What increased charges should we expect when cruising continues?

[Wannacruise81]

The cruise industry as we all know is hurting financially with this global pandemic.  Some cruise lines taking out loans to help them sustain months of being out of service. To make up their loss in profits, what do you think NCL will do as far as onboard spending/ staffing?

Some scenarios that could happen:

 

All ships with Spice H20 becoming a for fee area like Vibe. Charges for water slides.

 

DSC increased to $20/day

 

Onboard spending :Shore excursions, specialty dining, alcohol, internet price, packages, bingo, price increase.

 

Cut staffing. May have less room stewards which will lead to having your room cleaned once a day instead of twice. Choosing morning or night cleaning. Upcharge to clean 2x a day. Slower service in dining venues.

 

Food cost - less choices in buffet and dining room

 

Less ports, more sea days. More visits to private island.

 

What kind of things do you expect will change cruising after this crisis?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Wannacruise81

[dexddd]

NCL has been doing all those things plus more since FDR took over.

 

Only thing I could add is not refunding cancelled cruises in lieu of FCC.

[dexddd]

I could add a couple more drastic moves but those get deleted.

[mugtech]

Raise the drink package to $150/day so if you get it for "free" the service charge will be $30/day.

[ray98]

You will see none of that in my opinion.  This is going to set the cruise industry back 20 years.  What was a rapidly growing industry will be down and flat for some time to come.  It is not just going to flip back to 'normal' overnight when this starts fading away.  COVID-19 will still be an issue, even if past its peak, months from now.  H1N1 was a full year.  The industry will keep suffering from that and will struggle to fill the ships.

[Georgia_Peaches]

Sure hate to give them any ideas...I'm all for letting them come up with this stuff on their own.

[Lionkingrichard]

No more free flights. It cost them a lot of cash.

[sanger727]

2 hours ago, ray98 said:

You will see none of that in my opinion.  This is going to set the cruise industry back 20 years.  What was a rapidly growing industry will be down and flat for some time to come.  It is not just going to flip back to 'normal' overnight when this starts fading away.  COVID-19 will still be an issue, even if past its peak, months from now.  H1N1 was a full year.  The industry will keep suffering from that and will struggle to fill the ships.

 

This. While the economy was good and ships were sailing full they had the flexibility to increase charges and squeeze every cent they could out of the customer. When they do sail again we will be in a recession, people will be nervous about traveling, and I think they will be doing everything they can just to fill the ships. I think prices are high right now because the only people booking cruises are those with FCC burning a hole in their pocket but I suspect that cruise prices will drop once things start to get back to normal to entice people to spend their more limited incomes on a value based vacation.

[spanishguy1970]

3 hours ago, ray98 said:

You will see none of that in my opinion.  This is going to set the cruise industry back 20 years.  What was a rapidly growing industry will be down and flat for some time to come.  It is not just going to flip back to 'normal' overnight when this starts fading away.  COVID-19 will still be an issue, even if past its peak, months from now.  H1N1 was a full year.  The industry will keep suffering from that and will struggle to fill the ships.

I completely agree.  I believe we wont see the construction of new ships for a while.

[joeyancho]

Toilet paper,  $4.00 per roll + 20% gratuity, for your convenience.  

Edited March 25, 2020 by joeyancho

[ray98]

8 minutes ago, spanishguy1970 said:

I completely agree.  I believe we wont see the construction of new ships for a while.

 

Yup.  There will be no magic switch to fix this.  COVID-19 will still be in existence a year from now, just not at pandemic levels.  That is going to create a level of uncertainty in travel, especially for cruises, for some time.  Then when you add to that the effect on the world economy where the disposable income used for travel shrinks you have a disaster for the industry.

[hallux]

At least Royal, when taking the massive loan the other day, confirmed financing for in-progress and planned new ships.  Maybe NCL isn't as open with new ship progress, but other than knowing the name of the "class" (Leonardo), has steel even been cut yet?

[Trimone]

I think you will see the direct opposite, to gain confidence cruise companies realise safety is the first and only issue,  NCL has suckered cancelled customers to take credits, this will ensure the ships don’t sail empty, however having witnessed the issues with the jade, the indecisive actions, We will forego my status and cruise credits to book with a company who respects and takes care of passengers.

[rachiem]

Travel insurance (if you can get one to cover Covid)

[Cruising Lynne]

I don't expect increased charges when cruising resumes. Why would you want to give NCL any ideas?  The only thing that made me choose cruising over a land based vacation was the perceived value for money. I liked that the food, entertainment , and service were all included in what I thought was a good value. Take that away, and I will stick to land.

[IrieBajan54]

Cancellation of the Leonardo Class or postponement to 2030.

[Laszlo]

Personally I won't set foot on a cruise ship until one of two things happen. One is a get the virus and get over it, Two is I get the vaccine (hopefully it works)

 

Has anyone priced out other vacations in the coming months? I have 4-5 at anyone time in my Expedia folder. On example is 5 nights in Vegas at the Cos. Round trip airfare from PHL. Two months ago is was $2900, three weeks ago it was $1875, today it was $1295..... This was for the middle of June, going to be some great deals......IF we can travel Lol

Edited March 25, 2020 by Laszlo

[david_sobe]

6 pack of hand sanitizer delivered to your stateroom $19.99

18% service charge added for your conveinience 

 

Buy 2 and get one surgical mask FREE

[Jaglady10]

I agree with some of the others...why would you want to give them any ideas???

[graphicguy]

I can’t see them trying to cut anything more than they already have.  Every cruise line is going to try to steal the others’ customers.  Cutting back and/or raising prices will be the final nail for someone like NCL.  They might try, given Del Rio’s past, but they may as well begin the paperwork for bankruptcy right now if they do.

[lt0826]

They can tighten things up and nickel and dime more, but my experience watching casinos do that is they just dig themselves a deeper hole. They can instead do more promotions to draw customers back and go out of their way to provide excellent customer service and to provide a positive experience to gain back loyalty and rebuild their customer base. The latter will work better, but they have to have some liquidity and understanding investors to pull that off.

 

[mianmike]

They will increase the DSC.  NCL knows that's the one price increase that will be defended by the loyal.  It matters not that the crew will not receive a raise. 

[Comi.uy]

As is, even after the Chinese virus drama drops, most people will take a while to return to cruising. I doubt they will be rising prices anytime soon, else they dead...

[mianmike]

8 hours ago, mugtech said:

Raise the drink package to $150/day so if you get it for "free" the service charge will be $30/day.

 

And raise the price of the dining package.  After all the hard working crew deserves the $.  Right!?  

[david_sobe]

I sort of have the opposite opinion.  Cruising is so damaged that the key marketing demo cruise lines have been pursuing is not going to book right away.  The frequent cruisers (most of us here) will book.  But a big portion of passengers are new customers.  I think prices will have to be slashed in a bad economy with fear of cruising in many minds.  Maybe a few fees will always go up but the core price will have to come down, way down.  They expect the unemployment rate in the United States to hit around 16% which has not been that high since the Great Depression.  You really think FDR is going to keep his goal of getting hundreds of dollars more off cruisers?

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by david_sobe