Bottled Water

[bled01]

Am I crazy or did Carnival increase the price of this?  I remember looking the other day and it was cheaper.  

[luv2trvlnow]

I just looked for my cruise and it shows $14.95.  They have apparently raised it recently.  I bought it 3 weeks ago for $9.95.  That's a 50% increase.  Carnival needs to pay down that debt.

[mz-s]

They raise the price of all of their add-ons every few weeks/months now. Grats, water, restaurants, etc.

 

Pre-buy everything you know you'll want as soon as you can or you will pay more.

[Moonarino]

First time I bought Carnival water it was like $4.95 or around there. Yeah, everything always goes up.

 

Still cheaper on CCL than any other cruise line on our short list.

[mz-s]

5 minutes ago, Moonarino said:

First time I bought Carnival water it was like $4.95 or around there. Yeah, everything always goes up.

 

Still cheaper on CCL than any other cruise line on our short list.

 

Most other cruise lines allow you to bring on bottled water.

[Moonarino]

6 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Most other cruise lines allow you to bring on bottled water.

 

Oooh yeah that's true.

 

Wonder if anybody here is a Tar Heels fan... and maybe cried with RJ when he went 0-for-9 (or 10?) on 3's maybe for the first time ever.

Edited April 2 by Moonarino

[bled01]

26 minutes ago, luv2trvlnow said:

I just looked for my cruise and it shows $14.95.  They have apparently raised it recently.  I bought it 3 weeks ago for $9.95.  That's a 50% increase.  Carnival needs to pay down that debt.

$9.95 is what I remember seeing.  Typical

[ozzie0075]

I bought it at $9.95 on March 22nd 

[Jjg34219]

I just bought it for 9.95 this weekend!

[mz-s]

Why stop at $14.95? Why not charge $50 for a 12-pack of water? They'll get there eventually, they hike the price $5 every few months now. Why not just do it now and get it over with for a few years.

[shof515]

it is still cheaper then other cruise line like royal and norwegian

[mz-s]

9 minutes ago, shof515 said:

it is still cheaper then other cruise line like royal and norwegian

 

Royal allows you to bring on your own water so the price is less of a concern. I don't think Norwegian allows it though so point is valid for them. 

[kupton]

I bought water a few weeks ago for $9.95 only because the price was reasonable.  Looks like this will be the last time.  

[TrqoisWtrs]

But don't forget if you buy Cheers, its included.

[mz-s]

12 minutes ago, TrqoisWtrs said:

But don't forget if you buy Cheers, its included.

 

I'm sure a price hike for Cheers is coming soon.

[ninjacat123]

On 4/2/2024 at 3:35 PM, mz-s said:

They raise the price of all of their add-ons every few weeks/months now. Grats, water, restaurants, etc.

 

Pre-buy everything you know you'll want as soon as you can or you will pay more.

That's what I did with all of my upcoming cruises as soon as I book them.  That goes for excursions as well.  You never know when the price will go up!

[Joanne G.]

On 4/2/2024 at 2:35 PM, mz-s said:

They raise the price of all of their add-ons every few weeks/months now. Grats, water, restaurants, etc.

 

Pre-buy everything you know you'll want as soon as you can or you will pay more.

At least with Carnival you can count on prices going up LOL.  I’ve got cruises booked on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, and their excursions, drink and dining packages, in-room beverages, and hotel packages (in Europe) go up and down randomly with “flash sales.”   

[sparks1093]

14 hours ago, TrqoisWtrs said:

But don't forget if you buy Cheers, its included.

Exactly, ever since we started buying Cheers we stopped buying the water. Just grab a water with every order through the day and have plenty to take ashore (which is what we use it for).

 

As for prices going up, well, they are going up everywhere and if Carnival is paying more for things they will naturally pass that on to us. 

[Purvis1231]

This is a part of the on going war on plastic. 

[luv2trvlnow]

40 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

 

As for prices going up, well, they are going up everywhere and if Carnival is paying more for things they will naturally pass that on to us. 

I really don't think their price has gone up 50%.  I can get a 40 bottle pack at a discount store for about $4.  They can probably get it for a whole lot less.  So $14.95 for 12 bottles sure allows for Carnival to cover a lot of overhead.

[sparks1093]

7 minutes ago, luv2trvlnow said:

I really don't think their price has gone up 50%.  I can get a 40 bottle pack at a discount store for about $4.  They can probably get it for a whole lot less.  So $14.95 for 12 bottles sure allows for Carnival to cover a lot of overhead.

I doubt that Carnival is sourcing from the same discount store but yes, some of this can certainly be a matter of charging what the market will bear. They have undersold in this area for years and now that they have record debt to deal with they are looking at ways of maximizing profits. Smart business from where I sit. (By way of comparison only the last time I looked NCL sold their cases of water for around $50, although I'm not sure what they charge now, that price was pre-pandemic.) (Just looked and a 12 pack is $35, a 24 pack is $50.)

Edited April 4 by sparks1093

[mz-s]

52 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Exactly, ever since we started buying Cheers we stopped buying the water. Just grab a water with every order through the day and have plenty to take ashore (which is what we use it for).

 

As for prices going up, well, they are going up everywhere and if Carnival is paying more for things they will naturally pass that on to us. 

 

Nowhere on earth except Carnival has a 12-pack of spring water tripled in price in a few years.

Edited April 4 by mz-s

[sparks1093]

5 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Nowhere on earth except Carnival has a 12-pack of spring water tripled in price in a few years.

My previous reply answers this. If they can get triple the price for it then good for them. (It is also very possible that sales of these packages has declined significantly because people who have Cheers don't purchase them. They still have to pay for the product, pay to have it loaded, have it take up storage room on the ship, and any other overhead cost associated with this. So the price increase could be the passing on of this overhead cost, as well. Since none of us has any data on this it's all just guess work and at the end of the day each consumer needs to determine whether or not it's worth it to them, just like any other purchase anywhere else.)

Edited April 4 by sparks1093

[luv2trvlnow]

1 minute ago, sparks1093 said:

I doubt that Carnival is sourcing from the same discount store but yes, some of this can certainly be a matter of charging what the market will bear. They have undersold in this area for years and now that they have record debt to deal with they are looking at ways of maximizing profits. Smart business from where I sit. (By way of comparison only the last time I looked NCL sold their cases of water for around $50, although I'm not sure what they charge now, that price was pre-pandemic.)

But Carnival is large and does have a lot of clout to get low prices on items.  And Carnival is only providing 12 bottles while the discount store is supplying 40 and they are still making money.  To get just 36 from Carnival would cost $45, that $41 more and 4 bottles less.

 

I think if the sales go done they will lower the price to something like $12.95 and people will be happy and they still come out ahead but now the customer is happier.  After years of being a CPA I know what companies do.

[sparks1093]

1 minute ago, luv2trvlnow said:

But Carnival is large and does have a lot of clout to get low prices on items.  And Carnival is only providing 12 bottles while the discount store is supplying 40 and they are still making money.  To get just 36 from Carnival would cost $45, that $41 more and 4 bottles less.

 

I think if the sales go done they will lower the price to something like $12.95 and people will be happy and they still come out ahead but now the customer is happier.  After years of being a CPA I know what companies do.

And as a consumer I also know what companies do- they charge what people are willing to pay for the product. Supply and demand.