Price cuts??

[Travelbug 2]

I read a report a couple of days ago that HAL was cutting prices for Europe cruises by at least 30%. This does not seem to be reflected in the Hal website, has anyone any info' on this subject?

 

The report said slow bookings were the reason for the discount and other cruiselines were doing the same.

 

I priced a couple of Med' cruises and also a Baltic but there was no change to the price quoted a few weeks ago!

 

Is it possible the cruise boom has peaked? If so why are the new "bigger" mega cruise ships coming on stream?

 

Does'nt seem to jive does it?

[kryos]

I read a report a couple of days ago that HAL was cutting prices for Europe cruises by at least 30%. This does not seem to be reflected in the Hal website, has anyone any info' on this subject?

I didn't hear anything about HAL slashing prices ... but rather Carnival.

 

I do know that some prices have come down a bit even on HAL, though, as my repositioning cruise in April 2007 has already dropped by about $300 bucks.

 

I think it all depends on how well a voyage is selling. Obviously, if cabins are filling up at current pricing levels, the line doesn't have much motivation to cut the fare. Quite the contrary ... in that case, sometimes they will raise it for new bookings.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Krazy Kruizers]

None of our cruises have gone down in price.

[Randyk47]

Our 18 March 14-day on the Veendam next year hasn't budged an inch. Well.....that's not quite true.....it went up, then down, then up again and has come down a bit but is still more than we booked for this past March.

[lvtotrvl1]

I think the med cruises are selling very well...most are booked for the summer, so I don't think the prices will comes down. The Caribbean cruises are suffering, so I think we will see some lowering of prices for them. Especially the fall cruises that are usually harder to fill...after last years hurricanes, people are leary of booking...

[Tricia724]

For the last six months I've been watching the prices on the fall repo cruises doing west-east Panama Canal. We were originally booked on Westerdam, then switched to Veendam. None of the four ships (Veendam, Westerdam, Volendam, and Zuiderdam) have dropped one centavo in price since we booked....although there are tons of cabins available. I expect the big firesale will happen after final payment....for "new bookings" only, no doubt.

 

Likewise, our February, 2007 Caribbean trip hasn't moved either, and it's a noticeable price increase since last year. Frankly, I'm not looking for any changes for us....either our cruises don't go down or if they do, our cabin categories don't go down. But at least they won't go up!

[jhannah]

I think Europe generally holds up well in sales. Our July 20-30 Mediterranean sailing still had all inside categories listed as available the other day, and HAL had the sailing on their Flash promotion for $1,400. I don't believe this was anywhere near 30% off the former price.

[bruceh4]

I listened last week to the Carnival Corporation conference call after they announced earnings. By the way that is not Carnival cruise line it is the corporation which owns everybody, HAL included. In the call they said that bookings were down in the Caribbean for the up coming 3rd and 4th quarter. When asked about other areas of the world they commented that everything was going well, this included Europe. They further said that pricing actions would be taken in the Caribbean to attract more bookings. Based on what I heard anybody who says price's are being slashed by 30% in Europe are just wishful thinking!:eek:

[dreampets2]

The stories were right as HAL have cut Baltic cruise prices such as "Amsterdam" down to $100 per day for an outside stateroom for example on the June 2 round trip out of Copenhagen.

 

We booked this cruise in January & paid $170 per day which is bad luck as no adjustment is now available, unlike certain other lines who adjust by credit or upgrade even after full payment has been made.

 

So for all you disbelievers, please check out the popular internet broker sites & you will get a great deal provided you want to go to the Baltic (St Petersburg etc) & provided you have some flexibility of travel dates.

 

Cheers!