Solo / single cruise pricing

[MADflyer]

I though my most recent experience might be of interest to some other solo/single passengers that have faced pricing struggles since the October, 2013 shift in RCI policy.

 

Royal Caribbean states in their own FAQ:

 

 

Special Cruise Pricing

 

Q: Are there special prices for single guests alone in a stateroom?

 

A: All rates posted on this website are based on double occupancy. A single guest who wishes to have a stateroom to themselves will be expected to pay 200% of the category rate, unless otherwise noted in the pricing.

 

It has long been the practice for RCI to have 'Category' pricing, meaning they would pick one inside category or a couple outside categories and make them more attractive for solo travelers to book by reducing the single supplement on just those categories. They had a practice of excluding solos from GTY offers except for when they decided on an exception or on their last minute 'Tuesday sales' where they always state a real supplement of 110% to 200%, using the past year as an example.

 

With their current practice of rewarding solo travelers paying this 200%, with 2 cruise points per night for this added expense, while appreciated, has distorted this system.

 

They are no longer offering promotional rates on 'certain' categories as they have done prior.

 

Thus, often a circumstance has appeared where a single is paying 245% to 350% as heavily reduced categories such as GTY (Z, Y, X and W) are still rarely opened up to solo travelers. Thus, no discounted 200% sailings except for the Going, Going Gone sale now.

 

I had called 3 times about a particular sailing from Barcelona this Wednesday the 14th of May, finally tiring of this being the case. None of these calls resulted in the agent finding a solution to me being able to book a double and just not have one person show up at the pier.

 

I have no problem paying 200% if that is their policy. I do have a problem with 'price discrimination' of charging over 200%.

 

I know what they are doing. They think they get more onboard revenue opportunity from 2 or more, plus a key statistic the cruise industry loves to report to boost their stock prices is the fact they have over 100% occupancy on their ships, which sounds very impressive to the 'market'

 

Using their own stated policy, I pushed a last minute GTY to the Resolutions Department and was allowed to book a cabin and pay for 2 passengers. They then took this to resolutions and refunded the second passengers taxes and fees and canceled the second passenger, whom I had booked as TBA TBA.

 

This was necessary for me to check-in online for the cruise.

 

This solution is the only one that seemed fair to me, but it is uncomfortable that they 'force' a market to have to take these measures simply to book a cabin on their ships.

 

They seem to cover themselves in three ways. The above policy states,

'unless otherwise noted in the pricing.'

They also do not allow the adjustment to be made until a specific cabin has been assigned to the GTY, indicating a control where they could cancel the booking. Then the Cruise Contract states that they have a right to apply a 'single supplement' for a solo passenger if one passenger does not show up at the pier. This 'supplement' is conveniently left undefined, even though one might assume that one would just forfeit all monies paid. (In my case I would have only lost the second set of 'taxes and fees') Here the risk seems, that as with those not qualified for Resident, Senior of Military fares, it states that they risk being charged 'full' fare at the pier to board the ship. This is a risk I am unwilling to take.

 

Then the 'extra point for solo' policy only states that categories SB and SI do not receive the extra point, meaning that a solo in any other category paying 200% should receive the extra point.

[Paulxyz2004]

What about those cruising alone? I think your entire post discriminates against them.:p

[MADflyer]

What about those cruising alone? I think your entire post discriminates against them.:p

 

Funny you mention that. I actually thought of including that, but then realized we are not 'alone' and are actually one of the fastest growing segments in the travel market.

 

I just did a B2B on Vision and also realized that I spent twice as much per day on the cruise where I was 'alone' than on the second sailing where I had my family join me.