Are Royal Caribbean preparing to abandon the UK market

[Lynnwood]

Does anyone else think that Royal Caribbean are reducing their involvement and preparing to stop sailing from the UK?

It seems to me that their treatment of the UK markets in the last couple of years, points to them perhaps preferring to home their ships at the Mediterranean and Mainland European ports?

 

They have reduced their usual 2 ships out of Southampton to 1 following the cancellation of the Independence on the pretence that the Anthem would cover the UK.  

Their “Lift and Shift” offer is almost unusable to the UK market and they won`t even let you pay a supplement to cover any extra days if you cannot find a “Comparable” cruise. IE a booked 10 Canaries Cruise for the identical cruise, but 11 days?

 

I`m afraid their attitude to the UK market is appalling and to me it seems they are not concerned at all about UK cruisers.

 It would not surprise me in the least if any further "pausing " of this years schedule should be necessary beyond August, that it would result in them cancelling this year schedule from the UK altogether?   

I do hope not

[Biker19]

41 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

Does anyone else think that Royal Caribbean are reducing their involvement and preparing to stop sailing from the UK?

No.

[Billy Baltic]

I’m not sure it would be that big of blow. The baltic cruises can still operate out of Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Having sailed from Southampton to the Med, it seemed like a waste of sea days. The weather is too unpredictable. For the sake of a 2 or 3 hour flight, I’d prefer to start the cruise in Barcelona or Rome. 

[soloadventurer]

We’ve always been treated like second class by Royal in relation to offers etc - will they leave the UK no because they make good money with the booze cruises especially during school holidays. 

[Sunshine3601]

I highly doubt they would "drop" their UK sailings.    

I understand your grief with the L & S program and not be able to match up itineraries with 2021 sailings.   I was booked for a b2b and unable to find anything similar so I opted for a FCC.

Anthem does have some nice sailings next summer just nothing matching what he had for 2020 bookings.

I suspect that sailings in europe will be postponed till next year.    I do not see any of these countries allowing international travelers to enter their countries and hop on cruise ships to various countries.    

but I have been wrong many times in my life.   dont tell my DH I said that - LOL!

 

[Ourusualbeach]

33 minutes ago, soloadventurer said:

We’ve always been treated like second class by Royal in relation to offers etc - will they leave the UK no because they make good money with the booze cruises especially during school holidays. 

Really?

 

North Americans have never had all included drinks or flights offered as a promotion

[Milwaukee Eight]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

No.

Yes

[Milwaukee Eight]

10 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Really?

 

North Americans have never had all included drinks or flights offered as a promotion

I agree. 

[njkruzer]

We've sailed 2 Royal cruises from Harwich,  a Baltic cruise and a northern route TA.  This November we're on the Anthem TA from Southampton. Sailed into Southampton on the QM2.  Always liked sailing from or into England.  Hope to continue to do so.

[Biker19]

20 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Yes

From the annual SEC filling:

 

 

The bottom line says: (1)No other individual country's revenue exceeded 10% for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Biker19

[Lynnwood]

18 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

From the annual SEC filling:

 

 

The bottom line says: (1)No other individual country's revenue exceeded 10% for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

Very Interesting!  So taking a simplistic view

9% of RCCL revenue for 2019 was produced from only 2 large but not big ships operating out of Southampton for only 6 months?

The other 25 ships of all sizes including some of the largest ships in the world for 12 months and the 2 ships used in the UK for the other 6 months only produced the remaining 91% of the revenue for 2019.

This just proves that the UK market is greatly overcharged compared to the rest of the world?

 Why then do they treat us so badly? When we are being used as a “Cash Cow” for the company.

[Milwaukee Eight]

6 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

Very Interesting!  So taking a simplistic view

9% of RCCL revenue for 2019 was produced from only 2 large but not big ships operating out of Southampton for only 6 months?

The other 25 ships of all sizes including some of the largest ships in the world for 12 months and the 2 ships used in the UK for the other 6 months only produced the remaining 91% of the revenue for 2019.

This just proves that the UK market is greatly overcharged compared to the rest of the world?

 Why then do they treat us so badly? When we are being used as a “Cash Cow” for the company.

Best report to ban smoking in the casino. See, it actually pays to eliminate the indoor smoking. 

[FionaMG]

23 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

This just proves that the UK market is greatly overcharged compared to the rest of the world?

Yes. I have pretty much always found their cruises starting in the UK to be even more stupidly expensive than those starting in other European ports and much more so than in the Caribbean, as a general rule.

 

23 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

 Why then do they treat us so badly? When we are being used as a “Cash Cow” for the company.

Because people keep coming back for more. They are in the game to make a profit so they will continue to cash in on the "cash cow" for as long as the customers let them. Why wouldn't they?

[Billy Baltic]

27 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

 

 Why then do they treat us so badly? When we are being used as a “Cash Cow” for the company.

If the cash cow is happy to be milked they have no reason to change. If demand drops then so will the prices. 

[zekekelso]

46 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

From the annual SEC filling:

 

 

The bottom line says: (1)No other individual country's revenue exceeded 10% for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

I read that as referring to the passenger’s country of origin, not the ship’s port of origin. So counting Brits sailing out of Miami, Barcelona, etc 

[Biker19]

28 minutes ago, Lynnwood said:

9% of RCCL revenue for 2019 was produced from only 2 large but not big ships operating out of Southampton for only 6 months?

I don't think the revenue was limited to sailings from the UK, just UK citizens.

[Bloodgem]

3 hours ago, Billy Baltic said:

I’m not sure it would be that big of blow. The baltic cruises can still operate out of Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Having sailed from Southampton to the Med, it seemed like a waste of sea days. The weather is too unpredictable. For the sake of a 2 or 3 hour flight, I’d prefer to start the cruise in Barcelona or Rome. 

Not everyone can fly.

[kernow]

I doubt they will pull out of the UK market, they seem to charge high prices here but still fill the ships. As for us having better offers  ('free' drinks and flights) I think we generally pay for those in the overall price. I know many people who don't like to fly so only cruise from Southampton (including my parents), personally I prefer to fly somewhere warmer to start my cruise and it usually still works out cheaper. As for their attitude to their UK customers, I think we've always been second class citizens.

[goldfish65]

Maybe demand is down? We decided against sailing from there because the reviews were so bad.

[Lynnwood]

17 minutes ago, zekekelso said:

I read that as referring to the passenger’s country of origin, not the ship’s port of origin. So counting Brits sailing out of Miami, Barcelona, etc 

Very true but they still mainly pay in the UK marketplace

 

[cloud_nine]

I actually really like sailing out of the UK, yeah the weather can be unpredictable but I like having a few sea days at the beginning and the end of the cruise as it gives you time to relax before (and after) the hectic port days. It's also much easier not having to worry about weight limits on suitcases than when you have to fly and airports always stress me out, so it's nice not having to deal with that and just getting a coach down to Southampton. No driving, we can just kick back and chill before the cruise. Of course, the prices are insanely high, which was why we chose to sail from Barcelona this year instead. I agree that they have been treating the UK market appallingly, but I don't think they'll stop sailing from there altogether. There are a lot of people who only cruise out of the UK (due to issues with flying, or because they live by the port etc) and if they stopped sailing from there, those people would instead choose to sail with other lines that do cruise out of the UK. They might not lose a lot of business in the grand scheme of things, but they would still lose some.

[RSLeesburg]

I have booked Anthem out of Southampton next summer - looking forward to the 9-day Norwegian Cruise 😎, especially after I called this morning and reprised our suite - saved a ton!  🤗

[Lynnwood]

4 minutes ago, cloud_nine said:

I actually really like sailing out of the UK, yeah the weather can be unpredictable but I like having a few sea days at the beginning and the end of the cruise as it gives you time to relax before (and after) the hectic port days. It's also much easier not having to worry about weight limits on suitcases than when you have to fly and airports always stress me out, so it's nice not having to deal with that and just getting a coach down to Southampton. No driving, we can just kick back and chill before the cruise. Of course, the prices are insanely high, which was why we chose to sail from Barcelona this year instead. I agree that they have been treating the UK market appallingly, but I don't think they'll stop sailing from there altogether. There are a lot of people who only cruise out of the UK (due to issues with flying, or because they live by the port etc) and if they stopped sailing from there, those people would instead choose to sail with other lines that do cruise out of the UK. They might not lose a lot of business in the grand scheme of things, but they would still lose some.

I totally agree with you, We too really like to sail from Southampton for all the reasons you outlined. What i cannot understand is why they just "Dumped" the Independence of the Seas  schedule without a second thought and then during this awful period  we are in now, will not even be a little flexible when we pay premium rates. I asked to do a "L&S" from this years Canaries cruise on 17 October(10 nights)  to the virtually same cruise next year(11 nights) and to pay any supplements necessary. No chance total inflexibility.

[Lynnwood]

3 minutes ago, RSLeesburg said:

I have booked Anthem out of Southampton next summer - looking forward to the 9-day Norwegian Cruise 😎, especially after I called this morning and reprised our suite - saved a ton!  🤗

I rest my case

[Billy Baltic]

51 minutes ago, cloud_nine said:

if they stopped sailing from there, those people would instead choose to sail with other lines that do cruise out of the UK. They might not lose a lot of business in the grand scheme of things, but they would still lose some

Yes, some people would choose other cruise lines but a lot would still fly and use RC. We couldn’t see the numbers but there must be a lot of overheads which have to be carried for a small presence in Southampton. That might explain the high fares in some part.