Musk sucks. Starlink is great; even out near the (ant)arctic circle.
Per person, double occupancy. And does not include airfares, hotel at embarkation and disembarkation. I’m seeing $30,000 for two people including those items.
I only saw one below $1000 per person. Wonder what we are doing different.
I enjoy cruises on my own (I make friends with people who are reading or scanning with binoculars for birds, whales, etc.), with my lovely wife, and with friends or colleagues.
The Looove Boat 
doo-doo-do-do-doo-do-do-do-doo 
Back in the late 80s, a local rock radio station had a “special” three-day cruise to the Bahamas. Two DJs (the morning team) accompanied it. It was on one of Carnival’s older ships, so cabins were tiny, but that meant it was not very crowded. My wife and I were young and we partied. Had a good time.
Fast forward a few years. We’re getting offers for “past guests” that have decent discounts and upgrades. We book another cruise on another Carnival ship. Lather and repeat. By 2010, the ships are huge and full of obnoxious people crowding out everywhere on the ship. But the ports of call and excursions are still cool. Plus, I dive, so I’m able to take a couple diving excursions on each cruise.
Now my wife and I are getting on in years. The Carnival “obnoxious perpetual party ship” cruises are not very attractive. But we’re spoiled. We get great discounts and upgrades…on Carnival. We’d like to take another cruise, but we look and see that a cabin costing $2500 on Carnival will be $9000 on a cruise line that we would, as older folks, probably enjoy much more. And, of course, my wife would like to invite her kids and grandkids along as well. Carnival would be the only option we could even dream of being able to afford.
Am I a “Carnival Captive?”
I got back from a cruise a week+ ago. Going again in Aug, Sep, Nov, Dec & Feb. A mix of sizes and lines, but tending towards smaller / fancier.
The worldwide industry is hundreds of ships moving hundreds of thousands of people every day. Stuff gonna happen now and again.
You can choose to be. Or not be. All the lines have deals for repeat customers. And for people able to take cruises on short notice.
How many Carnival cruises have you done? Your post says 2 at least. But is it 2 or 20? Point being you won’t be paying the full sticker price after the first one on anyone else either.
Like airfares, the full sticker price is sorta the bad joke that opens the comic’s set.
I’ve done over 15 total Carnival cruises and the discounts and upgrades are substantial when you get over 10. (I’ve cruised with two different wives, as well as solo, since 1989.) But we know from friends that comparable cruise ship lines share many of the same problems. We would LIKE to use a cruise line geared more towards older people, with fewer guests, better food, less noise, etc. Unfortunately, that means switching to a new cruise line and increasing the cost significantly. When we add in the cost of taking family along, it’s just not feasible. Rent four cabins on Carnival as a past guest, <$10K. Rent four cabins on a ship we ourselves would probably enjoy much more, >$32K.
Plus, it is unlikely we would cruise again after the next one. One and done is likely.
If you’re down to your grand finale cruise, and you want the full multigenerational family gaggle, that’s a tough spot.
I have no personal familiarity with Carnival. But on other low-middle “Target of the Seas” lines, their high end cabins are a bunch larger and can accommodate a gaggle for less money than several ordinary cabins. And more significantly they offer access to lounges and restaurants the General Population cannot access. It’s a mini ship oasis within the giant ship.
The other idea is to contact the cruise line’s booking people directly via phone, not website. Once you explain you’re taking e.g. 18 people or zero people and they need to make that affordable or it’ll be zero, they may well have a range of bulk group discounts that let you upgrade your experience without breaking the bank.
My impression (from other people) is that Carnival is almost unique in terms of the party atmosphere. Carnival is definitely the least expensive line as far as I can see, and therefore it attracts a lot of young people, but I find it hard to imagine that. $2500 cabin on Carnival goes for $9k on MSC or Norwegian or Royal Caribbean.
Late add to my previous:
The third idea is to split the baby. Take the Carnival cruise, knowing it’s mostly about a gift for the grandkids while the parents (your kids) have a decent time being parents and you look on from the sidelines. Carnival is an appropriate line for kids, tweens, teens, and even college aged.
And then, after some wallet recovery time, take a true grand finale cruise with just you and wife on somebody like Viking or Silversea that has no kids, no noise, and is totally geared to catering to comfortable retirees desiring a sedate luxurious well-fed experience. Even if you only do a short one, you’ll be able to say you’ve done it.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. The $9K figure is for much nicer cruise lines that are specifically geared to the “older” guests, especially when we are looking for much smaller crowds.
But the delta between prices for a Carnival 10-cruise guest and some of the other less premium lines is still substantial. And, quite frankly, my friends who have cruised recently on Norwegian and RC have reported that those lines have become much more Carnival-like on their larger ships. We don’t want the crowded central pool and decks, rides and attractions, etc.
It’s a classic case of, “we can’t afford the cruise we as the parents would like if we take the family.” And if we are going to be on a ship with 4K to 5K other people, we might as well use Carnival. The difference would almost pay for airfare.
I second @LSLGuy’s suggestion to give Viking a shot for the two of you sometime. They have ocean and river cruises all over the world, in a variety of lengths. I’ve spoken about them at length in some of the other cruise threads.
Anyone here do a repositioning cruise before? I’ve done short cruises in Mexico and Caribbean and I think for my next voyage, I have no interest in beach jaunts and sightseeing, but rather, I want a feeling of crossing the entire Atlantic or Pacific, the sheer desolation of being a tiny dot in a vast ocean for weeks, thousands of miles from land.
Sort of.
I went on the last Antarctic cruise of the season. Instead of the usual start and end in Ushuaia (Southern tip of Argentina) we sailed up to Buenos Aires after visiting the Falklands.
The last 4 days at sea were a bit boring, this is not your standard floating town cruise ship there were about 100 passengers and entertainment facilities was limited to a bar and a library. The crew did what they could for example by giving talks of there previous adventures (one had skied from Canada to Russia and another spent a winter at an Antarctic station) but after all the excitement of seeing Antarctica and South Georgia I was just waiting to get off the ship.
Not cheap but I would recommend and Antarctic cruise, it was an amazing experience, and the penguins never try to sell you tacky souvenirs. Go on a small (~100 passenger) ship the larger ones (~200 pax) have limited landing options and the very large ships not only cant land at all but cant get close to the shore as they don’t have ice strengthened hulls.
We would absolutely love to do a river cruise with Viking or a similar line and have looked into it for a couple years now. Unfortunately, there is much the same problem. Smaller boats, but bigger prices.
Again, if we could go by ourselves, not so much a problem. It’s the additional 10 family members (4 adults and 6 children) that gum up the works. My wife and I also feel pretty strongly that our guests should have at least comparable cabins and accommodations.
In our research, we find that Carnival is about 20% cheaper than RCL or Norwegian. When we take into consideration the discounts and upgrades we would get with Carnival, it becomes more like 35%.
Plus, we get the towels folded into animals.
I did a reposition cruise in 2023. Southampton*-Vigo, Spain-Lisbon-Lanzarote-Tenerife-Bermuda**-New Jersey
It was a board gaming cruise, so I spent sea days playing board games (I did one ship sponsored trivia contest and did use the pool) There was a show I was interested in but did not go to it.
I have a deposit down for another one this fall – not 100% sure I’m going.
Per day, repositioning cruises are less expensive (they have to move the boat) and since it was October there were not many kids.
This was Royal Caribbean, which also does towel animals. The organizer chooses RC I think due to availability of the conference room to use as the gaming room.
Brian
* sane port as the Titanic
** due to hurricane Tammy, we went to Halifax instead, which was lovely, but not Bermuda
You couldn’t pay me to do a cruise.
I’ve said that the only cruises I will take in the future are the equivalent of music festivals, but a gaming cruise sounds worth while. I wonder if anyone ever considered locating a comicon or similar multi-day event aboard a cruise ship. I know mystery and true crime writers do that sort of thing. I love the convenience of having all of my necessities, room, and food available and paid for just a few minutes walk from an event.
There are various SF/Fantasy cruises and the JoCo cruise which has various nerd stuff.
I have no experience with them.
Brian