The Alaska cruise deals keep coming!  Just announced are two new promotions that should help you stretch your vacation dollars this season.

Carnival Cruise Lines, one of the major lines cruising Alaska, is offering 30% discounts on select departures.  These deals aren’t as compelling as some others I’ve seen lately, but if you have your heart set on the fun ship or are a younger traveler or traveling with kids, then you’ll want to check them out.  The catch is you have to book fairly far in advance–three to five months depending on the length of your trip.

Going a bit upmarket, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is still offering some decent discounts to sell its Alaskan cruises.  Announced recently are $200 in onboard credits for all of their Alaska cruise tours.  If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that onboard credits are a favorite strategy of the luxury lines.  By not discounting their prices, they can still maintain their premium brand, but still offer an incentive to get you off the fence and onto their ships.

I’ll be honest, the deals the past few days haven’t blown my socks off.  Knowing how the cruise market is right now, I’d be willing to bet that we’re going to see some additional promotions announced in the near future. Stay tuned, and keep coming back as I continue to search out the best deals and bargains in the Alaska cruise market!

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has handed out ten notices of violation to eight separate cruise ships.  The Alaska cruise lines cited were Celebrity, International Shipping Partners, Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America and Royal Caribbean.

To put things in perspective, out of 224 readings taken, only ten showed results that were in violation.  Still, only two citations were handed out last year.  The trend is definitely not in the right direction, and hopefully the Alaska cruise lines will take action to reverse them.

How are ships selected to be evaluated?  The DEC uses a random process to select them, but guests can also complain about a specific ship.  With enough effort and oversight, the Alaska cruise lines should be able to completely remove any violations under the air quality standards.

Source: Fairbanks Daily News

The good folks at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report on a bit of bright light for the Alaska cruise industry.  Apparently the aggressive deals and discounts they have been offering have resulted in a huge rush of customers.

Princess Cruises set new records for daily booking by recording an increase in volume of 17 percent over its previous best day. Their Alaska cruise specials have been some of the most aggressive, and I’m sure they are grateful for the response.

A welcome development is that the fuel supplement charges of last year have been eliminated across the board.  The lower price of oil has lowered the costs for the cruise lines, and they’re happily passing their savings on to their guests.

Going against the grain, Royal Caribbean has many of its passengers up in arms over a recently announced $3.95 fee for late night room service orders.  It will be interesting to see if they make the fee stick, or are forced to roll it back.

Anyone looking for an excellent Alaska cruise deal should find a lot of great options this season.

Source:  The Altanta Journal-Constitution

As reported by the Calgary Herald, Royal Caribbean claims it’s not the crushing recession or low bookings that have forced it to take Serenades of the Sea off the Alaska cruise market.  No, it’s high taxes!

I guess it sounds better than simply saying your prices are too high to fill all of your ships.

It’s true that Alaskan cruising is made a lot more expensive by the head taxes charged for each passenger, not to mention local taxes and fees, corporate taxes, gaming taxes and the cost of marine pilots.

But all of these factors have existed for years, a period when more and more ships were brought online.  2008 was a record year for Alaskan cruising–and profits!

Just high taxes?  I’m not buying it.  Over capacity, plain and simple.  Royal Caribbean might have more luck offering more aggressive Alaska cruise deals.

Source: Calgary Herald

Robin Farley, an analyst for UBS Investment Research, recently talked about the recent poor stock market performance of the major cruise lines.  According to his research, their shares are tumbling because it has been more difficult for them to attract customers in the current economic climate, and investors are worried about their profitability.

Of interest to readers of this blog, Farley reports that their profits are being particularly hard hit in the Alaska cruise market.  Soft demand in the early part of the year forced the cruise lines to lower their prices.  The strategy worked to get guests to book tours, but at lower prices and thus lower profits for the companies.

In an interesting deviation, Royal Caribbean is resisting the temptation to offer discounts as aggressive as its major competitors, reasoning that even with slightly lower bookings it can make more money with higher fares.  It’s not a bad strategy, providing the other cruise lines don’t lure away too many of their potential customers with more attractive tours.  No matter how you look at it, though, the bottom line is that this season offers the most attractive Alaska cruise deals in recent history.

Source: Associated Press