sticker shock

[soremekun]

9 minutes ago, ginger123snaps said:

I'm going to cancel because the price of all the extras is adding up to be thousands more then what I expected.  The drink pkg and internet alone adds almost $3K for us.  We still have gratuities and specialty restaurants...whatever else they charge for and then you have excursions.  So YES...I'm going to cancel!  

 

Which cruise line do you feel offers the best value?

[pittnh]

10 hours ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

SOME drinks are around $14, not all of them. You can get a lot of decent drinks in the $10-$12 range. That's still a lot more than I pay for drinks locally but it's better than $14.

 

I think the drink of the day is in the $10-12 range and that's usually what I stuck to.

[CruisingWalter]

15 hours ago, ginger123snaps said:

 I'm a bit sticker shocked.  I can remember when drink packages were around fifty onboard per person per day...we are at eightyfive now...

Man that was ages ago. $65 - $99/day is the going price. RC is among the highest for drink packages, yet folks keep buying it. We will purchase the Refreshment Package since it includes the specialty coffees and pay ala carte for alcohol. HUGE savings over the drink package over a one week cruise. Well over $500 savings. 

[CruisingWalter]

1 hour ago, soremekun said:

Which cruise line do you feel offers the best value?

 

Virgin Voyages for sure with all the inclusions. All Meals, WiFi, Soft Drinks, Gratuities and Exercise classes included in their cruise fares standard. Then you can pick up $300 bar tabs which VV will add more to, and you can use the Tab to buy drinks for anyone. Their cocktails are very reasonably priced too, no added gratuity. If the drink is $9, the drink is $9 on the bill.

 

Then NCL with their "Free At Sea" package. A drinks package costs on average $153/pp for a 7 night cruise. That's about as cheap as it gets. 

 

Next would be Princess with the Princess Plus package. That covers your drinks, WiFi and Gratuities for $60/day and it includes drinks up to $15 ea. After WiFi and Gratuities your drinks are about $27/pp per day. Much more cost effective than RCCL. 

 

Celebrity has a similar package as Princess but it's $75/day and includes drinks up to $11. Not quite as good a deal as Princess. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by CruisingWalter

[Blur]

9 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

ever notice vices are more expensive than healthy things. i dont know the price of juice smoothies on board but i'm betting less than 14 per

 

they are smart to jack up the booze price. id put it higher if i was boss. theres no price people wont pay.

 

same with the 2000 dollar cococay overwater cabanas! 

Not if you're type 2 diabetic... Then a whiskey neat is "healthier" than that juice smoothie... 😉

[Cherful59]

On 3/27/2023 at 7:39 PM, Cruise>Work said:

At that price the over water cabanas should take you to the next port, include a show and a weeks worth of meals

LOL

On 3/27/2023 at 9:28 PM, neverbeenhere said:

We like the pay to play system that cruises have now. Sure prices are higher than I’d like, but I get to make the decision to play or not. Until more passengers choose not to play, the prices will continue to rise. 

I agree and I am still booking cruises, when I find what I want for a price I am willing to pay.  I pick and choose what else I spend extra on, and the over water cabanas are not one of them at the price I am seeing.  For those that have the want and or means to do so I think it’s great.  

[Engineroom Snipe]

On 3/27/2023 at 10:52 PM, ginger123snaps said:

I'm going to cancel because the price of all the extras is adding up to be thousands more then what I expected.  The drink pkg and internet alone adds almost $3K for us.  We still have gratuities and specialty restaurants...whatever else they charge for and then you have excursions.  So YES...I'm going to cancel!  

 

If you have not cruised in a while, it is shocking. Many of the cruise lines want to have "The lowest per person cabin fare" for advertising purposes.

 

RCI is one of them.

 

Caveat: That fare is based on double occupancy. Taxes and port taxes are additional which can easily run at least $160 per person to include children. Alcohol drinks are not included. Soda is not included, etc. Specialty restaurants are not included. Gratuities not included. When "Kids Sail Free", you will need to pay for a higher category cabin which will costs more (to accommodate three or four in a room). Gratuities are based on cabin occupancy, so children are not free of gratuities. Not all on-board activities are included with basic fare.

 

I enjoy cruising and I do not need more than my wife's company and a cabin to enjoy. I think it would be very expensive to bring my children and grandson with us as they would like to drink more than we do and be more active on and off the ship.

 

It is quite a bit to think about when planning expenses for a family vacation onboard.

[Cruise a holic]

I get sticker shock when I see the prices of the actual cruise.  The airfare is also nuts now.  Ironically the last cruise we were on a few weeks ago (celebrity apex) was overbooked.  We were told that it was 105% of capacity.  Clearly, lots of wealthy people out their.  The prices aren't deterring them!  All suites were booked.

[Mr. Green]

The prices are outrageous and high, but why do you think RC and other cruise lines can charge those prices?? Because people are buy at the current price and they continue to fill up ships. Supply and Demand!!

Edited March 30, 2023 by Mr. Green

[JeffT237]

On 3/27/2023 at 9:06 PM, CruisingWalter said:

Next would be Princess with the Princess Plus package. That covers your drinks, WiFi and Gratuities for $60/day and it includes drinks up to $15 ea. After WiFi and Gratuities your drinks are about $27/pp per day. Much more cost effective than RCCL. 

 

We've had the princess Plus on our 2 Princess cruises last year, the first was last May when it was only $40pp, our next Princess cruise in October it was $50pp.  Even at the new price of $60pp I think for everything you get it is worth it for us.  When we sail Royal we pay for WiFi, pre-pay gratuities and pay for drinks individually.

[JeffT237]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Green said:

The prices are outrageous and high, but why do you thing RC and other cruise lines can charge those prices?? Because people are buy at the current price and they continue to fill up ships. Supply and Demand!!

 

It's basic economics, the prices are not too high.  They may be higher than what I want to pay or afford to pay, but to your point the ships are full and the upsell items are being purchased and in many times sold out. 

[mac_tlc]

29 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

I get sticker shock when I see the prices of the actual cruise.  The airfare is also nuts now.  Ironically the last cruise we were on a few weeks ago (celebrity apex) was overbooked.  We were told that it was 105% of capacity.  Clearly, lots of wealthy people out their.  The prices aren't deterring them!  All suites were booked.

We have a couple suites booked on Celebrity coming up. They were booked long ago and at nowhere near todays pricing for the same cruise. Their suite prices on the cruises we have booked are anywhere from 40-100% more than we booked for.  Needless to say, we will not be booking at their current prices. 
 

If you really want sticker shock look at a suite on Wonder, or even worse Icon. Simply incredible. Hence our gravitating to Celebrity and even MSC or Oceania. 
 

 Would bet that a lot of those suites on your Apex cruise were booked a while ago too.

 

mac_tlc

Edited March 30, 2023 by mac_tlc

[Cruise a holic]

2 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

We have a couple suites booked on Celebrity coming up. They were booked long ago and at nowhere near todays pricing for the same cruise. Their suite prices on the cruises we have booked are anywhere from 40-100% more than we booked for.  Needless to say, we will not be booking at their current prices. 
 

 Would bet that a lot of those suites on your Apex cruise were booked a while ago too.

 

mac_tlc

Yes.  We booked early at a great rate also. We typically book suites, but may havevto get used to lesser accommodations 

[mac_tlc]

1 minute ago, Cruise a holic said:

Yes.  We booked early at a great rate also. We typically book suites, but may havevto get used to lesser accommodations 

I agree. Current pricing is changing our outlook on cabins and cruiselines too.

 

mac_tlc

[simon.hed]

Canaveral is our easiest port to cruise from and I have been watching fares on Wonder and, yikes. 

 

We sailed a (great) balcony on Harmony last August that we booked maybe 6 months in advance, and the fare was $22xx.00 for 2 (I think maybe we booked that at the end of covid, so not apples/apples). Of course dining and DBP added to that, but the fare itself was low. If you want an Oasis class ship out of Canaveral, it's pricey right now.

 

When Allure starts the 3 and 4 night cruises there next year it will be interesting to see what happens. I far prefer 7 night sailings, but at 2 grand pp for ocean view balcony on Wonder that won't be happening.

 

As many have said, 'what the market will bear', and apparently its bearing it pretty well. 

[BobNoxious]

$14 for a fruity alcoholic drink is very similar to going rates at a resort hotel.  This is a floating resort.   

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 3/27/2023 at 10:52 PM, ginger123snaps said:

I'm going to cancel because the price of all the extras is adding up to be thousands more then what I expected.  The drink pkg and internet alone adds almost $3K for us.  We still have gratuities and specialty restaurants...whatever else they charge for and then you have excursions.  So YES...I'm going to cancel!  

 

that's just crazy to me. We cruise, but we don't get any packages or internet, other than an occasional soda package for the kid. And we don't cancel because of the drink package prices.

 

Can you not cruise without adding thousands of dollars in drink, food or internet packages? These are OPTIONAL charges. It can be done, you know. And it's still super enjoyable.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

duplicate glitch

Edited March 30, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 3/28/2023 at 12:06 AM, CruisingWalter said:

Then NCL with their "Free At Sea" package. A drinks package costs on average $153/pp for a 7 night cruise. That's about as cheap as it gets. 

first, you are paying a much higher rate for the cabin to begin with compared to their "no frills rate." And then it's "only $153" in gratuities tucked on.

So, no, it's not "only $153 pp for a week."

[HappyTexan44]

Well, for some people those things seems to be an essential part of the cruise.  So, the price they'd be paying would be too much.   So, for them, it would be as if the port charges were $1000/pp

 

Note, that isn't me.  The various prices being separate was a attractive to me because it made Royal much lower priced.  Even if it were included in the base price, we wouldn't drink that much for example.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 minute ago, HappyTexan44 said:

Well, for some people those things seems to be an essential part of the cruise.  So, the price they'd be paying would be too much.   So, for them, it would be as if the port charges were $1000/pp

 

Note, that isn't me.  The various prices being separate was a attractive to me because it made Royal much lower priced.  Even if it were included in the base price, we wouldn't drink that much for example.  

it's just unreasonable to me. I can only imagine how upset my family would be if I were to cancel our cruise (mind you, we only cruise twice a year) because the optional drink package was too expensive. Heck, I'd be mad at myself. We cruise just fine without it, and we pay as we go for an occasional alcoholic drink.

[Thisguylikestocruise]

2 hours ago, simon.hed said:

Canaveral is our easiest port to cruise from and I have been watching fares on Wonder and, yikes. 

 

We sailed a (great) balcony on Harmony last August that we booked maybe 6 months in advance, and the fare was $22xx.00 for 2 (I think maybe we booked that at the end of covid, so not apples/apples). Of course dining and DBP added to that, but the fare itself was low. If you want an Oasis class ship out of Canaveral, it's pricey right now.

 

When Allure starts the 3 and 4 night cruises there next year it will be interesting to see what happens. I far prefer 7 night sailings, but at 2 grand pp for ocean view balcony on Wonder that won't be happening.

 

As many have said, 'what the market will bear', and apparently its bearing it pretty well. 

I sail out of that port and have a Wonder cruise booked for 2/11/24, $2,993 ocean view balcony w/tips. Wanted to do a b2b, however the following week is $4,800 so I’m not doing it. Prices have risen dramatically since I booked. Voyager out of Canaveral 2025 is still fairly affordable, doing my first ever b2b on that, making 2 stops at Coco Cay. Reasonable prices are still there, but much harder to find. 

[simon.hed]

38 minutes ago, Thisguylikestocruise said:

I sail out of that port and have a Wonder cruise booked for 2/11/24, $2,993 ocean view balcony w/tips. Wanted to do a b2b, however the following week is $4,800 so I’m not doing it. Prices have risen dramatically since I booked. Voyager out of Canaveral 2025 is still fairly affordable, doing my first ever b2b on that, making 2 stops at Coco Cay. Reasonable prices are still there, but much harder to find. 

I have a 6 day on Mariner and an 8 day on Adventure booked for a decent fare. Wonder seems to be a premium (I understand why) right now.  Guess it's a good thing I like Voyager class ships.

[Sigyn]

I agree, they're insanely expensive. It works out to about $550 a person for a 7-day cruise when you buy at the lowest sale price I've seen for the Harmony of the Seas cruise I embark upon in two days. I used to buy the drink packages, but now I'm just buying the drinks as I go because I simply do not drink $550 during a one-week cruise. But if I were to buy a package, I would feel the need to try to drink that much to warrant the expense. Not a healthy choice for my liver!!!

 

Edited to say the exception is NCL, where the fares come with a basic drink package and upgrading was about $330 a person and included Wi-Fi and some other benefits like a couple extra specialty meals. That was worth it to me because it included my favorite, Vueve Cliquot champagne. My husband and I had a bottle of that with dinner every night on our recent holiday cruise. And lots of still and sparkling waters and Starbucks coffee. But most cruise lines don't include Starbucks and the high-end champagnes. 

Edited March 30, 2023 by njsmom

[ShillyShally]

1 minute ago, njsmom said:

I agree, they're insanely expensive. It works out to about $550 a person for a 7-day cruise. I used to buy the drink packages, but now I'm just buying the drinks as I go because I simply do not drink $550 during a one-week cruise. But if I were to buy a package, I would feel the need to try to drink that much to warrant the expense. Not a healthy choice for my liver!!!

Yep, it was sticker shock for our 6 day this fall versus our 5 night in 2019 - then I paid $49.99 a day and we definitely got our value out of it.

 

For our 6 night the best price to date is $75.99 a day and I did book it because it's a birthday/anniversary cruise and I just want to have it all tied up in advance, but I'm not sure I'm the same drinker I was 4 years ago, lol, that aging thing, so we shall see if I worry about the DBP for cruises we have booked in 2024 and 2025!