Where does RCCL make the green?

[aebalc]

I assume fares provide the largest chunk of revenue. After that what is your assumpion? How do these rank?

 

my guess:

 

1. Bars

2. Casino/bingo

3.Shops

4. Excursions (not sure what they actually make here most I assume goes to providers)

5. Dr Office

6. Spa (I know this is outsourced to that spa company so I don't know how rccl is compensated)

Did I miss something?

 

I'm also curious on expenses

 

In no particular order: Mortgage on ship, Labor, Food, Maintenance, Fuel and a bunch more that aren't coming to mind now.

 

Tell me what you think. Complete conjecture is absolutely welcome.

[SakeDad]

I assume fares provide the largest chunk of revenue. After that what is your assumption? How do these rank?

 

my guess:

 

1. Bars

2. Casino/bingo

3.Shops

4. Excursions (not sure what they actually make here most I assume goes to providers)

5. Dr Office

6. Spa (I know this is outsourced to that spa company so I don't know how rccl is compensated)

Did I miss something?

 

I'm also curious on expenses

 

In no particular order: Mortgage on ship, Labor, Food, Maintenance, Fuel and a bunch more that aren't coming to mind now.

 

Tell me what you think. Complete conjecture is absolutely welcome.

 

I would swap Shops and Excursions....just a feeling....

I would also swap Dr Office and Spa...I say this because as much as the Dr's office is, they have a free cabin (lost revenue) and can't guarantee that said number of passengers will get sick to pay for it. They can almost bank on a certain number of passengers using the spa every week so I think that would make more money than the Dr.

[weary traveler]

the seattle coffee.. the flowers.. those little gifts some of us find sent in the cabin thru their anniversary/special event programs.. the ATM's (i'll bet... ) the 7 night wine package for $120 for woodbridge you can buy at the local liquor store for 8.99 a bottle.. lol but what the hell.. we're on vacation..

[madforcruising]

1. Bars

2. Casino/bingo

3.Shops

4. Excursions (not sure what they actually make here most I assume goes to providers)

5. Dr Office

6. Spa (I know this is outsourced to that spa company so I don't know how rccl is compensated)

 

 

Excursions definitely belong to the list. You can bet that RCCL gets a lot of money out of these.

 

Forget about the Dr. Office. This is not a big onboard revenue if it is at all.

The doctors are outsorced too. I don´t know how much RCCL gets out of the docotrs bill from the guests, but don´t forget that all crew is treated there too and RCCL will have to pay for this and the provided dr.´s office with all the equipment isn´t cheap either, so I doubt the bottom line will be a money maker.

 

One big thing I would think about is the onboard shopping guides. The heavy advertising they do and all the "Recommended Shops" are not recommended because RCCL tested them but because these shops pay big bucks to the cruise line to have them advertise their shops.

[Nliedel]

I would guess that a huge chunk comes from Shore Excursions too. I would also remove the doctors office from the list.

 

Yes the spa is outsourced, but in that case I suspect they have a per service charge. If your massage is $100.00 RCI gets 20% or so. That's just a guess, but it's probably not far off.

[Cruising89143]

I have read that the photos is one of the biggest areas of income when it comes to on board revenue thus so many photo opportunities set up around the ship.

[RichardK]

Add to your list:

 

*Art Auctions

*Specialty Restaurants (i.e., the additional $$ doesn't pay for the food or waiter/staff)

*Pictures/Photos

*Internet Access (they’ve already got the “connection” in place for their purposes)

 

Then again, these days it's seeming more and more like everything and everywhere........!!! :(

[madforcruising]

I agree on the photos, though it´s also another company running this area I´m sure there is a great revenue for RCCL in this department too.

 

I´m not so sure about the specialty restaurants. Yes I think they make money with them, they wouldn´t have anything onboard they are oosing money with;) . But I´m not sure if it´s a big money maker. They need additional Staff for the Restaurants, the spots on the ship have to be free for this venues too and they have to be maintained. In addition I soo often see those Restaurants half empty and they try to get people in there advertising them very hard.

 

I also disagree that they have the Internet connection for their own pruposes already. They wouldn´t need the bandwith for their own needs but of course they make money on this but I imagine it´s at the low end of the list.

[rubrrick]

Well.............the BIG bucks come from 2 sources. They are called the Monarch and the Sovereign. 3 and 4 day trips, hardly ever an empty cabin! Now you can break it down as to how these two cash cows haul it all in. Just looking at some figures for an "off" season cruise on the Monarch, the lowest fare inside is $206 per night, an SO on deck 9 is $300 per night and they get $426 for a JS. With their occupancy rates, any hotel would be jealous.

 

Rick

[AMR40509]

Well.............the BIG bucks come from 2 sources. They are called the Monarch and the Sovereign. 3 and 4 day trips, hardly ever an empty cabin! Now you can break it down as to how these two cash cows haul it all in. Just looking at some figures for an "off" season cruise on the Monarch, the lowest fare inside is $206 per night, an SO on deck 9 is $300 per night and they get $426 for a JS. With their occupancy rates, any hotel would be jealous.

 

Rick

 

I would anticipate that the passangers spend more on booze/casino per night too as it is a shorter trip.

[Driftwoodgal]

The mark up on the wine package is incredible, as well as your mixed drinks.

 

We took an excursion on our own in Costa Rica that was an all day tour to the zipline in 2004. That tour was $65 for all day and the ship was charging over $100 just to go to the zipline and back to the ship. I would say that the excursions would be a money maker. The same for the Dolphin Swim in Curacao they marked it up an additional $75.

[brn2crz]

The Spa's are run by an outside company as well.But I am sure there are more than enough profits there to go around:)

 

Might not be the biggest money maker,but he biggest ripoff has to come from the soda cards.

When I was up on numbers in the biz.A five gallon tank of soda (pre-mix) cost 26-32 bucks depending on brand.Your beverage yield was 85-90 12 oz drinks per gallon.So figure 450 servings per 5 gallon tank.And soda cost are still pennies per serving.

 

Soda cards are what now? 42 bucks per card..

Granted,there may be a lot of soda card sharing...

 

On the flip side of our equation here.I read somewhere that fuel cost only made up 6% of a ships operations cost..Could that be true?

[Nisroftheseas]

Didn't you forget cruise fares? I imagine thats the biggest source of income. . .

[NancyIL]

Didn't you forget cruise fares? I imagine thats the biggest source of income. . .

 

The first thing the OP said was: "I assume fares provide the largest chunk of revenue. After that what is your assumpion? How do these rank?"

[emilygrace]

I would say in this order:

 

1. Booze

2. Casino/Bingo

3. Photos

4. Shops

 

I think the excursion thing is not always mega-profitable for them. I've priced some of the same excursions (granted, only ones that I'm interested in) on my own, and sometimes the price difference is minimal. I'm thinking in particular of one on Catalina Island that was $12.50 through the ship and $12.00 if you purchased it when you got to the dock.

 

As for expenses, I would say that the ship mortgage (or whatever it is) is number one and fuel a BIG second. I would put labor a little further down on the list, since much of the crew is paid less than minimal wages and rely on the passenger's tips for real income.

 

This is all just my speculation. I know zip about running a business!

[cruisePRN]

Bingo is the biggest rip off. They take in thousands and give back a hundred or two hundred and make you think you're a big winner. A thousand people paying at least $10 card but mostly $20 per card every day for 7 days. Even factoring in the snow ball game it's a rip..............

[teddie]

It's got to be the booze--the markup is huge for liquor in any venue. Next, I would guess the excursions.

 

What gets the most marketing attention by the cruiseline? IMHO, it's the hawking of drinks and wine packages, and the excursions.

[cruisin from florida]

Actually, in the low season I wonder if they break even with the cruise fares, at least in the lower-priced categories. I'm sure they more than make up for it in the high season. For example, an interior cabin on the Navigator Eastern 7 night can go for as little as $659 to as high as $1219. Suites range from $1349 to as high as $2549, depending on when you cruise. Multiplying this kind of difference times 3000 passengers, and there is a HUGE difference in the profitability of different cruises. Since they cruise mostly full, the costs would not change dramatically. So (and for my math I just took $500 per person as the difference between lowest prices and highest prices, so this is conservative) there is easily a 1.5 million dollar difference in cabin revenue between the lowest and highest priced weeks.

 

It would be very interesting to take a close look at the cruise financials...

[negc]

Almost all of the items on your list are outsourced: spa, gift shops, casino etc. so the revenues they receive from them depends on the contractual agreements that the line has with those vendors. Whatever the source of their revenues, the company appears to be doing well enough to merit "buy" recommendations from most financial analysts at this time. As long as they continue to offer a good cruise experience, I don't care what their sources of revenue are, as long as they are sufficient to keep RCI operating and successful.:)

[on the square]

On the flip side of our equation here.I read somewhere that fuel cost only made up 6% of a ships operations cost..Could that be true?

 

Don't know about the older ships but the Eagle class ships use what is called "black" fuel which is a very heavy diesel almost tar like in nature. So it could very well be less expensive.

[Nitra]

My hubby worked on RCCL ships for a few years and a little known bit of info, it costs on average 3 dollars a day to feed each passenger.. yep 3 dollars a day! Guess buying in bulk really does save them money.

[Cuizer2]

I assume fares provide the largest chunk of revenue. After that what is your assumpion? How do these rank?

 

my guess:

 

1. Bars

2. Casino/bingo

3.Shops

4. Excursions (not sure what they actually make here most I assume goes to providers)

5. Dr Office

6. Spa (I know this is outsourced to that spa company so I don't know how rccl is compensated)

Did I miss something?

 

I'm also curious on expenses

 

In no particular order: Mortgage on ship, Labor, Food, Maintenance, Fuel and a bunch more that aren't coming to mind now.

 

Tell me what you think. Complete conjecture is absolutely welcome.

 

I think you forgot the printing press in the back room. The ink on my three dollar bill was still wet when I got it.

[BayMan123]

It's my guess is that they don't make any money on the price of the cabin. Just think how much it costs to run the ship and all the associated expenses.

They do make .40 - .60 cents on the dollar from shore excursions. I was told this by someone who worked at the excursion desk many years ago.

The bar/booze, they pour a really small glass of wine for the expense. How much do you think they pay for the rum that they pay for all those daiquiri drinks, my guess is about $2. per bottle. This is a huge profit area for cruise ships. Just think how much you can buy booze for in say St. Thomas and think about the volume a cruise line buys.

The spa, they make a ton of money there.

The casino on the Navigator wasn't really that busy, not sure if it's because it was spring vacation week or not. Normally the casino is a huge money maker.

I'm sure bingo is another big winner, although I'm not a player and don't know the costs and payouts etc.

[unforgiven]

The Johnny Rockets $ 3.95 surcharge :)

[jrm9999]

On our last cruise we were told by a staff member that the casino & bingo are the biggest money makers on the ship - hands down.