Oasis of the Seas fare prices down

According to one Wall Street analyst prices for Cruises on Oasis of the Seas are dramatically lower for 2011 than they were for 2010.

The 5,400 passenger Oasis of the Seas may be co-largest cruise ship in the world but she is fighting the competition of her sister ship Allure of the Seas.

Matthew Jacob is a cruise industry analyst with New York-based ITG Investment Research; he said that the Oasis is one of many ships that has taken a hit due to the amount of new capacity in the Caribbean region this season.

"The benefit of this new capacity is that it gets very strong pricing, but it is coming at a cost to the other ships in the fleet, which are continuing to struggle.”

Jacob's data apparently shows that the newest ships are pushing a cruise pricing recovery, but that the older vessels are struggling to even get the pricing they managed for similar cruises last year.

He went on to say that part of the problem is that there isn't enough demand at the higher end of the leisure travel market right now, meaning only the ships at the very top end can command the highest prices.