Prices up or down?

[lucy, sutton]

Having changed my Ventura cruise which is still going out of Southampton on Tuesday next week, to October 2021, amazingly doing exactly the same itinerary, how does everyone think the cruise prices will go. We have had to pay another £272 for the exact same cabin on the same Select basis on the same ship doing the same itinerary for next year.

What are your thoughts on whether the cruise industry will be so desperate for money, they will discount massively to get people cruising with confidence again, or the prices will sky rocket because they need to make some of this lost revenue back in 2021?

The cruise next Tuesday would have gone to Portugal Spain and Gibraltar - all ports we have done a million times (slight exaggeration there), but I know that most of the ports are now closed to cruise ships, so those who are not cancelling, I think will be on a permanent sea day for 11 nights.

I am wondering how the cruise industry will fare and whether they will be able to recover from this. Will we be winners or losers in the price war?

[PeterM, Southwell]

Having read some comments from Americans on various You tube channels, I think they will take some persuading to come back to cruising, initially at least. My bet is that prices will be low to begin with. The big lines will recover. Some of the small ones, Fred, for example, may not.

[philhar, wallasey]

I think it a bit much that you've had to pay more.
At a guess I think there will be some bargains to be had when cruising starts again and then companies will try to edge up prices to claw money back.
Question is,will people pay?

[lucy, sutton]

I think it a bit much that you've had to pay more.
At a guess I think there will be some bargains to be had when cruising starts again and then companies will try to edge up prices to claw money back.
Question is,will people pay?

I was speaking to the cruise agent I was booking with and he seems to think the cruise prices will not go down too much as they will not be able to afford to discount too much Let's see how it goes. I guess if nobody will book at the current prices, they will have to discount. We were limited in what cruises we could book due to work and we already had a 2 week cruise booked for March next year, so we needed to book something with the cruise credit. I suppose it is better than losing the whole lot through cancellation, so in the long run we are OK paying a bit more.

[Haworth, Wokingham]

I think it a bit much that you've had to pay more.
At a guess I think there will be some bargains to be had when cruising starts again and then companies will try to edge up prices to claw money back.
Question is,will people pay?

I would not, prices will tumble like the FTSE 100 over the last 10 days, cruise companies will be desperate for cash

[toshtosh, Guiseley]

Laws of supply and demand will dictate the price. High demand - High Prices, Low demand - Low prices.

In a simplistic way ( a la Ryanair for example) the minimum seat price is set as costs/seats. Then starting advertised seat price is set on many factors (season/flight time/half term/local event etc). If seat sales are good then minor adjustments/incentives are introduced to fill the last few seats. If sales are slow then incentives (free seat choice/free drink) or sale prices down to the aforementioned minimum price are introduced. Finally late reductions to fill last seats.

In addition the competition for the passenger has an effect. Once CV is sorted the whole travel industry will want your money and be offering incentives and a safer than cruising offer. Long haul land holidays/Luxury hotels etc.

So all the signs for cruising are that customers will be fewer until the safety of the enclosed resort ship (Noravirus etc) is restored. So inevitably the cruise price will be a lot lower but may be wrapped up in incentives.

I would expect the main incentives to be best available cabin upgrades/ Drinks/ OBC/flights and even significant automatic future cruise vouchers. Anything that keeps the headline price near to but not quite as current but the total passenger cost significantly better value.

[cymrucruiser]

Here’s an example
I’ve been watching this for a while

anthem of the seas, 16th July 21, 8 nights fjords.
2 adults and 1 child (our granddaughter would be 5) in a balcony cabin. The price since October last year has averaged £3200-3400 total.

ive just priced it now to based on this thread and also my assumption that Royal will hike their prices as they normally do when the opportunity arises to try and fleece their customers.

£5833!!!!!!!!!

[Topdeck, London]

NCL put their US prices up to stop the cancel rebook, but cruises not to far our(beyond April) are going to all get cancelled as there will still be no where to go.
of the ones I was checking UK prices were flat(not checked for a couple of days).

The cruise lines are playing a game with FCC to do whatever they can to keep your money as their cash flows are destroyed and they don't want people taking refunds.

if people wait till the cruise lines cancel they have the option of getting their money back or taking any alternative on offer, that should be at no extra cost if offered an alternative holiday under the regulations.

We will most likely have to wait till the over 70s travel advice gets dropped unless the cruise line will allow a booking to be cancelled closer to the time for full refund if the advice is still in place as we won't be insured.

For now I think out book late strategy will remain in place even though I think we can get a 17n AI flight transfers packaged cruise for around £600pp end of April I think it might get cancelled.

Some could be tempted to look for a cruise that could get cancelled then if it does get cancelled you will get another cancellation boost on the moneys already paid .