Without booking early saver, is Carnival really the lowest price?

[happy cruzer]

So since alot of folks claim that Carnival is the lowest price provider (sometimes to justify them offering less), I did a quick look at some of the prices and what I saw was lowest price consistently is indeed Early Saver bookings. But if you book with the same conditions, many other lines were the same or lower than Carnival.

 

So what have others experienced? Sometimes Early Saver works and for many it is too restrictive.

[Out to sea!]

To each his own. Sometimes I can even find cruises on other lines that are lower than ES but if I book with Carnival, I always use ES. No reason for me to do otherwise as the only reason I won't go on a cruise I've booked is because I'm underground and then it wouldn't matter very much!

[firefly333]

I find your assumption that ES is always the lowest and that people continually ASSUME Carnival is always the lowest to be a wrong assumption.. so all your logic after that is in error.

 

Why do people assume this is ALWAYS true.. no cruiseline is ALWAYS the cheapest unless you just are terrible at looking for deals.

 

Im solo .. so because so many other lines charge so much less for solo cruisers .. so right off that bat, people who say Carnival is always cheaper .. its so obviously wrong. You cant make assumptions about what others are booking ..

 

then there are deals on dates on other lines when they are not selling same as Carnival does... why do cheerleaders assume carnival is always the cheapest? le grrr.

 

Drives me nuts when people act like ES is always the cheapest of any cruiseline

[Jessica1988]

I also want to know the answer to this question, thanks for your reply.

[zqvol]

So since alot of folks claim that Carnival is the lowest price provider (sometimes to justify them offering less), I did a quick look at some of the prices and what I saw was lowest price consistently is indeed Early Saver bookings. But if you book with the same conditions, many other lines were the same or lower than Carnival.

 

So what have others experienced? Sometimes Early Saver works and for many it is too restrictive.

 

 

Sometimes CCL is less expensive, other times I get better deals for the same cruise on other lines and I never use ES.

[Tapi]

I've never used ES and still, what I've paid for my Carnival cruises has been considerably less than what I've paid on other cruise lines (in the most part).

 

There are still times when I may find a good deal on another cruise line (for example, our NCL Alaska cruise is pricing out substantially cheaper than CCL), but I've found this to be an exception, not the norm.

[Herfnerd]

For whatever reason, when we book a cruise, Carnival tends to be the lowest for the itineraries we want on the dates we want at the time we are looking.

 

If we find another cruise line at a lower fare, we'll book with them but to this point, we haven't

 

We like what we get with Carnival but bottom line, if the price is right elsewhere, its not like we are married to them.....

[maryann2]

 

Im solo .. so because so many other lines charge so much less for solo cruisers .. so right off that bat, people who say Carnival is always cheaper .. its so obviously wrong. You cant make assumptions about what others are booking ..

 

I agree Carnival is more expensive for solos.

I have just booked a 7 day Baltic cruise on Royal for next month- solo supplement only 125% Total $709 including taxes.

Even Carnival Pack and Go rates are still 200% for solos.

[happy cruzer]

Thanks for the responces. What I was trying to ask was answered. I really have seen so many people on the boards saw Carnival is the least expensive to book so you can't expect so much from them that I wondered if that was true since I hadn't seen that to be the case especially if you are not booking early saver.

 

So I think based on the responses and my research, Carnival needs to rely on it's product as well as a competitive price.

 

Thanks to eveyone for replying.

[shof515]

for cruises out of ny, i find carnival has similar prices to NCL. The only difference is just a few hundred dollars

[sail2sea]

I have been saying the same thing. At first glance Carnival prices look cheaper because Carnival publish up ES prices. But if you dig a little deeper you will see there is more to the story. If you want to avoid the ES restrictions you have to choose another rate which is usually higher.

 

Royal on the other hand publish their regular prices. But their loyalty program give a lot of discounts. So many can get better prices than the published rate. I don't use ES and I am Emerald with Royal. For me Carnival is usually still cheaper but not always.

 

Fortunately I don't have to shop solely by price. The next Carnival cruise lined up for me is the 8 day Southern Caribbean on the new Breeze. Not exactly cheap.

 

I used to cruise solo a lot. Luckily back than Carnival had 150% solo rate for 1A's.

[gomba13]

I normally find CCL to be the cheapest. I would like to go back on NCL, but with their limited summer travel to the the islands, I seem to always choose CCL. Also, RCCL seems to always be at least double the fair.

[Unknotted]

Carnival won't let travel agents undersell each other...the price is the price, period. They do give other perks but still, the basic price remains the same.

 

Other cruise lines (maybe not all, but the ones I have sailed with) the travel agents can give you great bargains, but it cuts into their commission. I recently booked a 7 day with NCL and paid over $100/pp less than an equivalent CCL cruise. So no, I an not convinced that Carnival is always the cheapest...not if you really look for bargains.

[glrounds]

Most definitely when Carnival only charged me 135-150% of the DO rate. Now, that I have to calculate for TWO, even though often still a bargain, there are some lines that are making Carnival look not so dominant anymore. :rolleyes:

 

[Charleyann]

I was initially booked on carnival Dream for Christmas, but switched over to freedom of the Seas. It was $100 cheaper! Lost $50 for cancelling carnival but saved $50 with RCCL ....

 

Not always the case...

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've cruised Carnival a few times and liked it just fine. But, for us, it is seldom the cheapest price. We get much better prices on Princess and Celebrity, ususally.

 

We do wait until 2-3 months out and actively shop the sales. Also, we get great past passenger rates on those lines.

 

I think it is a misconception that Carnival is always the 'cheapest'.

[PROCRUISE]

So since alot of folks claim that Carnival is the lowest price provider (sometimes to justify them offering less), I did a quick look at some of the prices and what I saw was lowest price consistently is indeed Early Saver bookings. But if you book with the same conditions, many other lines were the same or lower than Carnival.

 

So what have others experienced? Sometimes Early Saver works and for many it is too restrictive.

 

Whenever we're ready to book a cruise, we use: out TA, our own skills at looking for best prices and other on line booking services. Not only are we interested in a fair cruise package price, but also OBC or other incentives.We also explore past guest rates, military rates, senior citizen rates as well as the ED rate. We never just assume that the ES rate is alway best. :)

[mondello]

for cruises out of ny, i find carnival has similar prices to NCL. The only difference is just a few hundred dollars

Just a few hundred, eh? That might cover your parking tab in NYC.

[golfadj]

Generally Carnival is the cheapest but not always in my experience.

 

For example next Feb going on our first NCL as it was cheaper than Carnival.

[kingoftheicedragons]

I would never assume that Carnival is going to be the cheapest. I know before Carnival started using the ES rates, it would depend on what the itinerary was. Carnival would have the cheapest, or one of the cheapest rates for the Caribbean, but not necessarily so for other cruises. To be honest, I haven't really researched cruise line prices for probably at least four years, though. I like what I get out of Carnival and worry about the value of what the other lines offer.

[NCTribeFan]

Well, my friend who is going on Leg 2 of my November B2B just said that maybe we should sail out of Miami.

 

So I spent hours yesterday researching cruises.

 

Every single cruise that I found that sounded interesting (we can't do a long cruise and we want inside cabins) that were NOT Carnival ended up being more PER DAY than the current Ecstasy cruises we already have booked. What's the point is saving a few dollars on the flight if the pre-cruise hotel is going to be more and the cruise is going to be more for the same basic itinerary? Why not just stick with Carnival where we get VIP boarding and I get a Shareholder credit?

 

I use per day cost, including taxes and fees, to compare.

 

I did find a short NCL cruise, but do I really want to switch to a ship that the cabin is about 2/3 the size that has the same itinerary? What's the point if the price is actually a few dollars more???

 

You have to comparison shop. That's all there is to it. And you have to compare like to like.

 

I don't book ES because I don't know whether I'm sailing solo or not. I am PG on CCL and RCI.

 

There's no such thing as "always" and assuming that whatever you read on an anonymous message board might actually be accurate is just being foolish, despite the fact that we are all Experts here! :p

[Magic City Cruiser]

I guess you can call me a "budget" cruiser. I cruise for an easy and inexpensive vacation and not for the ports. So, I'm not going to fly to a port and I choose ports within 6 hours of my home. When Mobile closed, that left New Orleans. I also don't want 7 days, I prefer 5.

All that said, Carnival is the only show in town! I wouldn't hesitate to cruise other lines and I would comparison shop, for sure. However, the occasions when I have compared cruise for cruise with other lines, I find Carnival to be the better deal. Heck, I wish there was another line sailing from New Orleans for 5 days! I'd pay more just to see what they were like!

[gkbiiii]

I have looked often at CCL and they are always more than RCCL for singles 200% VS 150% and with RCCL my 14 day cruises I get a $150-$200 onboard credit. The Breeze Transatlantic would cost me $2,000 which is what I spent for a JR suite on the Vison of the Seas, Santos-Lisbon Transatlantic.

 

Thus is a small inside cabin on Breeze with a JR suite on royal, for the same voyage, in a higher class Royal Megaship? Plus the comps I get as a Emerald/Diamond are outstanding!!