Olivia defends its pricing

I found it very interesting to open Olivia's newsletter today and see that it starts off with the piece below by Olivia President and Founder Judy Dlugacz explaining and defending Olivia's high prices. That Olivia felt the need to address its pricing makes me wonder if they are getting some real push back (particularly now that the Internet makes price comparisons so easy).

I totally understand that it costs more to charter an entire cruise ship and bring aboard staff, speakers, and entertainers; each traveler must determine for herself whether the value added by all this (and a ship of women) is worth the price. (Similar decision points for gay men regarding Atlantis, I imagine [except the ship full of women :).]) My spouse and I have taken two Olivia cruises (in the '90s) and enjoyed them both; more recently, it's been hard for us to justify the "lesbian premium," but that's our own personal decision of course.

I was a bit taken aback that Olivia has made a Walmart/Lexus comparison. I don't think that lesbians who opt to take a "mainstream" cruise on Celebrity, for example, are opting for Walmart. A better comparison would be to look at the price of the same itinerary on the same ship that Olivia is chartering. They frequently charter HAL ships; HAL is hardly the Walmart of cruising.

In any event, I'm happy that Olivia exists and that lesbians have that travel option. Who knows, maybe one day my spouse and I will take another Olivia cruise. :)

In this month's edition, I, personally, want to discuss a topic I know some of you may question: Olivia's pricing. We know the vacations we offer are not the lowest priced vacations on the market, and that some are inclined to compare them to more mainstream vacations available. But what we are offering truly cannot be compared because what we offer is SO unique. It's apples and oranges.

 

I learned a long time ago that value is a combination of price, quality, service performance and more. I also understand that different types of customers may appreciate different kinds of value. Walmart is all about the lowest price. And Lexus is all about quality. At Olivia, our goal is to create extraordinary travel and life experiences. And this comes at a price.

 

Can you guess what the cost of acquiring talent like Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Raitt or Dr. Maya Angelou is? Then add to that our other signature entertainers and the special events we plan...the staffing we bring to ensure that everything we do exceeds your high expectations...all of this coupled with the tremendous risk of committing to a full ship or resort charter and filling it with women from our community.

 

It would be easy for Olivia to reduce its pricing, but doing so would make our trips ordinary, and ordinary is not who we ever want to be. The Olivia Experience is about women having fun together, making friends and being OUT and FREE.

I don't read is as tough she is saying regular cruises = Walmart and Olivia = Lexus.

Wow, the talent on Olivia is quite a step above RSVP.

Wow, the talent on Olivia is quite a step above RSVP.

Olivia seems to cost quite a bit more than RSVP.

Olivia seems to cost quite a bit more than RSVP.

Guess that's the reason for the Lexus reference :) I can appreciate the explanation and defense of Olivia's pricing as I (and I know Peter too) have had to defend Atlantis and RSVP "gay premiums" on these boards in the past. What many fail to realize is that charters are a set price while the mainstream cruises have a variety of pricing schedules, sales, and incentives which are not possible with a charter. I think I would pay a premium with a line-up like the author lists--holy cow, I want Olivia Newton-John on RSVP!!! Also as a matter of reference and since I'm already booked on the RSVP 30th anniversary Caribbean cruise, I searched Princess' offerings for a similar cruise on the Regal and there was only one which had one more stop than our RSVP cruise. Lo and behold, the prices were almost the same as our cruise especially when you factor in the gratuities and port costs. I guess it boils down to, are you happy with shopping a sale and having a cruise that is the same as the previous week and will be the same the following week or do you spend (a little) more and go fabulous. I may be a leatherman, but I always go fabulous when I cruise :D

I was a bit taken aback that Olivia has made a Walmart/Lexus comparison. I don't think that lesbians who opt to take a "mainstream" cruise on Celebrity, for example, are opting for Walmart. A better comparison would be to look at the price of the same itinerary on the same ship that Olivia is chartering. They frequently charter HAL ships; HAL is hardly the Walmart of cruising.

 

In any event, I'm happy that Olivia exists and that lesbians have that travel option. Who knows, maybe one day my spouse and I will take another Olivia cruise. :)

After reading her statement I also feel that she was making a Walmart/Lexus kind of comparison. I don't like how she explained it. While I have yet to take an Olivia vacation cruise or resort, I hope to one day. Both my Fiance and agree that the only reason we would ever opt to spend so much money on a vacation would be solely for the experience of having the entire ship or resort filled with all Lesbians. I would pay for that kind of experience, to be with nothing but Lesbians on a vacation where we can be free to be ourselves and have that chance to meet other couples and strike up new friendships is something we would pay that much extra for because it's something we have never experienced before.

I don't know that we would chose to take many of those vacations because we are very frugal vacationers and we know how to find and take advantage of good travel bargins.

So for us we consider it a price we would be willing to pay for the all women experience. I don't think the quality of other straight vacations would be considered Walmart kind of quality simply because we paid a fraction of what we would on an Olivia cruise. I think that kind of snobbish for her to say something along those lines.

Also as a matter of reference and since I'm already booked on the RSVP 30th anniversary Caribbean cruise, I searched Princess' offerings for a similar cruise on the Regal and there was only one which had one more stop than our RSVP cruise. Lo and behold, the prices were almost the same as our cruise especially when you factor in the gratuities and port costs. I guess it boils down to, are you happy with shopping a sale and having a cruise that is the same as the previous week and will be the same the following week or do you spend (a little) more and go fabulous.

I have been saying that for a while, that the RSVP cruises are not that much more than a regular cruise around the same time on the same ship. And another benefit is that going back year-after-year is that it feels like gay camp, seeing so many friends that we have made on these cruises.

We have never been interested in a lesbian only vacation. It's just not our thing.

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If they can book Maya Angelou, no wonder they're charging a hefty premium!

If they can book Maya Angelou, no wonder they're charging a hefty premium!

Not every Olivia cruise has the likes of a Maya Angelou on board. Although in recent years Olivia has been adding well-known (at least, in the lesbian community) non-entertainers who are important for what I'd call their political/societal contributions, the typical lineup includes musicians and comics, many from the good old (and I mean old :) ) days of "women's music."

If they can book Maya Angelou, no wonder they're charging a hefty premium!

Yes, particularly since she's dead. If they can raise the dead it's totally worth it.

We did an Olivia cruise, it was ok. I think part of this was the ship and HAL. We met a few other couples, but agree that it simply isn't worth the premium. We've also met some really great people on mainstream Celebrity crusies, that we keep in touch with even more. Maybe someday, but we just don't see the value right now.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Hello! Having just been turned on to Cruise Critic we're coming to this party a bit late. Fashionably? We have enjoyed five Olivia cruises beginning not terribly long after Judy started up. I took that first trip with great hesitancy too - though I love women I did not want to be captive on a ship with that much estrogen running amuck. It turned out to be a wonderful time with an ambiance not experienced on a non-Olivia cruise since. It got us to do four additional trips.

With that said, it was their Seine River cruise that found us sailing a week behind them on an Avalon English speaking cruise with the exact same itinerary since it was the exact same company they used. We had a fabulous time joined by friends made on an Olivia Med cruise. We all had. Blast with the other cruisers who joined us daily for the sharing of copious bottles of wine and tasty morsels picked up at each stop. The reason we ended up on this cruise over Olivia? An almost $3000 savings. It was half the price of Olivia. The ambiance was certainly different but still a blast.

Yes, we miss Olivia but having stopped traveling with them we're able to enjoy double the trips. They perform a great service... It's just a matter of priorities for us. More cruises with other wonderful folks; especially now that we're back to cruising. Two planned for 2015 with hopefully another stuck in. Maybe we'll see you there.

Happy New Year!

Hello! Having just been turned on to Cruise Critic we're coming to this party a bit late. Fashionably? We have enjoyed five Olivia cruises beginning not terribly long after Judy started up. I took that first trip with great hesitancy too - though I love women I did not want to be captive on a ship with that much estrogen running amuck. It turned out to be a wonderful time with an ambiance not experienced on a non-Olivia cruise since. It got us to do four additional trips.

 

With that said, it was their Seine River cruise that found us sailing a week behind them on an Avalon English speaking cruise with the exact same itinerary since it was the exact same company they used. We had a fabulous time joined by friends made on an Olivia Med cruise. We all had. Blast with the other cruisers who joined us daily for the sharing of copious bottles of wine and tasty morsels picked up at each stop. The reason we ended up on this cruise over Olivia? An almost $3000 savings. It was half the price of Olivia. The ambiance was certainly different but still a blast.

 

Yes, we miss Olivia but having stopped traveling with them we're able to enjoy double the trips. They perform a great service... It's just a matter of priorities for us. More cruises with other wonderful folks; especially now that we're back to cruising. Two planned for 2015 with hopefully another stuck in. Maybe we'll see you there.

 

Happy New Year!

Looks like you've been doing Celebrity curses since you stopped doing Olivia. It's been our choice for the last couple of years. Do you have cruises planned on Celebrity this year?

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Hello Jenna! Yes we do. We're currently scheduled for the Transatlantic Iberian Peninsular cruise to Barcelona on 27 Apr 2015, our first TA; the Exotic Southern Caribbean departing 29 Nov 2015, and the Mardi Gras and Caribbean cruise Feb 20, 2017. (Yepper, that one is two years out and booking quickly. Should be entertaining as it docks for 2.5 days (3 nights) in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. The Equinox will be much nicer accommodations than those of my youth 30+ years ago for sure!). We're also looking for another in between April and Nov or possibly a short one late Feb. anyone know of something good coming up? We're listening.

Moral of the story? Partner has recently decided this is a more cost effective playground than her current - the casino. Trust me... It is!

How about you? Anything exciting planned? Looks like you've moved on to other cruise lines also.

Happy New Year & Cruisin'!

Ann

Our most recent cruises have been on Celebrity as well, all transatlantics. We've enjoyed them very much. The S-class ships in particular are stunningly beautiful. Our TA on the Silhouette this fall was one of our best cruises ever. Great itinerary, beautiful ship, terrific food, great staff and crew, and lots of really nice people.

Ironically, I received an email from Olivia this evening touting a "free payment plan." Too funny!

The Celebrity silhouette is a lovely ship, as is the Equinox. Did the Silhouette last year and the Equinox earlier this month; which seems so long ago. Both of the lagr ship status I believe. Something like 2800 to 3000 guests on the Equinox. I will give HAL that - the largest ship we did was 1800 and the smallest 1200. The big ships are lovely but I do prefer the smaller ones. Week, as long as they come with my Molecular bar then they're all great!

So tell me, and we can start another thread or go offline to keep from changing the conversation, but what does a person do with six straight days at sea followed by one shore day and then another two sea days? I hesitated long and hard before agreeing to book the TA. I'm of the restless set. Don't sit still long. Relaxing to me is a walk across Spain or the Appalachian Trail. I'm sure I'll find plenty to do but for now the longest I've been at sea without a break is two days. We get balconies, Aqua recently, but I seldom sit long enough to get our monies worth. Except on Alaska where I didn't want to miss a breathtaking view. Anyway, a gal can only circle a boat so many times. Especially a non-Olivia boat. So what's a girl to do? And will you be joining our TA?

Hello Ann and Turtles,

Sorry for the long post, I just got going...

Ann, sounds like a great line up. As an FYI, the only shis with the wonderful molecular bar are the 5 bigger "S-Class" ships. Solstice, Equnoix, Eclipse, Silhouette, and Reflection.

We did our TA westbound after a port intensive European cruise, so we were happy to relax and do less on all those sea days as we started with 9 ports in 10 days I think. I'm pretty active, paddling is my sport, think the Maine coast, big waves, Key Largo to Key west, etc. My sea days go something like this:

Wake and run, then yoga

Breakfast

Read, pool, or some other activity until 1ish

Leisurely Lunch,

Read more, trivia, spa, cards, chat with friends, or whatever is going on

Relax at the cabin for a bit, get ready for dinner, out to the martini bar or molecular bar before dinner

Dinner which for us, is an "affair" often 2 hours, as we always get chatting with table mates. (More on that below)

Show, casino (I gamble, Dee sleeps)

Sleep

repeat

We've met some amazing folks onboard, especially as table mates or through them, and cruised again with them and plan to cruise more in the future with friends we've met onboard. On our last two cruises we happened to end up with gay guys (2 were old friends traveling together, the other were a couple) who became great friends. I think gay guys make awesome friends :D

We have a LOT of cruises book, but not all will happen. In 2015 if we do all of them, it would be 7 for me, but one is a conference for work I'm doing solo that happens to be on a Disney cruise ship, go figure. One is a quick 4 day on Royal Caribbean when I am already in FL for work, and have a short block off, my wife Dee will join me of course. Our "Real" cruises are a B2B 7 days each on Summit in April. We have another cruise booked on Summit to Bermuda in August, since when we went last year for our 15 anniversary we were diverted to Florida and Nassau due to a hurricane and we figured we'd try again this year. This one is very up in the air I think. Then were doing the Panama Canal from FL to Chile on Dec 5 and would LOVE to have folks join us for this one. I'm really looking forward to this cruise. We may stay on for Christmas and New Years to sail around the horn of South America, but this is a really expensive holiday cruise.

In 2016 were booked on the Eclipse in March for 14 days. We did the cruise in 2012 on Eclipse I think your doing on Nov 29 and that's what Hooked us on cruise with Celebrity. It's a pretty quiet time to cruise, overall demographics will be a bit older, but there are many people who do that cruse very year as the pricing is very good and it generally has a very active roll call.

The highlight of our cruises for 2016 is a B2B2B from Rome to Istanbul including Israel, the the Suez Canal to Abu Dhuabi, and finally we go to India round trip from Abu Dhabi. We definitely have a GREAT "mixed" group joining us on the Suez Canal part of this cruise on Constellation, and maybe the cruise before and after. We all love to do our own thing some, but also meet up at ninth for dinner, maybe a show, do excursions together usually, it's w very fun low pressure mix group of people.

We have another cruise booked that overlaps with the March 2016 Eclipse one above, that will get cancelled when we figure out s replacement (unless we cancel eclipse and do it). We discussed cancelling it and using the deposit for for that Equinox cruise for Mardis Gras. In fact, Dee told me to book it, but February is very hard for me and it was pretty expensive for what it was. You're making me reconsider! I'll definite look at pricing again.

Apologies again for such a long posts if you even get this far, we must sound crazy!

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Hello All ~

First, I'd move this conversation to a new/different thread but alas, I don't have the foggiest idea how without just starting a new one. If anyone would care to do so then those that wish to chat about Olivia may not be confused by our postings. Or, if that's not necessary then..... carry on!

For whatever reason I fell in love with Equinox's Molecular bar. The bartenders were fantastic and fun to play with. It's not totally for certain that I'm not agreeing to the November and February cruises just to play with them again! Oh, and the cocktails are great as are those from the Martini bar. But we made friends at the Molecular.

On this last trip we attended the first night LGBT gathering at the Molecular bar and met two women that we didn't see again until disembarking and they were in the Customs line ahead of us, a male couple from Mississippi and a male couple from England. Saw four other young men fly through and then again off and on through the cruise but they were pretty intent on remaining aloof from those of us a wee bit more .... uh, mature. Since we dined in Blu most evenings we got to know better three other male couples (2x US & 1x CN). By the end of the cruise we would see most of the men off and on all day on the ship but played with the men from MD and a straight couple from CN. You gotta love the Canadians! It was a great time and I do hope to see them all again one day.

So you booked a lot of cruises but don't anticipate taking them all. We're just now learning about things like that -- book them so you have them and the benefits that may come with (123Go!, OBC, etc.) and then move them around as needed. We're looking now for a short cruise maybe in February and/or another between the TA and December's. I'm sure we would both love the trip from FL to Chile but we will already be on our way to the Southern Caribbean. You mentioned Madri Gras being costly -- I don't really know. I'm the money manager but the partner is the travel arrangement gal. She ended up with Aqua class on all the cruises (& the 123Go! on all but the TA) so I guess she got something worked out that she liked. We're still trying to learn the ins and outs of cruisers that do so many cruises in one year. Any secrets you guys and gals know and want to share we'd love hear.

As for what to do on sea days, thanks for the highlights Need2bespoiled. I can see why you would need a TA after nine port stops in ten days! That may even slow me down! Though we now, crazily, live in Virginia, home for us is Hawaii. (Don't ask.) I, too, am an outdoor gal -- long distance backpacking (hiked to your state from GA), ocean kayaking, scuba diving, etc., etc. The partner? Well, she often considers the lack of a mint on her pillow as camping. Not a princess but not a camping kind of gal. Her playground of late has been the casino (which I also enjoy) slot machines (which I do not care for) until deciding she wants to cruise more (which I definitely enjoy). What I find humorous is that she doesn't gamble practically at all on the ships. Me? I make up for both of us! I do enjoy many of the things you listed (must read daily) and am sure I will stay constantly entertained it's just that I'm not the sitting type. Maybe with this much free time I will learn to be. The partner prays it to be so!

Whew! Sorry. Didn't mean to be so chatty but you folks make it so easy. Let's do it again soon.

Happy New Year & Crusin'!

Check out this link. I started a new thread to continue this conversation.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45087740#post45087740

Hapoy new year and sailing,

Jenna