Thanks for the info, Ngaire.

So cruise lines have become like the airlines, huh? They all follow each other's pricing policies, no matter how (il)logical they are?

It looks like Regent's policy for 2009 matches NCL and Royal Caribbean and is similar to Carnival brands. (Regent set a lower price threshold of $65/barrel than Carnival's $70, but otherwise it seems the same.) Couldn't someone be creative enough to do *something* a little differently? For example, why not use the *average* price over a week or a month rather than the price on one specific day? Why make tens of thousands of cruise passengers hang on whether oil futures close at $64.98 or $65.02 on one specific day each quarter?

I note that the $65 price threshold is lower than the price has been on all but 6 days out of the past 520+ days since June 1, 2007. With OPEC now implementing production cuts in order to increase oil prices somewhat, unless the world economy sinks further into the abyss, hitting that $65 price seems somewhat unlikely to me.

And why would they drop fuel surcharges for bookings on 2010 cruises when there's no indication fuel prices will be lower then than now or in 2009? Unless cruise prices for 2010 going to be increased to build the higher cost of fuel into base pricing, this makes no sense to me.

-- Eric