Expensive cruises now, promotions like Kids Sail Free?

[Universe93B]

Trying to book a cruise on Wonder of the Seas for April 2, 2023 but a regular oceanview balcony room for 4 (2 kids under 12) is like $7000!  Even with the 30% discount.  Haven't cruised in 2.5 years, is this what prices are like now? 

 

I know I just missed the Kids Sail Free (March 24-28) sale - is that offered several times a year?  Maybe I can put a deposit down now - does RCI still do a price adjustment for new promotions like this before the final cruise deposit payment?

[smplybcause]

Royal does do price adjustments before final as long as the category isn't sold out. 

 

Pre covid there was usually a few kids sail free sales. That was the first one since restart. Also just an FYI if there is one don't expect it to cut your price in half. 

 

April 2 is smack in the middle of spring break season which is a notoriously high time to book. Royal often puts a premium on the 3 & 4 guest in cabins knowing this is a time for families to sail. I think $7000 sounds a bit high, but there's no good rules in this post covid time. Have you checked the price of two rooms? Might be cheaper. 

[Tree_skier]

1 hour ago, TaxiDriver said:

Trying to book a cruise on Wonder of the Seas for April 2, 2023 but a regular oceanview balcony room for 4 (2 kids under 12) is like $7000!  Even with the 30% discount.  Haven't cruised in 2.5 years, is this what prices are like now? 

 

I know I just missed the Kids Sail Free (March 24-28) sale - is that offered several times a year?  Maybe I can put a deposit down now - does RCI still do a price adjustment for new promotions like this before the final cruise deposit payment?

You are probably seeing the result of spring break and the novelty factor of a new ship.  Pick a different ship and you will find much better prices.  Oasis on the same date is about 1/3 less.

[Ashland]

37 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

Royal does do price adjustments before final as long as the category isn't sold out. 

 

Pre covid there was usually a few kids sail free sales. That was the first one since restart. Also just an FYI if there is one don't expect it to cut your price in half. 

 

April 2 is smack in the middle of spring break season which is a notoriously high time to book. Royal often puts a premium on the 3 & 4 guest in cabins knowing this is a time for families to sail. I think $7000 sounds a bit high, but there's no good rules in this post covid time. Have you checked the price of two rooms? Might be cheaper. 

I thought RCI can still do price adjustments even if a category is showing sold out.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, TaxiDriver said:

Wonder of the Seas for April 2, 2023 is like $7000!

it's because it's the newest ship.

Try Ody or Oasis instead. Inside on Oasis for 3 is $2,800, but during KDS I got it for $2,100. Ody was even cheaper, but it's 6 days. I haven't even looked at Wonder because it's so unreasonable.

[smplybcause]

23 minutes ago, Ashland said:

I thought RCI can still do price adjustments even if a category is showing sold out.

 

I've seen some say yes and some say no on here. I think TAs might be able to see something. 

[tallnthensome]

I just booked an angled  balcony for 4 for April 2nd 2023 out of Miami  on the new to come MSC Seascape for $2500...... Just a heads up there are better options with way way better pricing than RCCL for spring break. *wink wink*  .... Kids sail free. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

15 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

I just booked an angled  balcony for 4 for April 2nd 2023 out of Miami  on the new to come MSC Seascape for $2500...... Just a heads up there are better options with way way better pricing than RCCL for spring break. *wink wink*  .... Kids sail free. 

let's talk about a year from now.

[tallnthensome]

6 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

let's talk about a year from now.

A year from now it could be worse .... just saying to explore other options with kids for week long cruises during spring break. 

[Tree_skier]

Did one MSC cruise.  It was one and done for me.

[tallnthensome]

2 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Did one MSC cruise.  It was one and done for me.

Me also ..... with kids and the pricing was great.  it was one with MSC  and booked this one with MSC again as fast as I could for spring break. Are you sailing with and paying for two young kids during spring break? No? Didn't think so ...... $7K and $2.5K is a big difference. 

[Tree_skier]

3 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

Me also ..... with kids and the pricing was great.  it was one with MSC  and booked this one with MSC again as fast as I could for spring break. Are you sailing with and paying for two young kids during spring break? No? Didn't think so ...... $7K and $2.5K is a big difference. 

There is no doubt that MSC is cheaper.  I don't dispute that at all. That being said, you don't need to spend $7K to cruise on Royal during spring break.

 

Weird hostility though.  Relax, it's just a forum.

[grandgeezer]

3 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

Did one MSC cruise.  It was one and done for me.

We’ve done two MSC cruises, both in the Yacht Club Suites. If the prices ever come down, they are over double what we paid in October 2019 on our last cruise since the pandemic started, it’ll be our cruise of choice. If not, we’ll stay home.

[Tree_skier]

26 minutes ago, grandgeezer said:

We’ve done two MSC cruises, both in the Yacht Club Suites. If the prices ever come down, they are over double what we paid in October 2019 on our last cruise since the pandemic started, it’ll be our cruise of choice. If not, we’ll stay home.

Yacht Club seems to be the consensus for MSC.  Do YC and you leave impressed with MSC otherwise they come up short in so many ways.

[travelhound]

You didn't miss anything with kids sail free because they don't, not at that time. We are also sailing at that time next year and my booking said it was eligible for KSF so I called. They said if you read the fine print it says Easter week is exempt and that's the week. We did the Oasis this year for a good price and that was an ok option for next year but didn't want to do the exact same thing. You could do better than 7k I would think but maybe not a balcony on the newest ship. We're going out of Tampa next year for a completely different experience.

 

With no hostility but complete agreement to pp, we won't be doing MSC ever again either. You can't compare the Yacht Club to experience of the general guests. That is likely a very different cruise. We are doing threw cruises in then next year and they are on three different cruise lines so we are not very brand loyal.

 

You can keep repricing up until final payment. We saved almost 1k over our original price. However, you have to he happy with your first price because it may be as good as it gets.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

14 hours ago, travelhound said:

You didn't miss anything with kids sail free because they don't, not at that time. We are also sailing at that time next year and my booking said it was eligible for KSF so I called.

spring break doesn't fall on the same week for everyone in the US. KSF worked for our spring break 2023, because it's during the first week of April. I got Oasis for 7 nights for $2,100. Right now the same cabin is $2,900. OP is looking to book the same week, so it would have worked for him. However, Wonder was still prohibitively expensive that week.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Cruiseenthusiast101]

(Deleted)

Edited April 17, 2022 by Cruiseenthusiast101

[CruisingHogFan]

23 hours ago, Ashland said:

I thought RCI can still do price adjustments even if a category is showing sold out.

Yes you can. I have done it a few times and book direct 

[DukeASUGirl]

You're looking at the newest ship during Spring Break. Even when KSF comes back, you'll still see expensive prices for that particular itinerary.

 

If the sale comes back, then yes, Royal will do a price adjustment. But you can't rely upon that. If the price doesn't work for you, then I would recommend picking a different ship or different week. March and April weeks are always going to be a premium.

[Jasukkie]

Dynamic pricing. If you could go next month on Oasis it's $2700 all in for your family for oceanview balcony. They aren't going to offer discount pricing a year out on a new ship. I would wait but only you can decide what the value of that particular sailing is for you.

[travelhound]

9 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

spring break doesn't fall on the same week for everyone in the US. KSF worked for our spring break 2023, because it's during the first week of April. I got Oasis for 7 nights for $2,100. Right now the same cabin is $2,900. OP is looking to book the same week, so it would have worked for him. However, Wonder was still prohibitively expensive that week.

Did you get KSF for the first week of April 2023? That is our break next year AND Easter week. The fine print specifically says it's not valid during "Holy Week".

[Itchy&Scratchy]

19 hours ago, travelhound said:

Did you get KSF for the first week of April 2023? That is our break next year AND Easter week. The fine print specifically says it's not valid during "Holy Week".

yes, I did. I got Oasis on April 2nd. The fine print, I believe, said cruises sailing until March something and from April 6 and till April something were ineligible. April 2 was included. I double checked by faux booking 3 adults vs 2 adults and 1 12 yo kid.

Easter is on April 9th, so April 2nd does not fall on Easter week.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Universe93B]

Thanks for all the replies guys.  Looks like Kids Sail Free is coming back on April 25th (Monday) for 5 days.  This time however, they included April 2nd as a black out date.   It was NOT included in the March Kids Sail Free offer. 

 

Oh well, lol!  Guess they added more dates to their liking.  I read this at momsatsea.com. 

 

Maybe future Kids Sail Free will leave off the April 2nd date.  It's just annoying that the March sale had April 6-16 as blackout dates and now supposedly this April Kids Sail Free has April 1-11 as black out dates. 

https://www.momsatsea.com/moms-at-sea-blog/2022/4/22/kids-sail-free-returns

 

 

[traceytd]

14 hours ago, TaxiDriver said:

Thanks for all the replies guys.  Looks like Kids Sail Free is coming back on April 25th (Monday) for 5 days.  This time however, they included April 2nd as a black out date.   It was NOT included in the March Kids Sail Free offer. 

 

Oh well, lol!  Guess they added more dates to their liking.  I read this at momsatsea.com. 

 

Maybe future Kids Sail Free will leave off the April 2nd date.  It's just annoying that the March sale had April 6-16 as blackout dates and now supposedly this April Kids Sail Free has April 1-11 as black out dates. 

https://www.momsatsea.com/moms-at-sea-blog/2022/4/22/kids-sail-free-returns

 

 

Where and how did you find this. It’s great 👍 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

16 hours ago, TaxiDriver said:

Looks like Kids Sail Free is coming back on April 25th (Monday) for 5 days.  This time however, they included April 2nd as a black out date.

they also jacked up the prices. I bought my KSF on Oasis next April for $2,1xx for 3 of us in inside cabin, after KSF ended it was $2,8xx for the same cabin. I checked yesterday, and it is $3,8xx for the same cabin. This is crazy!