No more discounts for RCCL cruises...period?

[mcfaddensfarm]

The following is an excerpt from an email I received today from an online cruise agent:

 

ATTENTION! New RCI Trade Policies - Effective 5/1/05

 

It’s another HUGE move by the executives at Royal Caribbean and Celebrity! As you know, as of 8/16/04 they disallowed rebating & discounting off the gross cruise price on individual bookings available through the cruise line. Now, they have decided to take the next step and will not allow any agency to discount the fare of ANY booking, including group reservations!

 

- Elimination of rebates in group reservations

- Elimination of reduced Key Account fares

- No longer allow agencies to offer ANY Gift Cards

 

So here's my question...what exactly does this mean? Can ONLY Royal Caribbean offer specials on their cruises now? No online or regular travel agents can make their own specials? Even the group bookings that are made (for instance the group Cruise Critic cruises!) won't be able to get discounted fares anymore? I'm guessing that this won't be the case anymore. I hope someone can clarify this for me...

[LEtue]

I got the same email and it looks like RCI is targeting the last of the discounting opportunities for agents. Can't believe they are not offering group discounts either....

 

Makes you wonder if next they will offer lower rates than a TA can get :eek:

[Let'sGo!]

We just booked a cruise for next year while on board Navigator this past week. As soon as we got home yesterday, I emailed 3 online TA's with our booking number to get their price quotes for the same sailing, same cabin category.

 

I've heard back from two of them.

One was $120 p/p less... the other $80 p/p less.

No, it's not big discounts we used to see back in the day... but it's something!

 

Ann

[Inshape]

That is a big difference--I tried it and got $100.00 diff in total. Which ones did you use? The cruise rates ha e soared so high, it will cost us more than 1000 more from a year ago. And this timewe are cruising with only 2 of our 3 kids (still 2 cabins though). But 1000 more for 4 not 5 people. That is some big difference.

[cnmiranda]

That's why we're no longer sailing RCCL. I pray other cruise lines do not follow suit. Telling ta's what they can and cannot give their clients is going to far.

[stillfrantic]

Is the change just for new bookings after May 1. Will TA's still honor the cards and incentives from earlier bookings?

[Mike & Rhonda]

They do it because they can! The prices are higher and the ships are still selling out. Any business would do the same thing. We are going on the Serenade next week (April 16) and are booked for the Freedom April 2007. Other than that, the next cruise we book will probably be with NCL. Have been on 5 NCL cruises previously, but not for many years. For us, it's time to check out free-style cruising!

[Elexman]

I hope I'm not mistaken, but isn't RCCL basically following Disney's model for controlling their pricing and inventory? I'm not necessarily thrilled with all of these changes either, but apparently, Disney is very successful at garnering a superior price and still filling up their ships. For a much larger cruise line such as RCCL, I'm not sure that this will be as successful as they hope - unless Carnival Corporation and NCL join in.

[teach01]

My online travel agent did not offer any rebate cards or discount on cruise prices, but what they did offer was 95% off the air fare---so I purchased a package and saved $500+. It is the same flight, company and time that I was going to book myself for about $600.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

I sure don't like that, some of the fares are really outrageous!! Some not even affordable!! :eek: Maybe if sales drop they will offer some incentives! One can only hope!!! :D

 

 

***

[stargate fan]

Back in March when we were looking to book AOS for February 2006, I called five travel agents and contacted five discount internet travel sites. They were all within 50 cents of each other! We ended up booking with RC directly since we were told that if prices go down (hah!) they will reduce our rates.

 

ak

[Hflors]

I booked with RCCL for my upcoming cruise March 06. I needed a Royal Family Suite for what we thought would be seven women. It turned out to be five (long story) but it was the only cabin onboard with 2 bathrooms (very important to one of the "girls" ) Prices were very high, but no other choice. I'm not hoping for any price reduction because I believe it will take a major catastrophy in the US for prices to drop and I would never hope for such a thing to happen.

 

I'm goiing on this one, but next vac it may need to be a land vacation.

[Cruising89143]

Only time will tell if RCI is correct in doing this. If people still continue to book and fill the ships then they will continue with this policy. Right now Carnival Corp. and NCL stands to pick up new passengers. They are smart for playing the waiting game to see how it works for RCI. Again only time will tell.

[goboy]

We have been on 13 cruises- 8 with RCCL. We like cruising, and we like RCCL, but there is a line they can cross- and they're getting very near. We have cruised enough to know what to expect(and not expect)- We are about to the point of getting away from our "favorite cruise line", and embracing the company who offers the best deal.

 

goboy

[smeyer418]

see this thread same issue- same parent

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=161069

 

this does nothing to stop competition between cruise lines only between TA on price for the same ship- there are exceptions for Key TA who do buy books of rooms to resell but most cruise lines are begiining to limit those as well.

[Cruising89143]

Here is my beef. I do not have a problem with the prices going back up somewhat as they are still much cheaper than when I took my first cruise back in 1986 and I am getting much more ship than back then. I just want the nickle and dime stuff to stop if the prices do go back up. Yes I paid more twenty years ago but I also did not have the art auctions, photo stations set up all over the ship blocking the way around the ship, bingo annoucements and inch of gold. The quality of food was far superior to the ships of today. I do have to say that Carnival is more guilty of this nickle and dime stuff more so than RCI but they still have some of it also. I know that we are not forced to participate in these activities but they are a PIA in my opinion.

 

My concern is that the cruise lines know that the amount of passengers that remember the "good ole days" of no nickle and dime stuff are becoming less and less. They now have a totally new customer base that will pay the higher prices and the ala carte will continue. I read an article recently where Carnival President Bob Dickinson stated that cruise prices are still about 30% lower than they should be. That is quite a price hike.

[mringenoldus]

While we very much enjoyed the AOS and even the Monarch - our money will go to Princess who offers a great product with competitive pricing.

[bUU]

I agree with much of what Gordon's said, though there was as much, if not more, criticism here of RCI's earlier policy change, and yet the fact that they've decided to take this more-extreme position starting in May is a clear and resounding confirmation that their earlier policy change was effective.

 

Smart businesses price their services in accordance with the market: That means they don't underprice, as well as that they don't overprice.

[davygee]

Are they doing this to potentially up the quality feel factor for their ships.

 

RCI used to be regarded as a luxury cruiseline...but in recent years it has become so affordable that possibly the company has decided that the quality reputation of the product has somewhat been reduced to a standard affordable cruiseline.

 

I know that the US traveller gets a much better deal than a European traveller over and above the cost of airfare...and it has got to the point that even European travellers find the actual cost of a one week cruise very affordable, but its just the airfare that bumps up the cost of the full holiday/vacation to become more expensive.

 

E.g. It is now even cheaper for UK residents to book a cheap 2 week holiday to Florida for £400 and then get a RCI cruise for one of those 2 weeks for around £300....the full cost of the holiday comes out at around £700 minus spending money...but the cost of the 1 week cruise at around £300 means that it works out better than having to pay for quality meals in Florida if they hadn't cruised for one of those weeks.

 

If RCI are infact bringing these measures in so that they try and make their cruises into a more luxury/quality cruiseline again...then its fine by me, as long as the prices don't rocket to far.

[bUU]

That sounds somewhat plausible, but I don't think that's their aim. They have two brands, and it makes the most sense to me to take that kind of approach with only one of their two brands, applying the other to the lucrative mainstream market. In this case, they're applying the policy to both brands.

 

Rather, I'd guess they're doing it, as Mike & Rhonda said, "because they can." They are researching their customer-base, the market, and other factors, and determining how much their offering is worth, and then pricing it commensurate with that.

[Jeepers385]

I have to agree w/the other posters and set my sails on other lines after the cruise I have scheduled in October. The only reason I scheduled this cruise with RCCL is because it is with friends I have yet to cruise with, the group pricing was great and I can use my RCCL points. Actually we have a land trip planned for the end of April and those prices are cheaper than any cruise we could plan so it may be back to land trips too.

Debbie

[bUU]

That's a good point. We had always put-off taking a cruise because we didn't see the value. It got to a point, though, last year, where it was very clear that cruising was finally a better value. Prices clearly hadn't kept up with the increase in pricing of other types of vacations. Seems that it just took an extra couple of years.

[Inshape]

I spent some time yesterday checking out prices. All were very much the same give or take a dollar! But they did say that Carnival was thinking about doing this too. This will probably be our last RCCL cruise since it is costing us 1000 more than we have ever paid! Also, if you book with a TA who now must contract a price with RCCL to sell the cabins, if the prices go down, they CAN NOT reduce the prices. As well, if it goes up, the prices stay the same, which is waht we ar use to. But this going down thing is awful--you TA cannot reduce price to match RCCL or they will lose the contract to sell for RCCL. This is what I was told. So I called RCCL directly and had this verified. Yep, true it is. She said the way around it is this. Watch the prices yourselves, call RCCL directly and when the price drops( if it does) you must call your TA right away and get the booking transfered to RCCL to lock in the price. Sounds like we will all need our vacation after all this!

[davygee]

I don't know how much it costs in the US for a standard cruise...but in the UK, all the prices for RCI are based on RCI's website price seeing as the TA's patch into RCI's UK-based booking system...so basically what you see on RCI's website is what the TA will give you it for....but most TA's will give you a 10% discount for you to book it through them...seeing as TA's get a 10% discount and they hope you book travel insurance through them at astronomical amounts.

 

We are going on Grandeur on 30th April and a back2back and they RCI website had the prices at £299 pp for each cruise...so basically we went into the TA and asked them what they could do...and they took 10% of RCI's website price. This is the only way that we can get discounts in the UK.

 

Maybe they are bringing the US inline with the rest of the world.

 

But you will probably be able to make the most savings by either booking a particular cruise well in advance i.e. 1 year in advance or by getting a last minute sailing.

[cruisinfanatic]

We ended up booking with RC directly since we were told that if prices go down (hah!) they will reduce our rates.

 

ak

 

Not unless you catch the lower price. That's where a good TA comes in to watch prices for you. Most won't do it.