Gas Prices/Cruising

[travelforlife]

Is anyone concerned about the potential increase in cruise prices due to the cost of gas? We love to cruise, but can't imagine that we will be able to cruise as much as we do with the increase in airfare and cruise prices.

[cb at sea]

Since they've already implemented a fuel "surcharge", the prices (in effect) HAVE gone up!

It's not so much the price of the cruise that would stop me, as it is the hassle of flying to your port! If you can drive to a port for a cruise that goes where you want to, that's great! But (IMO) the best cruises go out of Fl, and that necessitates a flight, for me. Right now, that's just too much trouble, what with the baggage restrictions, delays, etc...

[pmfan]

I'm not so much concerned with the increase of cruise prices as I am with the increase of gas, food, housing, etc. With the increase of all these things it cuts into my cruising $$$. :(

[Captain Jake]

I'm not so much concerned with the increase of cruise prices as I am with the increase of gas, food, housing, etc. With the increase of all these things it cuts into my cruising $$$. :(

 

Plus add to it the panic that is being put into the heads of Americans by Candidates trying to get elected.If they get people into a frenzy panic and sell their stocks,quit spending money it works to their advantage----BT

[cruiseblue]

It has made me think twice about cruising these days. Flight cost, fuel supplement, baggage extra cost, these all add up and affordability maybe an issue. My March 2009 cruise is in question at this point, I am still within the full refund period.

[Pumpkin_va]

i live in bewteen 2 ports (both only 2 hrs south and 2 hrs north of us ) and i dont fly ( chicken lol ) so its going to effect us slighlty maybe :D

[eagleatr]

Well we usually have cruised 2-3 time a year and now we are struggling with just one in september on the Liberty. The price of airfare just like everything else keeps getting higher and higher plus all the additional bag fee's they add on plus the hassel factor makes us really nervouse. Seems like everything just not cruising but any type of vaction. Were just thankful at this point that we can afford to live day by day. It does make me wonder though how the cruise lines are doing and if there seeing any drops.

[silentbob007]

I probably wouldn't have booked my December cruise if I hadn't have found cheap airfare AND realized it might be the last time I would be able to.

[honeywell]

Since I live in south Florida, this isn't going to affect my cruising per se, but it is sure going to have an impact on my trips to Las Vegas!!:eek: :eek:

[flagger]

The nice thing to have is the benefit of history. I can remember waaaaaaaaay back to the crash of '87. Everything got the most dire right before it bottomed out. Then it began to build back up.

 

Now we are in another correction and it will go up again. For those youngins, right now is probably the best time to be investing as everything is getting cheaper and cheaper.

[cruiserbryce]

we will consider the price of each cruise before we book but really the cost of fuel hasnt changed our plans to cruise...what we will do though, to save some $ is rather than another Caribbean cruise next March we are going to Mexico so we dont need to pay for airfare...

[pcur]

I booked a bunch of cruises way in advance. I will cancel if the regular budget goes up too much, but at least I have them at today's prices, and can get the difference if the prices go down (promowave, senior or resident discount).

 

Meanwhile, get a credit card that works with your frequent flyer account. We use Southwest, use the card for EVERYTHING, and usually get at least one free roundtrip each per year. I can't think of any departure ports that Southwest doesn't fly to, or at least very close to.

 

Also, look for repositioning cruises, since the air might be cheaper, and the Transatlantics are always bargains.

[moncrystal]

In the past, DW and I didn't really figure gas in to our cruise trips. Now we HAVE to add this in to our cruise. All that extra gas money has also made us take a shorter cruise than we would like. We are not complaining, though. We know that we blessed that we are able to do this, as there are many who are struggling to make it day to day.

[sicsinohio]

We have canceled one cruise for March 2009, and may have to cut back in general until DS is out of college. He gets quite a bit of financial aid, but we are helping him out quite a bit, also. At this point, we are seriously thinking of driving to Port Canaveral for our 2010 cruise...flying is getting to be expensive and not worth the hassle. That way, we can take what we want and there are enough of us going that we can carpool/caravan and share the driving.

 

In the future, we make look more carefully at cruises out of New Jersey, Virginia and Baltimore as they are only a day's drive away.

[pluto,]

Since they've already implemented a fuel "surcharge", the prices (in effect) HAVE gone up!

It's not so much the price of the cruise that would stop me, as it is the hassle of flying to your port! If you can drive to a port for a cruise that goes where you want to, that's great! But (IMO) the best cruises go out of Fl, and that necessitates a flight, for me. Right now, that's just too much trouble, what with the baggage restrictions, delays, etc...

 

the best cruises go out of florida? please tell me what you are looking at?

i just see a bunch of short 7 night cruises. the best ships cruise out of florida yes. the best cruises?

[dclark]

the best cruises go out of florida? please tell me what you are looking at?

i just see a bunch of short 7 night cruises. the best ships cruise out of florida yes. the best cruises?

 

FL cruises can go to all parts of the carribean. For me on the west coast, they only go to Mexico, which, when compared to the carib, is the pits.

I have a deposit (done before the last hike in fuel) on CCL legend for next June , just in case fuel should drop (yeah, I know, fat chance!).

If not, then I'll consider driving down to socal to do the Mariner just because the ship by itself can be more fun than the ports of mexico!

[G'ma]

Plus add to it the panic that is being put into the heads of Americans by Candidates trying to get elected.If they get people into a frenzy panic and sell their stocks,quit spending money it works to their advantage----BT

 

I believe the only people who "get into a frenzy panic" are those who don't think for themselves, read a book or newspaper or any periodicals. Some Americans are simply too sheep-like and ready to believe anything they hear on TV.

 

The rest of us tighten our belts, save where we can, drive more sensibly, walk more, use our bikes more, stop buying "convenience" foods at the market and start cooking from scratch again. We lay off the "fast-food" places, park our RV's and SUV's and gas-eating highway assault vehicles and drive the little coupe. We learn to adjust our habits, spending and otherwise, to accommodate a rough patch.

 

For those not old enough to recall, this same thing happened in the 1970's.....high gas prices, no gas at some places, alternating days of the week where you could even buy gas, high prices, recession, inflating prices..... and, we listened to the same rhetoric about "weaning ourselves off of oil", electric cars, doom and collapse. We really didn't learn anything from that at all...and here we are 30 years later.

 

No need to panic....This too will pass. Meanwhile, I think most Americans will find a way to get away a few days...some will cruise, some will go camping, some may drive a few states away and visit relatives.

[booze brothers]

I like leaving from FLA even though we can drive to NJ. We only have two cruises planned where we need to fly and the rest are withing driving distance. Leaving from FLA the weather is nice the minute you get on the ship (well most of the time) whereas fall and winters in NJ, it's cold!

[twocc's]

We live in Mo., so can only drive to Texas to cruise for a reasonable amount of money. Last year we did 9 cruises, this year we will have 8 booked ( 4 more to complete) next year 1. Yes gas plays a big part in cruising.

 

Charles and Connie

[Lynnees]

We're in the middle of Canada. That means we are a 2 day drive to a port (except NY which is about 8 - 10 hours) DH and I have been having this discussion for awhile now. We have 2 cruises booked - one with air already in place. The second one - we are taking a group so we will bite the bullett and do what we have to (or use ff miles).

 

After that we will probably not cruise again until we retire from our regular day jobs so that we can take the time necessary to drive to ports. (Now that won't be that long - hopefully no more than 1.5 to 2 years). However, we usually cruise 2 - 3 times a year so that means we will there will be that many less $$ being spent by us. Multiply that by a lot of people and there will be issues.

 

I am a p/t TA and what we are seeing right now is lots of bookings for 2009 and 2010 but 2008 has slowed down to a crawl. I believe people are hedging their bets by booking for next year and the year after to see what is going to happen. The biggest plus of cruising is being able to book now pay later.

[Davey Interweb]

The nice thing to have is the benefit of history. I can remember waaaaaaaaay back to the crash of '87. Everything got the most dire right before it bottomed out. Then it began to build back up.

 

Now we are in another correction and it will go up again. For those youngins, right now is probably the best time to be investing as everything is getting cheaper and cheaper.

 

The situation this time around is much different, though. For one, crude prices were a mere ~$17/bbl in '87. Crude prices (and supply) have an impact on practically everything. A staggering amount of wealth of being transferred overseas, particularly to the Middle East and China. Collectively we've never learned from the past and so I'm not sure why some would invoke history now.

 

Things are fairly dire now, but I don't think we've seen anything yet. I'm not being pessimistic for the sake of being a pessimist; I think this will be good for us on the long run.

[travelforlife]

We have 4 kids, so we will be focusing on cruises out of Florida so we can at least drive. There are so many amazing cruises to take, but we can't afford to fly all of us long distances.

[flagger]

The situation this time around is much different, though. For one, crude prices were a mere ~$17/bbl in '87. Crude prices (and supply) have an impact on practically everything. A staggering amount of wealth of being transferred overseas, particularly to the Middle East and China. Collectively we've never learned from the past and so I'm not sure why some would invoke history now.

 

Things are fairly dire now, but I don't think we've seen anything yet. I'm not being pessimistic for the sake of being a pessimist; I think this will be good for us on the long run.

No they are not fairly dire. I invoke history because unemployment and inflation are nowhere near the levels they were during the last stock market crash nor are they close to the level reached in the 70's for either metric.

[RetireeWannabee]

I'm way more concerned about the cap on our annual salary increases of 4%. Inflation is higher than that now and going higher.

[jaxon41]

No they are not fairly dire. I invoke history because unemployment and inflation are nowhere near the levels they were during the last stock market crash nor are they close to the level reached in the 70's for either metric.

 

I have to agree with Davey. I lived through the 70's, and this is not the same. Inflation is on the move, and the recent figures have been played, as you might know. Unemployment is lower than back then, but the quality of job is nowhere near the same -- back then, our steel mill was a chuggin' along with good paying jobs -- all gone, now. Peak oil has occurred, and there is no end in sight for the misery that creates. I heard today that Northeasterners were paying 3.10 last year for their heating oil, and this winter it looks to be nearly 5. Last year, on my various blogs, the NE'erners were really screaming about that. You can choose not to drive, assuming most of your necessities are near, which they aren't in rural areas, but not heat?

 

I don't see things turning around in my lifetime. I am really ticked about it as we are near retirement and planned on more travel, but I am thankful that we are as well off as we are. I do see some good possibilities in all this, like the reemergence of the rust belt as shipping becomes cost prohibitive.

 

To the point at hand, changing travel/cruising plans because of the cost of oil. Our family cruise for 2009 has 5 bookings -- in 2007, we had 10, and since we all must fly from the mid-west, we could lose a couple of those. My husband's tickets to Greece, which I purchased in Sept. 2007 for June 2008 -- were 75% more expensive than in 2006. Flights to FL are running double what I am used to paying, now around $400. Until this year, I was taking 2 cruises a year -- that will be cut to one, or one every other year.

 

As much as the money, is the absolute nightmare of flying -- book a flight, have it changed several times even before you board, if you board on time with all the bumping, then sit on a tarmac for hours, and have them nickle and dime you. I am just really sick of it. It has impacted my desire to even travel.