I have been going to Goa like you for a good number of years, always go around christmas time, and try to go April to get full use of the visa. Always managed to get a cheap flight, or a holiday for around £300 for two weeks, this must have been for at least the last five years. This year even if I wanted to go next week it would cost me nearly six hundred pounds. What do you think is going on .... I have never known it.
Things are changing friends who have been going there for about the same time, are really disappointed with Goa this year, and a few are saying they are not going back. I know what they mean every taxi we asked to take us from top of calangute to the beach wanted 150 rupees this year, whereas we would have got that from 30 - 40 rupees last year. (I know the petrol/diesel has increased) They would rather see us walk then come down from their price. Group of us (10+) went into our bar (fiesta bar opposite public bar) asked if there was any ice, no ice, we offered to pay for it, but no deal. They lost our custom and did not care, yet we had been using them for years. What is going on in goa?

I still love it, but I think I love the goan friends I have, and the people who I meet every year, but it does seem as if things are chaning.