Price increase!!

[emmas gran]

Just had to move an onboard booking for April 2020 to April 2021 on Connie Dubai through 

Suez canal --the price increase for Aqua is £2000 gone from £4812 to £6802, that is crazy.

I think we are paying for Revolution!!

[chemmo]

8 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

Just had to move an onboard booking for April 2020 to April 2021 on Connie Dubai through 

Suez canal --the price increase for Aqua is £2000 gone from £4812 to £6802, that is crazy.

I think we are paying for Revolution!!

 

I think quite a few of us are beginning to revolt by booking fewer cruises or looking at other cruise lines.

 

The prices in Europe have been particularly high this year. A RS in the Mediterranean on an unrefurbished M ship was way more than we paid last year on the Eclipse. Several itineraries were shorter too...9/10 days compared to the 12 we enjoyed.  Our other alternative was to look at Edge. The cost of the Edge Villa Suite (the room we fancied trying) was more than a new family car...So we bought the new family car and are presently touring Wales.

 

 

 

 

[kdkstormy]

We booked our January 2020 cruise about a year and a half out.  What we booked at includes 3 perks and a large balcony on the hump.  The pricing today for the same cruise in a regular balcony, the rate per person with two perks is more than The total price for both of us with 3 perks 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

2 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

I think quite a few of us are beginning to revolt by booking fewer cruises or looking at other cruise lines.

 

 

It takes some nerve to combine spiking prices with plummeting quality, but if enough loyalists fall for it, X won't need to fill these ships to capacity.  I doubt this strategy will work long term.

[emmas gran]

Fortunately we have 3 MSC YC booked before they hiked prices, 1 X Solstice and a Princess Club mini suite along with the Connie cruise

[aml3679]

That is why I book early and keep watching the prices weekly.  Eventually, they go down and then keep going up.

[oneputt18]

We are booked for a 12 night Caribbean cruise , for our 50th anniversary. I booked onboard , last December and we got two perks plus $150 OBC. Total cost for two: $5025.98 Aqua class , it has now gone to $11410.64 . 

[keesar]

I thought of booking in December but decided to wait to book onboard in February.  Price went from $5000 to $7400.  I learned a lesson...

[RickT]

After being away from Princess for many years I just booked the Regal instead of Equinox for a 7 day Western in March.  Princess has a Sip and Sail promo which basically matches X's Classic drink package.  IMHO it's a fairly apples to apples comparison and the cost saving is $600 Canadian for the two of us.  Not a huge deal but that will cover the cost of a flight to Florida.

 

I have no issues with a cruiseline charging what they can for a cabin...but I won't blindly be loyal to them if there are other suitable alternatives.

 

Now, for those of you who complain about the X website.... I'm having fun with the Princess site which seems to be designed by the same IT group.

[Cruise Junky]

That price won’t last. That cruise is always on a fire sale. Just keep watching and if you can’t reprice don’t book it 

[ECCruise]

8 hours ago, emmas gran said:

Just had to move an onboard booking for April 2020 to April 2021 on Connie Dubai through 

Suez canal --the price increase for Aqua is £2000 gone from £4812 to £6802, that is crazy.

I think we are paying for Revolution!!

They always overprice early on and nail some really unsuspecting people (who then never check the prices) and then lower them as they go.  It is actually a tough sailing to sell...when we took it 2 years ago it had huge availability right up until final payment.

Then we switched from 1A to AQ for no cost.  Then, a couple weeks before we sailed, switched to a S1 for an additional $800, for a total of around $3500.  For 2.  In a desirable Sky Suite.

Wait.

[TeeRick]

We have found on popular destination cruises like the one the OP mentions here regardless of ship the very best prices for AQ, CC and above are in the very first few days offered.  They usually just go up from there.  These categories get scooped up fast.  Not usually a problem on standard 7 night routine cruises in the Caribbean.  Unless over a holiday period.

[Mynki]

50 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

We have found on popular destination cruises like the one the OP mentions here regardless of ship the very best prices for AQ, CC and above are in the very first few days offered.  They usually just go up from there.  These categories get scooped up fast.  Not usually a problem on standard 7 night routine cruises in the Caribbean.  Unless over a holiday period.

 

I'd agree. From what I've seen though E class ship itineraries are a little different. For example some Med itineraries  have rooms available close to sail date yet there is no discounting of these categories as X maintain pricing to protect their pricing structure. If you want a suite or higher grade cabin on an E class ship book the day of release and monitor pricing. I saw aqua class rooms on Edge at £700 ($875) pppn not too long ago which IMHO is simply ridiculous. 

Suite and AC cabins aside, Equinox and Summit pricing seems to plunge more than the other ships close to sail date even after the revolution. In fact on seven night comparable itineraries these two ships can be cheaper to sail on than the equivalent rooms on Carnival and MSC etc after final payment. Some Solstice and Constellation itineraries are also very cheap late on. I suspect that the Solstice sailings from Australia and New Zealand fail to attract many international passengers due to lengthy and costly flights. Connie, I don't know why. 

 

[TeeRick]

We did a 16 night on Solstice for AUS and NZ two years ago.  It was full, but to your point there were a large number of local cruisers.  Of course still a good number from the UK and US too. We booked it as soon as it came out on the Captain's Club pre-sale day.  The price only went up after that.  The same for our Edge sailing.  We grabbed a CS on the first day available even before the ship was built.  Two years later when we actually sailed the similar CS was over twice what we paid.

[Mynki]

When I've looked there's been plenty of availability a few weeks before sail date. Solstice currently has balconies from $99 pppn and sky suites from $170 pppn + taxes and port fees which seems to be excellent value for an S class ship. 

On the flip side to E class pricing we scored an aqua class room for less than 50% of it's opening price four months from sail date. I think it will be some time before we see that on E class ships though. 

[gerelmx]

The Hawaii cruise onboard the Eclipse for September 22 and October 3 are a bargain, several price drops since Tutu Pele becomes angry.

[hubofhockey]

On 7/11/2019 at 9:19 AM, RickT said:

After being away from Princess for many years I just booked the Regal instead of Equinox for a 7 day Western in March.  Princess has a Sip and Sail promo which basically matches X's Classic drink package.  IMHO it's a fairly apples to apples comparison and the cost saving is $600 Canadian for the two of us.  Not a huge deal but that will cover the cost of a flight to Florida.

 

I have no issues with a cruiseline charging what they can for a cabin...but I won't blindly be loyal to them if there are other suitable alternatives.

 

Now, for those of you who complain about the X website.... I'm having fun with the Princess site which seems to be designed by the same IT group.

 

Have you been on a Princess Royal Class ship?  I have and it's the reason I'm pretty much done with them.

 

The balconies are miniaturized and the elevators are like cattle cars because the central elevators don't go all the way up.   This is not my idea of a relaxing vacation.  I will say that I loved the previous class of ships with large balconies, central elevators, several distinct large pool area, and the set up of the clubs.  I would consider booking the Ruby Princess for Australia down the road, but not on Royal/Regal or any other Royal Class ships.  Oh, for what it's worth, their specialty restaurants are low quality.  

 

For some, I'm sure Princess is a better fit, but the grass isn't always greener.  

[Cruising89143]

We booked the IN for next May out of Barcelona. I compared a similar stateroom/sailing on one of RCI’s Vision class ships which is older than the Infinity. The price difference was just under a thousand bucks with the RCI sailing coming in less. With that said we received four perks on X including gratuities, OBC, internet and the premium drink package. That adds up on a 12 night sailing. On RCI the perks that we would have received was priority boarding/debarkation and seating for the shows. We would have received more due to our past guest status on RCI than we would have for booking a suite. 

 

I am not tied to any particular cruise line but when all things are considered X is still a good value. 

[Cruising89143]

30 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

 

Have you been on a Princess Royal Class ship?  I have and it's the reason I'm pretty much done with them.

 

The balconies are miniaturized and the elevators are like cattle cars because the central elevators don't go all the way up.   This is not my idea of a relaxing vacation.  I will say that I loved the previous class of ships with large balconies, central elevators, several distinct large pool area, and the set up of the clubs.  I would consider booking the Ruby Princess for Australia down the road, but not on Royal/Regal or any other Royal Class ships.  Oh, for what it's worth, their specialty restaurants are low quality.  

 

For some, I'm sure Princess is a better fit, but the grass isn't always greener.  

 

We have looked at Princess but I can’t get past those tiny balconies on the new Royal class which was our choice based upon what we were looking for. 

[TeeRick]

23 hours ago, Mynki said:

When I've looked there's been plenty of availability a few weeks before sail date. Solstice currently has balconies from $99 pppn and sky suites from $170 pppn + taxes and port fees which seems to be excellent value for an S class ship. 

On the flip side to E class pricing we scored an aqua class room for less than 50% of it's opening price four months from sail date. I think it will be some time before we see that on E class ships though. 

It just goes to show that you need to check often and better deals sometimes appear.  I have found the online web sites that notify you of cruise price changes have become almost worthless.  A few years ago they really worked.  But they cannot really keep up with all the pricing categories and price bundles.  The human brain still is a better way to do this.

[ipeeinthepool]

22 hours ago, cruisingator2 said:

 

We have looked at Princess but I can’t get past those tiny balconies on the new Royal class which was our choice based upon what we were looking for. 

 

Maybe those small balconies were the example someone used to justify the small balconies on the Edge/Apex

[Mynki]

8 hours ago, TeeRick said:

It just goes to show that you need to check often and better deals sometimes appear.  I have found the online web sites that notify you of cruise price changes have become almost worthless.  A few years ago they really worked.  But they cannot really keep up with all the pricing categories and price bundles.  The human brain still is a better way to do this.

 

I agree. Deals are certainly harder to find, particularly suites. But they do crop up from time to time. 

The fishy site appears to still be working to some extent. I'm monitoring aqua class and suites on one sailing and am receiving notifications when they become available and go again etc. Price changes don't seem to update for at least two days though sometimes they take a week from what I'm seeing. 

[hubofhockey]

On 7/12/2019 at 10:39 AM, cruisingator2 said:

 

We have looked at Princess but I can’t get past those tiny balconies on the new Royal class which was our choice based upon what we were looking for. 

 

Instead of improving on their previous class of ships, Princess actually eliminated things we really enjoyed. They had the best balconies and now they have the worst.  They now have congested elevators (who wants that on vacation?). We also thought Sabatini's (their uncharge Italian restaurant) went downhill on all ships.  I also felt quality of entertainment went downhill as well.   The one thing they do well is the center atrium area, but Princess disappoints me.  They have added some gimmicks, but no real substance.  We would go on a Princess cruise, but the price point would have to be about 15% better than Celebrity.  Maybe that's what people are seeing.  The grass isn't always greener.  

 

With respect to Aqua Class, I agree the price points are pretty bad right now to the point where we decided to go regular verandah and do 4 dinner specialty deal.  

Edited July 13, 2019 by hubofhockey

[NantahalaCruiser]

7 hours ago, hubofhockey said:

With respect to Aqua Class, I agree the price points are pretty bad right now to the point where we decided to go regular verandah and do 4 dinner specialty deal.  

Same here. Last I checked, an A2 on my Sep Reflection cruise was about $100 pp per night more than my 1A (1B loyalty fare) with a much better location (slant hump cabin with large balcony.)

[emmas gran]

We have booked a island holiday for 2020 going to the Maldives for 11 nights --a water villa with jaccuzzi and all inclusive incl air for £5000 total. Its one item off the bucket list and we have to think about future cruises after our Nov 2020 cruise. All our cruises from Oct 2019 to Nov 2020 are with friends so that is the reason for doing them.