[Default] Thus spake George Leppla :

Stu wrote:
snip



Do you think this increase will impact on bookings? If they were
steadily raising prices already, and now made a public announcement
that they are raising prices an additional 5%, it seems like gouging.
This may raise stock prices in the short term, but will hurt revenues
in the long run.

I may have to look elsewhere for my wifes retirement cruise, that's a
shame.

Will it impact bookings? So far, fares have been going up for the past
few months (generally) and the bookings are much higher than normal so
higher prices alone aren't impacting bookings. This announcement might
spur some additional bookings before March 22... but I doubt that this
will have much impact.

Look at the language.... fares will increase across the board "up to
5%". Even a 5% increase on a $800 cruise is only $40.... not enough to
discourage people from making reservations. I'll assume that many fare
increases will be less than that 5%. Overall, the fare increases will
be negligible. Is $20 to $40 really enough to make a customer look
someplace else. Probably not. If so, where are you going to look?
Other cruise lines are going to look at this and act accordingly. They
may not make an announcement about rising fares, but you can bet your
butt that they will (they already are).

Yeah, but the "average guy" sees 5% and says "oh gosh, better book
now". Does this hurt Carnival? Not really. Now they get to sit on
his deposit for a whole boatload longer ("average guy" was going to
book in 6 months for his December cruise, so they get six months extra
on the deposit). Meanwhile, six months down the road nobody remembers
the hike and sales just keep going.


Maybe Carnival is sending a signal to the industry that now is a good
time for everyone to raise prices?

Maybe they are trying to "set a tone"... a sense of urgency for their
customers... "book now while fares are still low"?

Like I said.


One thing for sure... they are trying to raise the pricing bar, both in
the minds of their customers and the competition.

It is an interesting business..... and today is a bit more interesting
than others. It will be fun to watch how this all plays out.

The cruise industry has managed to avoid doing something that has
turned out to be a disaster for the airlines. Airfare is a commodity.
Continental? American? Delta? Who has the cheapest fare today?
That's who I'm booking. Same crappy service, same crappy seats, same
crappy everything. But a cruise is an event, an experience. George,
Ray, John, have you noticed that the lines are pushing even harder for
selling the "experience" rather than the price? Yeah, Carnival is
saying "from as little as $70 a day", but if you watch the ads, that's
about 10 seconds or less, vs. 50 seconds of balconies, massages, hot
tubs and water wediges.
--

- dillon I am not invalid

You know, I can't think of nothing finer than a fine
naked woman holding a gun. And you got all kinds of
fine going on.

Frankie Figs