Why is the World Cruise so expensive?

[chamima]

I was looking at cruises for next year and comparing per night costs for 2 people.

All prices were the "launch" prices.

 

The Pacific Princess New Year's cruise in a BD balcony is $494/night  (booked during Sip and Sail so it includes a drink package)

The Emerald Feb. 2020 round trip LA-Tahiti in a B4 (28 days) is $459/night (also with Sip and Sail)

But the World Cruise (the 74 night portion)  is a whopping $748/night. (also a B4) (OBC but no drink package)

 

You'd think there would be a discount rather than a premium for staying on the ship that long.

Does anyone have any rationale for why it's so much more?

 

[bemis12]

Presumably because people will pay it.  If they refuse to pay that kind of money, the price goes down.

 

The super-long cruises are few in number.

 

 

[tailspintom]

4 minutes ago, bemis12 said:

Presumably because people will pay it.  If they refuse to pay that kind of money, the price goes down.

 

The super-long cruises are few in number.

 

A beautiful answer...... to every question on pricing of any product. It is all about supply and demand.

 

[GUT2407]

Because there is demand.

 

what really amazes me is from the US they use Pacific Princess (680 pax)

 

from Australia Sun or Sea (around 2000 pax)

[SeaDog-46]

There is also another reason - fuel oil bunker prices are set to rise when the new low sulphur requirements come into force on 1st Jan. 2020.  This will effect all merchant shipping costs as well as other cruise costs like moving containers of stores to cruise ships in different parts of the world.

[skynight]

Supply and demand. These voyages sell out, almost $1,300 in port charges, small ship only 680 passengers.

The price I see for available balcony cabins does match your number if you calculate for two people. Don't forget the automatic gratuity of $13.50/day/pp = an additional $2,000 for two, you have to fly home from South Africa, not an inexpensive flight, and shore excursions at all those ports will add up. A world cruise is a large expense. 

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, chamima said:

I was looking at cruises for next year and comparing per night costs for 2 people.

All prices were the "launch" prices.

 

The Pacific Princess New Year's cruise in a BD balcony is $494/night  (booked during Sip and Sail so it includes a drink package)

The Emerald Feb. 2020 round trip LA-Tahiti in a B4 (28 days) is $459/night (also with Sip and Sail)

But the World Cruise (the 74 night portion)  is a whopping $748/night. (also a B4) (OBC but no drink package)

 

You'd think there would be a discount rather than a premium for staying on the ship that long.

Does anyone have any rationale for why it's so much more?

 

Because it sells out.

[oskidunker]

2 years ago I got a 21 day fron Chile at a Greatly reduced price threaded before the  Feb cruise. They broke it up into segments. Best price might be waiting until a few months before. They dont  always  sell out far in advance

[Ektrax]

Also...many more ports than shorter trips. That means port fees and taxes.

[Aus Traveller]

In addition to the high demand for world cruises allowing them to charge more, I have noticed on the three where I have done 'half' of the world, people spend less on everything from alcohol, to photos, to shops on board. The cruiseline has to make their profiit somewhere.

[paul929207]

As long as they are selling out, the price will remain high

[bemis12]

31 minutes ago, Ektrax said:

Also...many more ports than shorter trips. That means port fees and taxes.

 

The percentage of sea days is actually much higher than on most shorter cruises

Edited January 9, 2019 by bemis12

[masterty]

World cruises are expensive because 111 day passengers do not purchase gifts, photos, alcohol, specialty dining, and other non-inclusive items at a rate similar to 7-14 day passengers. Princess makes us these losses by increasing the cost of the cabin on longer itineraries.

 

[Colo Cruiser]

44 minutes ago, masterty said:

World cruises are expensive because 111 day passengers do not purchase gifts, photos, alcohol, specialty dining, and other non-inclusive items at a rate similar to 7-14 day passengers. Princess makes us these losses by increasing the cost of the cabin on longer itineraries.

 

How come?  I heard just the opposite.  🤔

[masterty]

38 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

How come?  I heard just the opposite.  🤔

I do not have the experience I suspect you do. I was only speculating. I should have made that more clear. However this is how I made my hypothesis. 

If an average 7 day pax buys 4 photos, spends $50-$100 in the casino, buys one floral arrangement, a balcony dinner or couple of specialty dinners, a back message or two, and possibly $50-$100 in the gift shop on their trip. [$320-$800 in on board spending for 7 days]. Then that same 7 day pax will over 111days (15.8week) spend $1250 on photos, $800-$1500 in the casino, $632 on flowers, $475-$1580 on dinners, $3200 on massages and another $790-$1580 in the gift shop to equal what a 7 day pax spends. This would be roughly $7147-$12942 in on board spending for 111 days. I would suspect that a world cruiser is typically a more seasoned traveler that does not see the excitement in over paying for ship board items that a 7 day pax often splurge on.

Please excuse my ignorance on this.  

[Colo Cruiser]

13 minutes ago, masterty said:

I do not have the experience I suspect you do. I was only speculating. I should have made that more clear. However this is how I made my hypothesis. 

If an average 7 day pax buys 4 photos, spends $50-$100 in the casino, buys one floral arrangement, a balcony dinner or couple of specialty dinners, a back message or two, and possibly $50-$100 in the gift shop on their trip. [$320-$800 in on board spending for 7 days]. Then that same 7 day pax will over 111days (15.8week) spend $1250 on photos, $800-$1500 in the casino, $632 on flowers, $475-$1580 on dinners, $3200 on massages and another $790-$1580 in the gift shop to equal what a 7 day pax spends. This would be roughly $7147-$12942 in on board spending for 111 days. I would suspect that a world cruiser is typically a more seasoned traveler that does not see the excitement in over paying for ship board items that a 7 day pax often splurge on.

Please excuse my ignorance on this.  

Thanks. That makes sense.

 

[Hlitner]

6 hours ago, chamima said:

I was looking at cruises for next year and comparing per night costs for 2 people.

All prices were the "launch" prices.

 

The Pacific Princess New Year's cruise in a BD balcony is $494/night  (booked during Sip and Sail so it includes a drink package)

The Emerald Feb. 2020 round trip LA-Tahiti in a B4 (28 days) is $459/night (also with Sip and Sail)

But the World Cruise (the 74 night portion)  is a whopping $748/night. (also a B4) (OBC but no drink package)

 

You'd think there would be a discount rather than a premium for staying on the ship that long.

Does anyone have any rationale for why it's so much more?

 

Your prices sounded unreal so I took a quick look at one of our favorite cruise agencies..specifically for the Emerald 2020 LA-Tahiti cruise.  For a cat BD (balcony) without even trying to get special discounts, the price (without even getting our past passenger discount) is $5,999 plus taxes of $195 for a total of 6,194 per person.  This would be $221 passenger day (no drink package) In addition, our cruise agency would give $585.50 per person On Board Credit.  We would also be able to get another $250 for stockholder credit plus another $250 for military credit (available to nearly any vet).  Doing the math this would get that balcony to $5385.50 per person which is $191.38 per person/day.  And if we were serious about this cruise we would be able to get some additional discounts.  This does not include sip and sail. but given our drink habits (about $35 per person/day) we could easily do this cruise for about $225 per passenger day which includes our drinks.

 

Not sure why you expect a discount of lower cost per passenger day on popular long itineraries like the World.  Those kind of cruises are very popular and often demand the highest prices per passenger day.  When we book longer cruises (over 60 days) with any line we expect to pay a higher price.  The price points are based on supply/demand algorithms.  Keep in mind that there are dozens of 7 day cruises every week, but only a handful of world cruises every year.

 

You also need to consider that the folks doing long cruises (more then a few weeks long) are a different type cruiser then the average 7 day cruise.  You will not generally see folks crowded around the photo gallery as older very experienced cruisers are generally not buying overpriced cruise ship photos.  In fact, some of the highest priced cruise lines do not even have photographers.  And go into the Casino at 10:30 pm on a long HAL cruise and you will usually find it mostly empty.  Do the same on most 7 day cruises and you might have to fight to get a seat at a table.

 

Hank

[Aus Traveller]

Referring to the comments that people on world cruises do not spend as much much on discretionary items as on shorter cruises, I have observed this. We have been on three world cruises and I have had people we met say that they weren't spending as much on board per day as they do on shorter cruises. Some weren't having wine at dinner (sacrilege!) A high percentage of people on world cruises cruise often - just look at the high number of 'nights' needed to get an invitation to the Most Travelled Passenger Lunch. They have given up buying photos or some of the other extras that people on shorter cruises (or first-time cruisers) buy.

[floridalover5623]

46 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Referring to the comments that people on world cruises do not spend as much much on discretionary items as on shorter cruises, I have observed this. We have been on three world cruises and I have had people we met say that they weren't spending as much on board per day as they do on shorter cruises. Some weren't having wine at dinner (sacrilege!) A high percentage of people on world cruises cruise often - just look at the high number of 'nights' needed to get an invitation to the Most Travelled Passenger Lunch. They have given up buying photos or some of the other extras that people on shorter cruises (or first-time cruisers) buy.

In general, "fresh pockets" always produces the highest number of dollars for the cruise lines. 

[Brisbane41]

I have had much cheaper than those per night prices but not with Princess only P&O UK. They had a good reputation running world cruises from Southampton each year at really competitive prices. As other cruise lines started doing world cruises it took business away from them. They used to have 3 ships sailing the world in the British summer now they only have 1. A lot of the Australians defected to Princess when they started doing them from Sydney.

 

I think in regards to pricing when a certain line gets a monopoly they can charge what they like. What P&O UK had was a good product and there were no competitors.

 

The problem Princess has is they are sending their small ships on world cruises that are totally unsuited to that type of cruise. As a result the price goes up because there is too much demand and too few berths available.

[chamima]

6 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Your prices sounded unreal so I took a quick look at one of our favorite cruise agencies..specifically for the Emerald 2020 LA-Tahiti cruise.  For a cat BD (balcony) without even trying to get special discounts, the price (without even getting our past passenger discount) is $5,999 plus taxes of $195 for a total of 6,194 per person.  This would be $221 passenger day (no drink package) In addition, our cruise agency would give $585.50 per person On Board Credit.  We would also be able to get another $250 for stockholder credit plus another $250 for military credit (available to nearly any vet).  Doing the math this would get that balcony to $5385.50 per person which is $191.38 per person/day.  And if we were serious about this cruise we would be able to get some additional discounts.  This does not include sip and sail. but given our drink habits (about $35 per person/day) we could easily do this cruise for about $225 per passenger day which includes our drinks.

 

Not sure why you expect a discount of lower cost per passenger day on popular long itineraries like the World.  Those kind of cruises are very popular and often demand the highest prices per passenger day.  When we book longer cruises (over 60 days) with any line we expect to pay a higher price.  The price points are based on supply/demand algorithms.  Keep in mind that there are dozens of 7 day cruises every week, but only a handful of world cruises every year.

 

You also need to consider that the folks doing long cruises (more then a few weeks long) are a different type cruiser then the average 7 day cruise.  You will not generally see folks crowded around the photo gallery as older very experienced cruisers are generally not buying overpriced cruise ship photos.  In fact, some of the highest priced cruise lines do not even have photographers.  And go into the Casino at 10:30 pm on a long HAL cruise and you will usually find it mostly empty.  Do the same on most 7 day cruises and you might have to fight to get a seat at a table.

 

Hank

 

 

Hank

My prices were for 2 passengers.

 

 

6 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I was looking at cruises for next year and comparing per night costs for 2 people.

All prices were the "launch" prices.

 

The Pacific Princess New Year's cruise in a BD balcony is $494/night  (booked during Sip and Sail so it includes a drink package)

The Emerald Feb. 2020 round trip LA-Tahiti in a B4 (28 days) is $459/night (also with Sip and Sail)

But the World Cruise (the 74 night portion)  is a whopping $748/night. (also a B4) (OBC but no drink package)

 

 

If I break it down per passenger it's

$247/pp/night for the 14 night Pacific New Year's,

$229/pp/night for the 28 day Emerald and

$374/pp/night for the 74 day.

 

And I wasn't comparing to 7 day or even 10 day cruises.

I know those passengers spend more per day.

The cruises I was quoting also attract experienced cruisers who spend less on board.

The only argument that makes any sense to me is the supply and demand one  of not many World Cruises.

Edited January 9, 2019 by chamima

[long cruiser]

Port charges.

long cruiser

 

[Hlitner]

5 hours ago, chamima said:

 

 

Hank

My prices were for 2 passengers.

 

 

 

 

If I break it down per passenger it's

$247/pp/night for the 14 night Pacific New Year's,

$229/pp/night for the 28 day Emerald and

$374/pp/night for the 74 day.

 

And I wasn't comparing to 7 day or even 10 day cruises.

I know those passengers spend more per day.

The cruises I was quoting also attract experienced cruisers who spend less on board.

The only argument that makes any sense to me is the supply and demand one  of not many World Cruises.

Not sure the term "argument" is apropos.  All cruise lines use a combination of sophisticated "Yield Management" algorithms modified by experience based on past history.  The name of the game is to simply sell the most berths at the highest prices.  What you call "launch prices" has become somewhat of a crazy situation with some pricing using very low launch prices (to encourage early booking) and in other cases using high launch prices (especially on the cruise line's own web site) hoping to snag some early bookers who are somewhat naïve to price changes/fluctuations.   Another factor that really impacts long cruises (i.e. world cruises) is that they not only are sold as a long cruise, but are also sold as various shorter segments.  Sometimes price anomalies are so weird that one can get a better deal by booking a few separate segments (with all their discounts and OBCs) instead of booking a single longer cruise.   We have actually saved several thousand dollars doing this on a Celebrity cruise and another HAL cruise.   We once booked a long HAL cruise that was also sold as 9 different segments (some overlapping).  Our capable cruise agent spent some time analyzing all the various options to figure which booking method would give us the best deal.

 

This really gets crazy with long Princess cruisers because many folks qualify for both Stockholder credits and Veterans Credits (both which max out at 11 days).  So if I book a 60 day cruise as a single booking I would qualify for $500 of OBC from those two options.  But break it out as 4 segments of 15 days each (assuming this is possible) and I would get $2000 of OBC from just those two OBC qualifiers.  Boggles the mind :).  And as an Elite I would also get an included stocked mini-bar for each segment (if done as a single booking it can be hit or miss how this is handled onboard).   And then it all gets even more complicated if there are promotions (such as reduced price drink packages) on certain segments...but that option is not even sold if done as a single booking.

 

Hank