Travelers still sailing on high cruise prices

Better value
Despite rising prices, many people contend cruises are still a better value than they were 20 years ago as ships get bigger and can take on more passengers.

Elmer Walter said he and his wife paid about $1,700 for their first cruise, a four-day trip in the Caribbean in 1987. The Mesquite, Texas, couple paid $1,428 for a seven-day Caribbean cruise in a similar cabin two years ago, although that trip is up to about $2,000 now.

Traveler Skulpong agreed that cruising is still a good value.

"I still think that it's overall less than I would pay if I had to fly up there, get a hotel room and pay for three meals a day," she said.

Others say bargains can still be found, especially on the Internet.

"There are just so many nuances out there about cruise prices that the experienced cruiser knows how to take advantage of them," said Robert Bluestone, a retired banker from Port St. Lucie who takes a cruise about every three months.

Bluestone usually calls the cruise line first to find out the list price, and then hits discount online travel agencies, such as Cruisequick.com. A recent search on the bare-bones Web site turned up Caribbean trips on the Carnival Cruise Lines brand for as little as $100 a day per person, including a cabin, food and entertainment.

Ray Weiller, an owner of Cruisequick, said that while his company has made fewer bookings so far this year, revenues have been about the same because of higher ticket prices.

"We're now starting to see people booking for 2006 because they can't get anything this year," he said.

Market growth
The Carnival group and Royal Caribbean both said the growth has been across major markets, including the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska. Europe has been particularly strong because of the dollar's weakness against the euro. Americans have been booking European cruises in dollars to avoid the unfavorable exchange rate they would face if they rented hotel rooms and bought meals in euros.

Shares of Carnival, which controls nearly half the global cruise market, are trading in the $53 range. That's off a 52-week high of nearly $60, but well above its low of $40.

To preserve their higher prices, the major cruise lines have made it tougher or impossible for low-cost Web sites to give passengers discounts. The lines didn't want cheapen their brand value and have consumers booking travel based only on the lowest price, a problem experienced by airlines. So Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean now require travel agencies to advertise cruises at list price. Carnival still lets agencies give discounts as long as they aren't publicized, but Royal Caribbean doesn't.

"I think the days of cheap cruises that we saw after 9/11 are gone," Canino said.

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