In This Issue
February 2023
- Saving On Booking A Cruise
- Big Fun At Sea
- Change Is In The Air
How To Save In Booking A Cruise
Getting the best deal on booking a cruise is a process very much like getting the best airfare. Like all businesses, cruise lines want to get the most for every cabin and, like the airlines at the moment of departure, anything unsold has no future value. Economists call these items non-fungible, meaning they cannot be sold or exchanged in the future. Over the course of twenty years we’ve discovered a few tricks in the cruise booking game.
Start By Just Doing Some Comparison Shopping
Like the cost of everything, cruise prices are based on market conditions. Prices vary by each cruise line, the various itineraries, the time of year and the cruise’s popularity.
Just like hotels and restaurants, cruise lines are generally priced based on their reputation, expected level of service and their focus clientele. Carnival, an economy line, is structured to appeal to a younger clientele looking a fun vacation – think “The Fun Ships”. Royal Caribbean, a mid-range price point, focuses on young families with a big emphasis on their kids program. Celebrity, is a somewhat higher priced choice, with focus on an older demographic with higher expectations in service. Taking a quick look at a number of similar cruises will quickly give you an idea how this pricing range works.
Some itineraries are more popular than others and pricing reflects this difference. Alaska can be more expensive than the Caribbean and trans-Atlantic cruises are usually much less expensive than European cruises.
Finally, the time of year has a huge effect on pricing. The easiest example is Caribbean cruise prices in August compared with October. While summer is usually off-season in the Caribbean it is also school break time. By October the kids are back in school and demand has dropped accordingly and so have the fares.
Seven Steps To Getting The Best Deal
Look at Add-On Expenses You’re Likely to Use
In addition to the cabin rate, you should also consider onboard expenses you are likely to incur. Included services vary by cruise lines and frequent cruiser status. In addition, most cruise lines are now offering onboard packages that can include laundry, internet, sodas, fancy coffees and bar drinks. Another major onboard expense to consider is shore excursions.
Make sure you understand what things are included in a cruise or what they are likely to cost during your cruise. For example, some cruises include all drinks while others charge $500.00 or more for a drink package and paying for individual drinks can run up a serious bar tab. Be honest about what you expect to want on the cruise. Making this price comparison may actually justify the expense of an upgrade.
Decide What You Want In A Stateroom
Picking a cabin category isn’t as straight forward as you would think. Most people assume that an inside cabin is the choice for saving money and, often it is, but not always. More and more the cruise lines are offering free add-ons as a sales promotion. These can include prepaid gratuities, drink packages and onboard credits. Sometimes incentives include one and at times all three. Often, inside cabins do not qualify for these free add-ons and that can have a big impact on the overall cost of the cruise.
When you consider a reservation, this can be a false economy. When these promotions are being offered, an ocean view or veranda cabin can be less expensive than an inside cabin. Just like in airfare pricing there have been cruises where an inside cabin costs more to book. This often happens when you book early and the cruise ship is trying to keep these cabins in reserve for a number of reasons.
When we select a cruise we often let the itinerary dictate which cabin we want. Long ago we decided that we have no problem with inside cabins. On most cruises we actually spend very little time in our cabin so upgrading means little. On one cruise we were upgraded to an owner’s suite and while spacious and beautiful, it really seemed a waste of space and certainly would not be worth it to us if we had to pay full price. On a trans-Atlantic, an inside cabin is fine with us but, in Alaska, getting a veranda cabin usually is a must. Often it is all about the view.
Book Early
Many times the best prices are available when a cruise is first announced. After the initial listing period the cruise company can decide that the cruise is getting a good response and the simple rule of supply and demand allows them to increase fares.
Unlike airlines, the cruise company often allows you to take advantage of price reductions right up to the final payment date. That policy usually includes reduced fares, upgrading the cabin or taking advantage of free add-ons.
There are also situations where the opposite strategy can produce big savings. That is last minute bookings, usually only a few days or weeks before sailing. Faced with empty cabins and no revenue, many cruise lines will offer super last-minute discounts. This is partly because the cabin fare is only part of the potential revenue from each passenger. Casinos, drink sales and tour fees add up to big money. We generally do not use this option in our planning but will take advantage of last minute cruises if the price is too good to pass up.
Always Book While Onboard A Cruise
The likelihood of a passenger returning to the same cruise line is actually very high and with frequent cruiser programs the likelihood is even greater. Most ships have a future booking office onboard and to get you to commit they offer additional incentives. These may include fare discounts, greatly reduced deposits and special free add-ons. Since you can take advantage of price changes or switch cruises up to 90 days before the cruise and also get your deposit refunded if you cancel, this is a great opportunity*.
Watch and Take Advantage of Incentives
Even after you have confirmed a reservation and put down a deposit you can take advantage of special incentives. If you are a member of a buying group (Groupon, AAA, AARP), or an online travel service (Expedia, PriceLine) that sends you emails of special offers, get in the habit of reviewing these on a regular basis. If you see a good offer, see if you can add it to your reservation. Most times these offers are not exclusive regardless of what the travel agency says.
After You Book Keep Watching the Fares
As likely as fares are to go up, price reductions also happen, but you can’t take advantage of them if you don’t know about them. Get in the habit of regularly checking the prices on cruises you have already booked looking for opportunities to save or upgrade.
Work with a Good Travel Agent
There may not be such a thing as a free lunch, but travel agents are actually free (at least to you) when booking a cruise. We strongly recommend getting to know a good travel agent and getting in the habit of booking everything through them. They actually will appreciate the business and most consider it their job to help you manage saving money. They are also much more effective at dealing with the cruise lines when getting fares reduced or adding on incentives. Your way to contact the cruise line is to call a company inside agent but the travel agent has a marketing representative that they routinely deal with and have less difficulty negotiating changes.
Also, if your agent is affiliated with one of the growing super agencies, they can offer you specials provided by their agency in addition to the cruise line. Often their agency has packaged a popular cruise as a group rate and they can add you to the group and get you an additional discount, onboard credit or freebees. At times they also offer their own promotional specials like a free port tour or an additional onboard credit.
The best way to connect with a good agent is to ask friends or fellow travelers for their recommendation and ask questions about their experiences.
The Exclusive Deals That Really Aren’t
In closing, you need to understand the truth about all those agency advertised specials. Everyone sees ads or gets emails from travel agencies constantly screaming about their exclusive special deals from this or that cruise line. Usually the truth is they are not exclusive deals and they are cleverly misrepresenting the price structure**. Does “Cruises from $499.00 with a $700.00 onboard credit” seem odd? It may be true that an inside cabin can be booked for $499.00 but it is not eligible for any onboard credit; the $700.00 credit is only for a suite. We have rarely found a unique special offer but if we see one that seems interesting it can be a clue that there are price reductions happening with a particular cruise line. Contact your agent to find out if this opportunity is available.
*Unfortunately, in the last year, a number of cruise companies have started adopting a policy of non-refundable deposits and this changes the process some. Currently, cruise lines are offering lower fares for those non-refundable deposits so this is going to cause some rethinking of how you address some booking in the future.
**To be fair there are some deals that can be exclusive to a travel agency but in most cases the agency had an opportunity to reserve a group that gives them an additional discount. This allows them to give away some of the discount to promote a lowered fare.
Big Fun At Sea
Once upon a time cruising meant deck chairs out on deck with a good book, but not anymore. Chamber music, cocktails, formal dining, out on deck reading or playing shuffleboard have given way to sky diving, go-karts, rock-wall climbing and surfing. If yours is an active family and you’re into sports and games todays cruise ships are competing for you business with more and more exotic pastimes.
Go-kart tracks at sea were unveiled in 2017 on Norwegian Joy and Norwegian Bliss, and were huge hits. Now Norwegian has dreamed up an even bigger go-kart experience for its latest vessel, Norwegian Encore.
Many of Royal Caribbean’s ships offer a surfing simulator called the Flow Rider and now Quantum of the Seas and Anthem of the Seas offer Ripcord by iFly where guests can experience the thrill of skydiving out on a cruise.
Thrill seekers on Carnival can get a bird’s eye view from the SkyRide suspended coaster course, play miniature golf or immerse themselves in a 3-D experience at the ship’s IMAX theater.
Many cruise ships now offer climbing walls, 3D mazes, water flumes, zip lines and even ice skating. So next cruise put those books away and push your envelope a bit. Before you next booking take a look at the ships onboard activities and see if there might be an activity that’s a bit more exciting.
Miniature golf, croquet lawns and climbing features are becoming more and more popular.
With Cruising A Change Is In The Air
Maybe it’s inevitable considering the financial hits Covid inflicted on the cruise industry and maybe the pressure is just too strong, but it seems that now cruising is having to find ways to recover some of those losses. Most cruise lines have decades of experience understanding what’s most important to their passengers and areas where they can start cutting corners without a lot of blowback.
In the most recent SEC 10-Q filing by Royal Caribbean for 2022, the company is still reporting a net loss even after a revenue increase of almost nine times over 2021. The picture is difficult to grasp considering the amounts of borrowing, the huge cost of new ships entering service and the effects of inflation on fuel and food but the trend lines seem still in the right direction. Additionally post-Covid cruise prices have gone up considerably and one has to assume that this is helping the companies recover.
A Note Of Caution – Much of our observations are limited to our recent cruises but we have spoken with a number of friends that are frequent cruisers who have noticed similar issues.
Over the years one area that we’ve noticed off and on is the number of staterooms assigned to cabin attendants. While we’re sure the attendants notice, the average passenger is not aware this occurs. We started cruising post Covid in October 2021 and on the first two cruises didn’t notice this issue (*there may be an additional explanation here). Our last cruise was in January 2023 and in talking with some attendants they felt it started happening last October 2022.
Our cruise last January highlighted another area that seems to be a new economy move. The number of servers in bars and lounges seems to have been reduced. On more than a couple of occasions it took us more than 15 or 20 minutes to get served our first drink – a new experience (**at first this seems like a false saving as cruise ships in the past made a fair percentage of their revenue on drinks sales).
Onboard entertainment, casinos, speciality restaurants and events so far don’t seem to be effected but the area that concerns us the most right now is dining. Many cruise lines seem to be rolling out new menus in the main dining rooms and on the our last cruise the buffet was noticeably reduced in selections. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been so noticeable if those buffets weren’t so over the top in the past.
Another possibility that was mentioned by other cruisers along with some staff is actually more concerning. It is the possibility of the introduction of a tiered system that is dividing ships in the fleets into service classes. It’s suggested that older and smaller ships are seeing food and service down graded while the newer and larger ships are maintaining their standards. While this seems to make sense it also seems to us as full of risks. In our case we’ve taken over sixty cruises and more and more we select based on itineraries over the ship.
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