Cruising for $40 per Day? Holy Shnikes!

As reported in the Chicago Tribune on October 26: CruiseOne/Cruises Inc. has come up with a list of "Top 40 Cruises Under $40/Day," all of which are before the end of the year.

www.chicagotribune.com/40dollarcruises

This is huge, since I always thought that cruising for $100 a day was a great value! If you are looking to book a cruise vacation, now is the time to do so, obviously. Can you imagine getting a great hotel room, all your meals, and fun entertainment all for under $40 a day? Wow!  Call me today to take advantage of these awesome deals!

Technorati Tags: cruises,deals,value,vacation,Chicago,cheap,CruiseOne

Carnival Pulls out of Europe; Who's Next?

Carnival Cruise Lines just announced that the Carnival Liberty, which was scheduled to begin sailing in Europe for the summer of 2009, will remain in the Caribbean instead, doing 7-night sailings out of Miami. The decision was based upon the economy and high airfares to Europe, and Carnival execs state that their customers would prefer to sail out of domestic ports which are close to home.

This unfortunately is not surprising news, as we are beginning to see cruise lines shortening or removing cruise options to far-away ports, such as Australia (see a previous blog post regarding Celebrity pulling out of Australia) and now, Europe. I believe that while it is true that many Americans would prefer to save on airfare by cruising from a domestic port, pulling ships out of Europe, especially on the contemporary lines, is a mistake. With the U.S. Dollar so weak right now, it makes more economic sense for Americans to visit Europe by paying for their vacations in advance in U.S. Dollars, and we all know what a great value a cruise vacation is compared to a land-based vacation. Taking away an opportunity for someone here who always sails on contemporary lines, such as Carnival, to cruise to Europe, is really sad. Now those of us who are on tight budgets but who still would like to travel to Europe will have one less opportunity to do so.

I know our economy is struggling right now, but people still need to take vacations for their peace of mind and mental health. The cruise industry has weathered the storm pretty well so far, but I pray that the entire cruise market does not change as a result with hardly any ships visiting exotic and far-away ports of call, because that has always been one of the best parts of a cruise vacation; visiting beautiful and wonderful places that are far away, and having to unpack only once!

Carnival Corp. Repeals Fuel Surcharges (Depending on the stock market!)

In a statement released today to CruiseOne, Carnival Corp. announced that it will be eliminating the fuel surcharge for all new bookings on 2010 departures, effective October 31, 2008. Of course, at the same time, they will be raising the fares for the 2010 departures so keep that in mind before you start jumping for joy.

Carnival is also saying that for 2008 and 2009 voyages, there may or may not be a fuel surcharge in effect on each sailing, depending on the price of oil for about a month prior to each sailing. They will use the ending trading price of light sweet crude oil on the NYMEX for 25 consecutive trading days ending 5 trading days prior to departure; if the price each trading day is $70/barrel or less, then passengers will get a shipboard credit in the amount of the fuel surcharge. If not, then passengers will not get a shipboard credit. So it seems to me that if you have 2 people setting sail on 2 consecutive days, that the guy who sails first could get a shipboard credit for his fuel surcharge, and the guy who sails one day later could end up without a shipboard credit, if the price of oil went up by a few cents on the 26th trading day. This also seems like it could be a logistical nightmare for Carnival Corporation, because it would mean a lot of tracking to see which cruises will have the fuel surcharge in effect and which won't. I also wonder whether or not passengers and/or their travel agents will be notified prior to sailing whether or not they'll be getting a shipboard credit.

So, this could potentially be good news, but I take it with a lot of caution, because this is all dependent on the stock market, and we all know that could be very good or very bad!

Disegalitarianism: My Thoughts

This weekend, Peter Greenberg, otherwise known as The Travel Detective, discussed on his radio show, a recent article on BudgetTravel.com regarding disegalitarianism being the new trend in the cruise industry. What is diseglitarianism, you ask? Well, it basically means people who spend more on their cruise vacations expecting special perks, like priority seating in ship restaurants, around the pool, and access to areas of the ship like exclusive spas or nightclubs.

First, I don't know for sure if this is an actual trend in the industry, but there are definitely things going on that reflect it. For example, NCL already has premium Garden Villas on some of its ships which are located on a private deck. Guests in these suites are catered to at their every whim and are entitled to special perks such as priority tender seating, so they can get on and off the ship at ports of call whenever they please, plus VIP Immigration status so they get to be first in line. There is also talk of there being nightclubs with exclusive access on the upcoming F3 NCL ships.

Second, it has appeared, at least to me, that the service level in some areas of some ships has gone down since cruise lines began instituting the policy of charging gratuities charged to shipboard accounts. I don't want to name any ships or cruise lines in particular, but I have noticed this. This may be partially driving the desire for more perks because passengers want to be treated as if they are special and may not be feeling as much of that vibe anymore.

While I've never actually stayed in a suite on a cruise ship, I have stayed at luxury resorts before and have flown first class, and I enjoy the little perks that come along with those types of accommodations. After all, who wouldn't? But, at the same time, the more you cater to the higher-paying guests and the more exclusive perks you give to them, the more you emphasize the "classes" in our society. In truth, we are not a classless society, but I don't think we need to be constantly reminded of that fact when we're on vacation. Plus, the more we make certain parts of cruise ships open to only certain people, the more it reminds me of Titanic and ships of her day, where 3rd class passengers stayed in cramped quarters on the lowest decks and were referred to as "steerage". And we all know what happened to a great many of those 3rd class passengers when the ship sank! So let's not even go that route and try to contain the perks and exclusive areas on ships that are given only to those in the priciest accommodations, and treat everyone on board like they're special. After all, everyone could use a little time to be pampered now and then, especially when we're on vacation!