Saturday, 7 December 2024
by BD Banks
Cruise lines work really hard to contain outbreaks of illness before they spread across their ships.
This can entail confining ill passengers to their rooms, enhancing cleaning efforts, and even forcing all passengers off a ship to do a deep clean.
These efforts generally succeed in keeping small outbreaks from becoming larger ones. Yes, that’s cold comfort to passengers who get infected, but the cruise lines have done a good job in the post-Covid era of limiting the media impact of various outbreaks.
Cruise lines learned a lot during the Covid days, and while they can’t eliminate illness, they can and do keep as many passengers healthy as possible.
Jason from Travel Scouts has that story, as well as stories on an internet change on one cruise line and passengers angry about price increases that came with no warning
Cruise news: As the year comes to an end, passengers are being hit with nearly a half dozen new price and tax increases. This includes brand-new price hikes that are just being revealed today. Many cruisers across social media are sounding off with several suggestions of boycott.
I’m going to get you the details. Plus, one small cruise ship ran aground and I have some data to help you with your cruise planning for the upcoming year. All of this and loads more. I’m going to get you the top cruise news updates to get you fully up to speed and I’m going to get you the information fast.
Coming up: Welcome to the Travel Scouts. My name is Jason.
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Okay, before I get into the price and tax increase data, let me quickly share some top stories with you. Number one, there has been a sickess outbreak on board the P&O Ventura cruise ship. This occurred on the Ventura sailing that ended today.
The sickness is said to be gastrointestinal in nature. And passengers on board were reportedly advised not to gather in large groups and they were instructed to remain in their cabins if they were feeling sick.
A P&O spokesperson issued a statement regarding the situation saying, quote, we work closely with relevant global and regional health authorities and we have approved, recognized and proven protocols that are in place throughout every cruise to uphold the health and well-being of all the guests and crew on board.
P&O also said that a deep cleaning of the ship is being conducted prior to the next sailing.
Then number two, Oceania Cruises has completed the installation of Starlink internet across their fleet. All eight ships operated by the cruise line are now equipped to provide Starlink internet.
Starlink uses low-Earth-orbit satellites and it currently provides the fastest internet available to cruise ships. Oceania Cruises makes internet available for free for up to two people per stateroom. However, that does not include the capability to stream.
If that is desired, passengers will need to pay for an upgrade that costs $10 per person per day.
Moving on to number three, a river cruise ship ran aground on the Nile River in Egypt. The cruise ship is called the MS Crown Vision.
It ran aground on the Nile River near the point shown on the map right now. Fifty-seven German and two French nationals are on board as cruise passengers. Thankfully, none of them were injured in the incident.
The vessel has now been successfully refloated. The government released this video of the ship showing it being escorted from the area with the assistance of a tugboat.
Then number four, the Regal Princess cruise ship continues to have maintenance issues.
The vessel had to cancel three weeks of sailings from late October to mid-November. During that time, the ship experienced multiple power generator failures. The ship is able to continue with its planned voyages now.
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However, on four upcoming sailings, Princess is adding newly announced overnight stays in Roatan, Honduras. This is so that more maintenance can be conducted while at port. For the December 8th, January 5th, and January 12th sailings, this means that they will no longer be visiting Costa Maya, Mexico.
And on the January 19th cruise, the ship will no longer visit Montego Bay, Jamaica. Princess said that they have received approval for the ship’s casino to remain operational while at port in Roatan. They are also giving all impacted passengers a 20% future cruise credit.
Additionally, the cruise line is offering a full refund for anyone who desires to cancel their voyage.
Then to help you with cruise planning for next year, number five, I’m going to share with you the cheapest 7-day Alaska cruises for next year for 2025 for five of the top cruise lines. Sailings to Alaska are extremely popular every year.
So I was just curious: With all of the price increases, what are the bottom end prices that are available right now?
I did a quick check of these five cruise lines. I only looked at 7-day cruises in 2025, and I only looked for the lowest ticket price regardless of the date, regardless of the ship, and regardless of what perks they may or may not have available.
When you look at this list, which one do you think would be the cheapest? Well, Carnival’s lowest ticket price available was $908 per person. That was for either the April 28 sailing on the Carnival Spirit or the May 1st sailing on the Carnival Luminosa.
Holland America was a little cheaper. Their best price was $854. That was for the May 11 voyage on the Nordum.
Next was Princess. You can find Alaska cruises with them for as low as $758 per person. That would be for the May 10 sailing on the Caribbean Princess.
Then Royal Caribbean was very close in price. Their lowest rate was $757 per person. That is for the August 29th cruise on the Radiance of the Seas.
But the best price among the five cruise lines that I looked at was Norwegian Cruise Line. They have one Alaska cruise listed at $642 per person. That is on the April 28 sailing on the Norwegian Jade.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
For cruises visiting New Zealand, the border processing levy has now increased from NZ$16.03 to NZ$27.14. [US$9.35 to US$15.83] That is a New Zealand currency. There is also a NZ$10.58 [US$6.17] biosecurity levy that must be paid as well. Then Greece is also getting in on the action.
Number seven, the Greek parliament has approved a tax on cruise passengers that will be effective in 2025. The charge will be 20 euros [US$21.14] per passenger when they visit the popular islands of Santorini or Mykonos. And it will be 5 euros [US$5.29] per person when they visit one of the other Greek islands.
Moving on to number eight, the new fee on cruise passengers visiting Mexican cruise ports has been approved by the Mexican Senate. At the time of my last video, it had only been approved by Mexico’s lower Congress. It has now been approved by their Senate and it is being defended by their president.
It is also important to know that this did not just pass by a little bit. Eighty senators voted in favor of it, only 37 voted against. The new fee is an additional $42 per cruise passenger whether you get off the ship or not.
It goes into effect on January 1 and two-thirds of it goes to support the Mexican military. When added with Mexico’s other fees and taxes, it will make Mexico one of the most expensive cruise destinations in the world to visit.
The question is, is it worth it? This new increase more than anything else has many cruise passengers calling for a boycott.
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That action could be possible on the East Coast because there are plenty of alternative ports of call. However, the West Coast of the US has a challenge. The US law called the Jones Act requires that foreign-flagged vessels, which most cruise ships are, can’t just travel between US ports.
They also have to make an international stop and for most West Coast cruise itineraries, this typically means a stop in Mexico. But cruise passengers that are calling for the boycott believe that US lawmakers should change the Jones Act to remove the requirement.
My question for you is, what do you think about a boycott with cruise ships just avoiding Mexico altogether? Is that too extreme or at $42 additional per person is it time to take drastic action? Let me know down in the comments.
Next, number nine, Carnival Cruise Line has quietly hiked the price on their drink package without announcement. When cruising with Carnival, there used to be a variety of prices based upon cruise length. Well, the length of a cruise is no longer a factor and the new pricing is an increase of about 16%.
If you purchase a drink package pre-cruise, the cost is $82.54 per person per day. If you purchase once you are on board, the cost is now $88.44 per person per day. And Carnival did not stop there.
Number 10, Carnival also quietly hiked the prices on their internet packages. Many current booked passengers have reported seeing this and the new prices are also listed on Carnival’s website in the Frequently Asked Questions section. Also note that Carnival also increased the prices on their internet package last December as well.
So what I’m going to do is I’m going to show you a graphic with three columns. The first column will be the internet package price in 2023. The second will be the price that we have enjoyed up until this point in 2024.
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And then the third column will be the new price that has been revealed. For Carnival’s social wifi package, if you purchase precruise, the cost is now $18.70 per day. Once on board, it is $22 per day.
That is nearly a 50% increase since last December. The value plan is $22.10 pre-cruise and $26 per day on board. Then the premium plan is $23.80 precruise and $28 on board.
All of these prices that I have mentioned are per day prices and in general terms the increase is about $2-$3 per day regardless of what package you book or when you book it.
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