Still alot of uncertainly as to which cruises are a go? How soon with RCCL let us know?

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, cruise wizard said:

 

The new pricing doesn't cover near any 25% bonus................plus I am not sending any cruise line any money until cruising fully resumes. 

A blind person could have seen that coming from the get go.  The only advantage was the lift and shift for anyone who booked a good deal to start with.

[cruise wizard]

27 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

A blind person could have seen that coming from the get go.  The only advantage was the lift and shift for anyone who booked a good deal to start with.

 

I agree - the L&S was the best deal for sure. The problem was some of the restrictions on open dates, same itinerary, same number of days etc. 

[coldflame]

We literally booked last week for September in the Allure. Price for 3AD/1CH in a large balcony cabin was about $700 less than what we paid 4 years ago for the same room, very close to similar dates. Not sure I'm seeing the same rate increase y'all are saying.

[broadwaybaby123]

I think there's a lot going on with the vaccinations.  Crew are just starting to get their vaccines, and are probably waiting to restart until they take full effect.

 

In the meantime, the companies may be working on guest policies and guidance, especially in regards to vaccines (will the unvaccinated be allowed on the ship, etc.) and what mitigation strategies they'll employ.  The cruise lines do NOT want another outbreak!

[Jimbo]

28 minutes ago, coldflame said:

We literally booked last week for September in the Allure. Price for 3AD/1CH in a large balcony cabin was about $700 less than what we paid 4 years ago for the same room, very close to similar dates. Not sure I'm seeing the same rate increase y'all are saying.

 Probably a good price to get you to book and that sailing Royal Caribbean  knows won't sail.....

 

Good way of getting your $$$ now so they can use it.

[coldflame]

12 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

 Probably a good price to get you to book and that sailing Royal Caribbean  knows won't sail.....

 

Good way of getting your $$$ now so they can use it.

 

It's fully refundable deposit. And what makes you so sure it won't happen? I know there are several risks at play, but seeing how fast guidance is changing and seeing crew vaccination in full swing (and this being very early May), I'd say there is a fair chance September itineraries will sail as planned.

 

In fact, I'd wager last half of August sailings have a good chance of happening. Disney can afford to cancel their sailings 3-4 months in advance because DCL revenue is relatively small for them, but the RCLs and NCLs of the world don't have that luxury, so they have play in real time as cards are dealt to them.

Edited May 3, 2021 by coldflame
clarification.

[Jimbo]

9 minutes ago, coldflame said:

 

It's fully refundable deposit. And what makes you so sure it won't happen? I know there are several risks at play, but seeing how fast guidance is changing and seeing crew vaccination in full swing (and this being very early May), I'd say there is a fair chance September itineraries will sail as planned.

 

In fact, I'd wager last half of August sailings have a good chance of happening. Disney can afford to cancel their sailings 3-4 months in advance because DCL revenue is relatively small for them, but the RCLs and NCLs of the world don't have that luxury, so they have play in real time as cards are dealt to them.

Still using  your money until September..........no one knows which ships will sail first.......entire fleet will not be up and running by September. Wager on it.

[Sunshine3601]

51 minutes ago, coldflame said:

We literally booked last week for September in the Allure. Price for 3AD/1CH in a large balcony cabin was about $700 less than what we paid 4 years ago for the same room, very close to similar dates. Not sure I'm seeing the same rate increase y'all are saying.

That's great!  I did a reprice last week for a march sailing and saved $291.  Today I see another booked cruise for 2022 has dropped and I will call on that this evening.  Both of these sailings had decent prices when I booked them.

I feel confident you will be sailing in september.   

[coldflame]

5 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Still using  your money until September..........no one knows which ships will sail first.......entire fleet will not be up and running by September. Wager on it.

 

A $1000 wager which would be collecting a whooping 0.01% interest for 4 months 🙂

[Jimbo]

10 minutes ago, coldflame said:

 

A $1000 wager which would be collecting a whooping 0.01% interest for 4 months 🙂

Might be longer before you see the refund hit your credit card company(months later).......$1000 here $1000 there............they all add up. They are using your money to pay off some of their bills.

[coldflame]

16 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Might be longer before you see the refund hit your credit card company(months later).......$1000 here $1000 there............they all add up. They are using your money to pay off some of their bills.

 

Well they do that anyway even in the best of times. Booking revenues are used to pay for operation expenses. Financially RCL has been "fortunate" in that the equities market has allowed them to borrow a TON of money at near zero cost via secondary offerings and direct placement investments. A bit of dilution to remain solvent and the market seems to like the arrangement.

[dswallow]

23 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Might be longer before you see the refund hit your credit card company(months later).......$1000 here $1000 there............they all add up. They are using your money to pay off some of their bills.

 

I've "made" over $1,490 in these 25% bonuses so far from about $6,000 of money that had been previously on fully paid reservations. I have one Lift & Shift going on which represents about an $1,800 value in that change, though truthfully I wouldn't have chosen to spend that directly on that new sailing, though am going with friends, so there's that bonus out of it. Other than the L&S, much of the FCC money is going to 5 Nassau sailings in June and September, then I've got about $1,600 left to put toward something I've already booked or add to my agenda.

No question it's a far far better return than I'd have gotten just keeping the money in my accounts. But then I tend to do at least 50 or 60 nights of cruising a year, and probably more now since working from home for over a year has definitely proven the remote work possibility. 🙂 So I am not hurting to find things to put it towards.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by dswallow

[SNJCruisers]

7 hours ago, cruise wizard said:

I didn't know that cruise planner items were a part of FCC's - I thought that it was only on the base cruise fare. Thanks for letting us know.

If you are going to accept the 125% FCC, you also need to let them know you wish to accept the 125% on your cruise planner purchases.  If you do not formally let them know, you will be refunded to your original form of payment and you'll lose out on the 25% kicker. 

[SNJCruisers]

4 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

A blind person could have seen that coming from the get go.  The only advantage was the lift and shift for anyone who booked a good deal to start with.

Not necessarily.   If our end of August cruise on the Oasis gets cancelled, I have already looked at a replacement date in next June to flip it to.  The price of the June cruise is just under 25% more at this point, so our flip would be ok.  But, the true money to be made is on the 25% of our 1200 in cruise planner purchases, which would net us an extra 300.

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Might be longer before you see the refund hit your credit card company(months later).......$1000 here $1000 there............they all add up. They are using your money to pay off some of their bills.

But why take the refund?  You always have the revised L&S or the 125% FCC as an option.

[Jimbo]

6 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

But why take the refund?  You always have the revised L&S or the 125% FCC as an option.

I think he said he booked refundable, guess he would want the refund rather then tie up his money for a L& S to next year or a FCC otherwise he would have booked the lower price non-refundable rate.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Jimbo

[CruisingHogFan]

We had a fully paid up cruise in June 2020 that we L&S to 2021 and again to 2022. Yes RCCL has had our money for over 2 years but we are still coming out $1,000s ahead compared to current prices. 

[Daithi2021]

They told me on the phone that they were going to announce the cancelation of all european sailings for july, on 10th May.

[Jimbo]

6 hours ago, CruisingHogFan said:

We had a fully paid up cruise in June 2020 that we L&S to 2021 and again to 2022. Yes RCCL has had our money for over 2 years but we are still coming out $1,000s ahead compared to current prices. 

Yours sound like a different situation, most likely a non-refundable deposit, a paid in full cruise fare and you got a really, really low great price where the 125% FCC is not going to be worth for the deal you got on your cabin, so the best way for you to go is the L&S since you do too intend to take the cruise in the future.

[CruisingHogFan]

4 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Yours sound like a different situation, most likely a non-refundable deposit, a paid in full cruise fare and you got a really, really low great price where the 125% FCC is not going to be worth for the deal you got on your cabin, so the best way for you to go is the L&S since you do too intend to take the cruise in the future.

We had a refundable deposit and feel like our price was just average at that time ($4,700 for a jr suite for 3 people on Symphony). We were after final payment date of the original 2020 cruise when we did the lift and shift the cancellation penalties went with the new dates. 

We used a 125% FCC from another canceled cruise for a sailing this July. We also came our way ahead by doing so.

Personally I think the cruise lines are doing all they can to help the situation and not doing anything greedy. Prices will continue to go up in 2022/2023 but that is supply and demand. Land based resorts are doing the same.

[spunks]

22 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Still using  your money until September..........no one knows which ships will sail first.......entire fleet will not be up and running by September. Wager on it.

 

true enough, but I consider it a good deal in that my money is earning pennies more than zero % in my bank.....but more than that, we are finding that if we wait to book later, the fare has gone up quite a bit.

Thus I consider it a win/win....I feel I am getting a better return than I would at the bank and the cruise Line gets to use the money for a while....Life is good!

 

Doug

[grandgeezer]

3 minutes ago, spunks said:

 

true enough, but I consider it a good deal in that my money is earning pennies more than zero % in my bank.....but more than that, we are finding that if we wait to book later, the fare has gone up quite a bit.

Thus I consider it a win/win....I feel I am getting a better return than I would at the bank and the cruise Line gets to use the money for a while....Life is good!

 

Doug

If you are looking for a return on your money, the last place you should put your money in a bank. I park my rainy day funds in a money market account with a brokerage company. It currently pays five times what our bank does. 

Most of our money is in equities and it has been for the last thirty five years so we know all about market fluctuations. 2020 our account rose 39% and as of today it’s up 11% ytd. That even beats the 25% they gave on the fccs. Plus inflation doesn’t come anywhere near what cruise pricing went up. A huge win for me.

[spunks]

3 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

If you are looking for a return on your money, the last place you should put your money in a bank. I park my rainy day funds in a money market account with a brokerage company. It currently pays five times what our bank does. 

Most of our money is in equities and it has been for the last thirty five years so we know all about market fluctuations. 2020 our account rose 39% and as of today it’s up 11% ytd. That even beats the 25% they gave on the fccs. Plus inflation doesn’t come anywhere near what cruise pricing went up. A huge win for me.

 

 

you dont have to explain that to me....I am the choir there. However, I dont take money out of the market to buy cruises. Cruise money comes from the bank accounts...

 

Doug

[Jimbo]

Another question for  the start-ups.

 

Before Royal makes the announcements on which ships and which itineraries.

 

I assume they will get the word from the CDC that their plans are good and the sailings will go right on schedule?

 

Not going to be one of those 11th hour things where the CDC comes in late and says to Royal, oh no that isn't going to work and ends of canceling those sailing too is it.

 

If that is what has to happen, might be longer until Royal annouces something, so really thinking July is a go might just be wishful thinking?

Edited May 4, 2021 by Jimbo

[cruise wizard]

7 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Another question for  the start-ups.

 

Before Royal makes the announcements on which ships and which itineraries.

 

I assume they will get the word from the CDC that their plans are good and the sailings will go right on schedule?

 

Not going to be one of those 11th hour things where the CDC comes in late and says to Royal, oh no that is going to work and ends of canceling those sailing too is it.

 

If that is what has to happen, might be longer until Royal annouces something, so really thinking July is a go might just be wishful thinking?

 

So much is going on behind the scenes besides the crewing of ship and provisioning etc. Someone has to be planning on who will actually have a cabin - sorting through reservations - deciding who will be cancelled if current bookings exceed whatever capacity limitations will be mandated. Cruise lines are in an ominous position.