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Caribbean, Mexican Riviera deals beckon
If you go back and look at pre-Christmas and New Year's cruise fares in the Mexican Riviera and the Caribbean, you will find some prices that bring back memories of a few years ago, when the economy was faltering. For example, MSC at one point had prices that worked out to under US$50 per day. At the end of November and early December, many cruise lines still had Christmas and New Year's availability. Is this going to last through the winter season?
Many cruise lines have sales that last into peak season.
Sanjay Goel, president of Cruise Connections ( cruise-connections.com),an online cruise agency that has been in business for 17 years, points out that Europe is now the fastest-growing cruise destination in the world.
"However," he says, "during the winter that capacity returns to these shores. You will notice that many of the sales are seven-day cruises, mainly in the Caribbean and Mexican Riviera."
Here are some examples:
-Holland America has its view and veranda sale running through Feb. 28.
-NCL is starting its "Free Upgrades For All" sale -- up to four categories -- on Dec. 13.
-Bob and Nancy Dunn's cruisingdoneright.comblog came up with one that's priced at $50 a day: Costa's Atlantica, out of Miami, seven days return US$349, with balconies at $549 and suites at $799. (Departures are Jan. 7 and 14 and, as always, these prices were available at time of writing and are based on per-person, double occupancy.)
-On my Blog, portsandbows.com,I wrote last week about the port of San Francisco and why more cruise lines didn't make the Northern California city a stop on the way back and forth to the Northwest for the start and finish of the Alaska season.
That brought a series of comments, all of them agreeing with my viewpoint, which I can assure you is not always the case.
Think of how many ships from the Alaska market sail right by San Francisco. Take a poll and I'll bet you find most cruisers would be happy with one stop on those Southern California-to-Northwest re-positioning cruises -- a San Francisco overnight. Apparently, more ships will use it as a stop next year. The deputy director of the port reports an anticipated increase in capacity of 39 per cent. There were only 120,000 cruise visitors this year so that increase, compared to Seattle and Vancouver, is really small potatoes.
-On Sept. 23, Cunard's Queen Mary 2 was dead in the water for an hour, with no power off the coast of Barcelona. Now, after a review, it was no small incident. There was an explosion on-board and, although no one was in danger, I don't recall any information as to why the ship was without engine power for an hour. However, the UK's Marine Accident Branch reported on the incident last week. The explosion was electrical and did buckle some steel doors.
According to Cunard, the changes proposed by the Marine Branch have already been implemented.
Visit portsandbows.com for
daily updates on the latest cruise news, best deals and behind-the-scenes stories from the industry. You can also sign up for an email newsletter on the site for even more cruise information. Phil can be contacted directly at [email protected]. Sponsored by Cruise Connections. |
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發表於 2010-12-15 07:31
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