Royal Caribbean Charges For Late Disembarkation

Royal Caribbean has come up with a new fee: $35 to let you stay on board one of its cruise ships after the other passengers get punted on disembarkation day. You have to admire the ingenuity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Six Day Celebrity Cruise: $514

A friend is looking for a low-stress vacation this fall, so I went poking around and found a nice bargain on a cruise.

The Celebrity Summit is repositioning from the Northeast, where it has been doing Canada and Bermuda cruises, to the Caribbean on Oct. 24. The ship will sail from  Bayonne, New Jersey,  proceed to Bermuda for an overnight stay and then sail to St. Thomas and  Puerto Rico.

Inside cabins are listed at $399 a person, which comes out to $514 with taxes and fees. That’s a terrific itinerary at $85 a day for a cruise line that’s on the upscale side of the mass-market lines.

Of course, you’d have to buy transportation back from Puerto Rico.  JetBlue has one-way fares in the $200 range to JFK and LaGuardia. Unfortunately, fares to Bradley are substantially higher right now.

Royal Caribbean Axes Art Auctioneer

Royal Caribbean is not renewing its contract with the controversial art auctioneer Park West, and may end art auctions on  its cruise ships entirely, as Gene Sloan reports on USA Today’s Cruise Log blog.

The move comes after Park West lost a $500,000 judgment in a countersuit filed by one of its most vehement critics, according to the Detroit Free Press.

This is a good move on Royal Caribbean’s part. Let’s hope the other cruise lines follow suit and that they don’t replace the art auctions with something equally obnoxious.

And if you’re going on a cruise, remember my simple advice: avoid the art auctions, the jewelry, the casino and the spa treatments. In every case, you’ll get a better value on shore.

Don’t Be An On-Board Revenue Generator

Gene Sloan of USA Today’s Cruise Log blog points out an interesting remark by Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein in an earnings call Wednesday.

Questioned about passenger spending on the cruise line’s new mega-giganta-ship, Oasis of the Seas, Goldstein said the ship “has proven to be an even stronger onboard revenue generator than we had foreseen.” Passengers are not only paying premium rates to sail on this massive ship, they are spending quite merrily on extras when aboard.

Read the rest of this entry »

Four-Night Caribbean Cruise, $213

At least a couple of online travel agencies are offering four-night Caribbean cruises on Carnival’s Imagination for $159, plus taxes and fees for a total of $213  per person, double occupancy.  That’s $53 per day, not the lowest rate I’ve ever seen but pretty close.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seven-Day Caribbean Cruise: $429

Carnival is selling inside cabins on a December cruise to the Caribbean for $369 a person, double occupancy in an inside cabin, plus taxes and fees for a bottom line of $429 a person.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bermuda Cruise: $589

There are inside cabins available on the April 25 sailing of the Norwegian Dawn from New York to Bermuda for $399 a person, double occupancy, which comes out to $589 per person when taxes and Bermuda’s rather substantial port fees are added.

It’s a very nice price for a Bermuda cruise, which tend to be comparatively expensive. For those of us who live in the Northeast, it’s an opportunity to cruise without paying airfare.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cruise Deals On Travelocity

Travelocity is promoting a cruise sale that includes four-day cruises out of Florida for as low as $172 per person, double occupancy, which comes out to $230 with all taxes and fees included.

That rate gets you four nights in an inside cabin on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas for a Bahamas cruise on several September and October  departures from Port Canaveral, Fla. The cruise stops at Coco Cay, a private island owned by Royal Caribbean, and Nassau.

Another notable deal: a seven-night cruise on Celebrity’s Century for $399 per person, in an inside cabin, adding up to $509 with taxes and fees. This rate is available only on the May 3 sailing out of Miami with port calls at Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Coco Cay.

Bargains — Relatively Speaking — On Luxury Cruises

The Miami Herald has a story this morning about the luxury cruise line Silversea, its newest ship and its new focus on “value.” That is to say, the pressures of supply and demand have forced luxury cruise lines to discount prices.

So it’s now possible, if you shop carefully, to get a week-long luxury cruise for around $2,000 a person. For this you get a truly all-inclusive experience, with drinks and tips, on a small ship with luxury accommodations and extremely attentive service. (No hairy chest or belly flop contests .)

This is still out of my league, but if you have the cash and the urge to splurge, now would be a good time to do it. Relatively speaking.

Repositioning Cruises From Less Than $50 Per Day

Twice a year I indulge a fantasy: that I will take a transatlantic repositioning cruise. This happens in the spring, when the cruise lines move their ships from the Caribbean to Europe, and in the fall, when they bring them back.

It doesn’t hurt that these one-way cruises can be tremendous bargains, sometimes available for less than $50 a day per person, half of my $100 threshold for what constitutes a reasonable bargain in cruises. That’s  inclusive of food and much of the entertainment, pretty much everything you truly have to pay except tips and airfare.

Read the rest of this entry »