Sign of the times: Celebrity pulls cruise ship from Europe for 2010

I found this to be interesting. Celebrity has pulled the Solstice from
Europe in 2010 for the Caribbean.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...og&ak=66379025.
blog

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
I found this to be interesting. Celebrity has pulled the Solstice from
Europe in 2010 for the Caribbean.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...og&ak=66379025.
blog

--
Charles


Back in January I posted this:
----------------
Yep... I wrote about that here quite a while ago. With Europe bookings soft
because of the high fuel prices (at the time) and it looked like getting
reasonable airfare was going to be a problems, more than one cruise line was
looking at cutting back in Europe.

"Why sell 7 night cruises for $599 in Europe when we can sell $599 in the
Caribbean at a much lower cost?"
-----------------------

I do believe that the availailability and price of air tickets is having a
lot to do with the downturn in European bookings (as well as some "exotic"
itineraries).

I recently priced a 14 day Med cruise where the airfare was going to be more
expensive than the cruise. No sale.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

Cruise Specials Weblog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/

January 10, 2009 Southern Caribbean
http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

On 5/5/09 2:00 PM, in article , "George
Leppla" wrote:


"Charles" wrote in message
d...
I found this to be interesting. Celebrity has pulled the Solstice from
Europe in 2010 for the Caribbean.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...og&ak=66379025.
blog

--
Charles


Back in January I posted this:
----------------
Yep... I wrote about that here quite a while ago. With Europe bookings soft
because of the high fuel prices (at the time) and it looked like getting
reasonable airfare was going to be a problems, more than one cruise line was
looking at cutting back in Europe.

"Why sell 7 night cruises for $599 in Europe when we can sell $599 in the
Caribbean at a much lower cost?"
-----------------------

I do believe that the availailability and price of air tickets is having a
lot to do with the downturn in European bookings (as well as some "exotic"
itineraries).

And consistent with that are remarks by RCI and Celebrity officials about
putting more emphasis on the "overseas" markets to fill ships.

I recently priced a 14 day Med cruise where the airfare was going to be more
expensive than the cruise. No sale.

We're looking at Australia/New Zealand cruises where airfare would be 150%
of the cruise. But it's primarily the 25 hours flying time holding us back.

"peter" wrote in message
...

We're looking at Australia/New Zealand cruises where airfare would be 150%
of the cruise. But it's primarily the 25 hours flying time holding us
back.


And if that's a coach seat?... Whow...

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
I found this to be interesting. Celebrity has pulled the Solstice from
Europe in 2010 for the Caribbean.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruis...og&ak=66379025.
blog

--
Charles

I think Celebrity may have overbuilt with having so many ships in that new
class anyway.

And sitting here thinking... the cruise lines may have been caught a bit off
guard with Europe. They saw nicer revenues ($$$) and longer sailings (a
single reservations fills a cabin for 2 weeks instead of just 1 week)... and
they may have thought they'd hit gold. BUT... I'm guessing Europe may be
more of a "I will pay extra to do it once" type thing, where as, you'll do
the same places in the Caribbean over and over if it's much cheaper. I
loved my Baltics sailing, but given airfare prices, I'd need to see a good
special price for the cruise to attract me back quickly. And since most
Europe sailings are 12-14 days, even if you cut the prices in half, it still
doesn't look attractive enough to catch your eye. Show me $499 in the
Caribbean and I might be ready to see the same places again. But that same
price for 2 weeks is $999 (x 2 = $2000) and with another $2000 in air...
oops... not a cheap get away.

I don't think Europe is going to bring the repeat business that the
Caribbean does.

--Tom

"Tom K" wrote

And sitting here thinking... the cruise lines may have been caught a bit
off guard with Europe. They saw nicer revenues ($$$) and longer sailings
(a single reservations fills a cabin for 2 weeks instead of just 1
week)... and they may have thought they'd hit gold. BUT... I'm guessing
Europe may be more of a "I will pay extra to do it once" type thing,


We call it a "once in a lifetime" trip... a trip so special or expensive
that you figure you will do it only once. The common theme is that if I am
going to do it once, I might as well splurge and do as much as I can... and
as much as I can afford.

Cruises to Australia, Asia and the South Pacific are certainly in this
category. European sailings fall into that category and cruise lines have
recently been packaging European Cruise-Tours the same way they package
Alaska. To a lesser extent, an Alaska cruises and Cruise-Tours are also
once in a lifetime trips for many people.

If you look at this week's Celebrity Exciting Deals sale, everything listed
is either 12+ days in Europe and a few Alaska cruises (and the Alaska prices
are nothing to write home about).


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

Cruise Specials Weblog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/

January 10, 2009 Southern Caribbean
http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

"George Leppla" wrote in
:


"Tom K" wrote

And sitting here thinking... the cruise lines may have been caught a
bit off guard with Europe. They saw nicer revenues ($$$) and longer
sailings (a single reservations fills a cabin for 2 weeks instead of
just 1 week)... and they may have thought they'd hit gold. BUT...
I'm guessing Europe may be more of a "I will pay extra to do it once"
type thing,


Interesting news...we're in the process of trying to decide and choose an
itinerary for our next cruise which is going to be Europe (Greece and
Italy ports for sure).

Typically we sail Princess but would like to try Celebrity again, in
particular the Solstice or Equinox.

Anyone have any actual experience on a trip that touches a good part of
Italy with Greece and perhaps France or Spain?

Would love some insight on this.

Thanks..

In article , Tom K
wrote:

I don't think Europe is going to bring the repeat business that the
Caribbean does.

I am an Elite Celebrity Captain's Club member yet I have not been on
Celebrity in a few years because they dropped many Caribbean sailings
and the dropped Bermuda. Hopefully next year I will be back on a
Celebrity cruise. I would like to go on the Solstice.

--
Charles

"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Tom K
wrote:

I don't think Europe is going to bring the repeat business that the
Caribbean does.

I am an Elite Celebrity Captain's Club member yet I have not been on
Celebrity in a few years because they dropped many Caribbean sailings
and the dropped Bermuda. Hopefully next year I will be back on a
Celebrity cruise. I would like to go on the Solstice.

I haven't either, for the same reason. For this year's Viking sailing, we
couldn't find a Celebrity sailing that was reasonably priced and fit our 7
day requirement from Florida... they're trying to focus on long sailings...
they think they're in Oceania's league, but they're not.

--Tom

Tom K wrote:
"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Tom K
wrote:

I don't think Europe is going to bring the repeat business that the
Caribbean does.
I am an Elite Celebrity Captain's Club member yet I have not been on
Celebrity in a few years because they dropped many Caribbean sailings
and the dropped Bermuda. Hopefully next year I will be back on a
Celebrity cruise. I would like to go on the Solstice.

I haven't either, for the same reason. For this year's Viking sailing, we
couldn't find a Celebrity sailing that was reasonably priced and fit our 7
day requirement from Florida... they're trying to focus on long sailings...
they think they're in Oceania's league, but they're not.

The Solstice does a 7 day out of Fort Lauderdale, San Juan, St. Kitss
and St Maarten.

We were on the ship and loved it, but because we had some health issues
didn't get to do it justice. I am trying to talk Kevin into doing the
Solstice in Jan instead of the Grandeur.

Tom, Charles, any interest in late Jan?

sue