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Wed.11.4.2009A Mediterranean Cruise In The Chilly Fall And Dead Of Winter Is Among The Great Travel Bargains
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A Mediterranean Cruise In The Chilly Fall And Dead Of Winter Is Among The Great Travel Bargains
Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009

It used to be that cruise lines ended their Mediterranean programs in mid-October and fled to the warmer Caribbean. No longer. A number of lines keep cruising that ancient sea during the chilly (but not bitterly cold) late fall and winter. But in this recession-wracked year, a number of them apparently are finding it difficult to fill their vessels in those cold-weather months.

That's the only explanation for the current pricing of cruises in the late fall and winter seasons.

As a first example, Online Vacation Center (phone: 800-329-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com) is charging only $699 per person in an inside cabin for an 11-night Mediterranean cruise on the MSC Fantasia leaving Rome on Jan. 6, 2010 and Jan. 28, 2010 (the ship goes to Genoa, Italy; Barcelona, Spain; Casablanca, Morocco; Tenerife, Spain; Funchal, Portugal; and Malaga, Spain, before returning to Rome). That comes to $63.50 a day, a pretty awesome price.

It charges $799 (per person, inside cabin) for a similar 11-night Mediterranean cruise leaving Naples, Italy, on Jan. 30, on the MSC Splendida; and it charges the same in an inside cabin for the 11-night sailing of the MSC Splendida leaving Naples on Jan. 19 (and going, among other places, to both Egypt and Israel).

Finally, it charges $999 per person for an upscale balcony cabin on the MSC Fantasia, sailing an 11-night itinerary from Rome on Jan. 17, 2010. (Desperation pricing.)

A variation on the just-slash-the-price approach is Online Vacation Center's decision to include round-trip airfare to Europe, and two nights in a deluxe hotel immediately preceding the cruise, as well as a 12-night Mediterranean cruise, for all of $1,649 in January, $1,699 in February, and $1,799 to $1,999 in March. The ship is the Norwegian Jade, lodging is in an inside cabin and the itinerary is round-trip from Barcelona, going to Rome, Athens, Ephesus (Turkey), Alexandria (Egypt, a two-night stay), and Valletta (Malta), before returning to Barcelona. Five days of the 12-day cruise are spent simply at sea. When you consider that the round-trip airfare must be worth at least $700, and that two deluxe hotel nights in Barcelona must be worth $200, then you are really paying only about $700 for the 12-night cruise aboard an excellent ship. And oceanview cabins cost only $50 to $100 more.

Online Vacation Center isn't the only cruise discounter to use the lure of round-trip air to Europe to entice Americans to book a cold-weather cruise of the Mediterranean. Another firm called TravelThemesAndDreams.com (phone: 877-870-7447) has included free round-trip air from New York's JFK airport to Athens, and from Lisbon, Portugal to JFK, in its $1,549 price for a 10-day Mediterranean cruise from Athens to Lisbon leaving on Nov. 21. And it also has included a four-star hotel overnight in Athens on Nov. 20 and one night in a four-star Lisbon hotel at the end of the cruise, for no extra charge. Clearly, America's cruise discounters believe that extraordinary features like air and hotel accommodations are needed to overcome a reluctance to cruise in chilly weather.

It's clear that the cruise lines overestimated the appeal of a late fall/winter cruise of the Mediterranean and have thus been forced to offer sacrificial rates to fill their ships. People who take advantage of their plight will enjoy a bargain vacation.

© 2009 by Arthur Frommer

Distributed by King Features Syndicate