I sold my RCL stock today

[Bobby Dee]

Strictly a financial move. I needed some cash and I had to decide what to sell. I've owned the stock for about eight year. There was a time when I would have held the stock to get some credits when booking a cruise, but that time has passed. If I get any kind of OBC from booking on board, or any kind of discount from Captain's Club benefits, I don't get any shareholder benefits. This policy where shareholder benefits are not "combinable" has been in effect for at least two years now. I have finally come to realize, that I will probably get at least as good benefits, or perhaps better, from other sources, and these so called shareholder benefits no longer held any sway in my decision to own or sell the stock. And I decided to sell.

 

Please don't think that this is a knock on the value of the company or any type of knock on the company. It is merely a comment that, unlike other cruise lines, the shareholder benefits are in my opinion almost worthless.

[Fblack]

I tend to agree with you. The benefits are not what they were years ago. For me I can wait. I am down quite a bit and am in no rush to sell. I also have CCL stock. Down as well.

[D-Town]

Amen to that...

It's hard to imagine why RCI would in essence penalize their own cruise stockholders.

Carnival allows it's stockholders to double down on OBC.

Why would RCI Not allow it's stockholders the same privledge?

For an additional $200 OBC, forgetaboutit...

[Phxazzcruisers]

I agree that the shareholder credit is no longer a great deal. However, none of the other stocks in my portfolio offer any owner benefits at all. I am still well ahead on the stock and now that they have reinstated the dividend I think is an investment worth holding. Just my opinion.

[Andy]

Hi Bobby Dee,

 

I can certainly understand your disappointment, as I agree the non-combinability makes the Shareholder Benefit nearly worthless. There are times when it might be of value... but for us - as we generally book onboard, we can no longer combine the Shareholder Benefit. It's unfortunate, especially as Carnival allows combining. IMO, Royal/Celebrity should do the same.

[Gonzo70]

Amen to that...

It's hard to imagine why RCI would in essence penalize their own cruise stockholders.

Carnival allows it's stockholders to double down on OBC.

Why would RCI Not allow it's stockholders the same privledge?

For an additional $200 OBC, forgetaboutit...

 

The stock is for RCCL, not just the RCI brand. A better question is why does RCCL reward their shareholders with OBC under some circumstance when 99.99% of companies give no such perks to shareholders? They are hardly penalizing anyone.

[CRUZBUDS]

I don't really care if some people may still get a benefit. Good for them.

 

We no longer get any additional benefit. We may or may not keep it, but the benefits we used to get are no longer a factor in the decision.

[The_Big_M]

The stock is for RCCL, not just the RCI brand. A better question is why does RCCL reward their shareholders with OBC under some circumstance when 99.99% of companies give no such perks to shareholders? They are hardly penalizing anyone.

 

I agree.

 

Getting a benefit that most others don't get - any Walmart shareholders getting discounts there? - makes it very strange for someone to claim it's a penalty.

 

The fact that another company is even more generous isn't a reason to criticise RCCL. Their business success is from getting customers to sail, not from getting customers to be shareholders.

[Jeka]

The stock is for RCCL, not just the RCI brand. A better question is why does RCCL reward their shareholders with OBC under some circumstance when 99.99% of companies give no such perks to shareholders? They are hardly penalizing anyone.

 

The reality is at some point RCCL did hold a carrot in front of their faithful cruisers and said if you buy our stock you will get an OBC on each cruise you take with our company regardless of other offers. They did change the rules and I can see why it is annoying to those who bought the stock.

 

Having said that, for those who are disappointed with the not so recent OBC decisions or stock performance sell your stock.

[Project_gal]

Everyone seems to ahve overlooked that the shareholder OBC was combinable with the recent Captain's Club offer [when the 2013/14 cruises were released]. We got a total of $500 - not a bad return on shares only worth $2631 [which is, incidentally, still more than we paid for them].

 

Sue

[Lyn Mc]

Hi Sue

 

I didn't see that offer but as we have now learned our lesson from booking early, I am not looking at future cruises until the very last minute these days, therefore our shares come into play and we always get our shareholder credit awarded.

 

As you know we are, at the moment, being charged by II to keep our shares and I am still looking to move them to another broker who doesn't charge as much. At the moment that is £80 per year which we need to subtract from the OBC sums!!

 

I still won't be selling our shares anytime soon but we all lead our lives differently and book cruises at different times, some get OBC some not but we would never go on a cruise because of the OBC.

 

We have had half of what we paid for the shares back in OBC and if we sold them we would still get more back for the shares than we paid for them. Plus we do get a small amount of dividend. So I am very happy with the shares, in fact, they are the only ones making money for us at the moment, unless BP have gone up a £1 today!!!!!!

 

Lyn

[Freecall]

Hi Sue

 

I didn't see that offer but as we have now learned our lesson from booking early, I am not looking at future cruises until the very last minute these days, therefore our shares come into play and we always get our shareholder credit awarded.

 

As you know we are, at the moment, being charged by II to keep our shares and I am still looking to move them to another broker who doesn't charge as much. At the moment that is £80 per year which we need to subtract from the OBC sums!!

 

I still won't be selling our shares anytime soon but we all lead our lives differently and book cruises at different times, some get OBC some not but we would never go on a cruise because of the OBC.

 

We have had half of what we paid for the shares back in OBC and if we sold them we would still get more back for the shares than we paid for them. Plus we do get a small amount of dividend. So I am very happy with the shares, in fact, they are the only ones making money for us at the moment, unless BP have gone up a £1 today!!!!!!

 

Lyn

 

I agree.

 

It is still just about worth us hanging on to the stock but only because we now always book late having had our fingers burned booking early.

[The_Big_M]

The reality is at some point RCCL did hold a carrot in front of their faithful cruisers and said if you buy our stock you will get

an OBC on each cruise you take with our company regardless of other

offers.

 

They did change the rules and I can see why it is annoying to those who bought the stock.

 

They also said it had an expiry date. It was only offered for a year at a time, so nobody would have the expectation that it was permanent or unchangeable.

[seatraveler24]

Strictly a financial move. I needed some cash and I had to decide what to sell. I've owned the stock for about eight year. There was a time when I would have held the stock to get some credits when booking a cruise, but that time has passed. If I get any kind of OBC from booking on board, or any kind of discount from Captain's Club benefits, I don't get any shareholder benefits. This policy where shareholder benefits are not "combinable" has been in effect for at least two years now. I have finally come to realize, that I will probably get at least as good benefits, or perhaps better, from other sources, and these so called shareholder benefits no longer held any sway in my decision to own or sell the stock. And I decided to sell.

 

Please don't think that this is a knock on the value of the company or any type of knock on the company. It is merely a comment that, unlike other cruise lines, the shareholder benefits are in my opinion almost worthless.

We also sold our stock for the same reason. Without being able to combine the stockholder credit, it diminished its "value" to us. Just our personal opinion.

[Project_gal]

Hi Sue

 

I didn't see that offer but as we have now learned our lesson from booking early, I am not looking at future cruises until the very last minute these days, therefore our shares come into play and we always get our shareholder credit awarded.

 

As you know we are, at the moment, being charged by II to keep our shares and I am still looking to move them to another broker who doesn't charge as much. At the moment that is £80 per year which we need to subtract from the OBC sums!!

 

I still won't be selling our shares anytime soon but we all lead our lives differently and book cruises at different times, some get OBC some not but we would never go on a cruise because of the OBC.

 

We have had half of what we paid for the shares back in OBC and if we sold them we would still get more back for the shares than we paid for them. Plus we do get a small amount of dividend. So I am very happy with the shares, in fact, they are the only ones making money for us at the moment, unless BP have gone up a £1 today!!!!!!

 

Lyn

 

Lyn

 

It's swings and roundabouts about booking early. The second cruise we booked during the early boking offer is not until April 2014 but is selling fast. Our category [and others] have already sold out and for at least some of the remaining categories, the price has already risen more than once.

 

Sue

[Twice_a_year]

And like every woman they offer you something and change their mind!

[Hawaiidan]

from my perspective is that buying " stock" to get a discount on a cruise is an un wise move. You buy for investment and look for values beyond the immidiate, such as company growth and dividends and its relavitive value to book.

 

Putting the same money in a well researched stock, has for me yelded way more than benifit derived from purchasing a stock for a 200 to 500 simple return

There are far better investments than cruise ship and vacations in this economy. Investments where you could end up , with the same investment as the RCI or CCL stock and making 2 to 4 times that from dividend and growth.. :cool:

[jerseygirl3]

Hopefully you bought low...

[Bobby Dee]

Hopefully you bought low...

 

I bought it as an investment. I'm not unhappy about owning the stock for the length of time that I have had it. It's almost funny how some of the posters have gone off on tangents.

But again, my decision to sell was a financial one. The thing is that there used to be additional factors that came into play when deciding if I should or should not keep the stock. Those factors don't seem to exist at present and I was bringing out that for discussion. That's all. I'm not criticizing the lines. I am still booked on a cruise this year and will continue to consider Celebrity as my favorite line.

[Putterdude]

I own CCL stock but strictly for the OBCs benefit any increase in value and the dividends have just been icing on the cake. However, I have held off on RCI because of the inability of combining the various OBCs. CCL is in essence and loyalty program and I am told a very good one for them but with RCI it seems as though you have to look upon it as an investment.

[Freecall]

With the stock trading at around $26 I think that I have answered my own question from a post in January last year.

.

http://http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1349499

.

If you look at performance compared to CCL (where I also hold stock) then it looks good value now.

 

Add in the fact that CCL is probably still suppressed from the Concordia incident and the difference is quite marked.

 

.

[kyriecat]

Something that no one has mentioned yet is RC started paying quarterly dividends on their stock again this year. It's only $0.10/share but it's better than nothing. They quit paying dividends several years ago (I forgot what year and am not going to look through my old brokerage statements to find out) but I kept the stock since I was still getting the shareholder OBC for my sailings.

 

I don't know if RC reinstated the dividends so their cruisers would not sell the shares due to non-combinability or if RC decided the share price was high enough again to justify a small dividend. It's only $40/year per 100 shares, but it's money in my pocket vs. money I have to spend onboard.

 

They may also have been competing against Carnival stock. I have only had my Carnival stock for about 5 years, but they have paid dividends since I owned it. They increased the quarterly dividend from $0.10/share to $0.25/share last year. The OBC for Carnival stock is still combinable with OBC for booking onboard. I used it a couple times to get OBC on HAL cruises.

[Dale]

I would like share my experience of being a shareholder with Royal Caribbean. I bought my shares,1000, in June, 1993. By August, 1997 the price had more than doubled. I sold 500, recovering my initial cost plus some profit. The next year, 1998, Royal Caribbean announced there would be a 2 for 1 stock split in July. This really made me a:) happy camper :). I am now back to my original position, 1000 shares at no cost to me plus a profit.

I have never had problem with shareholder onboard credits because they don’t effect the ones given to me by my travel agent, which usually equal to as much or more than those given by Royal Caribbean.

[Freecall]

I would like share my experience of being a shareholder with Royal Caribbean. I bought my shares,1000, in June, 1993. By August, 1997 the price had more than doubled. I sold 500, recovering my initial cost plus some profit. The next year, 1998, Royal Caribbean announced there would be a 2 for 1 stock split in July. This really made me a:) happy camper :). I am now back to my original position, 1000 shares at no cost to me plus a profit.

I have never had problem with shareholder onboard credits because they don’t effect the ones given to me by my travel agent, which usually equal to as much or more than those given by Royal Caribbean.

 

Coming up to 20 years, now that is a loyal stockholder!:)

 

.

[Tucker in Texas]

The next year, 1998, Royal Caribbean announced there would be a 2 for 1 stock split in July. This really made me a:) happy camper :). I am now back to my original position, 1000 shares at no cost to me plus a profit.

.

 

I bought 100 shares in 2003 at around $30 per share. Somewhere afterwards, it tanked down to $5. I bought another 100 shares at $14 when it was on the way down to lower my cost basis. Last year, we sold the higher priced one at a "loss." So we need around $22 to break even.

 

However, I have collected more than $1K in tax free OBC back in the days when I could combine it with other things. We are now Diamond+ and get a $350 balcony discount which cannot be combined with stockholder's benefit so I've thought about selling it. But, when we went on Celebrity last year for the first time in many years, we got an inside cabin since it was a port intensive cruise and picked up $200 on OBC so I have hung on to it.

 

Tucker in Texas