Is RCI more expensive than Princess??

[Cruisin'40]

Just curious, haven't talked to our TA until we nail down some dates. We have only sailed Princess and love it, but are looking at other options. It seems from the brochures RCI is significantly more expensive than Princess but sometimes the brochure price can be misleading.

Any tips on getting the best deal on an RCI cruise? We are thinking of booking a holiday cruise next Christmas.

Thanks!

[PVDCruiser]

Good Morning,

 

Welcome to our humble corner of the forums!

 

I honestly have no idea. It depends on the ship, time of year, and length. If you're planning for Christmastime, I think it'll be more expensive as the demand is higher.

 

My best advice would to surf around the RCCL site, and use their Quick Vacation Search option to find some price ranges.

 

HTH,

[droseball]

I don't know if this is any help, but our family took our first cruise on Caribbean Princess in summer 2004 and will cruise this summer (2006) on Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas and are paying a little more for the same size/type of cabins and same length of cruise, both to the Caribbean. It is not drastically more, but my TA and I compared what we paid before for the same size/type of cabins and it is a little more than just simple inflation rates.

[cruzfiend]

We have noticed that Princess has better "deals" than RC. RC won't let travel agents discount anymore so there is little area to play w/other than some travel agents give gift cert., or other bonus incentives.

[ckrobyn]

Princess has some amazing itineraries (we are looking at at least 10 days) I took a peek at the suite prices and they do seem higher than RCI. I looked at the 7 night sailings as well just to compare. I've only cruised RCI, but Princess has the itinerary I want......not sure what I'll end up doing :confused:

[Mike2131]

it seems that RCI wants to position itself as a premium line and their pricing structure seems to bear out that strategy. I think that, on the whole, RCI is indeed higher. As other posters have noted, the RCI arrangement with TAs makes it more difficult to find a really good deal unless your TA has a block of cabins or you catch a sale.

 

IMHO, Princess is a better value.

[atlcple2]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in September...the week of Labor Day. We booked directly through Princess and got a discounted rate. If you have cruised on Carnival before, Princess will honor the previous cruiser discount. We paid the exact same price for a balcony cabin on Princess as we did on the Spirit & Pride on Carnival. In my opinion, the food was not nearly as good as on Carnival, however, I will say the service on Princess was very nice. They really cater to couples. We got back from our cruise and booked the RCCL Mariner for February and the balcony room was about $250 more per person than on Princess and Carnival. Since we are taking the kids this trip, we decided that we would rather have interior rooms and have 2 seperate rooms...one for us and the kids next door...since we will be spending more time with the kids out and about the ship. The rates for the interior rooms (8th deck) were the same price that we spent for the balcony rooms on Carnival & Princess. (About $900/person, tax included) We did not book through RCCL directly. We booked through vacations to go and also got a discount because of the area where we live. I would try different online travel agencies and see if you can get a better rate than RCCL quotes online. We have seen the prices of this cruise continue to go up in price so we are happy with what we paid for it.

[springtxbill]

Comparing the Rhapsody against the grand princess both out of Galveston next year the week before Christmas, RCCL is a couple hundred dollars cheaper for an oceanview.

[springtxbill]

Comparing the Rhapsody against the grand princess both out of Galveston next year the week before Christmas, RCCL is a couple hundred dollars cheaper for an oceanview.

[Cruisin'40]

I don't know if my online comparison is fair, we were looking at the RCi Freedom next Christmas at $1599 for interior, for the same itinerary on the Princess Star at $1149. The Star is a Princess Grand Class ship, very nice but don't think it would be a fair comparision to the new Freedom. Am hoping we can somehow shave a few hundred off the RCI as that is our first choice.

For a family of four what other ships would you recommend on the RCI line, we tend to like bigger ships with lots of activities.

 

Thanks again,

Jackie