Western vs. Eastern rates

[MissKIA]

Why does it seem that the rates for Western Itineraries are almost always higher than Eastern? Our Western cruise is almost $300 less than the Eastern with the same ship and the same amount of ports and sea days. And it seems to be like that across the board. Just curious! :confused:

[nytonowhere]

Why does it seem that the rates for Western Itineraries are almost always higher than Eastern? Our Western cruise is almost $300 less than the Eastern with the same ship and the same amount of ports and sea days. And it seems to be like that across the board. Just curious! :confused:

 

Your saying western is always higher than eastern, then saying your western cruise is less than the same eastern itinerary. im confused. did you mean to say why is eastern always higher than western?

[runner15km]

Higher fees and taxes from the Eastern Caribbean nations maybe. I would also think fuel is in the equation.

[williamson_ja]

Our Western is far cheaper than the Eastern on the same ship similar dates. I've already done an Eastern cruise, so I wanted something different this time. I guess after I visit the Western ports, I'll be able to tell if it's worth a little more money to go Eastern. :)

[firefly333]

More demand. Most of us have done Western to death, so any so called Eastern Ports are a welcome change. They can charge more for Eastern, because people will pay more to get a change from cozumel and Jamaica and Caymans.

 

Not a thing to do with taxes to me as someone above suggested.

 

Demand drives prices.

[MissKIA]

Your saying western is always higher than eastern, then saying your western cruise is less than the same eastern itinerary. im confused. did you mean to say why is eastern always higher than western?

 

Oops! You're right. lol I meant that the Eastern seems to always be higher. The first part of my statement was backwards.

[mprince4]

I think fuel may have something to do with it as the person above suggested - it seems like a lot of western ports are much closer to a variety of non-Florida/closer to the mainland ports (i.e. New Orleans, Galveston, etc) whereas to get to any eastern ports you pretty much have to go out of Miami/FLL (maybe because they are farther away...)

[firefly333]

I think fuel may have something to do with it as the person above suggested - it seems like a lot of western ports are much closer to a variety of non-Florida/closer to the mainland ports (i.e. New Orleans, Galveston, etc) whereas to get to any eastern ports you pretty much have to go out of Miami/FLL (maybe because they are farther away...)

 

So, if there are more western ports that can be reached from carnival cruise ships than eastern .... how would this be fuel related and not demand related?

 

Conquest eastern does two bahamas stops and key west and yet it costs more than western. I dont see a big difference in length of the cruise, I just think eastern costs more because people like me are tired of cozumel every single cruise out of the gulf.

[mprince4]

So, if there are more western ports that can be reached from carnival cruise ships than eastern .... how would this be fuel related and not demand related?

 

Conquest eastern does two bahamas stops and key west and yet it costs more than western. I dont see a big difference in length of the cruise, I just think eastern costs more because people like me are tired of cozumel every single cruise out of the gulf.

 

Well, I was just making the point that you can't really reach any Eastern ports from many of the more inland ports, like New Orleans and Galveston, on a 7 day cruise... so they have to be further away than Western ports to some degree, or else they would logically have Eastern cruises going out of those ports. But actually, that contributes to the demand issue, because there are less Eastern cruises overall because they generally have to go out of the lower Florida ports.

 

So I think we're working in circles here - the demand results because there is less availability for Eastern cruises, especially for shorter cruises and from more inland ports, which then contributes to more people going on Western cruises and getting bored with Western ports, which then results in people wanting to go to Eastern ports....

[firefly333]

Carnival has a so called Eastern itinerary from both Galveston and New Orleans right?? (v done it myself) Not that I care about Nassau and Freeport much, but they call it eastern, 3 ports same as western.

 

Thats why Im confused .. maybe we are agreeing, you cant reach further ports eastern, so there are less true eastern cruises overall to choose from.

 

Iv done the B2B conquest out of Galveston eastern first week then western the following week and eastern was more $$$.

[mprince4]

Carnival has a so called Eastern itinerary from both Galveston and New Orleans right?? (v done it myself) Not that I care about Nassau and Freeport much, but they call it eastern, 3 ports same as western.

 

Thats why Im confused .. maybe we are agreeing, you cant reach further ports eastern, so there are less true eastern cruises overall to choose from.

 

Iv done the B2B conquest out of Galveston eastern first week then western the following week and eastern was more $$$.

 

Yeah, I don't really consider a Bahamas cruise with one "Eastern" port thrown in to be a real Eastern cruise. The only real Eastern cruises I've found are 7 nighters from Miami/FLL or longer cruises from other ports like NJ. My first cruise was an Eastern cruise, oddly enough, because it sounded more fun to me than some of the Western ones. Since then I've been on all Western/Bahamas cruises. I think we are agreeing that there are less true Eastern cruises, and I think the price difference is based on more demand and less supply. But I also think that Eastern ports are a lot further away than Western ports, on average, so some of the price difference could be based on fuel - but who knows. They are pretty far away. It looks like it would be a lot shorter to pop down to Key West and Mexico and around to Belize and Honduras than to go all the way out to Puerto Rico and down from there. Although I see that a new trend is to go to Nassau, then St. Thomas and maybe St. Maarten - on my Eastern cruise in 2003 we went to San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. But the stops in San Juan were always weird times back then, like 2-10 pm... I assume b/c it took so long to get there.

[cruisinthemed]

Our B2B cruise on the Glory has the Eastern about $200.00 more pp, than the Western...same room. The Western has gone down (We booked ES), but the Eastern keeps increasing...Doesn't look good for a price droip:( We are just happy to be able to do a B2B:)

[rh3]

More fuel, more sea days (every passenger eating on board) and offset marginally by more beverages being sold. Stay away from Eastern because 3 sea days are at least one too many. When you throw in a 6-hour stop in Nassau (Dream) really only two ports of call. (Not a Nassau fan.)

[MissKIA]

More fuel, more sea days (every passenger eating on board) and offset marginally by more beverages being sold. Stay away from Eastern because 3 sea days are at least one too many. When you throw in a 6-hour stop in Nassau (Dream) really only two ports of call. (Not a Nassau fan.)

 

Our Eastern has the exact same amount of Sea days and ports as our Western.

 

Eastern - Half Moon Cay, San Juan, St. Thomas and Grand Turk (2 sea days)

Western - Cozumel, Belize Isla Roatan and Grand Cayman. (2 Sea days)

 

Eastern - $300 more