CRUISING...WHEN IS IT TOO EXPENSIVE?

What's the problem OPUS? Now you can pay luxury cruise prices without the pesky hassle of researching, then booking with one of the luxury cruise lines. The mainstream lines like RC will gladly take your money to give you the privilege of sailing on their "latest & greatest". The funny thing is I'll bet they exceed their capacity goals, at least this year. Most people seem to want to experience their latest shiny new ship, and don't mind paying through the nose for the experience. Personally, that behemoth is waaaaaay too big for my wife and me, but even if it weren't, I prefer a ship to be a few years old. By then it has a few scuffs and scrapes (character markings) and most of the the staffing "kinks" are worked out of it

I have a question for you. Due to a family scheduling conflict (wedding), I had to cancel our Panama Canal cruise on the CCL Legend next February. While I'd normally just push the same cruise out a couple weeks, I can't make it work. My wife has a friend whose sailing on the Voyager oTS in late January, and she wants us to join them. Have you sailed on the Voyager oTS? If so, I'd like your feedback. I put a 48 hr. hold on our booking until I finish my research.

As an experienced cruiser, you've made a GREAT POINT... you were able to do your homework/research and despite the outrageous prices., did a spectacular job...some folks just bang keys...or let a TA do "something or other"...seems to me to be even MORE important to be able to do it oneself..

BTW, between your aneurisms, chest pains and AB's seizures, THAT proves the value of checking on your insurance "out there" as well. As a Cruise Director, I would "direct" you two to the nearest lounger, with orders to STAY THERE...

I hadn't paid much attention to the increase in prices. IMO, the break from the real world I get while on board is priceless.

However, when My Brother and Sister in Law had asked me to organize a group for their 10-year anniversary in 2026, on one of Royal Caribbean's new Icon Class Megaships, looking at the prices left me with chest pains, and a possible aneurysm.

$1,445/PP for an INTERIOR ROOM on a 7-Night cruise is nothing less than Disgusting. And that is the going rate for all available dates!!

Meanwhile, I was able to find prices for one of RCI's smaller ships, on a 8-Night Southern for $1,000 less per person for an Oceanview!

While we maintain our goal of sailing Every Ship presently in the RCI Fleet, and each forthcoming ship, I think the ICON Class is going to be quite a few years down the road...

So very true!

My wife and I share the same boat with AB. We will continue to cruise as long as our funds will support it. It's a race between funds for living and funds to stave off dying. They aren't the same thing. Live your life as full as you can, dying will take care of itself.

Perfectly said!

AS PREVIOUSLY POSTED:

For me it's an "it is what it is" attitude. I acknowledge the higher prices and diminished services with a shrug. If we want to keep cruising (we do) there is little I can do, other than watch the prices carefully, be flexible, and strike when an opportunity presents itself. That's helping to minimize the effects of inflation, but I can't do much about the service cuts. Obviously I don't like it, but things would really have to escalate a lot B4 I'll stop.

In fact, I'm attempting to budget for two cruises a year from here on out. Not because I'm flush with funds, but because the calendar is winning the stare-down contest I'm having with it. Based on our family's medical histories, both my wife and I have precious little time left to take in everything we want to experience. We'll probably be unable to cruise within ten years. Neither one of us want to ever have to traverse a cruise ship in a scooter or wheelchair. When it gets to that point for either of us, we're done.

I suppose I'd be whistling a different tune if we were younger, juggling mortgages, car payments, saving for retirement etc..... but that's not where we're at.

As the old saying goes "you can't take it with you", but I say "yes we can, as long as we're taking it out to sea".

We like cruising, but same ports, lower quality food, mega ships, we cut back about 75%. We like the smaller ships, non health conscious food, nicer people, so we see prices going way up, so we cruise less. It reminds us of Disney world. We go every year where a campsite at fort wilderness for a week was $300, which includes admission to the parks,. four meal vouchers, free parking. Now you cant get one thing for $300, so we go once every five to ten years . So if what you like, cruising, wdw or something, do it a bunch of times while it is cheap, because good things dont last. Right now we see a trend of camping or glamping, where as the state parks are full on week ends, so look out they will raise their prices, we do camp a lot in place of cruising. Population exploding goods, services, are going up. We got one cruise booked for next year on jubilee, and we are seriously going to cancel it...too big of a ship and since jubilee entered galveston, parking prices went up due to "infrastructure costs" in accommodating jubilee

AB...your post is MIA....again......looked interesting too.....

Until we feel that we aren’t getting a reasonable return on our purchase and/or can’t get something better for the same output, we will continue to cruise. Yes, it seems that it costs more and we are getting less. But like already mentioned that extends far beyond the cruise industry. I too wish the input was keeping up with the outgo.