mac66

Well, if we didn't live 1500 miles from a port we'd probably be D+ by now.  

Well, if we didn't live 1500 miles from a port we'd probably be D+ by now.  

Well, if we didn't live 1500 miles from a port we'd probably be D+ by now.  

👍  Well, we're on the Explorer the Saturday after Thanksgiving and on the Serenade on Feb 4 so maybe we'll see you around. 

I find myself drinking way too much with the drink package (DP). One tends to order a drink just because you can instead of wanting one.  A Bloody Mary in the morning, a beer or two at lunch, a drink or two or three around the pool and/or at trivia in the afternoon, pre dinner drink(s), Two or three glasses of wine with dinner, a drink or two at the show and a nightcap. So that's 6-13 drinks a day.
It really adds up and you will become physically dependent on alcohol if you even drink half that much. 
We don't drink FO-FO drinks, bottled water, soda, or fancy coffee's so that part of the DP doesn't justify the cost.
 
 

We were on the Summit as well for our R&R cruise last Feb. It was a good time.  We were also on the Summit this past August for a 9 night Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia to Boston cruise. It's a nice ship.
The only thing about those music cruises is that when you go back on a regular cruise, you wonder where all music went.  Except on port days, the concerts run about 12+ hours a day.

Non issue for me since I don't get the drink package anymore. That's partly because of cost, partly because we drink way too much with the DP and partly because we get the diamond vouchers. The vouchers along with wine we bring is enough to drink.

I've been on 1 RCL and 3 X cruises this past year.  The food quality and menu in the MDR is the same. X might be a little more elegant served but it's the same food.  Same with the buffet, though I was disappointed in X. 
More people apparently eat in the buffet on RCL so the selection/variety is better in the buffet than on X, at least in my experience.  We walked out of the MDR three times each our last two X cruises due to poor/non existent service and went to the buffet for dinner instead. 2 of the 3 times the food was mediocre.  The third time they had something different and it was quite good.

There has always been up and down times during the year. We tend to book a cruise between Thanksgiving and Christmas during the cheapest time and typically the end of Jan, early Feb another cheap time.  We specifically go with the cheapest cabin as it tends to be just an excuse of getting out of the cold weather where we live.

We did a Rock and Romance cruise this past winter.  It was very good, constant music but you don't get the perks you get with any status you might have through X (we are elite). You have to pay for drinks etc.  We did buy a bottle of bourbon at the first port and openly brought/walked it back aboard and drank it the rest of the week.  Of course we also brought wine aboard in our carry ons. There was one night which included free drinks for everyone.   YMMV.

I find myself drinking way too much with the drink package (DP). One tends to order a drink just because you can instead of wanting one.  A Bloody Mary in the morning, a beer or two at lunch, a drink or two or three around the pool and/or at trivia in the afternoon, pre dinner drink(s), Two or three glasses of wine with dinner, a drink or two at the show and a nightcap. So that's 6-13 drinks a day.
It really adds up and you will become physically dependent on alcohol if you even drink half that much. 
We don't drink FO-FO drinks, bottled water, soda, or fancy coffee's so that part of the DP doesn't justify the cost.
 
 

There has always been up and down times during the year. We tend to book a cruise between Thanksgiving and Christmas during the cheapest time and typically the end of Jan, early Feb another cheap time.  We specifically go with the cheapest cabin as it tends to be just an excuse of getting out of the cold weather where we live.

Well, if we didn't live 1500 miles from a port we'd probably be D+ by now.  

Well, the key is to buy low, sell high but I think the key to buying cruise line stock at such low prices is to off set the price so you at least break even some day.  We probably won't sail Carnival again but may give Princess, Holland America or Cunnard a try in the future. That's the only reason I bought CCL stock.
On the other hand CCL & RCL is in pretty deep debt i.e, billions of dollars. Making 100s of millions doesn't even pay the interest so what's next? Bankruptcy?  Is this billion dollar industry too big to let fail? Bailout by the govt?  It's a risk and only time will tell.

Hey, I just got my stock share OBC for two upcoming cruises.  Only 39 more cruises before I break even😄

Hey, I just got my stock share OBC for two upcoming cruises.  Only 39 more cruises before I break even😄

So is it more snooty to wear them, or to look down on somebody who does?  😀
 
 

Or is it more snooty to wear the pins or list every cruise you've ever been on in your signature?  😁

So is it more snooty to wear them, or to look down on somebody who does?  😀
 
 

I'm now tempted to wear my pin just to see what people say. 😁

Will I be the BMOS (big man on ship) if I wear my Platinum pin? Will people be Green with envy if I wear my Emerald pin?  Or maybe a Diamond in the rough with my Diamond pin?

I'm now tempted to wear my pin just to see what people say. 😁

I'm now tempted to wear my pin just to see what people say. 😁

I still hear a lot negative things about cruises from those who have never cruised.  I guess I will have to stop trying to change their minds as it may be cutting my own throat in the process.  On the other hand cheap cruise prices to draw in newbies just benefits us veterans as well. 
It does appear that the upscale lines (Celebrity, Princess and others) have raised prices considerably. We booked three X cruises in 2019 for 2020 and they were cancelled until this year. Our FCCs held but when we looked at the prices they were charging this year, we wouldn't have been able to afford them (okay, that's not true 🙄 ) but it we probably wouldn't have gone had we not booked at 2019 prices.

Thought this article from The Street was interesting. It basically says that cruise lines don't charge enough for the value you get. That you can take a cruise cheaper than a comparable vacation on land.   My wife and I have known that for sometime. We live in the north, we often look for a cheap cruise out of Florida in the winter because it's cheaper than getting a hotel, not even counting the meals, entertainment and free activities you get on a ship.  If you figure in transportation costs (about a 22 hour drive or 2.5-3 hours by plane) it was still a good value and would be the same if you stayed on land or took a cruise.  When you fly down (when flights were cheap) but pay $200+ night for a hotel room the night before the cruise it offsets the value somewhat. I used to drive 17 hours straight, spend a night or two at the inlaws* house then drive another 2-4 hours (depending on which port we go out of) for $100 in gas. Maybe two or three times that now with the higher gas prices.  
We have a 8 day cruise the end of November (just after Thanksgiving) that with on board credit from our travel agent, stock and other incentives is costing us less than $100/ night for the two of us.  We will drive down to the inlaws house straight through. Spend the night and then it's a 4 hour drive to the port.  We have another cruise the first week of Feb. I think that one is costing us $107/night (after OBC rebates) and is a two hour drive from the in-laws house.
*inlaws=94 year old mother in law w/alzimers who now lives in a home near us. FIL died last year. My wife maintains their Florida house. We would live there in the winter but for my 95 year old mother and 94 y/o MIL.
...Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Virgin Have a Pricing Problem 
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean, along with rivals MSC and Virgin Voyages have returned to sailing with ships that can carry their full passenger loads. In many cases, the two public cruise companies are actually sailing at 90% or higher capacity. Neither has quite hit pre-pandemic passenger levels, but they're well on their way to getting there.
Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein shared a lot of positives during the call but did point out a major problem.
"We are delivering a great all-inclusive vacation experience, convenient, great dining and entertainment choices, fantastic itineraries, beautiful and innovative ships, and the most amazing onboard teams, providing a hi level of personalized service than you can find anywhere on land or sea," he said. "The issue is we are way too much of a value. We should not be priced at a significant discount to land, which is exactly the case today, anywhere from 25% to 50% based on itineraries."
Basically, it's cheaper to take a cruise -- a vacation that includes all the food you can eat -- than it is to take a comparable trip on land. That's very good news for would-be passengers (and what Weinstein said is very obvious to people who cruised regularly before the pandemic).
Neither MSC nor Virgin Voyages are public, so they don't report results but you can book many trips (there are always exceptions) on those cruise lines at prices well below what each line charged pre-covid.
Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC, and Virgin can only raise prices if demand increases. Weinstein has some ideas as to how to do that.
"As our brands have now been increasing their advertising investment, we will increase awareness and consideration and actively target those that are new-to-cruise. While we're still carrying a higher proportion of repeat guests, we have seen an improving trend in new-to-cruise and are already two-thirds of the way back to 2019 levels," he said.
Advertising (and low prices) can bring in customers who have never cruised before, but that's not the only way Carnival expects to bring those passengers onboard.
"About one-third of our guests have historically been new to cruise. And as you probably know, two of the most important drivers of new-to-cruise are word of mouth and advertising," the CEO said. "With respect to word of mouth, after the pause, we have been building back our army of advocates that leave the ships, spreading the word about the unparalleled vacation experiences we deliver day in and day out."