Price of a cruise higher for an infant than for an 3rd adult/child?

[European_CruiseGirl]

Could someone explain me the rationale behind this? My TA just called and quoted me the price for a 10-day HAL Med cruise for me, DH and DD (11 months when we are cruising).

 

The price for our DD will be $701. If she would have been 24 months --> the price for her would have been only $324. The same $324 would have been applied for a 3rd adult in the same cabin. My first response was that "ok let's book DD as an over 2 year old child" but no that cannot be done as the TA and cruise line need her date of birth...

 

The cruise is quite expensive as it is already so the $377 is not a deal breaker. Still I feel quite bummed as I cannot understand how an infant can cost more than an older child or a 3rd adult in the same cabin. :confused:

 

Is the cruise line trying to tell us that:

 

1. we do not want to see anyone under the age of 2 on our ships?

or

2. we are trying to compensate on the fact that your infant won't be purchasing any expensive drings/soda's etc. and won't create us the same revenue as an older passenger would?

or

3. something else?

 

I even checked the pricing from HAL's web pages and although the prices are a bit different (adult/child $808 vs. infant $397) the price difference remains approximately the same.

 

We have sailed HAL many times with DH and really like the cruise line and want to cruise with them. As our DD is so young she won't participate in any childrens activities anyway so that's not an issue for us yet.

[rebeccalouise]

That does seem really odd.

 

The only possible thing I can think of is that you couldn't get one of the smallest staterooms because there wouldn't be enough room for a crib. So your agent had to get you another type of cabin. The price increases for the third and forth passenger based on the type of accomodation.

[European_CruiseGirl]

I even checked the pricing from HAL's web pages and although the prices are a bit different (adult/child $808 vs. infant $397) the price difference remains approximately the same.

 

 

And now I just noticed that the above mentioned is not correct. The price on HAL's web pages is $397 for an adult/child and $808 for an infant... So it's the same kind of difference than the one that was quoted from the TA. This is so strange... How can an infant cost more than an adult?

[PEMCO007]

Our friends have had the same situation with RCCL, where the child (9) is £700 ish and the infant £900 crazy! We sailed with P&O earlier in the yr and infant and child prices were next to nothing, however adult paid more so I guess it evens itself out as our adult price was better in comparision. I do find it hard to justify paying such a big fare for an infant who wont be eating on the ship or being able to participate in many activities so I think i would personally have the adult price loaded to make me feel my infant was cheaper, imo.

Rachaelx

[Twickenham]

There's only one possible explanation I can see for this, although odd: that for some reason, the 3rd/4th adult price has been discounted, but not the infant rate. I've seen where the 1st/2nd person rate has been discounted, but not the 3rd/4th passenger rate, making that rate more expensive! What's even odder is that the infant brochure rate for most cruises is less than adult 3rd/4th passengers.

Whatever the explanation, I would kick and scream over this one until you get some sort of discount/resolution. The infant may not be spending in the casino/bars, but isn't using most of the services on board either.

[Kerry's Girls]

This happened to me quite frequently with airfares - where the infant fare would be more expensive than the adult fare because the adult fare had been discounted, but not the infant fare.

 

I think your guess about the revenue is probably the closest to correct. Ships count on adults spending money once on board, so it's worth it to them to discount adults fares just to get them on the ship to spend money (which is why they will keep discounting until a ship is full). It's not about how much it costs to sail the person, it's about revenue on a ship that's sailing anyway. So they don't discount infant fares, since the infant won't drink as many margaritas as an adult. :rolleyes:

 

Best,

Mia

[crusinmama06]

Huh?

 

Yeah that would tick me off. And PemCo, RCCL doesn't differentiate (in the US) between 3rd/4th adult or child. So I am wondering if this is a European TA thing. :confused:

[Twickenham]

Huh?

 

Yeah that would tick me off. And PemCo, RCCL doesn't differentiate (in the US) between 3rd/4th adult or child. So I am wondering if this is a European TA thing. :confused:

 

Nope; it's a HAL thing. They have different 3rd/4th adult/child rates on all their cruises - which usually works in the favour of families, as like I said, the brochure rates are significantly less for 3rd/4th child.

[Shaylot]

That sounds crazy and would be a deal breaker for me. We are cruising NCL for exactly that reason: DS (under 2) cruises essentially free. I don't know if that is a feasible option for you (given location, interests etc.) but I thought I'd suggest...

[GOLDENBONNY]

Could someone explain me the rationale behind this? My TA just called and quoted me the price for a 10-day HAL Med cruise for me, DH and DD (11 months when we are cruising).

 

The price for our DD will be $701. If she would have been 24 months --> the price for her would have been only $324. The same $324 would have been applied for a 3rd adult in the same cabin. My first response was that "ok let's book DD as an over 2 year old child" but no that cannot be done as the TA and cruise line need her date of birth...

 

The cruise is quite expensive as it is already so the $377 is not a deal breaker. Still I feel quite bummed as I cannot understand how an infant can cost more than an older child or a 3rd adult in the same cabin. :confused:

 

Is the cruise line trying to tell us that:

 

1. we do not want to see anyone under the age of 2 on our ships?

or

2. we are trying to compensate on the fact that your infant won't be purchasing any expensive drings/soda's etc. and won't create us the same revenue as an older passenger would?

or

3. something else?

 

I even checked the pricing from HAL's web pages and although the prices are a bit different (adult/child $808 vs. infant $397) the price difference remains approximately the same.

 

We have sailed HAL many times with DH and really like the cruise line and want to cruise with them. As our DD is so young she won't participate in any childrens activities anyway so that's not an issue for us yet.

 

 

HMMM,I got same price for my 1 yo and my 17 y.o in my cabin,so maybe they just dont want kids on board for your cruise?:confused:

[PEMCO007]

The best about it (or not) is the fare i mentioned was only cruise only wiht no airfare included, so it was quite excesive imo, however we left it pretty late to book for a christmas cruise and i really wanted a rest this xmas so i hope it is worth it.

[European_CruiseGirl]

Hi, Thank you for everyone who has kindly replied. I sent an e-mail yesterday to HAL asking about this issue. I did not mention that I had a TA involved - just said that I noticed this pricing on their web pages and could they clarify their pricing policies for me.

 

This is what I got as an answer:

 

"Dear Mrs. XXX,

 

Thank you for your recent correspondence with Holland America Line. We would be delighted to welcome one of our valued Mariners back on board.

Please contact our international partners below for pricing."

 

Hmm... I'm not impressed. This is so sad as DH and I really like the HAL experience. One reason why we would like to cruise with HAL (other than the fact that we like their overall package) is that they have full room service avail so that if our DD becomes cranky some of the evenings we can just order our dinner from the main dining room's full list to our suite.

 

I would be sort of ok for this pricing (it would irritate me but as I said it wouldn't be a deal breaker) but DH is really annoyed and says that he's not going to pay the higher fare for DD. So I suppose that if we do not get this resolved we have to look for another cruise line. This is such a shame. :( Someone already suggested NCL. We would be able to book a Courtyard Villa for the same price as we would for HAL's suite but their itinerary doesn't include Greece which we would really like. However the idea of a Courtyard Villa... :D

 

That being said I would very much appreciate your help in suggesting alternative cruise lines. We are looking for a more subdued environment, nice suite with lot's of room and (as I already mentioned before) very good room service. I have understood (perhaps incorrectly?) that for example with RCCL it doesn't matter if you book one of their suite class cabins, you still do not get full room service (meaning also hot dishes and the possibility to order directly from the main dining room's menu during dinner time).

 

Thank's again for your kind help! :)

[Twickenham]

I tried a dummy booking on HAL's site for a random 10-day Mediterranean cruise in July. I was right - when I put in an age for the 3rd person of 1 year, the price was not discounted, but when I changed the age to 3, a discount appeared. As a 3-year old is still a child, I don't think that it's an issue of not wanting children on board... Indeed, HAL has been actively courting the family market in recent years.

 

While I very much enjoyed my NCL cruise a few years back, I'm not sure they are on par with HAL in terms of atmosphere/sophistication. I loved Princess, however, so you might want to look at their itineraries (and I do believe they go to Greece).

 

Personally, I'm the stubborn type. I would call and write HAL until I got a satisfactory explanation, and got a reasonable price for my infant. Squeaky wheel/oil, and all that...

[European_CruiseGirl]

Thanks Twickenham...

 

About Princess - does anyone know about their age policies? I checked some prices from a large US based online TA and they noted that:

 

"Infants are considered passengers and are charged the applicable rate based on the # of people in the cabin"

 

Also they said that the age of infants is 18-35 months on Princess. However when I checked the Princess site directly they say:

 

"Children over six (6) months of age at the date of sailing will be accepted on the following itineraries: Alaska, Canada & New England, Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, Transcanal and Australia & New Zealand (coastal cruise only)."

 

So has this changed or has the online TA wrong info? Or does it mean that the infants under the age of 18 months don't cost a thing? No, this cannot be the case...

 

I would anyhow like to research a bit before contacting my own TA again. The itineraries of Princess seem nice but I'd like to know about the prices as well...

[Essiesmom]

Their statement about age has nothing to do with pricing, but liability. A child must be a full six months to sail, except on transoceanic and exoctic itineraries, when they must be at least one year old. This has to do with the availability of medical care for infants. How about Regent Seven Seas, and Oceania? And you have some other lines in Europe that are not marketed to us, such as Thomson, Fred Olsen, Pullmantur, Haoag-Lloyd, Phoenix Reisen...EM

[Kerry's Girls]

Thanks Twickenham...

 

About Princess - does anyone know about their age policies? I checked some prices from a large US based online TA and they noted that:

 

"Infants are considered passengers and are charged the applicable rate based on the # of people in the cabin"

 

Also they said that the age of infants is 18-35 months on Princess. However when I checked the Princess site directly they say:

 

"Children over six (6) months of age at the date of sailing will be accepted on the following itineraries: Alaska, Canada & New England, Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, Transcanal and Australia & New Zealand (coastal cruise only)."

 

So has this changed or has the online TA wrong info? Or does it mean that the infants under the age of 18 months don't cost a thing? No, this cannot be the case...

 

I would anyhow like to research a bit before contacting my own TA again. The itineraries of Princess seem nice but I'd like to know about the prices as well...

 

On Princess, children and adults are charged exactly the same no matter what their age, so if a child will be the 3rd passenger in your cabin, they are charged the 3rd person rate. When I travel with my twins there are three of us - one adult and 2 children. I pay full price for the first two passengers and the 3rd passenger rate for the 3rd.

 

It's best not to rely on the Princess (or any other) cruise line site for the most up to date information, because minimum ages are changing across all the lines. You or your travel agent should call and ask what the rule is. Make sure your agent isn't using a brochure or other printed information that could be out of date - someone here encountered that problem. Best for one of you (or both) to call.

 

And we love Princess. Even though they charge the same for adults/children, very often our total trip costs the same or similar to what we'd spend on lines that offer "deals" on kids' fares.

 

Best,

Mia

[European_CruiseGirl]

Hi everyone,

 

Just wanted to give you an update... We changed TA's and the new one was able to give us:

 

1) a far better total price than the previous TA ($10.000 vs. $11.000... and the cabin category in the $10.000 deal is higher than what we had for the $11.000 deal)

2) the discount for the infant also

 

So we are now booked and I'm soooooo happy! :)

[ugen512]

NCL and Disney are the only ones that offer discounts for children. NCL is 2 and under and Disney is under 6(under 2 pay only port/taxes). RCL, PCL, CCL, Cel all charge the same no matter what age. HAL used to charge higher for infants due to the fact that their average traveler is 60+ and they actually capacity control the amount of toddlers/children onboard. Any cruise line can capacity control this but HAL is the leader.

[CatherineL]

I am also looking at HAL cruises for the Med in 09. We are finding really low prices for children - £80 on one site and $180 on another. And that was for older kids on all cabins, aside from suites. Also HAL's own website seemed to have good deals for children, so you should shop round.

[cb at sea]

I'd wait until baby was 24 months to sail HAL, if that's the case!