STORY:
Cruise Bargains Before - After New Year's Eve

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, the demand for cruise travel either side of New Year's Eve is weak. The cruise lines are still banking on customers paying top dollar to party on their boats on the big night, but if you can wait a week and mentally delay your New Year's Eve party, you'll pay allot less for a cruise.

The Times reports Carnival Cruises says its prices for the Dec. 19-26 cruise of the Elation begin at $738 per person (assuming double occupancy and including port fees). For the Dec. 26-Jan. 2 cruise, the comparable figure is $1,938. For the Jan. 2-9 cruise, the figure plummets to $728.

Similarly at Holland America Line-Westours Inc., the cruise line has cut 50% to 61% off normal prices for all six of the line's cruises that include Christmas but exclude New Year's Eve.

One of the deepest Holland America discounts is found on the New Amsterdam's round-trip cruise from Tampa, Fla., on Dec. 19, featuring port calls at Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Cayman; and Montego Bay, Jamaica. The line has cut fares in half, then dropped the price an additional $250, leaving the cheapest fares at $899 per person, double occupancy, for a seven-day cruise.

And Crystal Cruises has put specials in place to speed up slow Christmas-week sales on its ship Crystal Harmony. The Crystal Harmony sails 13 days from Barbados to Buenos Aires beginning Dec. 14, with fares starting at $5,075 per person (assuming double occupancy, port fees included)--25% less than the cruise's brochure fare for the cruise. Adam Leavitt, the line's vice president for marketing, reports that these are the deepest discounts the line has ever offered on a Christmas cruise.

Source: Los Angeles Times

DATE: 6/14/99

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