Have cruise fares hit bottom?

[Unca Pete]

Could it be that they've saturated some markets with too many
lines and new megaships competiting for a limited number
of customers? I want to do Alaska once; since I prefer sunning
myself on a warm rock in the Caribbean vs. watching ice in the
North Pacific. Airfares have a long way to fall to hit the pre-
140 dollar a barrel days too.

I could have sworn I saw a RCI 14-day transoceanic cruise
for $299 last week (gone the next day, sold out..) Oh, to
be retired and able to jump on those deals!

[John Sisker]

One can indeed find some pretty good cruise prices right now, but as someone
pointed out, the air fares tend to cancel out any cruise bargains. However,
here on the West Coast, we are booking more and more 3, 4 and 7 day cruises
for the locals not needing airfare.

In fact, we were down at the Queen Mary (Carnival Cruise Line Terminal) last
Friday to see some clients off on Carnival's Paradise. Carnival didn't seem
to have any problem filling that ship. Likewise, we are going to be on her
ourselves in a few weeks, just for a quick get-away.

Incidentally, it was good to see some actual restoration work on the Queen
Mary itself. The smoke stacks and the white part of the hull has been
repainted so far, along with some work talking place onboard. It was nice to
see that such an historic ship will not be allow to deteriorate any longer.

Happy sailing,
John