What is going on with Celebrity pricing for next year ??

[ggo85]

Also, I agree with above posters that longer RCCL cruises in more "exotic" locations (e.g., south Pacific) in September, October, and late January are pretty-much kid-free. But that's true of almost every line. The fact is that most of their ships, most of the time, will have more kids than Celebrity. Not an issue for everyone, but probably for some.

 

As for Celebrity, there's not much downside to trying higher prices for 2019/2020 (other than annoying some loyal customers). If they can get those prices, they're happy. If the cruises don't sell well, they have plenty of time to lower prices, offer incentives, etc. to fill the ships. They likely have data to show that folks (like some on this thread) will keep checking back (vs. walking away forever).

[disneydancersmom]

I will bring up a very delicate issue which is that there is more than one cruise line in the Med :). Those folks that limit themselves to 1 or 2 cruise lines really do limit both their itinerary and pricing options. We like X (Elite Plus) but have also cruised on 13 other cruise lines (with a 14th booked) and have enjoyed every cruise. Is Celebrity better than their competition? Overall the quick answer is NO. And keep in mind that most Med cruises are port intensive which means that you spend less time on the ship. Even cruise ship night life seems to wane on Med cruises because passengers run themselves ragged in the ports and are often exhausted in the evening. While Caribbean cruises can often take on a late night party atmosphere, in the Med many of the party crowd are sound asleep :).

 

Hank

 

 

 

Hank, could you tell me which line you used if any for British isles? Thanks! Mary

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[LA_CA_GAL]

September 2017 Cruise to July 2019 cruise.

 

Just did the math, and our upcoming cruise is up by 30%.

[hubofhockey]

All costs are up, including fuel. If you shop around, you can find deals, but at some point, the luxury lines make more and more sense. Some of those prices for 2019 in the original post are close to or even more than we're paying for our 15-night Azamara cruise in SE Asia for 10/19. At this point, I finally found a couple of discount online agents and never pay retail anymore for any line. Even on Galapagos (Xpedition), I found a different type of discount.

[Bo1953]

September 2017 Cruise to July 2019 cruise.

 

Just did the math, and our upcoming cruise is up by 30%.

 

That is a fundamental reason we book early on, as on all of our sailings the price has gone up astronomically!

 

I always keep hoping to get an upgrade due to deep price drop, only thing that drops is my heart upon seeing the now current pricing... LOL, then I get happy we booked when we did...

 

We book to sail at different times of the year as well. So no rhyme or reason otherwise I can glean, other than everyone else knows when we want to sail and decides to join us... :D

 

 

bon voyage

[4774Papa]

I will bring up a very delicate issue which is that there is more than one cruise line in the Med :). Those folks that limit themselves to 1 or 2 cruise lines really do limit both their itinerary and pricing options. We like X (Elite Plus) but have also cruised on 13 other cruise lines (with a 14th booked) and have enjoyed every cruise. Is Celebrity better than their competition? Overall the quick answer is NO. And keep in mind that most Med cruises are port intensive which means that you spend less time on the ship. Even cruise ship night life seems to wane on Med cruises because passengers run themselves ragged in the ports and are often exhausted in the evening. While Caribbean cruises can often take on a late night party atmosphere, in the Med many of the party crowd are sound asleep :).

 

Hank

Hank,

Your post makes a lot of sense. While we still prefer Celebrity, we do cruise other lines. When looking for the best value for a cruise, itinerary and price are our top choices. We don't do Disney, since that expensive line is great with small children. We have friends that have done Princess and liked it. I expect it is much on the same level as Celebrity. I have checked Princess when picking a cruise, but its prices are usually in the same ballpark as Celebrity, so we will stick with X.

We avoided HAL because of the smoking policy (that has changed now). We may consider HAL, but we usually book early and HAL is more expensive early. They do discount their cruises a lot when ships are not sold out.

 

Still, sometimes we get a great deal, like when NCL offered on our Alaska cruise the third and fourth passengers were free. We invited my Stepdaughter to come and it worked out great.

 

We will continue to compare and pick our best value. One thing for us is that we don't generally repeat cruises that we have done, except for transatlantic cruises where we can do our land tour and head home on a cheap TA instead of flying.

I know some people have done multiple Caribbean or Alaska cruises. We are unlikely to do that, since there are still a few places we haven't seen in the World.

[LA_CA_GAL]

That is a fundamental reason we book early on, as on all of our sailings the price has gone up astronomically!

 

 

Booked it more than a year in advance.

[villauk]

t - thanks for the info. I will follow up on that, yet with our next M class sailing will be on Summit and after that Edge, not sure if spouse will stand for going back, as it were... LOL

 

If Edge is a hit for our group of 21 next year, 2020 we will be on Edge for a Med sailing...

 

Something about new ships this group loves to relish in... we shall see.

 

I will try to push the Radiance Class, but just about any line with Royal in it is almost a no go.... :eek:

 

LOL - thank you again and bon voyage

 

You do realise than 7 nights in the Med on Edge in an infinite cabin is roughly running at $600pp more than sailing on her over Christmas in the Caribbean :o?

 

Chemmo and I have been stating since the 2019 prices for the Med were released, how much more expensive overall they are compared to any other year.

[Bo1953]

You do realise than 7 nights in the Med on Edge in an infinite cabin is roughly running at $600pp more than sailing on her over Christmas in the Caribbean :o?

 

Chemmo and I have been stating since the 2019 prices for the Med were released, how much more expensive overall they are compared to any other year.

 

Thank you for the heads up. We will most likely book when we are aboard Edge next November, so I anticipate it to be even more expensive unless our TA can get us a deal beforehand...

 

I still have 12 of the 20 lashes on my back for booking Edge over Thanksgiving next year... to book something over Christmas would mean I lose either a foot or an ear... LOL

 

There are four (4) of us committed to doing an Edge sailing in the Med during 2020, I might book before boarding...

 

bon voyage

Edited June 4, 2018 by Bo1953

[yorky]

Yes it is so much cheaper to cruise in the Caribbean. I have been looking too, and the prices for Mediterranean itineraries are crazy. It still works out cheaper in the Caribbean even when you include the long haul flights and pre cruise accommodation, than sailing from Southampton, or other European ports. If it is a supply and demand situation, why don't they simply send more ships across to Europe?

 

We book the Caribbean over the med simply for this reason. We spend more time on the ship these days and so for us the location is not huge. A 1A balcony for 11 nights next year £2700. The med for the same room £5000

[montythecat]

Barneymag has started an interesting exchange of

useful information about the cost of booking with Celebrity. Our eight cruises in five years with X have all been sensibly priced for us but next year is looking

expensive and boring. There don’t seem to be many new itineraries so we are giving Viking a try this coming December. Three weeks Caribbean and Amazon cruise should be enough to tell us whether that is our future or whether we will return to Celebrity. The cost per day is

pretty competitive against X in the Med. Long flights to

Puerto Rico are included. IMO one of the problems with X

is that they seem to be trying to attract a younger clientele (and I am not sure they exist) instead of concentrating on their core customers (and I am not

suggesting they go down the Holland America route or that of some British cruise lines). We like X for what it is, not what it might become, but prices must be

realistic to stand a reasonable chance of retaining our loyalty.

[Bo1953]

We book the Caribbean over the med simply for this reason. We spend more time on the ship these days and so for us the location is not huge. A 1A balcony for 11 nights next year £2700. The med for the same room £5000

 

Which ship and date?

 

 

Also, if spouse with friends agree on the Med on X in 2020, I do not know how much input I will have at that juncture over any aspect of it, except to hope that I win a small lottery? LOL

 

 

TIA - bon voayge

[81Zoomie]

You may want to look at Hawaii. We have family on the Big Ialand and tourism for all of Hawaii is down due to the Volcano. Volcano affects a very small part of Hawaii (big island), yet all the islands are affected. Most parts of the big island are unaffected as well. Tourism is really suffering and the deals are starting to appear. Keep your eye out for land and sea bargains.

[Hlitner]

Hank, could you tell me which line you used if any for British isles? Thanks! Mary

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

The last time we cruised the British Isles (a true circle the island itinerary) it was on Princess. But there are many options depending on how many British ports you want on your cruise. Many lines (HAL, RCI, Oceania, Seabourn, Cunard) have cruises that call at several British ports. Personally, if I really wanted to experience the UK, we would simply fly to London, rent a car...and go! And we have done this more then a few times. Cruises are certainly fun, but there is a lot more to the UK then the area near ports. For those that do not want to drive, there is a pretty decent train system that covers much of the UK, England, The British Islands, or whatever name you want to use :). Now I have given my good friend, John Bull, a chance to jump in and tear me apart :).

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

I get the impression that a few posters on this thread are experienced cruisers looking to take their first cruise in Europe. So I will offer this very important caution. When compared to the Caribbean, European cruises are much more expensive when one factors in airfare and excursions. Most first time visitors to Europe will utilize a lot of cruise line excursions, and you can actually find yourself spending nearly as much for the excursions as the cruise! So you folks need to consider that you can easily spend over $300 for an excursion in a single port!

 

Also be advised that quite a few European ports are located a long distance from where most folks want to visit. This is not the Caribbean where you walk off the ship and are at your destination or perhaps you get to your destination with a 10 minute taxi ride. In Europe you might be looking at 1-3 hours of land transportation just to get to where you want to go! And one final tip. Not everything is open every day of the week. So when looking at European cruises and their itineraries you should consider the day of the week (and times in port) for each port. So if you have your heart set on going to a place like the Vatican, make sure you are not in Rome on a Sunday (the Vatican is only open 1 Sunday a month). And many museums close one day a week. Pay particular attention to Sunday and Monday (and sometimes even Tuesday) for closures of things you might want to visit.

 

Hank

[yorky]

Which ship and date?

 

 

Also, if spouse with friends agree on the Med on X in 2020, I do not know how much input I will have at that juncture over any aspect of it, except to hope that I win a small lottery? LOL

 

 

TIA - bon voayge

 

The Equinox on the 23rd September.

In the med in September most 12 night sailings on Infinity, Reflection, and Edge are around 5k and in the case of Edge higher.

I absolutely refuse to pay the med prices which for me are a complete rip off for the same product offered in the Caribbean, although obviously many people do pay it.

Edited June 5, 2018 by yorky

[bogofman]

I get the impression that a few posters on this thread are experienced cruisers looking to take their first cruise in Europe. So I will offer this very important caution. When compared to the Caribbean, European cruises are much more expensive when one factors in airfare and excursions. Most first time visitors to Europe will utilize a lot of cruise line excursions, and you can actually find yourself spending nearly as much for the excursions as the cruise! So you folks need to consider that you can easily spend over $300 for an excursion in a single port!

 

Also be advised that quite a few European ports are located a long distance from where most folks want to visit. This is not the Caribbean where you walk off the ship and are at your destination or perhaps you get to your destination with a 10 minute taxi ride. In Europe you might be looking at 1-3 hours of land transportation just to get to where you want to go! And one final tip. Not everything is open every day of the week. So when looking at European cruises and their itineraries you should consider the day of the week (and times in port) for each port. So if you have your heart set on going to a place like the Vatican, make sure you are not in Rome on a Sunday (the Vatican is only open 1 Sunday a month). And many museums close one day a week. Pay particular attention to Sunday and Monday (and sometimes even Tuesday) for closures of things you might want to visit.

 

Hank

 

We have been on many european cruises, Med , both east med and west med, Canary islands, Baltic, norway, iceland etc, and almost never take the ships tours, in our experience ( with the exception of ports such as livorno ( florence) ) there is a lot to do close to the port,

 

eg, Barcelona, Venice, Dubrovnik, Split, Kotor, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykinos, Athens, Corfu, Crete, Villefrance ( nice and monaco) Marseille, Cartegena, Gibratar, Tallin, Stokholm, Helsinki, Reykyavik etc.

[bogofman]

The Equinox on the 23rd September.

In the med in September most 12 night sailings on Infinity, Reflection, and Edge are around 5k and in the case of Edge higher.

I absolutely refuse to pay the med prices which for me are a complete rip off for the same product offered in the Caribbean, although obviously many people do pay it.

 

 

Agree on the prices , but the Caribbean is no match for the European destinations if you enjoy exploring history, architecture etc.

 

when we have been to the caribbean ( on TA's) there is nothing to do if you don't do a tour,

 

unless sitting on a beach or buying diamonds is your preferred option.

 

no sooner did we get off , we were back on again and hammering the included drinks packages, along with most others

:halo:

[excitedofharpenden]

Agree on the prices , but the Caribbean is no match for the European destinations if you enjoy exploring history, architecture etc.

:halo:

I totally agree. You just can't compare the Caribbean with the Mediterranean. A few times around the Caribbean and it's done. If the ship is your destination then fair enough.

 

It's supply and demand. I remember three or four years ago the prices in the Med dropped off quite a bit because the North Americans weren't travelling, worried about safety in Europe. Now they are holidaying once more here and Celebrity are testing the pricing. From my experience they see what the market will stand by charging high prices and then put them down a bit so many people think they are getting a deal. If you look at it longer term the price just keeps going up and up as we all get used to "what we paid last time".

 

Phil

[John182]

I have to agree that comparisons with the Med and the Caribbean are pointless IMHO. Personally I would never cruise around the Med now. Most of the places in the region that I still want to visit require more than a brief stay so it's land based travel for me in Europe.

 

I was interested in the Baltics or Iceland itineraries for 2019 ex Southampton but the prices are high enough in comparison with alternative holidays to put them on hold for now. It's a personal decision and I fully recognise and understand that others will place a different value on the cruising experience where they see the premium as acceptable.

 

Interestingly I have just been looking at a Caribbean cruise for DW's birthday surprise in December this year. I ended up choosing a different cruise line in the so called six star bracket as once I had priced cabins of comparable sizes and added in the airfares, grats, likely tours , premium drinks and speciality dining options it actually worked out cheaper. Again that was based upon what we like to do so may not be the same for anybody else. I was surprised at hw the numbers worked out though. Maybe it was just a low ball price on behalf of the 'winner'?

[montythecat]

John 182. You have reached the same conclusion with

your choice of a six star cruise line for a Caribbean

cruise in December that we have by booking with Viking.

I don’t know whether Viking are thought of as six star but that doesn’t really matter. Celebrity need to be careful with their prices before their regular customers

jump ship (sorry, couldn’t resist that) as there are

attractive alternatives.

[bogofman]

we did a 7 night Equinox cruise out of Miami last December ( week before Christmas) in Aqua cabin with drinks package included for just over £1000

 

all in

[John182]

John 182. You have reached the same conclusion with

your choice of a six star cruise line for a Caribbean

cruise in December that we have by booking with Viking.

I don’t know whether Viking are thought of as six star but that doesn’t really matter. Celebrity need to be careful with their prices before their regular customers

jump ship (sorry, couldn’t resist that) as there are

attractive alternatives.

 

I'm no expert on these things but I hear that Viking are in that bracket:) Have a great cruise.

 

I ended up booking with Regent. The itinerary was good for us as we have never been to Havana.

[John182]

we did a 7 night Equinox cruise out of Miami last December ( week before Christmas) in Aqua cabin with drinks package included for just over £1000

 

all in

 

Wow that was a great price. There are some really good deals with X this December too including one from San Juan where I thought they had posted the wrong prices! I wasn't trying to imply that Celebrity prices in the Caribbean were universally high. In my case the equivalent cabin on Celebrity would have been a Sky Suite (size wise anyway) and once I had priced everything up including the deal on airfares from Regent it was a no brainer for me.

[laslomas]

To many in the UK (such as the OP) the value of your currency (Pound) have greatly effected prices for you. Pound hit a 20 year high in 2014 of $1.70.....today it's $1.33.

 

That has to figure into the mix.

 

I agree the value of the currency must have a bearing on prices.

 

But when checking through prices with a U.S. agent and priced in $ there is still a massive difference between Caribbean and Med prices. For instance looking at 10 or 11 nights in 2019 it is easy to find balcony prices in the Caribbean for around $1500 pp whereas in the Med the same category balcony are priced more than $1000 more, or $2000 more for the Edge. :eek:

These prices are with one perk.

 

 

I am not considering booking the Med at these prices, hopefully they will reduce.