Fish42

Here's a great similar example from Royal Caribbean: If I try to book a single occupancy room, this cruise is sold out: However if I switch to two guests, suddenly there's room at the inn for a reasonable price: So while not exactly the same as the pricing question I had in the original post, I think it does show that cruise lines have some peculiar booking policies or the website is bugged.

Thanks for the replies. I just went to get screenshots of what I was seeing booking on the cruise line website and now the fares have been adjusted to correctly reflect the total fares being similar. The double occupancy fare increased dramatically. Oh well... I'm going to chalk this one up to a pricing glitch of some kind. I have seen this situation in the past and will post back here if I see it again. Always on the cruise line website. I think it is good advice to call the cruise line directly for this situation, however I feel like I'm being penalized (slightly) as a solo cruiser so if there's a chance to beat the system, I might have to take it.

I'm cruising solo and understand that the single and double occupancy total prices are usually close to the same. However I'm looking at a cruise today and the single total price is more than double the double occupancy total price. For example, the double occupancy total price (not per person) is around $1500, but the total price for solo travel is more than $3000. Can I book the cruise at the double rate and just not have the second person show up on cruise day? Will there be a penalty for that?

On my currently booked 7 night trip the UDP is $290. Ala carte dining averages around $55. Doing a little math the UDP is the equivalent of 5 paid meals with 2 free. From the RC perspective, the UDP locks you into paying for 5 specialty meals. I would imagine that the non-UDP cruisers go for fewer than 5 specialty meals though I simply can't say for sure. In this context I think RC will make more money by driving people to the UDP and locking them into paying for 5 meals as opposed to hoping that customers will pay for 6 or 7 ala carte meals. Getting back to the premise of this thread, paying for all 7 specialty meals ala carte would cost around $385, which is a $95 premium for the privilege to book ahead of time. For myself it's not a good value.

While I generally agree with your statement, I don't understand the economics on the RC side. I assume they want as many people as possible to buy the Unlimited Dining package. By favoring the ala carte diners in this one aspect (advanced reservations), they are punishing the people who are most likely giving them the greater amount of money (also assuming no one would ala carte every dinner of the cruise). A cruiser with the UDP will likely be spending more than the average cruiser. I think it would make economic sense to give them preferential treatment.

I have purchased the Three Night Dining Package. There are two important details: A courtesy reservation will be made for Day 1 or 2 of your sailing. All additional reservations or changes to your courtesy reservation must be made once onboard at any specialty restaurant. I can currently make pre-cruise reservations at specialty dining venues but only if I am paying ala carte. However I cannot make reservations against the Three Night Plan. I believe this would apply to the Unlimited Plan as well. It seems counter-intuitive that people pre-purchasing dining packages cannot make pre-cruise reservations. I feel like I am being penalized for giving RC my money months ahead of the cruise. Perhaps I am being naive to the fact that RC wants to give preferential treatment to those paying a premium for ala carte dining.

I Wonder (haha) if the price of the water park at Cococay is partially based on the number of ships in port. More ships = more demand = higher price. I see that Wonder is at Cococay solo for two days in February and shares the port two other days in Feb. I will be at Cococay in Sept with only one ship in port and the price was $130/pp

The Harmony of the Seas has around 95 Suite cabins not including Junior Suites (which don't have access to the concierge). If every Suite cabin tipped $100 for a 7 night voyage and all cabins were booked, that's a $9500 benefit to the concierge staff. Over one year that would be almost $500,000 benefit to the staff. Since not all cabins will be booked and not everyone will tip that much (or in some cases 0), I wonder if the benefit would be closer to $300,000. I also wonder what a salaried position in the hospitality industry would make... I usually tip $100 per cabin.

Can you please tell me what is the Sabatini's dessert on the right in the pic?

We will be sailing on Royal Princess Oct 23-30. I'm curious to know if there will be any Halloween related festivities on board. On the website there is mention of a Halloween Fright Night Party for Halloween cruises, but there's no information about it. I'm not sure if our cruise falls in the Halloween category. Any ideas?

Fleet Week in San Francisco, was on a bay cruise and we wandered past the Royal Princess. Except the Princess part was covered much of the time and everyone on board our sightseeing boat was saying "Oh, look at the Royal Caribbean" Funny, but sad...

I think you are right, thanks for the correction.

I'm not exactly sure I understand your question. Here is the club class lounge on the Royal Princess on Deck 14. Ironically it is placed between the wedding chapel and the laundry.

I was in "club class" on a different cruise line, and just as with Princess it gave me access to the club class lounge. I thought I would be in there frequently but this was not the case for me. It was nice and quiet, offered small food items and concierge service. But I would forget to go there 🙂 What is that worth to you?

I understand that some people are putting Air Tags (or similar) in their luggage to track it. I haven't tried it myself but it is an interesting idea. Of course it doesn't prevent people from opening your luggage, but it does provide a layer of security. If you are feeling very decadent, you could put one tag attached inside your luggage and one tag attached to something valuable in your luggage. If the two aren't together, you've got a problem 🙂 Lojack your luggage!