Crash? I hardly think so. The cruise line industry has less then 10% of the market. RCCL is building two more ships the same size as the Freedom of the Seas, and talking about building an even bigger ship. I don't think they would make such plans if the market didn't demand it. Unless the cost of airfare goes sky high (no pun intended)people are discovering a cruise is the best vacation for their buck. I don't know about other cruise lines, but Royal Caribbean seems to be filling up their ships.
The cost of airfare could very well be the telling factor - I am cruising from the East Coast for the first time, and my airfare was almost as much as my cruise fare - certainly makes one re-think the total cost of the vacation. I don't know that I would sail from the east coast again, and cruises from the west coast are limited. Living so close to Mexico, Mexican cruises aren't a great draw...
You're so right Suzanmaz. I would love to do an Australian/New Zealand cruise--can't afford the air fare. I wanted to do the cruise from Italy to the US. I priced the air fare, round-trip from Venice, $806/pp. Since I wouldn't be going round trip, I priced a split ticket. It shot up the airfare to $1596/pp. Guess I'll have to stick to ports that I can drive to, I really can't swim that far. I don't see the cruise industry tanking anytime soon, in fact, I think there will be new and exciting itineraries to keep customers happy. They may even open up new ports, like Mobile, Tampa, Port Canaveral, etc. To me, it's still the best vacation ever!!
We are more than willing to do all that we can to prevent a cruise industry collapse. Fortunately, the industry still seems to be expandingand as Peny3333 said adding new points of departure. We are very excited that RCL will be sailing from Norfolk, VA in 2007.
Posts: 19 | Location: Virginia Beach, VA - The Villages, FL | Registered: February 03, 2006
I agree, its the airfare that's the killer. As long as Galveston/Houston continues to be a cruising port, we are good! It will get old doing the same itineraries over and over, so as long as the cruise companies can mix it up a bit, that will help.
Without the airfare, the cost of a cruise is probably the best vacation deal going.
CCL Fantasy 1990 CCL Celebration 1995 CCL Victory 2005 CCL Conquest 2005 CCL Spirit June 2006 NCL Dream October 2006 RCCL Mariner OTS June 2007 CCL Freedom June 2008 CCL Holiday July 2008
LisaP I think I subsidize the industry as well. For those of us who live in Canada it is certainly not a bargain once you put the air fare on top. We paid over $200.00 more for the air fare than the cruise cost. I am sure the industry is alive and well at cetain times of the year, but have to think there may be more ships than customers at other times.
The cruise fares that are out these days are, for the most part, discounted and a bargain. If you have to pay $200 more for airfare than for a whole cruise, which includes food, accommodations, entertainment, transport, etc., doesn't that make cruising a bargain?
It is generally thought within the travel industry that cruise prices today are significantly lower than what could (should?)be charged for cruises, if you add up its component parts. Accommodations in the Caribbean or Europe that equal the quality of a ship's accommodations could, by themselves, add up to as much or almost as much on a per deum basis, than what an average cruise costs. Have you priced a hamburger, fries and cola at a Caribbean resort lately?
What keeps costs down to their current levels is the competition, not the actual value of services received for the price paid. I still feel cruises are the biggest vacation bargain around, and that the prices are, indeed, discounted from what you'd pay if you put together the parts yourself.
I agree that cruising is a bargain compared to land vacations. And, packrat that I am, I have all my old cruise documents and see that we are not paying more to cruise today than we did a decade ago.
Still, because my husband's a teacher, we can cruise during peak times only, so we have never been able to benefit from deeply discounted fares. It is rather frustrating, at times. For instance, we are going to Bermuda in late August, and the fares for the same cruise the following week, when school is back in session, are about 30% lower.
Oh, I firmly agree a cruise is a great bargain!!! But as LisaP said, if your tied into certain time periods and they are not the discounted times, you will pay more for the same service that will be offered the next week at a better rate. Definetly the demand causes the price to go up as with most commodities. Alas for the poor consumer.
I guess the demand wasn't as great as they had anticipated for my August cruise. I was about to make final payment, and learned that the fare went down about 20%. My final payment was adjusted accordingly. This is the first time this has ever happened to us, so we're pretty excited.
Still, I don't believe the cruise market is in danger of crashing.
I don't think the cruise market will crash. The demand is on the rise. Maybe, people might just drive to the port (those that can). Lucky for me I just live about an hours drive from Port Canaveral and the Port of Tampa. To go to Port Everglades and Miami will be about 4 to 5 hours driving time for me. The past two cruises of mine, I drove to the port. So, maybe some people might make a roadtrip before and after a cruise. Of course that is not possible with Hawaiian cruises.
I think you guys in the US are pretty lucky, we have paid so much money for airline tickets in the past 20 years, we always get our flights separate, RCCL always seem to add anothe few hundred pounds on for their flight, after 37 cruises in the last 7 years 33 of them with RCCL I hate to think of the cash we have given the airlines, ok we get a free flight every now and again thanks to frequent flyer miles but to travel from Edinburgh to Miami we are pretty limited to the route we take unless we fly through London which is just a hassle on the way home.
The value, service, and overall experience of cruising still much better then land based vacations. Furthermore, cruise lines are filling up their ships to the capacity with the help of internet travel agencies and special deals to their past guest. Even traditionally smaller cruise lines such as Costa and MSC are ordering bigger and bigger ships. All are indicating the business are booming for the cruise lines.
I thought this summer, the companies were going to offer huge discounts in the Med, since there was a huge increase in the offer. But No...every summer everything is sold. I only foresee a crash if there´s a huge tragedy (Poseidon like) or a big terrorist attack. But this is not likely to happen, so...no. No crashes at all
I do not believe that the cruise industry will crash, and this is because a cruise vacation is still the best vacation for the money. Plus, a cruise vacation means that very busy women have a real vacation, with some romance and travel as part of the deal.
As for airfares, there are reasonable airfares out there. You have to look for them and be as flexible as possible, even putting up with less than ideal travel times.
To give an example, my wife and I going on a transatlantic cruise in October. I needed a one-way airfare to Venice, Italy. I checked all of the travel search engines and several major airlines. While it did take some digging, I have an airfare of $349.00 one-way LAX to Milan, and from Milan there are inexpensive, frequent trains to Venice.
The value, service, and overall experience of cruising still much better then land based vacations. Furthermore, cruise lines are filling up their ships to the capacity with the help of internet travel agencies and special deals to their past guest. Even traditionally smaller cruise lines such as Costa and MSC are ordering bigger and bigger ships. All are indicating the business are booming for the cruise lines.
