Anyone Else Leaving or Considering Leaving RCL Over Prices?

[ILCTCRUISER]

4 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Good to hear. You made it sound like you weren't getting anything you valued at D+ since you referred to them as "Two Hershey bars and a Coke." Maybe I just took it wrong.

 

I have no interest in breaking down the dollar value of various perks.

Two Hershey bars and a Coke is just a saying.  You know, we’ve never purchased a drink package (but we did buy the wine packages when they were offered).  Once we became D we had no need to do so.  Going from D to D+ brings one more drink (DW may have 3 drinks a day; I tend to have 4, occasionally 5) and extra day of Wi-Fi and BOGO at specialty restaurant, etc.  They’re all nice to have but it’s not like you’ve just hit the mother lode!  Princess Plus and NCL’s AI are really good deals.  Check out what you get with Princess Plus for $120 a day for two people.

[firefly333]

24 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Good to hear. You made it sound like you weren't getting anything you valued at D+ since you referred to them as "Two Hershey bars and a Coke." Maybe I just took it wrong.

 

I have no interest in breaking down the dollar value of various perks.

Me either, or figuring out what I've spent cruising. I feel guilty enough when I add up what my current bookings total, I dont want to know what I've already spent. I also dont count how many cruises I've been on. 

 

Dont tell me ... holds hands over ears.

Edited March 3 by firefly333

[OCSC Mike]

7 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Me either, or figuring out what I've spent cruising. I feel guilty enough when I add up what my current bookings total, I dont want to know what I've already spent. I also dont count how many cruises I've been on. 

 

Dont tell me ... holds hands over ears.

 

Don't feel guilty. If you didn't enjoy cruising you wouldn't have taken however many you have.

 

We're extremely frugal in everyday life. I had to force myself to get my brain to accept that we are fortunate enough to be able to cruise a few times/year and it brings us happiness so it's worth spending on.

[not-enough-cruising]

5 hours ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

D, D+, and P perks.  Does anyone really believe that these perks are “free?”  They’re marketed as complimentary, but in the end everyone is paying for them including those who don’t receive them.  I’m not suggesting that those “free” perks account for all of the recently observed price hikes.   There is debt that needs to be serviced.  Inflation’s impact on food costs.  And so on.   A lot of things have led to higher fares, more expensive drink packages, bump up for specialty dining, etc.   Can there be any doubt that the number crunchers know to the dollar the cost (not price) of all of the D and above drinks served on every ship, every cruise, every day?  Add in the increased number of upper tier cruisers and it does add up.  It all comes down to Revenue - Expenses = Profit/Loss and the goal of RCL and any business is to maximize Profit. So someone is paying the piper since I’m quite sure there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

 

We currently have three RCLs booked and these bookings were made quite time ago.  25Oct24  12N TA on Adventure that was booked Jan2023.  Balcony:  $1517.00 incl tax/fees. It was slightly more but cruise went from 13N to 12N and RCL prorated.  This not a GTY.  Then Jan2025 B2B  on Brilliance out of MSY.  JS on both.  $2500 avg incl taxes and fees. I balked a bit at $2500 and even then thought pricing had gone up. For years I always considered approx $200-225 a night a good fare for a balcony and approx $350 a night a good fare for a JS.

 

Surprisingly, for 2023, we did not cruise RCL.  Well, DW did a 7N on Symphony with her sister.  We did a Panama Canal in Feb2023 and then B2B Alaska in Sep2023 cruises on NCL.  In June2023, we took a Canada/Bermuda cruise on Regent and then a SA Lima to Buenos Aries this past Dec, also on Regent.

 

Being D+ with perks didn’t even enter the discussion.

 

Friends have cruised Atlas and enjoyed it.  Currently looking at a May Atlas Caribbean with mostly new ports to visit. Waiting on feedback for Explora (MSC’s upscale).

We have a winner for “nonsense post of the week” 

[BecciBoo]

OK just had to...doesn't all the 25 or so years of cruising memories have any value at all?  We love to cruise and won't give it up until we topple out of our wheelchairs, doesn't have anything to do with perks, although once many years ago, we did a B2B, just the one with a 3 day and a 4 day on Majesty, just to say we did one and it made us Diamond.  We were then ecstatic we got the balcony discount and started doing those a lot, we loved being in the lounge and getting way more than 4 drinks too.  But when the vouchers came along, we stopped going in the evening.  They took away the priority boarding line and we were disappointed at that since we'd done so many trips and were stripped of that perk, but we would still cruise RCCL if there were no perks at all.  You gotta get away to where the boats come from right?  So like I said, less cruises but we'll still be sailing and happy to have what's left of them.  Whether it's on other lines too or not.

[Anton]

41 minutes ago, ILCTCRUISER said:

 Princess Plus and NCL’s AI are really good deals.  Check out what you get with Princess Plus for $120 a day for two people.

We have Princess Plus for our April cruise on Caribbean Princess.  It is a good value.  $840 total for two drink packages, two wifi accounts, crew gratuities, oh, and the two "premium" desserts per day whatever that means.  They show it as $1637 worth of stuff if bought separately. 

[mac66]

Kind of funny listening to people complain about prices when they do multiple cruises a year in suites and/or buy all the added packages etc.  First world problems...tough life LOL

 

 

[Ocean Boy]

21 minutes ago, mac66 said:

Kind of funny listening to people complain about prices when they do multiple cruises a year in suites and/or buy all the added packages etc.  First world problems...tough life LOL

 

 

Seriously? Anything related to sailing on billion plus dollar cruise ships is a first world problem.

[island lady]

2 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

OK just had to...doesn't all the 25 or so years of cruising memories have any value at all?  We love to cruise and won't give it up until we topple out of our wheelchairs, doesn't have anything to do with perks, although once many years ago, we did a B2B, just the one with a 3 day and a 4 day on Majesty, just to say we did one and it made us Diamond.  We were then ecstatic we got the balcony discount and started doing those a lot, we loved being in the lounge and getting way more than 4 drinks too.  But when the vouchers came along, we stopped going in the evening.  They took away the priority boarding line and we were disappointed at that since we'd done so many trips and were stripped of that perk, but we would still cruise RCCL if there were no perks at all.  You gotta get away to where the boats come from right?  So like I said, less cruises but we'll still be sailing and happy to have what's left of them.  Whether it's on other lines too or not.

 

Perfectly stated!   Feel the same way.  😄 

 

Just sailing on RCI...a lot...brought us extra perks.   Did we love them?...hey if they want to give them to us...yaah!   Just a nice side benefit for simply doing what we love to do and would have done it anyway.  😉  

 

But do I want to continue with RCI?  No...not really.   Too many other lines out there that are offering some true adventures.  There are only so many times you can redo the Caribbean. 

[island lady]

1 hour ago, mac66 said:

Kind of funny listening to people complain about prices when they do multiple cruises a year in suites and/or buy all the added packages etc.  First world problems...tough life LOL

 

 

 

Yup....oh yeah...just awful.  😉 

[BecciBoo]

32 minutes ago, island lady said:

There are only so many times you can redo the Caribbean. 

What's that you say????  That's our second home......LOL

[Engineroom Snipe]

4 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Me either, or figuring out what I've spent cruising. I feel guilty enough when I add up what my current bookings total, I dont want to know what I've already spent. I also dont count how many cruises I've been on. 

 

Dont tell me ... holds hands over ears.

🫢

[island lady]

14 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

What's that you say????  That's our second home......LOL

 

LOL...We are on a cruise ship (or various land based trips) more than we are home now.  And when we are home...we live in Florida...already a tropical state of mind.  😄  🌴

 

We tend to crave variety!  😉   And sure there are mountains to see in Florida...depending on how high the dump gets.  😁

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4 by island lady

[orville99]

17 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

OK just had to...doesn't all the 25 or so years of cruising memories have any value at all?

We had to double the size of the bucket that holds our bucket list😎 Cruising has taken us places we never dreamed we would ever see in our lifetime (and our respective careers have taken us all over the world - or so we thought)😇

[BecciBoo]

Not to mention the friends we have made over the years and still see from time to time.

[island lady]

11 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

Not to mention the friends we have made over the years and still see from time to time.

 

Agree to that!  🥰

[SUgwoz]

Demand is driving the prices, but everything on the ship that is used or unused is included in the cost.  Regardless if someone has a need for waterslides, kid's clubs, carousel, rock climbing wall, flowrider, they are paying for it and the staff that goes along with it when booking on a ship that has those amenities.  

 

Another cruise line can skip all that and put the money towards food or other amenities that is focused on a specific demographic.

[island lady]

1 minute ago, SUgwoz said:

Demand is driving the prices, but everything on the ship that is used or unused is included in the cost.  Regardless if someone has a need for waterslides, kid's clubs, carousel, rock climbing wall, flowrider, they are paying for it and the staff that goes along with it when booking on a ship that has those amenities.  

 

Another cruise line can skip all that and put the money towards food or other amenities that is focused on a specific demographic.

 

Kind of like what Viking does.   They love to advertise what they DON'T offer.  😉 

[orville99]

20 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

Not to mention the friends we have made over the years and still see from time to time.

 

9 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

Agree to that!  🥰

IMHO, seasoned cruisers do not leave a particular cruise line because of anything other than the lack by the cruise line to do anything other than sail, rinse, repeat every other week. 

 

For us, it is the uninspired repetition, not price that is causing us to look (and book) elsewhere. 

 

If it had not been for RCL salting in some new destinations and longer durations into its itineraries (like Bermuda, the ABC islands, and St. Kitts out of PC, and Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama out of Tampa), we would already be booking more on other lines and a lot less on RCL.

 

Our cruise calendar (once we run through our existing bookings) has exactly zero RCL cruises penciled in. 😇

[time4u2go]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

We tend to crave variety!

Same here.  There's so many interesting places to see in the world!

[Candleonwater]

Nope. I think we all got spoiled by ridiculously low prices in the past.

[pcur]

21 hours ago, notscb said:

I'm surprised that you're not considering leaving Royal.

 

I'm often a solo cruiser and found a post-covid 4 night cruise on Freedom for $326 for an oceanview room at the front of the ship. Fast forward to the exact same cruise a year later and its nearly $750.

 

Royal isn't trying to cater to the solo cruise market, and there's a certain weekend cruiser who built his channel on Royal as a solo cruiser who also has had to change his model because RCL has been getting so expensive for solo cruisers.

 

I've been cruising on Carnival since my first Royal cruise- and even though I still try to go for Royal and price it out, they just aren't doing enough to earn my business over their competitors (price wise).

 

21 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

I have no interest in breaking down the dollar value of various perks.

 

I have too many money saving perks to give up to leave Royal.  I've previously priced cruises with Princess, HAL, and NCL, and the solo rates were much higher for the cruise I was booking at the time with Royal.  That's because of the DP340 discount code for solo cruisers.  Even though I may have found a few less expensive on other lines, giving up the points on Royal to make 340 points back then wasn't worth the savings on a single cruise or two.

 

I did take the time to price out what I'm saving with my Crown and Anchor perks, aside from the DP340 discount, and it's $156/ day.  6 drinks with gratuity, wifi, a wash and fold laundry bag.

 

That savings per day is almost equal to my average cost per day for the cruise.  Actually not surprising why I stay with Royal.

[orville99]

49 minutes ago, pcur said:

That savings per day is almost equal to my average cost per day for the cruise.  Actually not surprising why I stay with Royal.

On our 28 day B2B Panama Canal adventure on Serenade in November, the onboard cost savings over the course of the 28 days exceeded 60% of the total cost of the two cruises. 

[island lady]

2 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Same here.  There's so many interesting places to see in the world!

 

That's for sure!   We are doing our best in the next 2-3 years to discover as much as possible, while we are still alive and kicking to be able to do so.  😉  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4 by island lady

[pcur]

Just now, orville99 said:

On our 28 day B2B Panama Canal adventure on Serenade in November, the onboard cost savings over the course of the 28 days exceeded 60% of the total cost of the two cruises. 

That's cool!!  Many newer cruisers don't realize staying with one cruise line (especially Royal who has the best loyalty perks in the industry, IMO) saves them much more in the long run.  

 

Building CAS points works (financially) better if one can be flexible with the cabin choice.  You get the same number of points for an inside/ov/balcony.