Does it feel wrong to 'not' have a cruise or three on the books at any one time?

[BrianB]

Yes.

[bcarney]

Pre-Covid we used to have a cruise or two booked all the time. I did some mock bookings last night, and now that the kids are considered "adults" by RC between that and airfare we've been priced out of cruising.  It's $10K just for a cruise with an interior room, and airfare. No excursions, tips, dining, etc.  

[RCIfan1912]

4 minutes ago, bcarney said:

Pre-Covid we used to have a cruise or two booked all the time. I did some mock bookings last night, and now that the kids are considered "adults" by RC between that and airfare we've been priced out of cruising.  It's $10K just for a cruise with an interior room, and airfare. No excursions, tips, dining, etc.  

Ouch, I'm dreading the kids being considered adults. Our one son turn 10 this week but our other boy is only 17 months old so we got plenty of time for him. But yeah losing kid status stinks. We sail from NJ where we live so no airfare. Yeah it limits us but there are plenty of routes to keep us happy cruisers. We aren't very picky and love Coco Cay so we will pretty much go back there just about every year. 

Truth, I can't fly anyway. Serious phobia. 

[Xaa]

6 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Ouch, I'm dreading the kids being considered adults.

I know.  all of those threads proclaiming Kids Sail Free is a scam couldn't be more wrong.  I snuck one last booking in before my 12yo turns 13 this January.  Flying is crazy.  With 5 of us, if it's 6-700 bucks per head to Miami, that's a good chunk and forces me behind the wheel.  I'm in VA so Miami is doable at 14 hours, PC better at 10.5, Cape Liberty refreshing at 7 hours.  Baltimore is about 4.5, but the Vision's of the world will have to wait for my wife and I to be cruising alone as it was in the time before children.

[bcarney]

12 minutes ago, Xaa said:

I know.  all of those threads proclaiming Kids Sail Free is a scam couldn't be more wrong.  I snuck one last booking in before my 12yo turns 13 this January.  Flying is crazy.  With 5 of us, if it's 6-700 bucks per head to Miami, that's a good chunk and forces me behind the wheel.  I'm in VA so Miami is doable at 14 hours, PC better at 10.5, Cape Liberty refreshing at 7 hours.  Baltimore is about 4.5, but the Vision's of the world will have to wait for my wife and I to be cruising alone as it was in the time before children.

I'm in Michigan, and airfare to Orlando during the time we can cruise is over $1,200 per head for the 4 of us.  I'd attempt driving, but last fall we took an NCL cruise out of New Orleans (pre-Covid booked certificates were about to expire) and drove, we disembarked at 8:15am and didn't get home until 4:30am the next morning.  Miami is about 500 miles farther away.

We've driven and sailed from Baltimore once before, but unfortunately the only cruise during my available timeframe is a 12 day and I'm reluctant to take the kids out of school.

The planets just aren't aligning for me.

[Curt From Canada]

Yes

[OCSC Mike]

45 minutes ago, bcarney said:

Pre-Covid we used to have a cruise or two booked all the time. I did some mock bookings last night, and now that the kids are considered "adults" by RC between that and airfare we've been priced out of cruising.  It's $10K just for a cruise with an interior room, and airfare. No excursions, tips, dining, etc.  

Have you tried a TA like MEI who may have group rates lower than what you are seeing online? It still may not help enough but you should be able to get better prices and costs you nothing to try. Just throwing it out there.

[ScottD]

1 hour ago, Xaa said:

I know.  all of those threads proclaiming Kids Sail Free is a scam couldn't be more wrong.  I snuck one last booking in before my 12yo turns 13 this January.  Flying is crazy.  With 5 of us, if it's 6-700 bucks per head to Miami, that's a good chunk and forces me behind the wheel.  I'm in VA so Miami is doable at 14 hours, PC better at 10.5, Cape Liberty refreshing at 7 hours.  Baltimore is about 4.5, but the Vision's of the world will have to wait for my wife and I to be cruising alone as it was in the time before children.

Seriously... we have an 11 yr old, sailing this October and have an MSC booked for next Fall, but trying to squeeze one more Royal cruise in sometime before he turns 13! We are in Philly so a little 5 day Liberty out of NJ might be in the books if we can swing it. Dreading our next one after that, though! 

[Xaa]

I hear ya @ScottD.  If you still keep him in your room it's not the worst, but it will exclude you from a lot of TA group rates.

In Philly, you should cruise Cape Liberty often.  It's a good port and even in the colder weather, you're one sea day away from the better weather.

[ScottD]

5 minutes ago, Xaa said:

I hear ya @ScottD.  If you still keep him in your room it's not the worst, but it will exclude you from a lot of TA group rates.

In Philly, you should cruise Cape Liberty often.  It's a good port and even in the colder weather, you're one sea day away from the better weather.

Yeah, this October will be our first from Port Liberty-looking forward to NOT flying, getting hotels, etc...  and another reason we are looking to do the one in June of next year.    Unfortunately, the MSC is out of Miami, but already thinking of driving this time and just making it a little road trip with a stop along the way. 

[Ryan79]

I have 3 booked right now, but one of those is at the end of the month so I’m already looking for a replacement 3rd cruise in my queue to fill the upcoming void! 

[RCIfan1912]

4 hours ago, bcarney said:

I'm in Michigan, and airfare to Orlando during the time we can cruise is over $1,200 per head for the 4 of us.  I'd attempt driving, but last fall we took an NCL cruise out of New Orleans (pre-Covid booked certificates were about to expire) and drove, we disembarked at 8:15am and didn't get home until 4:30am the next morning.  Miami is about 500 miles farther away.

We've driven and sailed from Baltimore once before, but unfortunately the only cruise during my available timeframe is a 12 day and I'm reluctant to take the kids out of school.

The planets just aren't aligning for me.

Hold on a sec, just hold on a sec because I don't fly so I have no idea. It costs 1,200 bucks a person to fly to Florida from Michigan?!  I mean as in 2,400 bucks for 2 people? That's freaking bonkers! 

[OCSC Mike]

On 7/3/2023 at 2:15 PM, RCIfan1912 said:

Hold on a sec, just hold on a sec because I don't fly so I have no idea. It costs 1,200 bucks a person to fly to Florida from Michigan?!  I mean as in 2,400 bucks for 2 people? That's freaking bonkers! 

I just had a similar reaction as my BIL was talking about flying somewhere for a future vacation. My wife and I haven't flown since our Alaska cruise in 2018 and it wasn't really all that expensive getting from Orlando to Fairbanks at the time.

[WAYNO]

Flying to a cruise is a huge expense for us.  Most of our flights are from the Pacific Northwest to Florida.  With almost zero non-stop flights from PDX, our flight day can approach 24 hours, from our get-up to our motel arrival in Florida.  The airlines, the airports, and TSA make for a mostly dreadful experience.

Yes, we can find cheaper flights.  On these cheap flights, we may not be able to sit together, there is no easily available food during the flight, we still need to pay another 2-hundred dollars for luggage, and the cheap seats are otherwise miserable. 

So, it's easy for me to justify stepping up to First Class or Premium Economy.  And $1200+ each becomes a bargain. 

 

As I've said many times... I am envious of folks that live within driving distances to cruise ports. 

[AandD]

Yes, but airfare is getting obnoxious. I was happy to only pay $450 each one way from San Juan to Kansas City on a weekend next February. 

[Ampurp85]

Airfare is ridiculously high, even on SWA you are looking at $400+ pp to get from Chicago to MIA/MCO/FLL. That is a budget airline. 

Currently AA main cabin tickets are $590 r/t from ORD to MCO for my Jan sailings, with first class tickets sitting at around $833. Considering all three of my cruises are either a casino comp or a certificate; airfare cost almost as much as the cruises. 

[RCIfan1912]

Whew my phobia is paying off or savings money to be more to the point. I love sailing from Cape Liberty. 30 minutes from the house, 30 minutes and we are home. 

[CanHardlyWait]

Ah hello, after that they still charge you like $30 or $40 for checked baggage. That one kills me.

[deep1]

For me its  a must to have something to look forward to on the horizon.  I'm now finishing up a big pile of cruises that been great. More that I want to do but not booked yet. I'm nearing retirement but Fiancé still working with one in college and another near leaving the nest time. That and she's going to relocate to Florida with me. So, that sets up scheduling bumps in the road. Finance is another consideration with air fares insane. $1500 or so for NJ to Seattle for our next cruise then 300  a night for hotel give or take. For the Florida based cruises, no problem but the Trans Atlantic and Trans Pacific ones in the crystal ball are gonna sting. Still, before we get this next cruise in a few weeks, we will have more booked... 

[Dad2Cue]

8 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Hold on a sec, just hold on a sec because I don't fly so I have no idea. It costs 1,200 bucks a person to fly to Florida from Michigan?!  I mean as in 2,400 bucks for 2 people? That's freaking bonkers! 

More like $400 to $500 each way from Iowa which is further away than Michigan.  That's per person and about double what it was one year ago.  Toss in a rental car at $100 per day and roughly $250 per night for a hotel stay and it gets expensive in a hurry.

The cruise itself isn't the bargain it used to be either.

[Cactus527]

I'm looking at these prices listed and my eyes are going bonkers. Does anyone else use credit card rewards? My trip this month with the three of us is ~$34 total and nothing for the hotel. It's the only way I can do the cruise travel! 

[PhilandSteff]

We only sail out of Galveston for several of the reasons mentioned above. It's about a 4-hour drive for us each way to the terminal, but in Texas that's just "right down the road a bit." We always go down a day early, to eat out and relax before getting on the ship. There are the added expenses of the hotel and parking at the terminal to consider, but it makes the morning of boarding so much easier, and no worries about traffic conditions in Houston possibly messing with our boarding time.

Thing is with Galveston, the prices of the hotels vary widely depending upon what's happening in town, so it could be a fair deal at 219/night for a decent one, to over 500/night in the same hotel depending on when you go. Sounds like a smoking deal though compared with what I'm seeing above with flights.

[steverk]

When looking at cruise costs, it's important to keep it in perspective.  All travel has grown outrageous this year. A basic comfort inn hotel averages about $150 per night. Fast food routinely costs more than $10. A decent meal 20+. 

If you total it up cruising is still a relative bargain,  if you can avoid flying. 

[RCIfan1912]

2 minutes ago, steverk said:

When looking at cruise costs, it's important to keep it in perspective.  All travel has grown outrageous this year. A basic comfort inn hotel averages about $150 per night. Fast food routinely costs more than $10. A decent meal 20+. 

If you total it up cruising is still a relative bargain,  if you can avoid flying. 

Cruising a complete bargain and best bang for the buck. We still find great deals on cruises. 

[bcarney]

21 hours ago, RCIfan1912 said:

Hold on a sec, just hold on a sec because I don't fly so I have no idea. It costs 1,200 bucks a person to fly to Florida from Michigan?!  I mean as in 2,400 bucks for 2 people? That's freaking bonkers! 

It's during Spring Break when what seems like a quarter of our state's population heads down to Florida, so prices go through the roof. It was also on a mainstream airline; the "budget" lines don't have those dates posted yet.  And TBH I've never had a good experience on the budget lines - you'll never see me on a SouthWest flight again.

[teddy]

We’ve changed a couple cruises from Florida departures to New Jersey ones to avoid flying.   Even with the $100 pp change fees, the totals were cheaper than if we flew. 

[Dad2Cue]

8 hours ago, steverk said:

When looking at cruise costs, it's important to keep it in perspective.  All travel has grown outrageous this year. A basic comfort inn hotel averages about $150 per night. Fast food routinely costs more than $10. A decent meal 20+. 

If you total it up cruising is still a relative bargain,  if you can avoid flying. 

It is hard for us to avoid flying unless we want to drive 2,000+ miles round trip.  We would still need a hotel stay each way to break up the drive on top of $3.50 for a gallon of gas.

All that being said, we still have 8 cruises planned for 2023 thru 2025.  We now do B2B cruises so really only 4 cruises.  Doing a B2B cruise cuts down on the travel expenses. 

We don't have to spend much once we are on the ship.  Transportation, lodging, food and entertainment are mostly included at no additional expense.

[Linda R]

On 6/9/2023 at 7:59 PM, PhilandSteff said:

Admittedly, we only have 7 cruises completed in total, but it's begun to feel that if we don't have a cruise or three booked, something is 'missing.' We have a couple of nice cruises slated for Feb 24 and Nov 24, with suites, but since we're trying to make Diamond, I booked a 4-day cruise to Cozumel for Jul 23 on a whim last week, the exact points (with a suite) to get us to Diamond with RCCL. With our other next cruise being 261 days out, and the next 519 out, it was just feeling 'wrong' and over-delayed, so I found us a relatively good deal to make Diamond and get us out there. We're leaving out of Galveston as usual to Cozumel (been there several times so it's a favorite) so it's hardly new ground for us.

Is this considered "normal" among cruisers? The desire to be 'out there' and basically 'not here?' Even if it's the same places?

Just wondering.

 

Phil and Steff.

 

 

 

I usually have 3-6 cruises booked at any given time.  Some are back-to-back.  And I book almost 2 years out, or as soon as available.    Currently though I  have 8 cruises booked, 3 are back-to-back cruises though.  

[Sweety]

Hubby found out that we have several cruises booked. I told him happy wife happy life. I gave him his credit card back. It's okay, I got the new card. 

[Sweety]

On 7/4/2023 at 5:41 PM, Linda R said:

I usually have 3-6 cruises booked at any given time.  Some are back-to-back.  And I book almost 2 years out, or as soon as available.    Currently though I  have 8 cruises booked, 3 are back-to-back cruises though.  

We do too. We are booked until April 2025.

[WAYNO]

This will be our busiest cruising year ever.  And next year is already off to a good start.  We were down to just two cruises booked, until today, when we found another good cruise.  So, 3 cruises again are booked for our upcoming cruising pleasure.

[OCSC Mike]

24 minutes ago, WAYNO said:

This will be our busiest cruising year ever.  And next year is already off to a good start.  We were down to just two cruises booked, until today, when we found another good cruise.  So, 3 cruises again are booked for our upcoming cruising pleasure.

Congrats! I was already at my high of 4 (3 next year, one in 2025) when I found a last minute price for one next week so I have 5 (for now)... not sure I've ever had more than 2 before (we used to book a lot last minute) so 5 is a lot for us. About to drop back to 4 but looking to get back to 5 or more with the new releases.

[Sweety]

I am ready. Now I have hubby's card number. He can keep his card.

[Fuzzywuzzy]

Doesn't feel wrong, but doesn't feel right either.