$12 Drinks? No thanks!

 

Once all the drinks are included in the price of the cruise booked, the subject on drink prices will be irrelevant.

 

And those that do not drink will rise up and complain at the high costs due to the drinks included (as they should as alcohol is not required lol). An all-inclusive cruise would cost a whole lot more than an all-inclusive land resort.

We use the DL but if drinks were taken away (not likely anytime soon) we would just cruise like we did when we first started and buy wine at dinner and an occasional drink during the day. We don't cruise to drink as some so obviously do, but the reality is, RCI is a business and as such they can charge what they want. Free market will determine how detrimental this is to their bottom line and thinking most will buy the package due to higher individual drink costs is a risky chance because we won't and I know others have stated the same.

And those that do not drink will rise up and complain at the high costs due to the drinks included (as they should as alcohol is not required lol). An all-inclusive cruise would cost a whole lot more than an all-inclusive land resort.

 

We use the DL but if drinks were taken away (not likely anytime soon) we would just cruise like we did when we first started and buy wine at dinner and an occasional drink during the day. We don't cruise to drink as some so obviously do, but the reality is, RCI is a business and as such they can charge what they want. Free market will determine how detrimental this is to their bottom line and thinking most will buy the package due to higher individual drink costs is a risky chance because we won't and I know others have stated the same.

Agreed,

We have never purchased an alcohol package and never will either.:)

And we drink plenty

Pleasing the masses has always been the secret that no one Has

And the fruity drinks are sugary mix crap. Used to be lots of real fruit with nice garnishes. Now it's junk from a box. No thanks

We had another RCCL cruise scheduled (Brilliance in December), but after the drink prices on Indy we cancelled Brilliace and booked two cruises on Celebrity. Both come with free classic drink packages. And they didn't jack the cruise price up to cover the cost of the package.

Don't kid yourself...drink process on Celebrity are equally breathtaking.:rolleyes: The difference is almost everybody who drinks alcohol has a complimentary Classic Beverage Package, and from there the upgrade to the Premium Package to get the more expensive drinks isn't such a big hit to the wallet.

Just got off the Oasis and I definitely spent less than normal on drinks. I utilized the Suite Lounge some nights, but in general, just drank less. I think I bought 5 drinks total on the ship. I love the fruity foo foo drinks that they don't serve in the lounges, but I survived just fine.

RCCL CEO: "Fellow Executives....beverage profits are dow. Any suggestions?"

Lackey: "We could raise prices modestly...the cruisers won't notice."

RCCL CEO: "Excellent idea! $15.00 drinks it is. Give yourself a raise!"

Just a marketing strategy for RC to pay for those big new ships!! :D :D

We discovered the crazy drink prices on our recent Brilliance cruise. Not only was the drink menu terribly limited the prices were absolutely outrageous. It's no wonder they don't print the prices on the menu! :eek: Every time I signed a bar tab for $28 for two drinks I felt like I was being totally ripped off - not how you want to feel every day while you're on vacation. :rolleyes: All in all we ended up spending LESS on drinks than normal because we just didn't drink as much. I can't imagine we're the only ones either.

The drink prices, combined with rising prices on everything (cruise fare, specialty restaurants, etc.) has left a sour taste in our mouths. I never thought I'd say this - we aren't big drinkers - but the drink prices really were the straw that broke the camels back though. It just really hit a nerve. We had been seriously discussing booking another Caribbean cruise in winter 2015/2016 and then a Mediterranean cruise in summer 2016. Together, those trips would have made us Diamond. However, our recent cruise really made us rethink those plans. We're finding cruising just isn't what it used to be and it definitely doesn't provide the value it once did.

We've now decided to book land based vacations for both of our next trips. It's unfortunate but, as far as I'm concerned, I can express my disapproval the loudest through my wallet. I do expect we'll sail with RCI again sometime in the future. Hopefully by that time they'll have figured out that it takes more than double-digit profit increases to run a successful business.

I will be following this thread closely---interested to see what the replies are here vs a similar thread on Carnival.

They probably raised the prices to offset the fact that they are offering so many onboard credit booking bonuses :rolleyes:.

 

It is shocking to me that so many people just stand by and roll wit the constant punches (cutbacks and price increases) from Royal Caribbean.

 

The prices for drinks on Royal Caribbean are more than most high dollar resorts and the drink quality and atmosphere are far below those resorts. It's unbelievable. The generous pours are gone and the prices skyrocketed.

Not really true... was in Atlantis 3 years ago, a beer (local bahamian was $8 a can, whether you ordered it at a bar, the pool or from your room fridge.

It appears to me that they are trying to make the cruises all-inclusive (as people complain that they should be) and by making the by the drink prices painfully high, they hope that they can raise everyone's cruise to the price of the premium drink package per day...

IE, by the drink package or else.

I did prefer the days when you could be super frugal or blow the wad, on you... but there you go.... sometimes you get what you want and wished you hadn't....

jc

We sailed on the Oasis on March 28th. Both my husband and I had the premium drink package. It was a toss up as to whether or not it would be worth it but in the end decided the convenience of paying for it ahead of time pushed me over. When we purchased it supposedly it covered drinks up to $10 were covered. When we were on board, it was advertised as drinks up to $8 were covered. I thought...let's see how this plays out... even though martinis, which I was drinking were $12 in Champagne bar, I was never charged extra. All week with the drink package neither my husband or I were charged the difference for drinks above the package price. We did tip extra at the bars and had great service throughout the cruise.

Every time I signed a bar tab for $28 for two drinks I felt like I was being totally ripped off - not how you want to feel every day while you're on vacation.

Bingo! You hit the nail square on its head.

One day RCI will figure this out, but only after they've lost all kinds of $$$ under the current program.

Agreed prices are shocking!!! Not just Jewel, Fleetwide I would imagine.

Only way to go

 

 

Happy Days!

Wonder why I never pay for drinks;), crazy prices:)

Because you spend more money than we would ever dream of in the casino. :D:):D

I actually agree with you OP. Something about paying $13-14 for a low quality drink isn't my thing. I'll stick to the bottles of wine I bring onboard and the C&A drink vouchers from here on out. This is coming from somebody that usually has a pretty high bar bill.

It's just a matter of principle. The double whammy 20% alcohol price increase and the simultaneous increase in the mandatory employee surcharge (aka gratuity) left a bad taste in my mouth. It's just greed at its finest. There's going to be a tipping point when passengers realize that with cruises as a whole, the price is rising and the quality is plummeting. Stockholders are loving it right now, but when the passengers start walking away, I'll be laughing.

my preferred wine on shore is $12 a glass. my drinking habits will not significantly change on board.

 

they probably raised to prices to offset the fact that so many others cheat by smuggling alcohol on board or share their drink packages.

The prices were raised to increase their profit margin. It has nothing to do with so-called "smugglers". RCI's CEO stated years ago that the majority of it's profits come from the alcohol sales. Most businesses on land or sea are raising their prices. This shouldn't really surprise anyone. We may not like it but that's life.

I actually agree with you OP. Something about paying $13-14 for a low quality drink isn't my thing. I'll stick to the bottles of wine I bring onboard and the C&A drink vouchers from here on out. This is coming from somebody that usually has a pretty high bar bill.

 

It's just a matter of principle. The double whammy 20% alcohol price increase and the simultaneous increase in the mandatory employee surcharge (aka gratuity) left a bad taste in my mouth. It's just greed at its finest. There's going to be a tipping point when passengers realize that with cruises as a whole, the price is rising and the quality is plummeting. Stockholders are loving it right now, but when the passengers start walking away, I'll be laughing.

But for everyone that walks away there's 2 more to take their place. Their focus right now is on first time cruisers and with this non stop "Sale" that won't quit it's working wonders.

That's insane. The prices are rivaling Sports venues, where a beer is $10.50! Nuts! You're not driving, so you want to be able to "cut loose" a bit! The prices are prohibitive. $3 for a beer and $5-6 for a cocktail is reasonable. What they're doing is price gouging, pure and simple.

Where in the world can you get drinks for those prices?!

Where in the world can you get drinks for those prices?!

Our last RCI cruise. :)

Our last RCI cruise. :)

Was your last RCI cruise in 1985?

Sent from my KFTHWI using Forums mobile app

I wonder what Royal Caribbean's actual cost is to serve a $12.00 cocktail? With the volume of alcohol that they purchase, my guess would be somewhere between .50 cents and $1.00.

I'm not complaining because I understand that RC is a business and they would not charges these prices unless they were confident that their customers would be willing to pay them.

I wonder what Royal Caribbean's actual cost is to serve a $12.00 cocktail? With the volume of alcohol that they purchase, my guess would be somewhere between .50 cents and $1.00.

 

I'm not complaining because I understand that RC is a business and they would not charges these prices unless they were confident that their customers would be willing to pay them.

The problem here is that different people have different standards of what is an acceptable price and at what point a given product is priced beyond its valuation.

There are also other groups of people who have varying feelings, including -

1) I don't care about the charges - it's capitalism, if they can get away with

charging that, more power to them.

2) If you can't afford an extra $XYZ for drinks, you shouldn't be on a

vacation.

3) If you don't like the charges, pick another cruise line.

4) I don't care home much I spend for whatever reason - my guess is that

these may be independently wealthy or stockholders.

5) Well this is what you would pay in a large city (LA, NYC, Vegas, etc.) many of us chose to NOT live in places like this, so do not feel that

$12-$15 for a basic cocktail is anywhere near realistic.

I am of the opinion that their new drink prices are too high. While I will probably still buy a few alcoholic drinks (we're not big drinkers anyway), I will not buy nearly as many as I may have in years past. As others have said, if I feel that I'm being charged too much, I will think twice about what I'm buying. I used the same logic on another thread, but I would actually spend MORE with the cruise line if I felt the prices were a bit closer to being realistic. I would actually buy in a larger volume (and the cruise line make more money) if I didn't feel as if I was taken advantage of.

Here's just a quick rundown of the numbers I used elsewhere, and it was based on buying canned soda a la carte. I know that I can buy soda for roughly $.30 per can including tax at a local warehouse club. Considering the volume cruise lines are buying in with their vendors, my guess is that a can of soda is really costing them less. But to be fair, I used that 30 cents per can as a constant. From whatI understand, RCI is charging roughly $3.00 per can on a per can purchase basis. I really don't feel that a single can of soda should be setting me back more than $1.50. Simply based on net cost, that equates to a 500% markup. At $3.00 per can sales price, they are now at a 1000% markup. At $3.00 per can, I may only buy a maximum of 10 cans for the whole trip ($30 in purchases, and a $3.00 cost for 10 cans, would give RCI a net profit of $27.00). At $1.50 per can, I may easily buy 50 cans over the course of the week (we drink a lot of soda, BTW) for a total of $75.00 in sales, with a net cost of $15.00 to RCI = $60.00 in profits. Why did I actually spend more at a lower per unit cost? Because I felt the value was still there and didn't feel "violated" at that price point. Granted, RCI didn't make the same margin per unit, but they would have increased their per passenger spending number by simply being more realistic in their pricing. Sadly, RCI doesn't follow this train of thought, and instead, use Disney business principles (maximum cash extraction at one time).

We, unfortunately, cannot afford to cruise often, with all of the costs involved in flying from the West, family of 5, etc., the added costs make these trips extremely expensive. If prices were a bit more reasonable overall, we would likely take big vacations more often. Some companies feel they can make the same or better overall profits on volume rather than margins, others have the opposite approach. I happen to work for a company that does very well, but we accept lower margins at a larger volume and it does truly work rather well.

My other issue, that I know full and well that people will disagree with and argue over, is that once onboard their ships, their passengers have two choices when it comes to things like alcohol, soda, etc. 1) Suck it up and pay the prices commanded by the supplier (which is price fixed, as there is no competition to keep their prices in check, so they control the market 100%.

2) Refuse to pay their prices and do without said product. As said before, for every one of us that complains or votes with our wallet and not buy, there are countless others who will gladly spend the money and not question the amounts of the value. And I feel there are several reasons for this, among them, but not necessarily limited to---

1) Some feel that a vacation is a time to let loose and not worry about things, so what the heck - go for broke.

2) Others simply expect to be charged more, in some cases, a LOT more,

and again - it's vacation, so what the heck.

3) Some may simply support capitalism and all it entails, no matter the cost.

4) Some may simply have so much money, that they don't care what things

cost, as many of these costs may very well be trivial to them.

5) They themselves are shareholders and every bit of profit can mean a larger dividend for them.

And I'm sure there are others.

Bottom line, as long as there are people willing to pay the prices, profits aren't dropping, and their ships are sailing full, they will not, and really have no reason to change. If the cruise line ever reaches a point where their profit margin is no longer acceptable, they may change their policies and pricing at that point, but don't expect it to happen before that point has been reached.

We all have different values. My wife and I don't drink much, so the thought of paying $850 for the two of us to drink as much as we want seems ludicrous to us. Even buying the soda card for 4 of us, at a total cost of $181.22, seems ridiculous as well, but when trying to justify its purchase compared to the per can cost, it was the only logical decision to make. Would I ever spend that much at home for soda in one week? Heck no.

But with their higher per unit pricing, they sort of force your hand into a package if you truly want their product. Once again, the cruise line wins. However, I think for the people that truly do drink enough to surpass the break even point, that the packages are going to be the only way to go in the future. Even if an individual were able to drink enough to literally put the cruise line in the red on their package, there are enough others who bought the same package who can't truly drink enough for the company to lose, so the cruise line still makes a nice profit, this time, based on the volume of packages sold.

Just got off the Oasis and I definitely spent less than normal on drinks. I utilized the Suite Lounge some nights, but in general, just drank less. I think I bought 5 drinks total on the ship. I love the fruity foo foo drinks that they don't serve in the lounges, but I survived just fine.

On our recent 10-day cruise, we spent far les than we did on our 7-day cruises in the past. We travelled with friends and so had our four bottles of wine at dinner, had a drink at sail-away and a couple in the lounges at night. We skipped a cocktail at the shows and, rather than having a cold drink when we reboarded after a day in port, we stopped at one of the bars around the port and had a drink or two and used their wifi. It was the first time we never had a drink sitting at the pool.

I have to believe that the outrageously high prices will entice more people to smuggle alcohol on board.

If Royal's marketing plan is to lure more people on board with their "sales," the people they're attracting are not those who won't blink at paying $12 for a drink with 50 cents worth of alcohol. Their Crown and Anchor program is aimed at creating a base of return cruisers; the new drink prices seems to be aimed at discouraging people from returning.

By the time the long-term effects of this pricing strategy become apparent, the "geniuses" who came up with them will have reaped the benefit of the short-term profits and moved higher up the corporate ladder and won't have to deal with them.

As a European since 25 years I didn´t buy a drink on an american cruiseship because the Prices were four times higher than in a street cafe in the Med. Now it´s six times higher ( the same on NCL!).

And it´s the same with the cruise fares. I wanted to go on a 9 night cruise with the Jewel in Oct. 2016 out of Rome and RCI in Germany charged me fot the cheapest inside 2839 Euros, while a 7 night cruise with Silverseas woulde cost me 3500 Euros!!!!!

So I booked a 22night Costa cruise from Venice to Dubai ( inside single) for 2400 Euros with the allinclusive package!

I´m Pinnacle Member, but with this new pricing at the same time with less service RCI won´t see me again. The only thing I´ll miss is the Crew, though most of the European crewmembers are already thinking of quitting this Company.

Hello Rum Runners.

RCCL CEO: "Fellow Executives....beverage profits are dow. Any suggestions?"

Lackey: "We could raise prices modestly...the cruisers won't notice."

RCCL CEO: "Excellent idea! $15.00 drinks it is. Give yourself a raise!"

I wouldn't call a 40-50% rise in bar prices 'modest'

I will be following this thread closely---interested to see what the replies are here vs a similar thread on Carnival.

There were many replies in another thread which ran to 32 pages.

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2179789

Cocktail prices were $14 on our recent Rhapsody cruise ex Sydney.

Premium package was $57, Ultimate was $67.

:eek: