Is it me?

[TMaine]

Or is =X= pricing themselves out of the market? I have been a loyal customer for awhile but as the reasons that kept me a customer slowly dwindle and prices quickly rise I am looking at other lines. There are a few HAL and Norwegian cruises that are competing for my business for my next vacation and right now, they are winning easily on price. My hope is that =X= drops their prices before I book.

[BILLP1]

You get what you pay for..

[Cruise Junky]

Comparing Celebrity to Princess in the current Europe releases, Celebrity is far less on every cruise I looked at. Not sure you could compare Celebrity to NCL just on price. If you like NCL, then maybe they're a viable option for they're definitely a step down. Wouldn't sail HAL again if it were free so they're never on my radar.

[true45]

Having seen some changes in Celebrity I have tried a bunch of other lines recently. I am not impressed.

 

Oceania is much more expensive. Great food but service either rude and unconcerned or too fru fru for me.

 

Not impressed with Princess. Couldn't find a chair in shade anywhere -- just books or towels for the hogs. Food OK, coffee undrinkable even in pay venue, pizza wonderful but not worth cruising for pizza. And price was MORE than comparable Celebrity sailings most of the time.

 

Carnival was just awful. DH was musician on Carnival ships, thought the food was good a few years back -- but it changed for the worst.

 

Entertainment on all the lines not really great but Celebrity had more variety.

 

Disney was great but kid-centered.

 

We are back to Celebrity.

 

To the OP, if you think you can find a better deal on a line other than Celebrity, try it -- but the other lines have made changes too beware.

 

Just my opinion.

Linda

Edited March 24, 2014 by true45

[acruisingcouple]

I am very impressed with Celebrity's pricing. I was able to book a Caribbean cruise for next March for my family of four for hundreds less than Carnival and over a $1000 less than Holland America.

I can't wait to try Celebrity - I have heard such wonderful things! :)

[sheffield]

We just sailed on the Norwegian Breakaway and were astonished to find that the food in the MDR and the entertainment were far superior to Celebrity. We were very skeptical as to whether we would enjoy it before we booked our cruise, it was a last minute booking, but decided to do it as it was out of NYC and it saved us the airfares to Florida. We were very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience and would certainly sail on Breakaway again. Prior to this we had taken 7 cruises with Celebrity over 3 years and thought they were the best.

[Purplsmurf]

Surprised to read this! We are sailing on our second Celebrity next month and one of the reasons we chose Celebrity was because of the price!! We do like Princess, but much more expensive than Celebrity. The only line I found that could compare in price was Carnival and we will NEVER cruise them again. NCL was even more expensive than Celebrity, but like Carnival, we will never sail them again! Maybe we just found the right price at the right time!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[terigo]

We just sailed on the Norwegian Breakaway and were astonished to find that the food in the MDR and the entertainment were far superior to Celebrity. We were very skeptical as to whether we would enjoy it before we booked our cruise, it was a last minute booking, but decided to do it as it was out of NYC and it saved us the airfares to Florida. We were very pleasantly surprised by the whole experience and would certainly sail on Breakaway again. Prior to this we had taken 7 cruises with Celebrity over 3 years and thought they were the best.

 

On this board, the cheerleaders just will not allow for the fact that another cruise line can do a good job.

I have sailed Celebrity, RCI, NCL, Princess, Carnival and HAL. Never had a bad cruise on any of them...and much to the shock of Celebrity people, the MDR food on Carnival's Dream was every bit as good as that on the Equinox we sailed the same year (last year).

In fact, we are on the Millennium for our upcoming Alaska trip because when we booked it was the least expensive for a one way north (the price has subsequently gone up $2000.00). Otherwise we wouldn't have hesitated to take any of the other mainstream lines doing the same itinerary.

 

I find that often the people who knock other lines have never actually sailed on them.

[TMaine]

I am looking at Med cruises in September. The last cruise we did was the med in Sep 2012 and loved it, had a great time so we are looking at going back. The exact same itinerary we did in 2012 is 3 times the price today as I paid 2 years ago. Now I am fully aware of inflation and fuel costs and all but that is just rediculous.

 

I don't believe the "you get what you pay for" applies to cruises since the price goes up and down as often as the seas roll. I have had a couple friends just off from NCL and HAL and both loved them and had great cruises. Don't get me wrong, I would prefer booking =X=.

[BosoxI]

On this board, the cheerleaders just will not allow for the fact that another cruise line can do a good job.

I have sailed Celebrity, RCI, NCL, Princess, Carnival and HAL. Never had a bad cruise on any of them...and much to the shock of Celebrity people, the MDR food on Carnival's Dream was every bit as good as that on the Equinox we sailed the same year (last year).

In fact, we are on the Millennium for our upcoming Alaska trip because when we booked it was the least expensive for a one way north (the price has subsequently gone up $2000.00). Otherwise we wouldn't have hesitated to take any of the other mainstream lines doing the same itinerary.

 

I find that often the people who knock other lines have never actually sailed on them.

 

I've never understood why people are so defensive about their cruise line of choice. I like Celebrity but I would choose another cruise line at the drop of a hat, if it suited me better. Twenty years ago DW and I actually appeared in an RCL infomercial. We haven't been back on them since. There's nothing wrong with Princess (they do allow discounting, don't they still?), HAL, or Cunard but don't dare say that on a Celebrity board and don't praise Celebrity on the Princess site. Kind of silly, really

[Tiggertastic]

We are finding the prices of all the lines are increasing. Xmas 2015 is $1500 more for 12 nights than it was to book 14 nights 2014 but feel it is because of the itinerary and the price of the 2014 has inflated massively since we booked it - you can only get an inside for what we paid for a balcony with drinks package.

 

I loved the post re the breakaway, I do love celebrity but have to agree that the entertainment on the breakaway, epic and getaway are much better than celebrity bit its the first time I've heard the MDR food being better. We've been eating in the specialty on NCL and not been in the MDR for many years - will now go back

 

Maybe that is why NCL now do the free dining in specialty offers - to reduce the demand on the MDR

[bring2521]

I can say that Ive been on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess and Norweigan and by far Celebrity was all around the best. One I wont soon go back on is Norwegian. Took a cruise out of Boston to Bermuda which I was excited about since I didnt have to fly anywhere. Not sure if all their ships are the same or not but let me say this.... you needed to cut the smoke with a knife to get into the casino! I was shocked to say the least especially in this day and age of smoking being banned everywhere. You could smoke out on the decks as well.... which normally shouldnt be a problem but to get hit in the face with ashes as you stroll along is no Fun at all. If I had to pick a second cruise line to return to though it would be Royal Caribbean our second choice by far.

Enjoy!

[We're The Groupnors]

We just paid less for our December 2014 Celebrity cruise in a Concierge Class balcony cabin than we paid for our NCL window cabin years ago. And Celebrity is throwing in a drink package.

[Philomath]

Just a thought - a lot of the more unusual or popular itineraries (new 7-day Europe, holiday cruises, June/July Alaska etc) sold extremely well during 123-Go. Now that Pick your Perk is a "second wave" of booking, the prices have shot up for those cruises as inventory is nearly gone but remained reasonable for those with more inventory (i.e. Caribbean winter where there are multiple large ships sailing itineraries that haven't changed in several years). Our Eastern Med booking for June has gone up astronomically because of the popularity of the 7-day port intensive itinerary newly introduced this year.

[RickT]

I've come back to Celebrity after trying Princess and Hal. The key to finding good deals on Celebrity is to try and be a little flexible on date/itinerary.

 

If you look at the identical Celebrity cruise you can sometimes see fairly large differences in pricing. Just pick the week that is less $.

 

I have also compared a bunch of Celebrity cruises for the Med this summer and find the prices more than competitive with Hal/Princess and that's not even factoring in the benefit of the current Pick your perk promo.

[1313steve]

As you can see from my signature, I've cruised a few times, but most of them were more than 5 years ago, until our Carnival cruise last October. Now that I'm back cruising on a regular basis again, I'm realizing that cruise fares seem to becoming more and more like airfares, where it seems that no two people have paid the same price.

 

Cruise prices change almost daily, the freebies and perks come and go,and it seems that people on the same cruise in similar categories are paying different rates and/or getting different perks.

 

I guess the cruise industry is getting better at applying the same type of algorithms as the airline industry!

Edited March 24, 2014 by 1313steve

[wallie5446]

We just sailed on the Norwegian Breakaway and were astonished to find that the food in the MDR and the entertainment were far superior to Celebrity.

 

On this board, the cheerleaders just will not allow for the fact that another cruise line can do a good job.

 

The post you quoted says the opposite, does it not?

Edited March 24, 2014 by wallie5446

[terigo]

 

On this board, the cheerleaders just will not allow for the fact that another cruise line can do a good job.

 

The post you quoted says the opposite, does it not?

 

yes, and that is exactly why I quoted it. To agree that another line can do a great job and that the posts before it were more "rah rah" than helpful.

[chisoxfan]

Or is =X= pricing themselves out of the market? I have been a loyal customer for awhile but as the reasons that kept me a customer slowly dwindle and prices quickly rise I am looking at other lines. There are a few HAL and Norwegian cruises that are competing for my business for my next vacation and right now, they are winning easily on price. My hope is that =X= drops their prices before I book.

 

We had the same thoughts about Princess and HAL. We wanted to do a Princess Carib cruise (and perhaps try HAL) but considering the beautiful S class ships of X and now the "free" drink package, X is definitely the value leader for us.

[4774Papa]

Or is =X= pricing themselves out of the market? I have been a loyal customer for awhile but as the reasons that kept me a customer slowly dwindle and prices quickly rise I am looking at other lines. There are a few HAL and Norwegian cruises that are competing for my business for my next vacation and right now, they are winning easily on price. My hope is that =X= drops their prices before I book.

We are doing an NCL cruise of Norway, Iceland, etc. this Sept, since it was a bit cheaper than X's cruise.

Every time I check HAL or Princess, for a cruise that I want to take, the prices are always higher. This doesn't mean that X is always cheaper than those lines, but for the cruises that I want to take they are.

 

We won't do Carnival, which sometimes is cheaper.

[swsfrail]

We are doing an NCL cruise of Norway, Iceland, etc. this Sept, since it was a bit cheaper than X's cruise.

 

We won't do Carnival, which sometimes is cheaper.

 

Like the old saying goes: "You get what you pay for." NCL is cheaper for a good reason. While you get a decent cruise for the price, it won't be in the same league as Celebrity. It's like comparing the price of a Chevy to a Cadillac. Both cars will give you the same basic functionality, and both will get you where you want to go, but one is nicer than the other with more upscale materials and features. It's the same with cruise lines. Some are nicer than others, and you generally will pay a bit extra for that difference.

Edited March 24, 2014 by swsfrail

[sheffield]

This is totally not true re the NCL cruise we just took. It was about the same price as a similar cruise on Celebrity would have been. The biggest difference to us was that the food and the entertainment were in a higher league, in our opinion, to Celebrity. It was not what we expected, we were very pleasantly surprised.

[4774Papa]

Like the old saying goes: "You get what you pay for." NCL is cheaper for a good reason. While you get a decent cruise for the price, it won't be in the same league as Celebrity. It's like comparing the price of a Chevy to a Cadillac. Both cars will give you the same basic functionality, and both will get you where you want to go, but one is nicer than the other with more upscale materials and features. It's the same with cruise lines. Some are nicer than others, and you generally will pay a bit extra for that difference.

We prefer Celebrity, but NCL does very well with entertainment. Also, their specialty restaurants are good.

[aspen36]

Disney is pretty expensive. I thought the MDR on Carnival Dream was much better than Disney's. I though the Oasis had the worst MDR food. None of this made for a bad cruise though. I don't like the MDR for the most part so on our next two cruises we are only going once or maybe twice at the most. I don't mind paying the up charge for the other dining choices.

[Stede Bonnet]

For the Southern Caribbean itinerary I wanted, Celebrity was cheaper than RCL but more expensive than Carnival.

I took the smoking policy into consideration and we've chosen Celebrity for our first cruise

 

The advertising promises more relaxation than entertainment and that is what I'll be trying for

Edited March 25, 2014 by Stede Bonnet