,200 per person for an inside and do not match your numbers of 15 - 24K. I will also note these ports are not close to Ukraine - 300 miles from Gdynia to the northern tip of Ukraine. They are much closer to war torn Russia. Klaipeda is only 30 miles from the Russian Kaliningrad enclave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Middleager Posted July 4 #13 Share Posted July 4 We went to the Baltics and then Scandinavia, on a land tour last Fall. The Baltic nations were not expensive. The Scandinavian nations were very expensive. The ship has to get supplies there, and the food can get very very expensive there, way more than from Florida. As for pricing, early last year we took a South Africa cruise out of Cape Town. One year before the cruise the prices were around 10k/p, way out of our budget. I was wondering how many people may be taking those cruises. But the prices steadily came down. Eventually we booked the cruise about 6 months out at 1/6 or 1/7 the price at one year out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomewhereGirl Posted July 4 #14 Share Posted July 4 On 7/2/2024 at 1:01 PM, evag said: Also why is it that the Star is usually the one that goes to the more exotic destinations ... is it because it may be the smallest and thus more easily get into most ports. I, too, wonder if it's a size issue in some of the lesser known ports. Back in 2015 I was on the Star in the Baltics, when the Star was sailing the Copenhagen-Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallin-St Petersburg route weekly (9-day itin) through the Summer. It was definitely less expensive back then (wasn't everything?), but it wasn't a unique itinerary like the one mentioned by the OP. Either the next year or the year after that, the Getaway was sailing that route, but couldn't dock at the same port in Stockholm that we had docked on the Star. (I can't remember if the ship was possibly in the region for drydock.) If NCL thought they could fill a bigger ship that sails to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, they would. But if Getaway didn't last in the region, there must be a reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexddd Posted July 4 #15 Share Posted July 4 5 hours ago, SomewhereGirl said: I, too, wonder if it's a size issue in some of the lesser known ports. Back in 2015 I was on the Star in the Baltics, when the Star was sailing the Copenhagen-Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallin-St Petersburg route weekly (9-day itin) through the Summer. It was definitely less expensive back then (wasn't everything?), but it wasn't a unique itinerary like the one mentioned by the OP. Either the next year or the year after that, the Getaway was sailing that route, but couldn't dock at the same port in Stockholm that we had docked on the Star. (I can't remember if the ship was possibly in the region for drydock.) If NCL thought they could fill a bigger ship that sails to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, they would. But if Getaway didn't last in the region, there must be a reason. Stockholm downtown for NCL has been varying since at least 2012. Can't speak to recent years or ship size. We had Sun 2012 originally planned for downtown then moved hour bus drive away, bus extra charge. Then happened on off a few years later and people upset about change and missing the view to downtown. GA never made sense going there as they had BA doing it before. Purely from the Haven on GA has no roof reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ontheweb Posted July 4 #16 Share Posted July 4 9 hours ago, SomewhereGirl said: I, too, wonder if it's a size issue in some of the lesser known ports. Back in 2015 I was on the Star in the Baltics, when the Star was sailing the Copenhagen-Stockholm-Helsinki-Tallin-St Petersburg route weekly (9-day itin) through the Summer. It was definitely less expensive back then (wasn't everything?), but it wasn't a unique itinerary like the one mentioned by the OP. Either the next year or the year after that, the Getaway was sailing that route, but couldn't dock at the same port in Stockholm that we had docked on the Star. (I can't remember if the ship was possibly in the region for drydock.) If NCL thought they could fill a bigger ship that sails to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, they would. But if Getaway didn't last in the region, there must be a reason. We did this itinerary on a different Star, the Star Princess in 2012. It was a 10 day cruise with your ports plus Gdynia for Gdansk and Oslo. The cruise actually alternated weeks with Oslo and the port in Germany for Berlin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrumpyNor Posted July 4 #17 Share Posted July 4 4 hours ago, dexddd said: Stockholm downtown for NCL has been varying since at least 2012. Can't speak to recent years or ship size. We had Sun 2012 originally planned for downtown then moved hour bus drive away, bus extra charge. Then happened on off a few years later and people upset about change and missing the view to downtown. We did the Baltic cruise on the Sun in the summer of 2012, and we actually docked IN Stockholm, very close to the city centre and the old town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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