Mediterranean and North Sea Prices Continue to Drop for Spring and Fall Cruise Itineraries

Although I recently reported on the pricing weakness in cruises of European waters, the ongoing nature of that development is so important, so increasingly evident, as to warrant another go-around. Prices continue to drop. To determine why, I placed a call to Larry Fishkin of Travel Themes and Dreams ( www.travelthemesanddreams.com ), and based on my conversation with him, I have the following to report:

The deployment of cruiseships is done eighteen months in advance; cruise officials have to guess where they can best schedule their ships to be.

Eighteen months ago, cruiseline officials could not have predicted a.) the eruption of protests for regime change in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Syria; b.) the skyrocketing price of oil, causing trans-Atlantic airfares to soar; or c.) the weakness of the Dollar against the Euro. And so, like lemmings marching to the sea, they all did the same thing: they assigned the overwhelming bulk of their fleets to European waters for the spring, summer and fall of 2011.

Putting almost all of their eggs in one or two baskets (the Mediterranean and the North Sea), they also could not have anticipated that because of turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East, some Americans lacking in geographical sophistication would be scared away from cruises focused on the coasts of Italy, Greece and Turkey. Amazingly enough, some would-be travelers point to the violence in Libya as the reason why they have ceased to book cruises in the Mediterranean (although I suspect that the high cost of trans-Atlantic airfares is a more prevalent reason).

The result of all this is that cruiselines like Carnival, Celebrity, and Norwegian find a dearth of passengers to fill the tens of thousands of cabins they are offering in the Mediterranean, particularly. Fishkin points to the following prices that he can obtain for persons booking the following ships through his website:

Celebrity Solstice: sailing 12-day cruises of the Western Mediterranean from Barcelona: $899 per person for inside cabins, $1,149 per person for oceanview cabins, and $1,249 for verandahs. These rates apply to the May 26 sailing, but there are similar discounts offered through and including the August 24 sailing.

Celebrity Equinox: sailing 10 and 11-day itineraries of the Eastern Mediterranean from Rome (Civitavecchia): $899 per person for inside cabins, $999 for oceanview, $1,299 for verandahs. Rates apply to departures from now through September 9.

Carnival Magic: Carnival's newest ship which launches on May 1, and then proceeds to sail through the Mediterranean. Inaugural Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona are offered for an astonishing $629 per person in inside cabins on 7-night cruises, $779 on 9-day cruises, and an amazing $849 on 12-day cruises.

Norwegian Epic: one of the largest ships in the world, sailing 7-day Mediterranean cruises from Barcelona through the summer and early fall. NCL is offering air/sea rates from New York (JFK) starting (in the fall) at an astonishing $1,399 per person, probably a bit more at other times. And that reference to $1399 is no typo; the price includes round-trip trans-Atlantic airfare.

Many more such cruiseships are currently offering similar rates for their summer sailings in the waters of Europe.

In gratitude to Larry for compiling these examples (he's been a cruise discounter for many years). You can reach him at tel. 877/870-7447.