Price increase of 80% for 2021 sailing

[ak1004]

We are booked on Constellation sailing in May 2021 from Barcelona. The price for inside cabin was $2,130 CAD. I just checked Celebrity website and the price went up to $3,800 CAD.

 

At the same time, the price for our Sep.2021 European cruise on Oceania Riviera (newer ship, similar number of nights) went DOWN from $4,400 CAD to $3,400 CAD.

 

So my question is: does Celebrity believe that people will pay more for sailing on Celebrity than on Oceania? Especially considering that in this case it's a 20 years old Celebrity ship compared to 9 years old Oceania ship.

 

What am I missing?

[Fouremco]

Have you compared USD to USD prices? Just curious, as the conversion rates used by the two may vary. Not enough to account for the entire difference, but perhaps some of it.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Supply and demand?

[ECCruise]

Sometimes common sense overrules supply and demand and pax load algorithms.  

One would have to be bonkers to pay more for a Celebrity M class sailing than a similar one on an Oceania O class vessel.

[ak1004]

18 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Have you compared USD to USD prices? Just curious, as the conversion rates used by the two may vary. Not enough to account for the entire difference, but perhaps some of it.

 

Celebrity website shows $2,800 USD for inside cabin, which translates to 1.35 exchange rate. Maybe Oceania has more favorable rate, but the difference should not be too big.

[George C]

Prices go up and down all the time, we booked a sky suite with 4 perks and insurance 7 day cruise on edge for April under 3k per person, thought this was a good deal.

[grandgeezer]

Not so bad, your extra 25% fcc will cover some of it.

[ak1004]

53 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

Supply and demand?

 

Well, maybe people just not aware about price reductions on the other lines? But you are right, if people are willing to pay, there is no reason Celebrity would not charge those prices.

[Ken the cruiser]

On the US websites, the 13 day X cruise on the Connie you referenced with no perks has starting prices of I=$2,644, OV=$2,734 and V=$3,244. On the O's 12 day Riviera cruise (Venice to Rome), the starting "cruise only" prices are I=$2,499, OV=$3,499 and V=$4,049. 

 

However, since the O cruise is one day less, their inside cabin actually costs more if you add the additional $204 pp to the O rate to make up for that 1 day difference. I also noticed all of the other O cabin categories are much higher than X's, even without compensating for the extra day the on the X cruise. But then you do get free dinners at the Riviera's specialty restaurants and one free internet account for the cabin. There is that.

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[ak1004]

54 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

Sometimes common sense overrules supply and demand and pax load algorithms.  

One would have to be bonkers to pay more for a Celebrity M class sailing than a similar one on an Oceania O class vessel.

 

Yea.. with all due respect to Celebrity, personally I would not pay more even for Celebrity newest ships than Oceania oldest ships. We sailed on Azamara R class and it was still a better experience overall than Celebrity Reflection. I do like all of them, but you cannot really compare Celebrity or Princess to Oceania or Azamara.

[ak1004]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

On the US websites, the 13 day X cruise on the Connie you referenced with no perks has starting prices of I=$2,644, OV=$2,734 and V=$3,244. On the O's 12 day Riviera cruise (Venice to Rome), the starting "cruise only" prices are I=$2,499, OV=$3,499 and V=$4,049. 

 

However, since the O cruise is one day less, their inside cabin actually costs more if you add the additional $204 pp to the O rate to make up for that 1 day difference. However, I did notice all of the other O cabin categories are much higher than X's, even without compensating for the extra day the on the X cruise. But then you do get free dinners at the Riviera's specialty restaurants and one free internet account for the cabin. There is that.

 

 

 

 

You are absolutely correct. But Celebrity prices also exclude taxes, so including taxes the price for inside is $2,807 USD. So yes, the extra day on O makes the prices almost the same (O is still slightly cheaper). and yes, O rates also include all non alcoholic drinks, free internet, free dinners in ALL specialty restaurants and more. Only the internet on Celebrity is around $300+ for 13 nights cruise.

 

But you are right that difference between inside and OV or veranda is much higher on O than on Celebrity. But even for those cabins, the difference between O and Celebrity is much smaller now than it used to be, which makes zero sense to me.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, ak1004 said:

 

Yea.. with all due respect to Celebrity, personally I would not pay more even for Celebrity newest ships than Oceania oldest ships. We sailed on Azamara R class and it was still a better experience overall than Celebrity Reflection. I do like all of them, but you cannot really compare Celebrity or Princess to Oceania or Azamara.

We can in one respect. If we want to go on a more relaxing cruise, then a balcony cabin on an O or Az cruise would definitely be our choice. But, if we want to have a more exciting time while onboard with a variety of events to choose from especially on sea days, then we would choose either X or Princess.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

But you are right that difference between inside and OV or veranda is much higher on O than on Celebrity. But even for those cabins, the difference between O and Celebrity is much smaller now than it used to be, which makes zero sense to me.

As @WrittenOnYourHeartmentioned, it's all about supply and demand. Maybe O is having a few issues booking cabins on their future sailings with all that's going on now? If I recall O was advertising a big sale awhile back after the pandemic hit.

[ECCruise]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We can in one respect. If we want to go on a more relaxing cruise, then a balcony cabin on an O or Az cruise would definitely be our choice. But, if we want to have a more exciting time while onboard with a variety of events to choose from especially on sea days, then we would choose either X or Princess.

I agree to a certain extent about activities, depending on your interests.

However, the kind of activities available on Celebrity (many of which won't exist in the future, IMO) like Silent Disco and Love and Marriage game shows and pool competitions really have no appeal to many cruisers.  Plus, for us, way too many revenue events on Celebrity (art auctions, guess the price of the watch, spa presentations) for our tastes.

[ECCruise]

Just an important consideration, for what it is worth.

Anyone who thinks that these cruise lines will actually get these silly prices they are quoting now is living in a dream world.  We are barely in the starting gate of what is going to be a long economic slog and people are treating it like the worst was over long ago.

 

[Miaminice]

Funny, we have three cruises booked for 2021 and 2022. Asia, Eastern Med and New Zealand. Each one had a significant price drop so we upgraded from Aqua to S1 for less or the same price.
 

So the complaint of this topic can’t be generalised...

Edited July 25, 2020 by Miaminice

[Ken the cruiser]

21 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

But you are right that difference between inside and OV or veranda is much higher on O than on Celebrity. But even for those cabins, the difference between O and Celebrity is much smaller now than it used to be, which makes zero sense to me.

From our experience the best time to book a X cruise is when they first get released in the Nov timeframe. Not only do you get to pick the location of your cabin, but the price is usually the cheapest especially on the more popular cruises. And if a better sale comes along, you can refare the booking, whether it's refundable or non-refundable, as many times as you wish before FPDD. It's not uncommon at all for the price of a X fare, as you are noticing about this cruise on the Connie, to go up considerably about a year or so before sailing.

[ak1004]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

From our experience the best time to book a X cruise is when they first get released in the Nov timeframe. Not only do you get to pick the location of your cabin, but the price is usually the cheapest especially on the more popular cruises. And if a better sale comes along, you can refare the booking, whether it's refundable or non-refundable, as many times as you wish before FPDD. It's not uncommon at all for the price of a X fare, as you are noticing about this cruise on the Connie, to go up considerably about a year or so before sailing.

 

This booking was done for us by our friends in Dec.2019 while on board. We paid for our 12 nights cruise on Reflection last September around $2,600 CAD for interior cabin, so $2,100 for Constellation looked reasonable. I can understand 20-30% increase, but the current price is completely out of range, especially considering the current situation.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

 

This booking was done for us by our friends in Dec.2019 while on board. We paid for our 12 nights cruise on Reflection last September around $2,600 CAD for interior cabin, so $2,100 for Constellation looked reasonable. I can understand 20-30% increase, but the current price is completely out of range, especially considering the current situation.

Good point as that was quite the bump. Like I said, it pays to book early with X. We booked a sky suite on an 11 day Caribbean cruise in Nov 2017 which sailed in Jan 2019. By June 2018 the fare went from $3,500 pp to $5,200 pp which was roughly a 33% bump.

[billyu]

Just rebooked today our June 01, 2021 Infinity cruise. Went from an oceanview with no perks at $7400 cnd and to a balcony with 2 perks for $7500 cnd.

 

So this sailing has dropped in price.

Edited July 25, 2020 by billyu

[BEAV]

Just because the prices you’re seeing now are a lot higher doesn’t mean that’s the final words of the last chapter of the book. Which puts us back to the supply and demand conversation. 

 

I’ve read where demand for 2021 is high, to no surprise. No doubt lots of folks have booked and are taking a “wait and see” approach. I’m sure the high current price is a direct response to the sailing’s current available inventory (or lack of). The booking systems are programmed to respond and react to ever-changing inventory levels and price accordingly. In a normal non-pandemic environment think of a New Year’s Eve Hotel in Vegas that sells for $500, but a week later sells for $100. 

 

I’ve been on enough rough roll calls to read of examples where pricing was all over the map during the 2 years the roll call was in existence. And for sure after final payment when there was a large change in inventory levels that brought about bargain-basement “Xciting Deals” rates. 

 

 

[BEAV]

5 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Funny, we have three cruises booked for 2021 and 2022. Asia, Eastern Med and New Zealand. Each one had a significant price drop so we upgraded from Aqua to S1 for less or the same price.
 

So the complaint of this topic can’t be generalised...

 

Exactly. Each sailing is its own universe when it comes to pricing. Again, supply and demand driving the current pricing. 

[ECCruise]

Another factor that I think needs to be considered, especially in early 2021, is that I would be almost certain that masks will be required on those sailings.

Meanwhile, at the same time, I see poster after poster, many who are likely "booked" on those cruises (and affecting the load factors) saying that there is "no way we will sail if masks are required."

My SWAG is that when this all shakes out, especially after final, prices will be half or less of what you are seeing today.

[grandgeezer]

2 hours ago, ECCruise said:

Another factor that I think needs to be considered, especially in early 2021, is that I would be almost certain that masks will be required on those sailings.

Meanwhile, at the same time, I see poster after poster, many who are likely "booked" on those cruises (and affecting the load factors) saying that there is "no way we will sail if masks are required."

My SWAG is that when this all shakes out, especially after final, prices will be half or less of what you are seeing today.

The cruise line, said from the beginning, that when cruising starts back up the ships capacity will be cut back to help with social distancing which will cut back on the supply. That might be enough to negate the people who might cancel. 0 chance that the price is reduced to anything close to 50%. If so, they might as well shutdown and turn the lights off. They have no chance of paying back the massive debt they’ve taken on this year.

[ipeeinthepool]

18 hours ago, ak1004 said:

We are booked on Constellation sailing in May 2021 from Barcelona. The price for inside cabin was $2,130 CAD. I just checked Celebrity website and the price went up to $3,800 CAD.

 

At the same time, the price for our Sep.2021 European cruise on Oceania Riviera (newer ship, similar number of nights) went DOWN from $4,400 CAD to $3,400 CAD.

 

So my question is: does Celebrity believe that people will pay more for sailing on Celebrity than on Oceania? Especially considering that in this case it's a 20 years old Celebrity ship compared to 9 years old Oceania ship.

 

What am I missing?

 

This is normal for Celebrity, they are preparing for BOGO sale where one passenger sails for free.