The Flagg Agency

The media, other travel writers and bloggers have been predicting that cruise prices would be dropping in the wake of the Costa Concordia accident. As someone who looks at cruise pricing every day, I want to be one of the first to tell you that I am not seeing it. In fact, I have been seeing a rise in prices year over year since their lowest levels in 2009. Even on Costa, prices have been rising for certain sailings.

I was surfing around the net where I can across a forum where the participants were conducting a poll entitled “What splurges are worthwhile?” The overwhelming winner based on this non-scientific poll was travel. The question I have for you is should you splurge on travel?

I guess this depends on your definition of splurge. Is it something that simply adds to your enjoyment of life? Or is it anything that doesn’t fall in the category of “Our lives depend on it?” I realize that even last category could be pretty broad. It might not mean you’d die, but that your lives would be seriously impacted in some way without it. I don’t think there can be a universal definition. What one person considers a splurge another considers essential.

The cheapest thing on the menu

You want to find a cruise at a cheap price so you decided to call a travel professional. However, should you plan a vacation on price alone? Pricing is important, but you should never let it drive your planning process. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and declined seeing a menu and said “Just bring me the cheapest dish on the menu?”

Prices for Select Transatlantic Cruises

I am going to do something I said I would never do on this blog. I am going to give an example of cruise pricing. Try as I might to steer the conversation away from price, that topic is what everyone wants to talk about. Every day someone is asking me to find them a deal. “How can I get the best price?” is another frequent question.

A few days ago, I received a message from Doug Parker (@CruiseRadio) via Twitter asking if I would be interested in being featured on an episode of Cruise Radio. He had been reading cruise related blogs late one night and had come across my post called “Staying in touch while on Vacation…and not going bankrupt.”

This episode is now live and you can listen to it streaming over your computer’s speakers at this link. If you like hearing about all things cruising, Cruise Radio is worth checking out.

Chuck and Laura Flagg are fee-based travel consultants.