Rebelyell

For anyone who might be thinking of a European cruise, this is the year to go. Travel to Europe is way down, and apparently people are avoiding cruises in the Med like the plague.

NCL just put seven-night Epic cruises on sale for $399 for much of the summer. This is a huge but popular ship, and prices have tended to be kind of high. I did a Phantom booking, and the actual price after taxes and port charges comes out to $1,006. For an additional $200 per person you can add the alcohol package, which normally costs about $400 each.

Most of the cruise lines are offering cruises at rates much cheaper than in the past. Holland America has some 13-night cruises priced at $799, with balconies going for $999.

As a general rule, light drinkers will do best by buying the cheapest cruise-only rate. Those who like to take a drink should pay a little more and get the "free" drink package. I like to use the vacationstogo website to see cruise prices, for what it's worth. You can then book your cruise wherever you think you will get the best deal.

Kagehitokiri

talking about american market? avoiding entire med/europe.. oh well

seabourn $700/nt per couple, though havent watched new ship fares
that appears to be less than silversea, which seems totally insane

appears seadream is small enough to avoid any issues

teddybear99

Ok, it appears Rebelyell's post is just cruise pricing whereas Kagehitokiri seems to quote pricing from Rebelyell but adds a per night price which does not match what is said in Rebelyell's original post. Can I assume the difference is either airfare to get to/from the European cruise or an exchange rate between US and European currencies?

Hoyaheel

The first two posts are completely different cruise lines -that's the price difference. Rebelyell is posting prices on NCL which is a mass market line. Kagehitokiri mentions the per diem rate of Seabourn, which is a luxury all-inclusive line. Usually one is not comparing cruises on those two lines, but whatever

What would be most interesting to me would be the same line's fares last year vs this year on the same itineraries......

teddybear99

Thanks, as I am used to taking cruises out of South Florida where I live and my wife is now interested in either an Alaskan or European cruise next year.

Kagehitokiri

i took per person and made it per couple per night, like hotel
as i stated in my post "/nt per couple" with "nt" being night

some consider that seabourn rate 'cheap' vs Rebelyell examples
seabourn is all large exterior, includes alcohol and tipping etc
cost per night is just one of many factors for any cruiseline

Jay71

Anecdotally, we're also finally seeing some really good deals on Celebrity for European itineraries.

We cruised a Celebrity Greece/Turkey itinerary in 2013 and thought we got a decent deal. We've been wanting to do another cruise in Europe in the following years but haven't seen a lot of deals on Celebrity that caught our eyes, nor even come relatively close to our pricing in 2013 except for the odd special. However, the Exciting Deals offers we're getting via email are finally getting interesting. There were some early sailings in May that we thought were really cheap but we already booked travel plans. We're likely going to try to snag an end of season cruise and hope airfares stay relatively good too.

Rebelyell

Jay, for what it's worth my daughter and I booked a 12-night Adriatic cruise on Celebrity after prices dropped. The price of an inside cabin briefly hit $799, which after taxes and port charges came to $1,840, and I booked it.

The $799 was cruise only. I got to looking at the $1,469 price for the veranda staterooms, which included the drink package and tips. My daughter has to get the non-alcoholic drink package, but for the two of us it still comes out to a $924 value, plus $312 in tips equals $1,236. I realized that for someone planning to get the drink package, a veranda cost the same as an inside stateroom. I ended up spending an additional $200 more per person for Aqua Class, which sold out a couple of hours after I upgraded. So I went from spending $1,840 for an inside, and would have had to spend at least $1,236 more on board, to spending $3,600, with no drink or tip expenses. I'm pleased with the deal.

Anyway, they dropped the prices sharply and sold out pretty quickly, with the exception of some inside cabins. I think they decided they wanted those low fares on offer for as short a period of time as possible. So you might want to keep a careful eye out for price drops at about the 75th day mark. They may drop 'em fast and drop 'em steep.

BamaVol

Sadly, I booked my Med cruise 9 months ago so I could get double points with NCL along with the free unlimited beverage package. I guess business drops off after my May 15 Epic departure because it's sold out. And based on the roll call over at CruiseCritic, it's going to include quite a number from North America. I don't recall what inside cabins were going for at the time but it wasn't anything close to $399 - more like $599 or $649. I'll let you know what I thought of it when I get back.

cruisr

Every luxury line has interline rates for Europe this summer. Something you rarely saw in past summers. Lots of TA rates and Friends and Family rates also.

Kagehitokiri

cruisr, any bonus commissions? i remember silversea 20% a while ago.

$300/nt

cruisr

Some top producing agencies have some incentives from what I have heard. Nothing across the board. Mostly things like sell 3 sail free (Agent sells 3 cabins on a selected date and they earn a free cruise cabin for themselves for a later date)

Kagehitokiri

interesting, that would work out to 33%

JuliaStein

Scandinavian cruises should be not so expensive. A trip from Finland to Estonia or Sweden can value aprox.40-50 euros. Good deal, I think

lax2010

What are good online sources to look for good TA rates and/or Friends and Family rates for a summer NCL Europe cruise? Thanks in advance!

Why NCL? It is a long story :-).