Since the downturn in the economy

[Solstice23]

I just hope all the Cruisers getting these deals don't expect the same level of food and such as before!!!

 

You get what you pay for.

[FinelyCruising]

Has the menu changed again since the downturn? I didn't hear it had.

[Solstice23]

Its not just the Menu, Its the quality and level of materials used. Hopefully people are not to demanding and expect to much when they are paying 350.00 for a window room for a 7 night caribbean cruise LOL

[Muushka]

Interline rates. ;) As I stated, I will be going for last min deals AND interline rates..

 

These rates are exclusive to persons or family members of persons working in specific sectors of the travel industry such as airlines, providers of Computer Reservations Systems to the cruise lines, etc. As such, they are not available to the general public.

 

We check for age, military discount, state discount and interline rates (my wife qualifies) then make our plans but never book just for a rate, we book for cabin selection.

 

It will be a brutal year for the industry but let's not forget that they are working from a position of strength....the two majors have had a string of profitable years.

 

It could be the "hangers-on" that might have a hard time.

 

But then again, there are elected officials that like to cruise so a bailout package is not beyond expectations....

 

I wish when people posted great deals they also post that they are not available to most people.:(

 

Makes me want to go apply for a job at the airline!;)

[Denny01]

I already posted, but thought I'd add one more thing we are doing to reduce our cruise costs due to the Economy:

we'd looked at maybe going to one of the upgraded cruise lines such as Oceania or Azamara. There were cruises with 'free flights' and so on that sounded enticing, BUT we've dropped those ideas for a while. May try later when my 201k moves back to a 401k or at least a 301k.

 

Although you don't loose anything until you cash it in, I'll wait it out for now.

 

Denny

[snausman]

May try later when my 201k moves back to a 401k or at least a 301k.

 

Although you don't loose anything until you cash it in, I'll wait it out for now.

 

Denny

 

lol, good one!

 

Laura

[Toothfairy754]

I heard a news blurp on the radio tonight that since the downturn in the economy that the cruise industry has flourished. Unfortunately I didn't catch the rest of the story but did hear more people are cruising.

[Cruise Junky]

I heard a news blurp on the radio tonight that since the downturn in the economy that the cruise industry has flourished. Unfortunately I didn't catch the rest of the story but did hear more people are cruising.

 

Carnival just reported having it's best booking week ever because of their super savings offer. Not sure if all cruiselines are doing so well.

[lysolqn]

Since most cruises are booked months in advance and final payment is due at least two months prior to the sail date, I have to wonder if the current encouraging numbers in the cruise industry are simply the result of cruises that were planned for, budgeted and paid for based on the economy of six, eight months or a year ago. While the economy was definitely weakening back then, it certainly hadn't deteriorated to the point it's at today with the market in free-fall, businesses closing and unemployment escalating. (Sheeesh...I just depressed myself!) I suspect once this buffer period passes, the numbers being touted today may change dramatically. The ridiculously low cruise fares/free air add-ons/onboard credit/reduced deposits/assorted extras we've being seeing recently wouldn't be offered if the cruise lines were confident they were going to remain recession-proof and could otherwise fill their ships.

[ccletzgo]

Its not just the Menu, Its the quality and level of materials used. Hopefully people are not to demanding and expect to much when they are paying 350.00 for a window room for a 7 night caribbean cruise LOL

 

I'm sure the promenade rooms on the BRAND new Independence of the Seas are of the same quality as the rest of the rooms. Quality, meaning materials used. :rolleyes: There is a amazing low rate for balcony's as well.

 

quote=toronto25:"I just hope all the Cruisers getting these deals don't expect the same level of food and such as before!!!

 

You get what you pay for."

 

So you are saying, the cruiser that got the "deal" should not expect the same level of food as the cruiser on the same sailing that paid a higher price? :rolleyes:

 

You are missing the point. The deal is because its last min. There are not alot of people that can cruise within 1 to 2 weeks of booking..BUT please don't say these people should expect LESS, as far as quality of menu or materials used in the construction of there cabin. Thats absurd..

 

 

Sorry about the confusion with posting an interline rate. The OP was asking are your plans changing. YES... In the past, I always book ahead to get the cabin I want and end up paying dearly for it. In the future, yes, changing. Booking last min deals, Interline.... or otherwise. I can still get a suite, last min., for a killer rate. It just wont be an aft suite.... or....it could be if I were really, really get lucky..;)

 

 

I also will add that in the past it was usually cost affective to book air well in advance. That is not necessarily so any more either...

[ghstudio]

Carnival just reported having it's best booking week ever because of their super savings offer. Not sure if all cruiselines are doing so well.

 

"we're losing money on each person, but we're making it up in volume"

 

They have to fill the ships somehow because if the ships don't sail, there are still tremendous fixed costs....and they have to pay the crews. So it's better to get something for a cabin then leave it empty. I'm not sure that bookings mean all that much...If anything, I'd rather see the number of people who reached the "pay in full" date and actually did.....

[crystalline]

Interline Rates are for employees of ailines, and I think, perhaps hotel employees. You can't get them yourself.

 

On the other hand... If you know someone in those businesses, sharing a cabin would work great. Sometimes they can book more than 1 cabin at the rate they get.

[Cruise Junky]

"we're losing money on each person, but we're making it up in volume"

 

They have to fill the ships somehow because if the ships don't sail, there are still tremendous fixed costs....and they have to pay the crews. So it's better to get something for a cabin then leave it empty. I'm not sure that bookings mean all that much...If anything, I'd rather see the number of people who reached the "pay in full" date and actually did.....

 

But Carnival's deposits during this special were non-refundable. They're getting your money whether you sail or not.

[Davey Interweb]

Interline Rates are for employees of ailines, and I think, perhaps hotel employees. You can't get them yourself.

 

On the other hand... If you know someone in those businesses, sharing a cabin would work great. Sometimes they can book more than 1 cabin at the rate they get.

 

Airline employees (active or retired), their spouses or dependent children are eligible, along with employees of courier companies such as DHL or FedEx. No, hotel employees are not eligible to receive interline rates. Anyone sharing a cabin with an eligible party does enjoy the same fare, though.

 

I don't work for an airline, but thanks to IATA Resolution 788 I'm able to book interline fares myself. It's easy; you basically need only to be sleeping with someone who does work for one :D

[ccletzgo]

Airline employees (active or retired), their spouses or dependent children are eligible, along with employees of courier companies such as DHL or FedEx. No, hotel employees are not eligible to receive interline rates. Anyone sharing a cabin with an eligible party does enjoy the same fare, though.

 

I don't work for an airline, but thanks to IATA Resolution 788 I'm able to book interline fares myself. It's easy; you basically need only to be sleeping with someone who does work for one :D

 

Airline employees (active or retired), their spouses or dependent children are eligible,

 

Also, there parents. (my son is an airline pilot);)

[woodofpine]

I've not cruised for a while due to other leisure travel, but I've not booked any cruises this year in part because of the economy. I figure I've little to gain in early booking so caution rules. I'm still travelling abroad but with concern.

I read an extremely informative article online from the Village Voice; it is opinionated but unbiased (? - yep that's possible) and it is extremely disheartening in its detail. It is titled "Obama and the Bucket Shop Men"; give it a google. It has little to do with Obama or presidential politics per se and a lot to do with hedge fund trading of credit swap deriviatives, AIG, and TARP.

The article's conclusion, in a nutshell, is that the size of unfunded (or reserved) credit swap wagering (that was basically illegal until 2000 after which it exploded in volume) is such that it dwarfs the world's equity markets, the capital base of the world banking and finance system, and consequently governments' ability to bail it out or fix it. What occured was basically an unprecedented fraud that dwarfs all prior financial frauds. The global credit crisis can not be resolved (absent radical initiatives) because all credit (ie. bail out money) is being sucked into the replicated liability of these instruments. Mind blowing.

So, if I booked a cruise with a line like Oceana (whose boss took its precedessor Renaissance bankrupt) I'd do it only with a credit card - that can presumably be charged back. It will be darned interesting to see how the big lines' big ships (built or unbuilt) can be bank financed when the global banking industry is essentially bankrupt...

[cvaty]

[quote name='Davey Interweb'] It's easy; you basically need only to be sleeping with someone who [I]does[/I] work for one :D[/QUOTE]
The manger?!
It would not be that easy if the personnel is about 80% female.
You have only 20% where to choose from.

[FinelyCruising]

[quote name='woodofpine']I've not cruised for a while due to other leisure travel, but I've not booked any cruises this year in part because of the economy. I figure I've little to gain in early booking so caution rules. I'm still travelling abroad but with concern.

I read an extremely informative article online from the Village Voice; it is opinionated but unbiased (? - yep that's possible) and it is extremely disheartening in its detail. It is titled "Obama and the Bucket Shop Men"; give it a google. It has little to do with Obama or presidential politics per se and a lot to do with hedge fund trading of credit swap deriviatives, AIG, and TARP.

The article's conclusion, in a nutshell, is that the size of unfunded (or reserved) credit swap wagering (that was basically illegal until 2000 after which it exploded in volume) is such that it dwarfs the world's equity markets, the capital base of the world banking and finance system, and consequently governments' ability to bail it out or fix it. What occured was basically an unprecedented fraud that dwarfs all prior financial frauds. The global credit crisis can not be resolved (absent radical initiatives) because all credit (ie. bail out money) is being sucked into the replicated liability of these instruments. Mind blowing.

So, if I booked a cruise with a line like Oceana (whose boss took its precedessor Renaissance bankrupt) I'd do it only with a credit card - that can presumably be charged back. It will be darned interesting to see how the big lines' big ships (built or unbuilt) can be bank financed when the global banking industry is essentially bankrupt...[/QUOTE]

wood... I'll check it out over the weekend. It sounds like heady stuff.

[Veronica13]

[quote name='toronto25']I just hope all the Cruisers getting these deals don't expect the same level of food and such as before!!!

You get what you pay for.[/quote]

AMEN!! I only hope Oceania and/or Regent are as good as Celeb used to be. I know they can't be worse.

[woodofpine]

[quote name='FinelyCruising']wood... I'll check it out over the weekend. It sounds like heady stuff.[/QUOTE]

Give it a look. It's an interesting article. Seemingly, these 'insurance policies' (default swaps and their derivatives) were loss reserve/unfunded (unlike typical insurance regulated products) and after 2000 were allowed to be replicated as speculative investment instruments (wagers) in what became an international betting parlor (hedge fund) frenzy. This aspect was what was considered illegal gambling under pre-2000 bucket shop laws. (Buffett and Felix Rohatyn warned of the consequences) This unregulated 'dark market' exploded 10 fold between 2000-2007 to almost $600 trillion (whereas total aggregate world equities were about $60 trillion end '07 and less than $40 trillion today).

AIG's department chief (Joseph Cassano, a Mike Milken/Drexel Burnham alum of the '80's) sold much of this paper from London and was personally compensated nearly $300M since 2000. Although fired in Feb. '08 when his office erased nearly $12B in AIG capital in 3 months, he remains a consultant to AIG @ $1M per mo.! :(:eek::(

It is these incestuous trading desks that are now demanding settlement on their replicated unfunded wagers (they bet that the mortgage originators down the hall or across the street were fudging it and the loans would default). It's the tax payor that is being asked to pay them off and pick up the pieces. The author's point is that $700B or even a trillion won't even scratch the surface since it's not the underlying mortgage defualt that must be paid, its a betting parlor of replication. It is the massive holding of this intrinsically worthless paper ('toxic') that created an illusion of institutional capital 3-5 years ago when it was really just a charade big enough to make Bernie Madoff grin in admiration.

Yes - I suspect that the cruise industry has been funded by a lot of this sort of false value so it'll be interesting to see what happens in terms of ship building etc. over the next year or two.

At least CNN's Cambell Brown this AM has gotten on board to ask the right question. Why is the Fed (always managed by Wall St. alum) refusing to disclose who's gotten the >$160B pumped into AIG since August ($30B this week)...

[jeska00]

[quote name='J-man']We took our last cruise at the beginning of 2008. A month later, I was laid off. I just got a new job (and I feel extremely fortunate for that), and we've booked a cruise for April to celebrate. It was a rough year.[/quote]


Kudos to you!!!! :)

*********************************

I've been looking around at lot of cruise deals and I've seen them anywhere from $399 - $649, I didn't read into them much but they still catch your eye. Most of them are the cruises near the US-ish, too bad because for my first cruise I dubbed myself a 12 night Med cruise kind of girl :cool:

[2sunny]

[quote name='drfun48']Are your cruise plans changing?
Fewer planned,shorter itineraries ,fewer days,fewer shore excursions,less casino,shopping,or dare I say,drinking...although this may have the opposite effect.
How about leaving mom and/or the kids at home?[/quote]

Well it has not been the downturn in the economy that has caused us to cut back on our cruising. Only one this year! Unfortunately, where DH works they only have one type of leave, and if you use it for sick leave you don't get it for vacation (I think that this S***S). Well he has had the misfortune of having a blood clot in his leg and he has already been out of work 5 weeks and has 2 more to go. Because he is the Manager of the Inpatient and Outpatient Psychiatric Unit at our local hospital system his job requires him to be in excellent physical condition. So there is no such thing as going back to work on "light duty". He has used all of his leave, the week of leave a co-worker "gave" him, 1 week of leave without pay and he is now on disability. SO, now there is no vacation time for us to cruise! A REAL bummer!

We have our eye on a 2 week cruise that leaves on New Year's Eve and if he gets back to work when we think, he should be able to earn enough time by them for us to take that cruise. Meanwhile, I am retired and can go anytime!

I hope the rest of you get to go soon and often!!!

[FinelyCruising]

[quote name='woodofpine']Give it a look. It's an interesting article. Seemingly, these 'insurance policies' (default swaps and their derivatives) were loss reserve/unfunded (unlike typical insurance regulated products) and after 2000 were allowed to be replicated as speculative investment instruments (wagers) in what became an international betting parlor (hedge fund) frenzy. This aspect was what was considered illegal gambling under pre-2000 bucket shop laws. (Buffett and Felix Rohatyn warned of the consequences) This unregulated 'dark market' exploded 10 fold between 2000-2007 to almost $600 trillion (whereas total aggregate world equities were about $60 trillion end '07 and less than $40 trillion today).

AIG's department chief (Joseph Cassano, a Mike Milken/Drexel Burnham alum of the '80's) sold much of this paper from London and was personally compensated nearly $300M since 2000. Although fired in Feb. '08 when his office erased nearly $12B in AIG capital in 3 months, he remains a consultant to AIG @ $1M per mo.! :(:eek::(

It is these incestuous trading desks that are now demanding settlement on their replicated unfunded wagers (they bet that the mortgage originators down the hall or across the street were fudging it and the loans would default). It's the tax payor that is being asked to pay them off and pick up the pieces. The author's point is that $700B or even a trillion won't even scratch the surface since it's not the underlying mortgage defualt that must be paid, its a betting parlor of replication. It is the massive holding of this intrinsically worthless paper ('toxic') that created an illusion of institutional capital 3-5 years ago when it was really just a charade big enough to make Bernie Madoff grin in admiration.

Yes - I suspect that the cruise industry has been funded by a lot of this sort of false value so it'll be interesting to see what happens in terms of ship building etc. over the next year or two.

At least CNN's Cambell Brown this AM has gotten on board to ask the right question. Why is the Fed (always managed by Wall St. alum) refusing to disclose who's gotten the >$160B pumped into AIG since August ($30B this week)...[/QUOTE]

Well, this may be the cliff notes version.:D No one has ever said what AIG has done with the money. Just taking Life Insurance as a single item, specifically whole life policies, who protects those policies. Taking it down to a you and me level, it seems that AIG or anyone else can be issuing statements of value, and its just numbers on paper, the money is/was probably not there.

[woodofpine]

[quote name='FinelyCruising']Well, this may be the cliff notes version.:D No one has ever said what AIG has done with the money. Just taking Life Insurance as a single item, specifically whole life policies, who protects those policies. Taking it down to a you and me level, it seems that AIG or anyone else can be issuing statements of value, and its just numbers on paper, the money is/was probably not there.[/QUOTE]

I'm not even sure Cliff would like what I did...:D You have a point, but... The departments of insurance in the states where life insurance policies are sold typically have oversight responsibilities, including capitalization - reserve requirements concerning policies sold in those state, as well as audit authority.

Interesting to note (according to the article involved) that AIG had its financial products office in London, thereby helping avoid oversight, and that AIG disclosed the fact that these potential liabilities were unfunded by balance sheet footnote (but the potential size was undisclosed, possibly unknown).

The underlying point is that going to the track and putting $2 down on a 50:1 longshot doesn't mean you should claim a $100 asset on your books. Even if you (briefly) create an after market for your betting stub of say $10-20, it might not be a good idea to claim that the $2 ticket = $10-20 of 'capital' - ESPECIALLY if the track (AIG, Lehman, etc.) compensates its booth-tellers and the track owners with ALL the money in the cash register BEFORE the starting bell!

Alchemy indeed... the lead will turn to gold!

[cruiserbryce]

A little. The gaps between cruises is longer. We are still taking 3 this year. But we are cruising inside rather than balcony and watching our spending while not on vacation.