What are the cruise budgeting and costs you need to watch out for in a post
shutdown world. I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another of my
cruising tips for travellers. As cruising starts up again, I think there's a whole
bunch of budgeting and costs that you need to be aware of that are different
evolved - or certainly you need to be more cautious about - as cruising heads back out
after all of the shutdown. I'm going to share with you those things, and I have
seven specific cost watch outs and budgeting watch outs that you need to be
aware of. The thing you need to bear in mind with cruising is the way the whole
model works is the aim of the Cruise Lines is to sail with ships that are as
full as possible, and they do that by offering attractive fares within the
marketplace, depending on what the conditions at the time are, to get people
on board. Once they're on board they then work to make a lot of money from people
on board. It's estimated in various industry reports that have seen, that
people spend between on average 50 percent and a hundred percent of their
fare once they're on board of the ship. So, getting people on board is really
really important. As we look at some of these costs watch outs and some of
things to budget for, bear that in mind that the aim is to get you to spend as
much as possible on board - and that's really an area that you need to focus on.
Not just the fare itself. Let's take a look at the watch outs. The first step I
have is a really important one, it's a really big important watch out as a
lot of you are very eager and keen to get back into cruising, but you need to
be a little bit patient before you start booking anything. Why do I say that? What
I genuinely believe very strongly that you're going to see fares falling, and
availability increasing. At this point in time it's not a hundred percent sure
exactly when ships are going to sail and when they're going to be allowed to sail.
Of course there are start-up dates announced, but nobody knows when that's
going to happen. Be patient and wait before you book cruises. Wait until the
ships are actually definitely heading out and sailing, and actually wait until
cruising does start up again. Once that happens the cruise lines will have
a much better assessment of what the capacity they have to sell, and also they
will have a much better assessment of what real demand is. It is extremely
likely that demand for cruising is going to be significantly lower than it was
in the run-up to the shutdown. There are a lot of people have been spooked and
put off by cruising. Other people of course have come a lot of financial
pressure, there is going to be a lot of capacity and fares are going to come
down, and deals will be going. There's going to be lots and lots of things
available, so my biggest tip my biggest watch out is,, as eager as you are look at
what you want to do and only book once cruising starts again and they are
really genuinely they know what they have to fill. At the moment of course
they are very happy to take bookings and if cruises get cancelled of course they
encourage you to take future cruise credit as this gets cash in, but just wait and
wait and wait until cruises start again. That's a really important thing.
Hold back and wait until the deals come. One of the great things to do if you are
keen is, if you've got a cruise agent, ask them to keep an eye on deals and let
them alert you as these deals come in. Of course what you can also do to get a
sense of the sort of pricing is. There are some sites out there that do really
focus on looking for deep deals some of those sites include cruisesheet
cruisedeals, vacationstogo, so take a look at some of those sites to
get a sense of the sort of pricing and deals that are going. The other thing you
might want to think about is, as you head forwards in a post shutdown world, is
book last minute, and the reason I say that is I think you're going to find
lots of really sharp deals closer to sailings. Cruise lines do want to sail
full so, with capacity likely to be available, there's probably going to be
some really sharp deals in the 90 days to 60 days. I also think that's very
important because a lot of people booked cruises way before this all happened and
they (I think) are they not going to want cruise, and a lot of them will not pay that final
balance. They'll try and find ways of getting out of going on cruising and
I think that'll unlock a lot of capacity at short notice.
My second really important watch out as you looking at budgeting and you look at
fares and look where to book and what to book is two things: first of all focus
initially on the three big cruising regions: the Caribbean (which is the
biggest cruising region), the Mediterranean (which is the next biggest
cruising region) and Alaska. Focus on those three because those three are the
ones that are going to come up and running really quickly. These are
good because they are just so important to cruising, and you have lots of cruise
lines operating there, so in those three big areas as
you're likely to find deals and get the sharpest prices. The second thing
when you are comparing prices, make sure you're comparing like with
like. What I suggest you do is if you're looking at going on perhaps a big
mega ship and a budget type ship or a more value type ship, compare fares on
all those routes that you're interested in between Royal Caribbean, Norwegian
Cruise Line, MSC Cruise Line and Carnival. Look at those four as a group. If
you're looking at perhaps a more traditional cruising experience, then
look at the fares across Princess, Holland America,
Cunard and P&O Cruises (if you're in Australia or you're in Europe). If you're
looking for a smaller slightly more inclusive Cruise Line, then what I
suggest you do is take a look at Azamara, Oceania and Viking, and then if you
looking the very ultra luxury, the very premium and take a look at
Seabourn, Silversea and Regent Seven Seas as a group. Make sure that you're not trying to
compare across those groups. Decide what type of cruise you want, and then look at
the fares that are on offer in those regions across those four or five cruise
lines in that particular grouping. That's the way you're going to be able to compare
and contrast and compare more like with--like when you're comparing fares
and deals. The third tip I have, and this is a very important one even more
so than it has ever been before, is once you've booked your cruise and
you have a fare is either you, or get your agent, to keep an eye on prices. The
cruise line if they cut their fares are unlikely to tell you, now there's been
some recent developments with Royal Caribbean Group saying
if they drop their prices they're making it very clear that they will find some
way of compensating you if prices fall. However, what's really important is the
cruise lines will not come to you. So if they drop their fares on your particular
cruise, in your particular cabin grade they're not going to come and tell you
that. What you need to do is keep an eye on the fare and if you see it go down, get
hold of the cruise line either by your agent, if you book by an agent or
directly, point out that you've seen the price come down and ask what they're
going to do. In most cases they will offer you an upgrade of some kind, they
might offer you extra onboard credit or some future cruise credits, but
it's really important because I do think prices are going to be very
volatile as we look at the next year or two, and
prices will be all over the place - so keep an eye on those prices and make
sure you know what your price is, know what the new prices are and if it goes
down contact the cruise line and find out what they're going to give to you.
They're unlikely to give you money back, they're likely to cut your fare but they
will bundle much more in. Very important now if you are one of those people that have
booked a cruise that has been cancelled and have got a future cruise credit
rather than cash, extremely important to make sure that you keep an eye on and you
know and diarise, or have some kind of alert, so you know exactly when that
future cruise credit expires. Some of them have short expiry dates, for
example the time of quoting the Virgin canceled cruises their expiry date is
only an April next year. You have to cruise to by then. I think that will
probably get pushed out. Other cruise lines had at the end of 2021, others have
moved it to 2022 and it is constantly evolving so make sure you know when your
future cruise credit expires, and also because if you book a cruise and have some
future cruise credit over, when you need to use that before it expires so
you're not just throwing money away. Perhaps do some sort of spreadsheet, put dates in
your diary. I have put alerts in my diary to remind me to keep
checking and thinking ahead so I don't lose future cruise credit. My fifth tip
is also very important when it comes to budgeting, a lot of people focus on the
fare they get very excited because they've got a great deal. However as
I mentioned earlier on, you could be spending anything between 50% and a
hundred percent of that fare again on your cruise - and that's just on the
cruise. That excludes other things like flights or transport to and from the
port, transfers from the airport to the port. One of the things I recommend when
you look at budgeting and are you comparing different cruise lines on a
particular route is think door-to-door. So, I think front door
to front door and all of the costs that are involved. Very important we've seen a
lot of discussion with Airlines maybe cutting capacity, perhaps some airlines
going out of business, less routes etc etc So, it's possible that air fares will
become more expensive and possibly even availability to get to and
from cruises becomes more challenging, which pushes prices up. So, do think
increasingly around that door-to-door so as you're looking at fares
also take a look at what you think it is going to cost you to get there, because it
may be a very different price - it was in the past and again just think through
that whole process of leaving the home, getting to the ship what you're going to spend on
the ship and to get back home may cost more. Think the whole process through, because
it could be very different if you just focus on the fares themselves. That
brings me on to my next point: the onboard spend. This is where you could be
spending a lot of money. As you're planning and budgeting, really important
to focus on this what we see increasing. I think we're going to see
two things possibly happening. On the one
hand cruise lines are going to be pushing really hard to get people on
board at the cheapest possible price, and to make as much money as possible on
board. One of the things that we might see happening is that the price of
things on board goes up like drinks, excursions, Wi-Fi, speciality dining. They
might start pushing the prices of those up to try and claw back some of the
money that they've lost through the shutdown and lower fares. The other thing
that I'm also seeing happening, is they're trying to incentivise people to book and
one of the ways of incentivising people is to reassure them about the overall
cost of cruising, so I'm seeing more and more deals which will bundle things in.
So, might give you a chance to choose from four different things like
gratuities, onboard credits and speciality dining or drinks, for example
drinks packages.So we're seeing those two polarising things, so as you look at
deals look and see increasingly whether you can get those bundled in because
that is one way of minimizing and managing your cost. But when you plan and
when you budget, there are a number of critical things that you need to
understand and think about that could add a lot of cost. First of all
gratuities, most cruise lines will auto add gratuities or give you the chance to
buy before, that can cost you easily across the seven day cruise $200-$300
added on to your cruise depending on the grade of cabin you're
in. The second thing is drinks. Most cruise lines do not include drinks and
they push very hard the drinks packages. Personally I tend to shy away from
drinks packages. You know anything the cruise lines pushing really aggressively
you have to think they're pushing it because it's very profitable
for them. Try and manage your whole drink experience and look really carefully
drinks packages, perhaps just buy drinks individually
because that's one way of course of controlling and managing your budget.
The third big big cost is excursions. This can cost you a lot of money, if you're on
a very port intensive cruise you could be spending $75, $100 or more
per person per day on excursions, and that can be a big big slug. One of
things I always recommend is do lots of research beforehand go to Port and also I
rely a lot on the hop-on ho- off buses. They can be a very cost-effective
way of seeing places. What we don't yet know is whether you will need to do more and more
excursions as a way of managing people as they head back into ports, as ships
and ports start opening again. But do bear in mind you could have a big cost in
excursions. The other big cost is Wi-Fi, now of course you could stay
disconnected but Wi-Fi can easily add another $200 easily onto
a week long cruise, depending on the cruise line that you're on. The other
cost which could mount up is specialty dining. Many cruise lines added
specialty dining venues to try and encourage people to spend more money on
board, and that can be adding up again you can be paying $20, $ 30, $50, $60
or more for specialty dining experience. So, again decide
if you really want to do speciality dining and budget for it. You could be
adding hundreds and hundreds of dollars onto your budget on board when you go on
a cruise, so be very careful. That's why I stressed that point about the
door-to-door experience. 50% to 100% of your cruise fare you could easily spend
on board so think about that and have a strategy or budget for those things.
Another really important tip is, if you are a shareholder in any of the Cruise
Lines you are cruising with, don't forget that if you hold a 100 shares,
most of the cruise lines (no matter which of their brands you're cruising on) you can
apply for extra onboard credit. A little bit of paperwork involved once you've
paid your final payment, but you can often get a couple of hundred dollars
extra on-board credit. So if you are a shareholder,
don't throw that opportunity away and do send away for that. As we head into a
post shutdown mode as cruising starts up again, the way that we budgeted, the way we
think about cruising and costs and fares has evolved and is changing ever so
slightly, with some really important watch outs.
These are things I think you should focus on. I hope you found that helpful. I
have loads more videos packed full of cruising tips and advice
so why don't you watch another one of those right now