Single passenger prices.....Really?

Looking at single passenger prices for a friend on the Vision from Galveston. Are they nuts? :eek:

This is why I got married 2 years ago!!:D

This is why I got married 2 years ago!!:D

HaHaHaHa!!! :D

This is why I got married 2 years ago!!:D

Haha. I can see the pre-nup now "should either party leave the marriage, he/she will be required to pay the single occupancy up-charge for the other party until a suitable replacement can be found.":p

I have priced "solo" cabins several times and they ended up being more expensive than an inside. Less floor space, a single bed, and no double points. not worth booking.

Yes, but they ones on Anthem have a balcony. If price were a factor,I'd rather have a smaller cabin and have a nice balcony to sit on. I don't think you can compare a SB cabin to an inside.

A single person pays for two people. The prices are based on double occupancy.

No they're not! Price a cabin for two, then price it for one. The solo price will be more than the price for two. It happens everytime I look for a cruise. The prices over here are very high too, at the moment. I was looking at a 6 nighter and it was more than I'd expect to pay for two weeks!

No they're not! Price a cabin for two, then price it for one. The solo price will be more than the price for two. It happens everytime I look for a cruise. The prices over here are very high too, at the moment. I was looking at a 6 nighter and it was more than I'd expect to pay for two weeks!

I have never paid 200% for a solo balcony cabin. The most I have ever paid was 175%. Just one example is Anthem 12 night, January 7 2018, D7 superior balcony cabin, without any C & A discounts is $3777 for 2 people and solo the same cabin is $2753. I also agree the prices have come up. I did the same 12 night sailing solo in a balcony cabin last year 3 times and never paid more than $2000.

No they're not! Price a cabin for two, then price it for one. The solo price will be more than the price for two.

Well, then, don't price/book for one - book it for two.

No they're not! Price a cabin for two, then price it for one. The solo price will be more than the price for two. ...

I think that's a bug in their web pricing algorithm when they have a fake sale that is a percentage off the second guest only. Not sure it's fixed on the US website, but people have been able to call and get the solo price manually fixed.

I think that's a bug in their web pricing algorithm when they have a fake sale that is a percentage off the second guest only. Not sure it's fixed on the US website, but people have been able to call and get the solo price manually fixed.

When I check my solo Anthem cruises, the 50% off shows up in the summary, and also view pricing per guest.

Well, then, don't price/book for one - book it for two.

you would get port taxes back at the pier for the no show i assume?

you would get port taxes back at the pier for the no show i assume?

Correct.

No they're not! Price a cabin for two, then price it for one. The solo price will be more than the price for two. It happens everytime I look for a cruise. The prices over here are very high too, at the moment. I was looking at a 6 nighter and it was more than I'd expect to pay for two weeks!

Maybe in England that is true, but not in the US. Some prices are double, some are double less the port fees and taxes. Never are the prices more than double. Why do you think the colonies wanted independence from mother England?

you would get port taxes back at the pier for the no show i assume?

But you wouldn't get the starboard taxes back at the pier for the no show. :(

Never are the prices more than double.

The glitch that is likely the cause of the poster's more than 200% solo rate, can happen on the RCI US site as well.

The glitch that is likely the cause of the poster's more than 200% solo rate, can happen on the RCI US site as well.

Based on my experience, ANY glitch can happen on the RCI site.

I think that's a bug in their web pricing algorithm when they have a fake sale that is a percentage off the second guest only. Not sure it's fixed on the US website, but people have been able to call and get the solo price manually fixed.

It not a bug, if you don't have a second guest you don't get the second guest discount. It's not like it's difficult to get around, put another name in and remove it later. It then works out cheaper as they refund the second persons taxes, port fees etc

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It not a bug, if you don't have a second guest you don't get the second guest discount.

The base fares RCI uses to compute their fares during all these sales don't really exist. So it's really not a second guest discount - it's just a marketing way to arrive at some real selling price. If you call, you can book solo at 200% without having to pay the second person port fees/taxes, have them be a no show and get your money back.

It not a bug, if you don't have a second guest you don't get the second guest discount. It's not like it's difficult to get around, put another name in and remove it later. It then works out cheaper as they refund the second persons taxes, port fees etc

 

 

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When I check any of my 12 solo booked cruises, I can see a line that shows the 50% off on the Summary page. It's also shows on the detail price per person breakdown.

When I check any of my 12 solo booked cruises, I can see a line that shows the 50% off on the Summary page. It's also shows on the detail price per person breakdown.

Apparently Royal Caribbean likes you.

There's a combination of confusing things RCL does that sort of hide what really is happening whenever they have these "sales" where a percent-off happens on the 2nd passenger.

They show the per-person/double occupancy rate with the percent off already taken and then the total for the two people split evenly between them. This leads one who sees that amount as a per-person cost to think they should be getting a percentage off that price. And that's the problem -- the promoted sale says "X% off the second passenger" but the prices they then show as the first and second passenger prices have that percentage taken off, the total for the two people added together and then split evenly.

Let's take a booking I made today as an example.

Anthem of the Seas, 11/25/2017, 7 nights.

For pp/do it shows rates starting at $659pp/do for a balcony cabin. When I pick that, it then shows two options: $631pp/do for a non-refundable guarantee, or $865pp/do for a refundable choose-the-room fare.

When I pick the $865pp/do fare, I get a page with different Balcony categories, and for this example, I pick the one at $865, which is a Deluxe Obstructed Ocean View Stateroom w/Balcony. Clicking through a cabin assignment with no premium, I end up at a summary page showing:

Guest 1:

Cruise Fare - $1,191.00

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

Guest 2:

Cruise Fare - $1,191.00

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

Crown&Anchor Discount $76.00

BOGO50 discount - $577.00

Average cost per person - $1,013.25

Now, to find RCL's magic $865 pp/do fare that I originally picked really came from, look at the $1,013.25. Subtract the taxes & fees, of $148.75, and you get $864.50, which is rounded up for purposes of those initial screens to $865.

Further note how the discounts are stacked... First, my Crown&Anchor Discount is subtracted from the total cabin fare ($2,382 - $76 which is $2,306). Divide that in half to get the discounted per-person/double occupancy cabin price, which is $1,153. Take 50% of that off the second-person cost which is $577 (rounded up from $576.50).

So what RCL has done here is to factor in all my discounts, including the current BOGO50 offer, and show that to me as a per-person/double-occupancy rate.

Now let's do the same thing again, but for 1 person. On the room type selection page, I have an option of a $1,318 Balcony starting price. When I pick that, I now have 2 options, a $1,261 non-refundable guarantee, or a $1,297 refundable you-choose-the-room. I pick the $1,297 option, which is the Deluxe Obstructed View stateroom, which I pick next. Clicking through the cabin selection, at the summary page I see these items:

Guest 1:

Cruise Fare - $1,786.50

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

Crown&Anchor Discount - $57.00

BOGO50 discount - $433.00

Average cost per person - $1,445.25

And when we subtract the taxes & fees from that $1,445.25, we get $1,296.50.

So what is this solo price made up from?

$1,786.50 is 150% of the $1,191.00 per-person/double-occupancy price. Subtract the Crown&Anchor Discount ($1,786.50 - $57.00) which gives us $1,729.50. Split that in half so we can attribute a portion to a "second-person" which is $864.75. Now take 50% of that as the BOGO50 discount, which is $432.375 (RCL rounds that up, too, to $433).

Now, look at that magic $865 from the per-person double-occupancy price we saw on one of the earlier pages. Notice how it's the same magic $865 (rounded up from $864.75) that we calculated out from the rates presented as the solo pricing? So, sort of kind of, the single rate is 200% of the double occupancy rate, which corresponds to what RCL says is the standard of their solo pricing on most cruises. But look at the math. We calculated all this out starting with 150% of the per-person/double-occupancy fare. It's simply the current discount, which applies solely to the second-person cost of a cabin, makes it appear, in the end, that the solo pricing is 200%. Wait for another sale where the discount as being applied to the first person fare, too, and you'll see that calculates out a bit differently for solo fares.

Every step along the way, RCL is doing all those calculations to show you the effective per-person rate after all the discounts are applied. Yet they love describing the discounts in terms that never quite can be figured out by anyone until they make it to the final summary pages showing all the real starting fares.

Heck, even after completely describing that step by step, even I get a little confused about it. :) But it's there, plain, simple math.

There's a combination of confusing things RCL does that sort of hide what really is happening whenever they have these "sales" where a percent-off happens on the 2nd passenger.

 

They show the per-person/double occupancy rate with the percent off already taken and then the total for the two people split evenly between them. This leads one who sees that amount as a per-person cost to think they should be getting a percentage off that price. And that's the problem -- the promoted sale says "X% off the second passenger" but the prices they then show as the first and second passenger prices have that percentage taken off, the total for the two people added together and then split evenly.

 

Let's take a booking I made today as an example.

 

Anthem of the Seas, 11/25/2017, 7 nights.

For pp/do it shows rates starting at $659pp/do for a balcony cabin. When I pick that, it then shows two options: $631pp/do for a non-refundable guarantee, or $865pp/do for a refundable choose-the-room fare.

 

When I pick the $865pp/do fare, I get a page with different Balcony categories, and for this example, I pick the one at $865, which is a Deluxe Obstructed Ocean View Stateroom w/Balcony. Clicking through a cabin assignment with no premium, I end up at a summary page showing:

 

Guest 1:

Cruise Fare - $1,191.00

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

 

Guest 2:

Cruise Fare - $1,191.00

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

 

Crown&Anchor Discount $76.00

BOGO50 discount - $577.00

 

Average cost per person - $1,013.25

 

 

Now, to find RCL's magic $865 pp/do fare that I originally picked really came from, look at the $1,013.25. Subtract the taxes & fees, of $148.75, and you get $864.50, which is rounded up for purposes of those initial screens to $865.

 

Further note how the discounts are stacked... First, my Crown&Anchor Discount is subtracted from the total cabin fare ($2,382 - $76 which is $2,306). Divide that in half to get the discounted per-person/double occupancy cabin price, which is $1,153. Take 50% of that off the second-person cost which is $577 (rounded up from $576.50).

 

So what RCL has done here is to factor in all my discounts, including the current BOGO50 offer, and show that to me as a per-person/double-occupancy rate.

 

Now let's do the same thing again, but for 1 person. On the room type selection page, I have an option of a $1,318 Balcony starting price. When I pick that, I now have 2 options, a $1,261 non-refundable guarantee, or a $1,297 refundable you-choose-the-room. I pick the $1,297 option, which is the Deluxe Obstructed View stateroom, which I pick next. Clicking through the cabin selection, at the summary page I see these items:

 

Guest 1:

Cruise Fare - $1,786.50

Taxes & Fees - $148.75

 

Crown&Anchor Discount - $57.00

BOGO50 discount - $433.00

 

Average cost per person - $1,445.25

 

And when we subtract the taxes & fees from that $1,445.25, we get $1,296.50.

 

So what is this solo price made up from?

 

$1,786.50 is 150% of the $1,191.00 per-person/double-occupancy price. Subtract the Crown&Anchor Discount ($1,786.50 - $57.00) which gives us $1,729.50. Split that in half so we can attribute a portion to a "second-person" which is $864.75. Now take 50% of that as the BOGO50 discount, which is $432.375 (RCL rounds that up, too, to $433).

 

Now, look at that magic $865 from the per-person double-occupancy price we saw on one of the earlier pages. Notice how it's the same magic $865 (rounded up from $864.75) that we calculated out from the rates presented as the solo pricing? So, sort of kind of, the single rate is 200% of the double occupancy rate, which corresponds to what RCL says is the standard of their solo pricing on most cruises. But look at the math. We calculated all this out starting with 150% of the per-person/double-occupancy fare. It's simply the current discount, which applies solely to the second-person cost of a cabin, makes it appear, in the end, that the solo pricing is 200%. Wait for another sale where the discount as being applied to the first person fare, too, and you'll see that calculates out a bit differently for solo fares.

 

 

Every step along the way, RCL is doing all those calculations to show you the effective per-person rate after all the discounts are applied. Yet they love describing the discounts in terms that never quite can be figured out by anyone until they make it to the final summary pages showing all the real starting fares.

 

Heck, even after completely describing that step by step, even I get a little confused about it. :) But it's there, plain, simple math.

It's much simpler to figure out if a solo is paying 200%.

Using your example - 2 person in a DO cabin 2026.50. Includes 148.75/person taxes fees.

1 person in the same cabin $1430.25. Includes $148.75 taxes and fees.

If 1 person was paying 200% the price would be $2026.50 less one tax and fee of 148.75 total of $1877.75 Solo price is $1430.25. There is difference of $447.50 a lot less than 200%.

When I check any of my 12 solo booked cruises....

Did you book them on the RCL site or through a TA? I suspect the former is more difficult to get the true single fare.

Did you book them on the RCL site or through a TA? I suspect the former is more difficult to get the true single fare.

All were booked online on the Royal Website. Only one time did the correct rate not show up online, but the itinerary was just released that day, and by the next day everything was adjusted to the right price. I book the first day cruises are released, and watch for price drops, senior and resident rates. Some of my cruises are booked as a studio balcony, and I watch for price drops and upgrade to a regular balcony.

 

Let's take a booking I made today as an example.

 

Anthem of the Seas, 11/25/2017, 7 nights.

.

are you on that trip or was it just an example

are you on that trip or was it just an example

I'm booked on that sailing (Anthem, 11/25/2017). Though in a D1 cabin, not the DO I used in the example.