Is it me or are these prices out of control

[carumba7]

Booked two months ago and now the price is up $1,200.00 for the two of us. I originally thought it went up after it was announced they would no longer be sailing out of New Orleans but it looks like that was not the case!

[CP3o]

I can't believe the rates for RCI cruises. Just looked 2 weeks ago for cruises late October until late November out of NY area and Florida. Outrageous! so we booked NCL Breakaway out of NY at a great rate.

 

You can't be the only one looking to book a cruise that didn't want to book way early or last minute to get a good fare. The current pricing could be a boon for Princess and RCCL. But, who knows, perhaps RCCL will make money this way, by not discounting until the end, getting the high prices for those willing to pay it.

 

Maybe they are trying a new approach and won't worry about discounting until fill the ship..............

[racerxspeedy]

I can comment on the fuel cost based on input from a "From the Top" briefing on an RCL ship last year. A question on the cost of fuel was raised relative to the surcharge warning we all are subject to. The Captain or Chief Engineer responded that RCCL contracts at a fixed price some 5 years in advance keeping costs relatively stable minimizing the need for a fuel surcharge. Your charts seem to validate that they are just recently having to commit to higher fuel costs via newer contracts.

 

Don't think the cost of food chart for the Urban Consumer is a good representation of what RCCL raw food costs are.

 

Obviously this is a WAG on my part but common sense says costs are driving inflation higher. The remarks of some on CC seem to indicate that prices should stay the way they have been.

 

The actual food cost per day (per person) is very low. There are threads specifically on food costs. Even if food cost doubled it would not justify the recent prices. I looked at Carnival prices today and there are some great deals thru September. I predict another "sale" to bring the average price down - otherwise people will find other options.

 

Judge all you want - but a Carnival cruise is not that much different - especially if your going for the ports.

 

Thanks

[AdamKnows]

My wife and I are sailing on the Oasis in 100 days and there are very few cabins available. If RCCL can fill a ship on higher prices why wouldn't they?

[CP3o]

My wife and I are sailing on the Oasis in 100 days and there are very few cabins available. If RCCL can fill a ship on higher prices why wouldn't they?

 

They absolutely should! This is what DCL does! People are speculating the price doesn't match the remaining inventory available and so rates will need to drop to be competitive. It isn't easy to know availability w/o having access to a TA site or patiently plugging in cabin numbers in mock booking.

 

Some of the prices just seem out of whack with what we are accustom to. Over 2K pp, before taxes and such, for a Boardwalk balcony in March is over double what it was during BOGOHO promo.

[eel]

Prices are out of control and Royal Caribbean just announced outstanding financial results. Good thing my stock is up - it can help pay for the higher price on my next cruise!

 

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/europe-asia-strength-buoy-royals-q2-company-sets-double-double-goal.html

[Ourusualbeach]

They absolutely should! This is what DCL does! People are speculating the price doesn't match the remaining inventory available and so rates will need to drop to be competitive. It isn't easy to know availability w/o having access to a TA site or patiently plugging in cabin numbers in mock booking.

 

Some of the prices just seem out of whack with what we are accustom to. Over 2K pp, before taxes and such, for a Boardwalk balcony in March is over double what it was during BOGOHO promo.

 

Go to

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/

 

To see more than the 15 cabins that RCI's North American website shows. It will show ALL available cabins per category.

[Biker19]

Go to

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/

 

To see more than the 15 cabins that RCI's North American website shows. It will show ALL available cabins per category.

 

Almost - it limits at 50 cabins per category. ;)

[dorisis]

Was checking prices for our SOS 2015 Quebec sailing and a D-1 with insurance is running close to $400 over what we booked our JS for for a family of 3 this past February.

 

We are paying over $800 PP for a 7 day cruise in early December. In an oceanview cabin. I did not think the fare was excessive. Is it usually cheaper than that?

[fishtaco]

Welcome back to the rest of the worlds pricing! where $140pp per night for an inside quad share is a very cheap cruise price:D

 

By By USA GFC:D:D:D

Edited July 25, 2014 by fishtaco

[Lionesss]

Welcome back to the rest of the worlds pricing! where $140pp per night for an inside quad share is a very cheap cruise price:D

 

By By GFC:D:D:D

 

 

Just a side note.

 

Saw you quit smoking.................awesome, keep up the good work.

 

I quit cold turkey.............3 years, and 3 months ago.

 

The first year I put all the money in an envelope and after one year I had $1500.

 

Be proud I am.

 

Keep it going and never look back.

 

Sea Ya

[fishtaco]

Just a side note.

 

Saw you quit smoking.................awesome, keep up the good work.

 

I quit cold turkey.............3 years, and 3 months ago.

 

The first year I put all the money in an envelope and after one year I had $1500.

 

Be proud I am.

 

Keep it going and never look back.

 

Sea Ya

 

We have just returned from a 4 1/2 week trip to USA with a Caribbean cruise thrown in, all on my smoking money:) I will never smoke another cigarette again;) and thanks for the encouragement:)

[CP3o]

Go to

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/

 

To see more than the 15 cabins that RCI's North American website shows. It will show ALL available cabins per category.

 

Thanks, that is an interesting site and not too time consuming to copy, paste as text, sort and use count function in Excel. If it's accurate, it can give a feel for how full the ship is but it may be a matter of opinion as to if it's a lot of cabins or a few left as of X amount of time before sail date.

 

For the Oasis 11/1 sailing in 99 days, searching on availablity for 2 pax, so availabilty greater than these numbers b/c cabins that hold 3 and 4 pax not showing, I see 320 balcony cabins.

 

C1/C2-77

B1/B2-71

Ds-172

 

Does it indicate a sale coming? I don't know. Perhaps RCCL wants to capture the high rates they can if pax willing to pay them and wait until after final payment to drop rates and fill the ship.

[nbsjcruiser]

I did make out well on these 2 specific cruises compared to their current prices as I booked them in April of this year . However, looking now to book additional cruises in 2015, I am seeing extremely high prices. I can understand prices going up by a few hundred dollars but when they escalate a thousand dollars or more with a good supply of available cabins, I will not book.

 

Very good point on booking ahead. We booked a 7 day eastern on the IOS for October 2015 before the latest sale and we paid approximately $950 for a promenade. A few weeks later we were contemplating booking the 6 day the week after but its damn near $1700 and now the 7 day that we got for $950 has doubled in price to $1900! We always book well in advance as you might guess and prices never take dramatic jumps like that this far out. Its ridiculous. These prices have to drop. I cannot imagine paying that price.

[StarSong2001]

Been watching the fares on the one we booked this month on Allure for 11/30/14 sailing. It just jumped to $900 more than we paid.

 

While part of me is happy we got it for a lower price, I was actually hoping to see it go down so I could get a better price. Will be interesting to keep an eye on this from week to week before Final is due.

[Biker19]

Does it indicate a sale coming? I don't know. Perhaps RCCL wants to capture the high rates they can if pax willing to pay them and wait until after final payment to drop rates and fill the ship.

 

That is the norm for all cruiselines. The only diff might be when the prices drop when there's plenty of inventory. With the Oasis class it seems to be a bit closer to sailing than other ships - the heaviest discounts seem to happen really close to sailing. You can view the Tuesday specials (or historical pricing) to see the pattern.

[CVU]

We have just returned from a 4 1/2 week trip to USA with a Caribbean cruise thrown in, all on my smoking money:) I will never smoke another cigarette again;) and thanks for the encouragement:)

 

Awesome!!!

 

We have many booked and checked some and they are WAY up in price! Almost double in some cases........:eek::eek:

Won't want to book anymore at these prices!!!

[negc]

Awesome!!!

 

We have many booked and checked some and they are WAY up in price! Almost double in some cases........:eek::eek:

Won't want to book anymore at these prices!!!

 

If enough people agree with you, the number of bookings will drop as will the prices, but chances are that there will be enough people willing to pay those prices so the fares will remain the same or perhaps rise even higher. Supply and demand rules. Prices aren't out of control, they pretty much remain controlled, as they have always been, by the cruise line.

[TheInnocentAge]

Been watching the fares on the one we booked this month on Allure for 11/30/14 sailing. It just jumped to $900 more than we paid.

 

While part of me is happy we got it for a lower price, I was actually hoping to see it go down so I could get a better price. Will be interesting to keep an eye on this from week to week before Final is due.

 

We have one booked for next October (Halloween, 2015) on the Oasis. I did a quick check of just the suite level, and there aren't many left even though we're still over 15 months out. 2 GS left out of 30, 15 JS left of of 86, etc. I counted these manually before I saw the handy-dandy link to the easier way to do it (earlier in this thread), but I think I'm pretty close.

 

Crazy but true, the Junior Suite price today ($5329) for that cruise is $600 more than the Owner's Suite price was on May 1st ($4729) for the same cruise. OS price today ($9189) for that cruise has almost doubled since then.

[knittinggirl]

Since we booked in May, our Australia B2B2B have gone up a total of $5,000 for both of us.

 

I don't think it's the food, it's the building of three new ships. When they started the Oasis/Allure builds, we lost the daily newspapers, turn down chocolates, automatic ice in room and commemorative gifts. Diamonds lost the concierge lounge around the same times. I think the Diamond breakfast and daily Diamond event went in after the Oasis/Allure started sailing, so income started coming in.

 

Except for booking deposits, they haven't gotten any income. Final payments for the Quantum should start around September. And they really don't make real income on them until after after people get onboard and start buying alcohol, visiting the casino, spa, etc.

Edited July 25, 2014 by knittinggirl

[FLACRUISER99]

If enough people agree with you, the number of bookings will drop as will the prices, but chances are that there will be enough people willing to pay those prices so the fares will remain the same or perhaps rise even higher. Supply and demand rules. Prices aren't out of control, they pretty much remain controlled, as they have always been, by the cruise line.

 

 

And the market.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Rogocop]

Probably setting themselves up for a huge sale. It is hard to reduce a cruise price 40% or so if the prices remain the same. Raise the prices 40% over a period of time and then spring the next great sale on people with a $40% or greater discount. Maybe they run a 123Go sale after the Celebrity sale ends this month. Department store strategy....who knows, but they have a method to their madness. I was lucky and booked a 6 day on the Explorer for us and got an inside for $939, it is now up $ 455 dollars.....UP 48% in 2 weeks.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Rogocop

[racerxspeedy]

Lots of great comments on this. My Allure cruise is now 36 days out and listed in the going, going, gone promo. The "discount - last minute" price listed now is still way higher than what this booked under "standard pricing" late last year.

 

I imagine history will repeat itself late 2014. Hang in there.

[Paulette3028]

The most difficult thing about pricing (for anything) is -- where is it going to go?

 

Regardless of what you buy: car, home, vacation, clothes, whatever:

If you wait for a low (er) price, you could get shut out; no stock/supply of what you want.

 

If you buy something, the price could go down....and perhaps you can get some type of 'compensation' or adjustment from the company providing the service; but then again, perhaps you can get NO adjustment or compensation.

 

If you buy something and the price goes up....you feel you got a bargain.

 

These are the options throughout the commerce world....so buy/purchase/reserve what you want for the price you feel is fair.

 

If you don't think it is a fair price, DON'T do it.

 

But don't be angry at the company....it is and HAS ALWAYS been the way of commerce. If you owned any company, you would do what you had to do, to make a profit and keep making a profit.

 

It is ridiculous what we are paying for milk, bread and gas....I would love food and gas prices to be lower....for sure.

Edited July 25, 2014 by Paulette3028

[fishtaco]

Been watching the fares on the one we booked this month on Allure for 11/30/14 sailing. It just jumped to $900 more than we paid.

 

While part of me is happy we got it for a lower price, I was actually hoping to see it go down so I could get a better price. Will be interesting to keep an eye on this from week to week before Final is due.

 

This seems to be a strange cruise booking practice many have entered into:confused:

 

What other products do people buy then wait in the hope they go down in price so they can get a refund of the difference?

 

Some on Carnival are not happy because they are no longer getting the huge price drops they "Expected" and got on previous cruises even with the Early saver prices that guarantee the cheapest price up until 2 days before sailing.

 

I thought RCI was a cut slightly above Carnival and cruise prices were low because of GFC,if this is true then RCI cannot sustain Carnival style fares with future price drops forever.

 

With Australian RCI I am not sure we can get any price drops unless we cancel and re book?