Crazy pricing

[tallnthensome]

8 minutes ago, gabbygal99 said:

I was looking at the one too! I currently have one balcony and one inside cabin booked on the Dawn for the July 2 British Isles sailing next summer, with FAS and airfare from Boston- for $11k and change. 
 

I can get these two cabins on this Carnival itinerary for $6700 total, and then buy airfare, wifi, and a drinks package (we always book independent excursions) - for probably a lot less than the extra $4600 I’m paying to NCL. 
 

Now you're talking...... The money saved for us four will help with airfare and some great tours as well. Good plan and you'll feel like you got a deal which makes the cruise that much better. I don't want to feel like I'm getting taken $$$ even before I take my cruise. 

[deliver42]

I don't sail Carnival, but I do sail RCCL, Celebrity, MSC, and Princess. I'm booked now on the Celebrity Beyond (brand new ship) with Premium drinks, wi-fi, $300.00 OBC, and Grats for $3252.00, sailing Dec 4th. Why in the world would I pay NCL on the Prima for 2023, same date, $5700.00 plus grats, and no OBC. Plus on Celebrity the drink packages, all of them , include specialty coffees, water, and soft drinks. I know some people are married to NCL, but to me it makes no sense. I'm also booked on MSC for next May in the Yacht Club on the Divina ( an older ship) for $5052.00, which is comparable to NCL's Haven.

[Trimone]

London is nowhere near Dover?

[david_sobe]

If you can, never book a cruise during Xmas or holidays.  Been there done that.  If you have options book in January/February when prices are at their lowest.

I was looking at prices the other night and believe it or not studio prices are similar for Encore and Prima.  Go figure!  They had a sailaway rate inside room on Prima for $988.  I thought that was pretty good considering how new and nice the inside cabins are on Prima.  Now that price was only for one week, the other weeks were hundreds more and not sail away rates. 

[mpcaruth]

There are still some good deals on NCL.  3rd & 4th guest sailing free (non prime dates), make a quad cabin very economical. We are booked in a quad balcony cabin on the Escape in January for less than $2450. However, my husband and I sailed Carnival to Bermuda in an oceanview earlier this year for less than $700.

[tallnthensome]

58 minutes ago, Trimone said:

London is nowhere near Dover?

Are you asking or telling people that ? What point are you trying to make? Kind if like Rome and Civitavecchia

Edited August 27, 2022 by tallnthensome

[tallnthensome]

58 minutes ago, deliver42 said:

I don't sail Carnival, but I do sail RCCL, Celebrity, MSC, and Princess. I'm booked now on the Celebrity Beyond (brand new ship) with Premium drinks, wi-fi, $300.00 OBC, and Grats for $3252.00, sailing Dec 4th. Why in the world would I pay NCL on the Prima for 2023, same date, $5700.00 plus grats, and no OBC. 

You don't....... you do exactly what you did and got it right. 

[Sailing12Away]

3 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

I guess you really don't understand or have cruised enough on multiple lines or cruising long enough period to know that some cruises that are more destination cruises like Alaska and Europe don't require the fanciest and newest ships to make it a great cruise. When you spend a lot of time off the ship or have few sea days there is less of a point to spend more in order to see the same things. If you are jusr cruising for the ship itself that may be different. There is nothing about NCL that justifies it to be double or slightly more now than the other lines when they have not improved anything. I still like NCL and our last trip on the 15 day full Panama Canal trip on the Bliss a couple years ago was wonderful .....at $5900. Not the $10,000 they want now. It's not justifying why the other lines are cheaper when the real question is why anyone would think NCL is worth double the cost..... it's not and foolish to think it is. I've done Princess, Holland, MSC, NCL, Royal, Carnival.....multiple times and NCL is just a notch above Carnival. Still not seeing anyone listing any "deals" on NCL. 

Just because your family doesn't need or want a nice ship experience when sailing port intensive trips doesn't mean the same applies to the rest of us.  It's not about having laser tag or race cars available, for some of us it's how we're treated on the ship or being able to just sit and relax between those ports doing things enjoyable to us. The average time at a port is only ~10 hours, so to say that the ship doesn't matter at all is just silly. We sailed a port intensive Greek Isles cruise with RCC last year and it wasn't for us. The suite experience on their smaller, older ships is nothing compared to NCL, nor was the entertainment options anywhere close. After getting back on the ship we were bored and underwhelmed with the food and drink options - never experienced that with NCL. We were often in bed by 9pm, which is odd for us. Different strokes for different folks, which is why it's nice we all have options when it comes to which cruise we ultimately decide to book.

 

As for the deals your not seeing, you need to re-read my post as it was stated right in there for a sailing on the Getaway next month. There are many to be found for folks with the time or interest to fine them.

 

1 hour ago, Trimone said:

You can book a land based holiday in 5 star accommodation in a premium resort for 50% cheaper than any NCL cruise.

So? To me they're not the same vacation. Pre-Covid I had priced out a trip to Hawaii as a 2 island land tour as well as a week on POA stopping at 4 islands. The prices were similar, until you added in the extra expense of food and drinks that were not included in the land tour. Plus the fact that traveling to the other islands would take up a lot of our time to spend there (getting to the airport, waiting for the flight, flying, getting from the airport to the new hotel, etc), and the clear winner for us was the cruise. No muss, no fuss, go to bed and magically wake up in a new place without having the hassle of actually traveling there.

 

The allure of a cruise for us is being able to easily see a bunch of places without having to worry about the planning or logistics of getting to them all. When we have limited vacation time available, I don't want to spend 1/3 of it getting to/from each destination. When we find a place we really enjoy, we return for a land visit there to focus on things we couldn't see on just a short cruise stop.

[tallnthensome]

3 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

 

 

Alas, guess who's heading on a nine day Haven cruise for less than $8k total? 

I don't know, maybe your neighbor? Your co-worker? Your Uber driver?  The original poster started this thread about high pricing,  not me. I just tend to agree with a lot of others and with the amount of likes I received on some of my prior posts many agree with my thoughts  . Anyhow ..... Moving on to other things .......

[spanishguy1970]

55 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

I don't care what you do with your cruises and your money. If you want to pay double the cruise fare for "treatment" and to relax.... (because you cant get that elsewhere?) go ahead  if you want . NCL's CEO has you ...... I've sailed NCL enough and the treatment and relaxation is no different ...... they are are all similar but whatever ..... When a CEO says he's going to charge you as much as possible that doesn't sit well with most people and they don't embrace it. 

LOL ncl has never made money on us. If we don't find the deal we want we simply don't go. We have considered celebrity but when it comes to NCL we don't buy the bells and whistles..We are currently on two cruises. One we got 3200 dollars for 16 days coming this November on the Escaple in an ocean view cabin, the price went down and we moved to a Balcony, price went down again and we got money back before final payment. We just booked another cruise on the Epic, 749 each inside guarantee for 15 days next April, we used our diamond to get a Balcony, no dinner package, no drinking package and good onboard credit. I agree with you, NCL prices have gone through the roof.

[MotownVoice]

2 hours ago, Trimone said:

London is nowhere near Dover?

eh?

 

People drive this distance to work every single day. 
 

Both ways!  
 

 

[Travelling2Some]

7 minutes ago, MotownVoice said:

eh?

 

People drive this distance to work every single day. 
 

Both ways!  
 

 

 

8 minutes ago, MotownVoice said:

eh?

 

People drive this distance to work every single day. 
 

Both ways!  
 

 

It's a one hour train ride, which may make it a bit more convenient than Southampton, depending on where you are going before/after. 

[MotownVoice]

8 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

 

It's a one hour train ride, which may make it a bit more convenient than Southampton, depending on where you are going before/after. 

The ride from LHR to the pier in Southampton wasn’t too bad.  But going back when you have a flight to catch was a little hair-raising for me. 
 

I’ve always wanted to see the white sands of Dover.  

Edited August 27, 2022 by MotownVoice

[Travelling2Some]

Anyone could see the serious inflation coming a mile away.  Last year I put (refundable) deposits on any and all cruises we were interested in as soon as they were available to nail down the price.  Very glad I did.  If you don't like the prices for the Prima have a look at the Viva, which is the same ship.

[CptAleSpill]

4 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Anyone could see the serious inflation coming a mile away.  Last year I put (refundable) deposits on any and all cruises we were interested in as soon as they were available to nail down the price.  Very glad I did.

That's always a good plan, inflation or not.

[Travelling2Some]

1 minute ago, MotownVoice said:

The ride from LHR to the pier in Southampton wasn’t too bad.  But going back when you have a flight to catch was a little hair-raising for me. 
 

I’ve always wanted to see the white sands of Dover.  

There are a lot of chalk cliffs in the south of England.  However I do remember seeing the White Cliffs of Dover on the way out of Southampton.  I guess it would depend on which direction you were traveling, of course.  I know the cliffs are right there if you are in Dover.  We never fly in or out the same day.  Don't need the drama (especially now) plus I want to see the place I've flown to.  

[gabbygal99]

4 hours ago, deliver42 said:

I don't sail Carnival, but I do sail RCCL, Celebrity, MSC, and Princess. I'm booked now on the Celebrity Beyond (brand new ship) with Premium drinks, wi-fi, $300.00 OBC, and Grats for $3252.00, sailing Dec 4th. Why in the world would I pay NCL on the Prima for 2023, same date, $5700.00 plus grats, and no OBC. Plus on Celebrity the drink packages, all of them , include specialty coffees, water, and soft drinks. I know some people are married to NCL, but to me it makes no sense. I'm also booked on MSC for next May in the Yacht Club on the Divina ( an older ship) for $5052.00, which is comparable to NCL's Haven.

We have sailed Carnival twice, 10 years ago - once to try it out and the second time a few months later because my husband won the poker tournament on the first cruise and it came with a seat at the big poker tournament during the second cruise. We didn’t sail Carnival again after that, but now that it’s been 10 years, I can’t remember WHY we didn’t want to sail again, so I figure it can’t be that bad??? Haha

 

We’ve sailed Princess (3), Carnival (2), Costa (1), RCCL (1), and NCL (3).
 

Maybe I should check out MSC and RCCL again…

[backsbanny]

I really love NCL. Used to only cruise with them. Currently though i have only one cruise booked with NCL. A 10 night cruise on a balcony on Celebrity edge that i booked was cheaper than 7 nights on the Joy. Celebrity has way better food and service and still is cheaper. Even for New Zealand i booked on Royal Princess 13 nights cruise ( return from Sydney)on a balcony which was exactly half the money than if i booked Spirit which was by the way 12 nights repositioning to Auckland ( way higher airline fare). I believe that currently NCL has crazy prices for the experience they offer and this comes from someone that has done more than 15 cruises on NCL and almost 10 combined on all the other lines. Currently my first choice is Celebrity followed by Princess and Royal. I hope that in the future they will bring the prices back to a more acceptable level… I still enjoy extremely their product even though all the citbacks that started as soon as Sheenah left the company

[tallnthensome]

33 minutes ago, backsbanny said:

I really love NCL. Used to only cruise with them. Currently though i have only one cruise booked with NCL. A 10 night cruise on a balcony on Celebrity edge that i booked was cheaper than 7 nights on the Joy. Celebrity has way better food and service and still is cheaper. Even for New Zealand i booked on Royal Princess 13 nights cruise ( return from Sydney)on a balcony which was exactly half the money than if i booked Spirit which was by the way 12 nights repositioning to Auckland ( way higher airline fare). I believe that currently NCL has crazy prices for the experience they offer and this comes from someone that has done more than 15 cruises on NCL and almost 10 combined on all the other lines. Currently my first choice is Celebrity followed by Princess and Royal. I hope that in the future they will bring the prices back to a more acceptable level… I still enjoy extremely their product even though all the citbacks that started as soon as Sheenah left the company

^^^^^ This .....spot on. 

[Trimone]

7 hours ago, MotownVoice said:

eh?

 

People drive this distance to work every single day. 
 

Both ways!  
 

 

Are you aware of the train strikes, plus by road you have traffic congestion, I don’t think anyone would be able to commute presently.

[spacewoman]

23 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

Meh, every cruise line offers discounted pricing during off peak season during the months you mention. I guess it comes down to what the individual feels is a good deal and what worth they get out of what their paying. 

 

I have cruises booked with Celebrity, MSC, Carnival, and NCL but will most likely be canceling my NCL Candada New England cruise . Booked 12 days to Europe (Iceland, Scotland, Ireland)  next August on Carnival for four in an extended balcony for $3500. A similar 11 day comparable on NCL to the same area and balcony is $10,000. Booked the brand new to come Carnival Jubilee for August 2024 four people in extended balcony for $1700. The cheapest 7 day on the old NCL breakaway same week 2024 comparable is $5000  today. My Alaska cruise I took two weeks ago was twice as much on NCL. I don't see how anyone is getting any sort of deal at all looking forward when the pricing gap is that astronomical. I would love to hear or see some deals people are getting on NCL right now just to see and compare. 

I have a Dec 11 out of Canaveral 7 days for 3 for $3131.  I believe it is the same price as the Dec 2020 one I had that was cancelled.  I have a May 11 9 day out of Canaveral for next year that came in at $2009 per person for balcony cabins with 100 OBC my TA threw in.  We price CCL Mardi Gras but it came in higher and then you had to add $585 for the drink package.  I've done previous NCL 9 day many years ago that were $1300 PP but anything and everything has gone up in price.

[Tyler414]

Been on 2 NCL cruises…tried Celebrity in March.  Wow, what a wake up between them.  NCL nickel and dimes you for everything.  Not sure I’ll go back to NCL.  Already have 2 more cruises booked on Celebrity. Tried looking at a comparable 2024 cruise on NCL’s new ships and went straight to book another Celebrity cruise. NCL was a lot more plus the on board nickel and dime BS.  Unless I can get on NCL’s new ships at a lower price than a luxury cruise line like Celebrity, I’m likely done with NCL. 

[RumRunner2021]

17 minutes ago, Tyler414 said:

NCL was a lot more plus the on board nickel and dime BS.

I have sailed NCL many times, and never encountered any "on board nickel and dime BS."  What are you talking about?

[complawyer]

just remember about nickel and dime. this concept comes after you get onboard the ship. at that time, i can only assume you have paid whatever was due, except for shore excusions. simple solution for nickel and dime. dont buy it, dont use it, dont pay for it.

 

i have to agree with rumrunner 2021. what specifically do you feel you are being nickel and dimed.

[PATRLR]

1 hour ago, RumRunner2021 said:

I have sailed NCL many times, and never encountered any "on board nickel and dime BS."  What are you talking about?

A good example is crepes.   For all the NCL ships I've been on they are available in the buffet for free.  But on the Bliss (and I assume all the newer ships), they are only available for an extra charge in some storefront with the ice cream and other goodies (CoCos maybe?).  Something that used to be free but now needs to be paid for.

It may seem minor and just a couple bucks but that's not the point.  It used to be free, and now its not.  

49 minutes ago, complawyer said:

just remember about nickel and dime. this concept comes after you get onboard the ship. at that time, i can only assume you have paid whatever was due, except for shore excusions. simple solution for nickel and dime. dont buy it, dont use it, dont pay for it.

 

i have to agree with rumrunner 2021. what specifically do you feel you are being nickel and dimed.

Sure, one solution is don't buy it.  An alternative solution is to go to a different cruise line that doesn't go out of its way to find new ways to extract money from us on board.  

Just because one solution is "don't buy it" doesn't change the fact that nickel and diming doesn't exist.  C'mon - the most recent earnings call they all but said they were going to ramp up the nickel and diming.