A half-off sale on European sailings

CRUISE lines and cruise brokers are offering discounts of as much as 50% on nearly 200 summer cruises of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic and similar reductions on more than 150 sailings in the waters of Northern Europe: the North Sea and the Baltic. And therein lies a tale.

In preparing for this year’s high season of European cruising (June through August), cruise professionals decided that Americans were desperate to avoid the high costs of European land travel and would therefore book Europe-based cruise ships in unprecedented numbers. They placed their largest and most modern vessels in European waters and listed full tariffs for them.

Perhaps they listed too many sailings; perhaps they priced them beyond the public’s willingness to pay; in either case, there has been a sudden reduction in price almost across the board. Even luxury ships -- charging from $5,000 to $10,000 and more per person for 12-day sailings -- are on sale for thousands of dollars less, representing discounts of as much as half off.

Go to the website of Texas discounter Vacations to Go, www.vacationstogo.com, and you’ll be surprised to find pages of luxury for less.

Discounts also are appearing on the Internet listings of the cruise lines. Go to Norwegian Cruise Line’s website, www.ncl.com, click on “specials,” and you’ll find some high-season European cruises selling for slightly more than $120 a day. You’ll see 12-day cruises of the Baltic Sea onboard the Norwegian Dream in June, July and August on sale for $1,499 for an inside cabin -- that’s about $125 a day. You’ll find a seven-day sailing of the Western Mediterranean aboard the Norwegian Jewel for $799 -- that’s $114 a day, leaving July 9.

Discounter Eleisurelink.com, (888) 801-8808, www.eleisurelink.com, is promoting successive sailings of the Norwegian Jewel from Barcelona for as little as $799 for a one-week cruise. Another all-time bargain is a 17-day sailing of the Norwegian Dream on Sept. 20 from Dover, England, across the Atlantic and through the Caribbean to Houston for $949 for an inside cabin -- that’s $55 a day.

(The prices cited do not include airfare to and from the embarkation port.)

The bargains are even greater from independent cruise brokers that sell upscale ships.

White Travel Service, (800) 547-4790, www.whitetravel.com, is offering a 10-night sailing of the Mediterranean and Greek Islands, departing July 14 from Rome aboard the Galaxy. This sailing, from upscale Celebrity Cruises, is selling for $904 per person for an inside cabin -- that’s $90 a day. A similar sailing on the same ship leaves on Aug. 14 and sails from Rome to Naples, Mykonos, Santorini, Messina (Sicily), Nice and Pisa, among other stops, also for $904 for an inside cabin. Or choose an 11-night Greek Isles and Turkey cruise aboard the Galaxy for $1,100, leaving July 24.

I am told by several observers that the newest ships -- the giant vessels with the latest play areas and entertainment -- are booking well and discounting less.

But the public is not attracted to the “older” ships that entered service more than two years ago. And the smaller ships, infinitely more pleasant for a European cruise that stops at many ports, are not booking as well as the larger ships.

It is typical of the travel industry that companies become overenthusiastic about a particular destination, assign too much capacity to it and then must discount the product to sell it. That’s good news for consumers.