Took about 100 searches but found an RCI cruise that is less expensive than Carnival

[djneph]

Wow,

 

I am planning my next cruise and since I have always sailed RCI (being that I worked for them) I always look at them first. Every sailing I looked at, if Carnival had a ship leaving the same day it was always less expensive sometimes by just a little, but usually a couple hundred dollars less. I finally found one where RCI was actually less expensive or same price than Carnival. The Voyager out of Galveston from about Feb 2010 to march 2010 is actually less expensive than the Conquest on many sailings. RCI also has a texas resident discount and it makes the savings even more.

 

If it took me so many searches to find one, how does RCI stay in business? Are people that loyal to RCI that they would pay so much more for it. As a former employee I have a dislike of Carnival from many years of corporate brainwashing, but with such a large price difference on a regular basis, I am starting to see the light. I hope my upcoming Valor cruise is great, because if it is, I may become a regular Carnival customer.

 

The only reason I can think that RCI is always more expensive than Carnival, is that Carnival saturates the Caribbean market with their ships, therefore keeping prices down. I looked at the Caribbean season, and RCI has tons of ships sailing from outside the continental US. They have ships in Dubai, Asia, Panama, even Eruope year round. I guess if you really want to sail out of the US to the Caribbean on Royal you pay more because the keep their prices higher by having less supply. Maybe it is time Royal drops Caribbean from their name.

[RatherBFishin]

There are probably alot of factors that go into the way RCI and Carnival price their products. But I think that one of them that's easy to identify is the cost of the ships themselves. You can find the "Cost per lower berth" numbers on the web. For instance:

 

http://www.cruise-community.com/order_book/index.php

 

So the Dream is $183,000 per berth, and the Oasis OTS is $229,000 per berth. If you amortize the cost of building the ship over 10 years, RCI has to charge at least $90 per person per week more for that berth.

 

And that assumes that the ships cost the same to operate, which they don't.

 

So RCI's business model depends upon (hopefully) being able to offer more, but also having to charge more to make a profit. Carnival's business model relies less upon the ship being the main attraction, and appeals to a broader base.

 

There's nothing wrong with either way. But so far, based strictly on profit, it looks like Carnival knows what it's doing.

[LHP]

RCCL will be fine. There are folks who pay more to drive a GMC instead of a Chevolet....or a Mercury instead of a Ford.

 

It was sad to see RCCL have such a loss for the 2nd QTR, when NCL and Carnival both made a profit.