So I get this email right?
“Is something going on with cruise prices? I have been getting some emails about pricing for 4 and 5 day cruises for under $200 a piece. Are the ships trying to fill up? If so, this sure does sound like a great time to cruise. What’s the news?”
What to do but respond accurately:
Nothing new really.
A large number of people who might have booked far in advance didn’t and are tending to still cruise, they’re not stopping that…but they are waiting and cautious about committing to a vacation or other big ticket item…or they were I should say.
It appears that the tide is turning on the economy and people are out buying again. That’s just perfect for cruises. Since so many buyers did not buy a long time ago as they usually did, that created a huge surplus of cabins available. Not to let those cabins just sit the cruise lines encouraged the heck out of group cruises.
Well, see the thing about groups is that it makes the cruise lines feel good and feel confident because lots of cabins are “spoken for” meaning there are travel agencies with blocks of rooms to sell. So part A of their plan worked very well. They offered more incentives for groups and got lots of agencies to commit to group space.
The problem was with part B of the plan. Regardless of where the available cabin came from, people still were not buying. They might get in on a cruise but cancel when payments were due, not ready to commit. So while the cruise lines are feeling all warm and fuzzy about having so many cabins committed they really did not have anything special there at all. They just had more cabins back on their hands a bit later, when the travel agencies reached the end of their option period on the cabins and gave them back to the cruise lines. Now they’re having a fire sale rather than have cabins sail empty with nobody to pay the tips, lose money in the casino, have a drink, etc
That’s one reply to your excellent question.
Another would be; boys will be boys and the cruise lines are getting more creative in their marketing efforts, grabbing your attention one way or another. Look at the fine print. I see this every day; big flashy headline price that is a whole lot more by the time they pay.
There’s still no free lunch.
These deals that sound unbelievably good normally are not exactly as good as they seem.
If you are seeing ads from anyone other than the cruise lines themselves, more and more fees are being charged it seems. Lots of non-refundable processing fees, lots of extra, sometimes hefty, cancellation fees that you agree to let them charge when you buy.
I never liked those but have seen some that do make a bit of sense and are starting to crop up some. Those are the small handling fees some agencies are charging for handling short cruises. Often the cruise lines have those so low priced that the agencies are really not getting much at all out of it financially. You really don’t want them operating like that. Your professional travel agent can create such value for you over the years that you want to take care of them.
I realized that was one way to look at it and it reminded me of how very important the business relationship between travel agents and their clients is. I get it. I think more and more people who have been burned by their Internet Cruise Brokers, attempts to just “do it online themselves” or even those who deal directly with the cruise line…you would think at least that would be worry-free…and to a good extent it is, except that the cruise line is never going to look for a lower price for you and automatically apply it. They would have to do that and then some to beat the value a good travel agent affords us.
I have a daughter who recently graduated college with a degree in public relations. She moved to Chicago where she works with a major public relations firm on the cutting edge of social media. You don’t have to read these people’s blogs, tweets, Facebooks, or what they doodle on the back of a cocktail napkin very long to see how front and center building relationships is. Travel agents have known this all along.
A good one is waiting for all of us.
