Are Cruise Vacations Surviving?

Are Cruises Surviving?

For the past year or so, understandably there has been much in the public media regarding the negative plight of some of the cruise lines. . .and it seems almost no one has been exempt.  The recent report by Carnival Cruise Lines on their second-quarter financial results indicate that they are having difficulties in filling their ships.  Their bookings are behind last year and what bookings they have are at lower prices.

Other lines under the Carnival umbrella, Princess, Holland America, and Cunard have been holding their own with more bookings than last year and at higher prices. In addition, competitors like Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line seem to be having increased bookings and are not lowering prices at this time.

One journalist concluded that the financial results indicate that except for Carnival Cruise Lines, there is more demand for cruises this year than last, and as a result, the remaining lines are making more money from those bookings.

The one negative though is when a vital member of the cruise body is sick, the conversation about cruising suffers, so we can only hope that Carnival will right itself.  Interestingly, and you never know why, but Carnival is bringing back one of the more visible and well-liked gurus of their sales and marketing efforts who retired several years ago, Bob Dickenson.  And, just announced a week or so ago, the CEO and son of the man who started the line, Mickey Arison was stepping down from his current position.  Wonder if they are starting to work on a new “perception paradigm”.  In my opinion it’ll be hard to improve on the “Fun Ships”!!

The ocean-going lines are not the only ones having problems this year.  The river cruises have been struggling, not with less bookings but with the weather.  They have cancelled more departures in the last month or so because of the heavy rains in Central Europe than they have in decades.  The water levels on the Danube and the Main have been impassable, not only dangerous, but they can’t get under the bridges. One of the main stops on the Danube is the German city of Passau, and the flood levels there have forced tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. You can bet that because of those cancellations the river cruise lines will be suffering financially in the short term.

In the long term though, the river cruise bookings are robust.  I was calling for availability on a couple of itineraries on the Danube a couple of weeks ago, and every ship was completely sold out going both direction for the months of August, September, October, and November. That was not only on one river cruise line, that was on the three major river cruise lines.

So. . . cruising is still alive a well, and in my estimation, the best way to see the world, so give the experienced travel agents at The Travel Factory a call today at 698-1421 or toll-free 800-760-4040 and let us help you manufacture the vacation of your dreams.