Prices seem high!?!?!

[spleenstomper]

I think that Coz, Grand Cayman and Jamaica are considered Western, and YES it is usually cheaper than the Eastern, or Southern routes. I'm like you, in that I've done that route over, and over. I prefer Southern myself.

"SKY"

 

It's my first time on this route.

 

Is fare viewer working for you? I keep getting error messages.

[ryano]

I’ve never gotten a price drop with ES! But it’s always the cheapest rate out of any of them so I book it. I wait until the price is lower (or just right for me) and then book the lowest rate which is usually ES. I also book well in advance.

 

 

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I will NEVER book ES again. Too many restrictions and a chance of a price drop is slim to none these days. Its only like 20.00 per guest to book Past Guest rate. Way less restrictions.

[ryano]

They call that eastern caribbean

 

That is Western. Eastern would be San Juan, the Virgin Islands, Amber Cove, Grand Turk etc .

[Roz]

Why are people wary of cruising out of Florida?

 

Roz

[buddylover]

IMO carnival is filling ships with casino rates so they can keep the prices higher. Its not worth it for just me to get all the way to Miami to get a better price on NCL Getawaway.

 

read my roll call and other posts on here, Carnival is doing a lot of casino rates, even if you just spent $50 gambling. keeps the ships filled and they dont have to drop rates to fill the ships.

 

 

I agree, I was thinking after all these hurricanes, now would be the time to get a good rate, nope. If anything it drove up the prices of closer in dates out of Galveston.

 

Im still going but agree, sticker shock if you want western especially.

 

Hi Firefly! Haven't seen you around for a while - happy to see you on CCL boards. I TOTALLY agree with you.....CCL is probably finding their 'bottom line' higher giving away cabins to gamblers who lose $$ in the casino, rather than lowering cabin prices for the rest of us. Not only are they NOT dropping prices to fill ships to us non-gamblers, but they are raising them which is forcing us to look and book elsewhere. There's a LOT of competition out there these days and pax can 'shop' ......I sure hope these gamblers (especially those who are getting freebies with only $50 of gambling losses) pay off for CCL with losses bigger than our booking costs!!

[cruzinlisa]

I haven't looked much lately but early this year (January), when I was booking my May cruise, I thought prices seemed high. I actually was able to sail on RCCL for just a small amount more (like $100) and they are usually higher.

[firefly333]

That is Western. Eastern would be San Juan, the Virgin Islands, Amber Cove, Grand Turk etc .

 

maybe it depends on where you cruise from?? It says eastern out of galveston, unless they changed it.

 

the ports you mentioned above arent even a option out of texas.

 

 

ok I admit i havent cruised in a while. out of galveston there is western caribbean and eastern. Eastern is key west, freeport and nassau,

 

so they changed the labels a bit since i last cruised.

Edited October 25, 2017 by firefly333

[Micahs Grandad]

Business is good for cruise lines so prices will go up.

 

Interesting thought that they can keep ships filled with gamblers.

[buddylover]

maybe it depends on where you cruise from?? It says eastern out of galveston, unless they changed it.

 

the ports you mentioned above arent even a option out of texas.

 

 

ok I admit i havent cruised in a while. out of galveston there is western caribbean and eastern. Eastern is key west, freeport and nassau,

 

so they changed the labels a bit since i last cruised.

Right now, due to the hurricanes and all the damage to the 'true' Eastern Carib islands, they have detoured and are calling ports like Key West and Nassau "Eastern"......but once everything goes back to normal, Eastern ports will be what they were when you used to cruise too! i.e., St. Thomas, St. Maarten, San Juan etc.

[CruiseAdict218]

maybe it depends on where you cruise from?? It says eastern out of galveston, unless they changed it.

 

the ports you mentioned above arent even a option out of texas.

 

 

ok I admit i havent cruised in a while. out of galveston there is western caribbean and eastern. Eastern is key west, freeport and nassau,

 

so they changed the labels a bit since i last cruised.

 

I noticed Carnival only does that with Cruises from Galveston and that was before the Hurricane situation even.

[buddylover]

I will NEVER book ES again. Too many restrictions and a chance of a price drop is slim to none these days. Its only like 20.00 per guest to book Past Guest rate. Way less restrictions.

 

While it is true that price drops have significantly declined, the restrictions on ES is also slim, IMHO....$50 pp and balance can be moved to another cruise including deposit. When you say it is only $20 pp more on Past Guest Rate, that is more than 50% of the ES penalty, and that is when and if PGR is ONLY $20 more pp than ES rate, which it rarely is. Ryano, you are NEVER going to want to sail on RCI then, as they just implemented a "NO refund" policy and after final payment (as with ES on CCL) there is now a $100 penalty to change your reservation in any way (date, ship etc) and that is for ALL fares across the RCI board and they never had ES where one could glean a price reduction AFTER final payment as CCL offers!!!

[mrsh678]

We booked our balcony room back in the summer, it was $750-something before taxes then. It's $959 now.