It used to be that cruise lines ended their Mediterranean programs in mid-October and fled to the warmer Caribbean. No longer. A number of lines keep cruising that ancient sea during the chilly (but not bitterly cold) winter. But in this recession-wracked year, a number of them are apparently finding it difficult to fill their vessels in those winter months.
That’s the only explanation for the current pricing of cruises in the winter Med. As a first example, Online Vacation Center (phone 800/329-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com) is charging only $699 per person in an inside cabin for an 11-night Mediterranean cruise on the MSC Fantasia leaving Rome on January 6 and 28, 2010 (the ship goes to Genoa, Barcelona, Casablanca, Tenerife, Funchal, and Malaga, before returning to Rome). Which is a pretty awesome price.
It charges $799 (per person, inside cabin) for a similar 11-night Mediterranean cruise leaving Naples on January 30, on the MSC Splendida; and it charges the same in an inside cabin for the 11-night sailing of the MSC Splendida leaving Naples on January 19 (and going, among other places, to both Egypt and Israel).
Finally, it charges $999 per person for an upscale balcony cabin on the MSC Fantasia, sailing an 11-night itinerary from Rome on January 17, 2009. (Desperation pricing).
A variation on the just-slash-the-price approach is Online Vacation Center’s decision to include round-trip airfare to Europe, and two nights in a deluxe hotel immediately preceding the cruise, as well as a 12-night Mediterranean cruise, for all of $1,649 in January, $1,699 in February, and $1,799-to-$1,999 in March. The ship is the Norwegian Jade, lodging is in an inside cabin, and the itinerary is round-trip from Barcelona, going to Rome, Athens, Ephesus (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt, a two-night stay), and Valletta (Malta) before returning to Barcelona. Five days of the 12 day cruise are spent simply at sea. When you consider that the round-trip airfare must be worth at least $700, and that the two deluxe hotel nights in Barcelona must be worth $200, then you are really paying only about $700 for the 12-night cruise aboard an excellent ship. And oceanview cabins cost only $50 to $100 more.
It’s clear that the cruise lines overestimated the appeal of a winter cruise of the Mediterranean and have thus been forced to offer sacrificial rates to fill their ships. People who take advantage of their plight will enjoy a bargain vacation.
Original post by Travel Robot