Off the Chain while Price-Checking!

[Vibe]

I have been on 3 Royal Caribbean cruises in the past few months.  The Harmony in November was good, no real problems, it was a great cruise, However, the beds on the Independance in October were so worn out and concaved, a homeless shelter probably has better bedding. The dining room and Windjammer food on the Mariner in December was awful, the quality of the meat and chicken was so bad it was disgusting.

 

The recent prices for the Independance and Mariner are really high, they need to provide a better experience for what they expect people to pay or else they will not have continued repeat customers.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Vibe

[orville99]

16 hours ago, Vibe said:

The recent prices for the Independance and Mariner are really high, they need to provide a better experience for what they expect people to pay or else they will not have continued repeat customers.

There have been quite a few suppositions on why RCL is charging higher rates. One thing that may help explain why they believe that they can is Load Factor - the measurement of how close to fully booked the fleet is at any given point in time.

 

The fourth quarter numbers are out, and this is how things stand currently:

 

RCI overall - 96%; Caribbean sailings - 104%

Carnival Corp overall - 84%

Norwegian overall - 82%

 

According to CLIA, ships need to sail at 95%+ capacity to break even, so it isn't surprising that some of the other cruise lines are doing whatever they can (discounting, offering freebies, etc.) just to get heads in beds. At 96%+ RCL doesn't have that problem. 

[CruisingHogFan]

Carnival just announced today they are raising onboard prices. Prices were lowered/held the same to get back to normal. Now that demand is back prices will continue to go up.

 

I wouldn’t consider anything in the pleasure expenses to be gouging. It’s not like we have to go on vacation….

[HicksRA]

I have noticed an almost constant barrage of posters on that big social media site saying that they are moving over to Royal from Carnival and asking about the difference in experience between the two. 
I suspect Royal is seeing a rise in bookings compared to the other similar lines and are adjusting prices accordingly.  

[Engineroom Snipe]

53 minutes ago, orville99 said:

There have been quite a few suppositions on why RCL is charging higher rates. One thing that may help explain why they believe that they can is Load Factor - the measurement of how close to fully booked the fleet is at any given point in time.

 

The fourth quarter numbers are out, and this is how things stand currently:

 

RCI overall - 96%; Caribbean sailings - 104%

Carnival Corp overall - 84%

Norwegian overall - 82%

 

According to CLIA, ships need to sail at 95%+ capacity to break even, so it isn't surprising that some of the other cruise lines are doing whatever they can (discounting, offering freebies, etc.) just to get heads in beds. At 96%+ RCL doesn't have that problem. 

I have been analyzing the trends and capacity is the common factor, especially concerning Caribbean sailings. One common point is a large majority of East Coast North American cruisers can drive to the port and not fly. That in itself can be a savings offset factor that allows for a more expensive cruise cost factor. The flight fares have risen due to demand. A savings for two flyers of $800 can easily justify a higher cruise price without an overall increase in total vacation package. Just something to ponder.....

[twangster]

On 1/3/2023 at 2:37 PM, CruisingNole said:

I’m taking a break from Royal and giving MSC a shot in February or March. I live near PC and those 3-night itineraries have always been a nice quick and cheap getaway. At the moment, the cheapest interior cabin on Independence for a 3-night in February/March is $861 with most weekends at $1,000+. I’m shocked people are willing to pay that. I guess inflation isn’t hurting people’s wallets as some like to portray.

 

The overnight at OC are really nice.  Sunset from the beach, nightly laser show and sunrise from the beach in the morning.  It's also nice not going to Nassau on the 3 nighters.  

[CruisingNole]

53 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

The overnight at OC are really nice.  Sunset from the beach, nightly laser show and sunrise from the beach in the morning.  It's also nice not going to Nassau on the 3 nighters.  

Looking forward to it! And amen to no Nassau, lol.

 

I got an interior cabin on MSC Meraviglia first weekend in March for about $700 which includes drink package and wifi. They even matched my c&a tier.

 

The same weekend, interior cabins on Independence are currently $843. No drink package and no wifi in that price. After sailing on Independence many times, I can confidently say that the 3-night experience is simply not worth $843. But to those that think it is…more power to you. Just 1 year ago, I paid half for that same cabin. And the product is diminishing by the day.

[marci22]

On 1/3/2023 at 10:52 PM, Vibe said:

 However, the beds on the Independance in October were so worn out and concaved, a homeless shelter probably has better bedding. The dining room and Windjammer food on the Mariner in December was awful, the quality of the meat and chicken was so bad it was disgusting.

In the before times, I remember getting a generous fcc because I complained that the beds were too hard. Maybe Anthem. And who can forget when they were serving chicken necks and spines in the MDR. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

They throw things at the wall and see what sticks. 

[Mum2Mercury]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:16 PM, CruisingNole said:

The same weekend, interior cabins on Independence are currently $843. No drink package and no wifi in that price. After sailing on Independence many times, I can confidently say that the 3-night experience is simply not worth $843. But to those that think it is…more power to you. Just 1 year ago, I paid half for that same cabin. And the product is diminishing by the day.

On the other hand, I just did a 3-night on Independence for $99 (week days, not weekend) ... totally worth that price!  This was only last month, so deals are available.

[jencruzin]

WOW! Just experienced a total reverse experience with our upcoming cruise!

We just saved $1003 knocked off our existing balance on the next sailing....it seriously pays to keep

track of price drops, I was expecting more increases in pricing, but the total opposite now.

[HappyTexan44]

1 hour ago, jencruzin said:

WOW! Just experienced a total reverse experience with our upcoming cruise!

We just saved $1003 knocked off our existing balance on the next sailing....it seriously pays to keep

track of price drops, I was expecting more increases in pricing, but the total opposite now.

Curious how soon is that cruise?  
 

[PolicromaSol]

I swear, every time I see one of these threads, I go mock book something to see what kind of price increases are there... Nothing unexpected, and deals can still be had with a flexible schedule.

 

Hypothetically, I mock-booked what my upcoming 5-night cruise would be if I did it next year instead on an Oasis-class ship. (My "real" upcoming trip is on Adventure.) It was, roughly, only 1k more, with an extra night, Coco Cay, etc.

 

Until the government stops printing money and sabotaging every domestic industry, prices will rise. It's not changing. Supply and demand always wins. All that said, I didn't find anything that would imply "price gouging". Just increases due to inflation and demand, and everything still seemed reasonable for what you got, compared to other types of vacations and whatnot.

Edited January 26, 2023 by PolicromaSol

[Vacation...Yes]

Two weeks ago, we paid $2396 for ocean view balcony, cat. 2D on Wonder. Today, for the same category room, 2 rooms down is $1550 more😬

[Coralc]

After this horribly expensive B2B in March, we're taking a break for a while. Our SWA flights did not go down. We have house stuff to do. We'll get back in to cruising later, if things look a little more reasonable. We won't cruise in March/Florida again though. We will cross those right off the calendar. But it is mostly the airfare. The cruises are "reasonable". 

[Engineroom Snipe]

8 hours ago, Coralc said:

After this horribly expensive B2B in March, we're taking a break for a while. Our SWA flights did not go down. We have house stuff to do. We'll get back in to cruising later, if things look a little more reasonable. We won't cruise in March/Florida again though. We will cross those right off the calendar. But it is mostly the airfare. The cruises are "reasonable". 

 

The transatlantic prices look great until you add the airfare to return. 🙁

[Daghis]

On 1/3/2023 at 10:52 PM, Vibe said:

However, the beds on the Independance in October were so worn out and concaved

…

The recent prices for the Independance and Mariner are really high, 

I'd been seeing some comments about Independence of the Seas looking rather worse for wear. I managed to get a comped cruise on her next month, so I was using comments like yours to help set expectations so that I don't start off disappointed by well-worn furnishings and such.

 

I just discovered that she's returning from drydock on the sailing just before mine, so that finally explains why my junior suite was listed at ~$2,500/person for a 4-night cruise. The pricing on this February 20 sailing has even gone up since then, but since I now see it's one of the very first return-to-service sailings, that explains the higher demand.

 

So, hopefully the things that have been pointed out over the past year or so will have been addressed by the time I see her. 🤞🏻

[Engineroom Snipe]

1 hour ago, Daghis said:

I'd been seeing some comments about Independence of the Seas looking rather worse for wear. I managed to get a comped cruise on her next month, so I was using comments like yours to help set expectations so that I don't start off disappointed by well-worn furnishings and such.

 

I just discovered that she's returning from drydock on the sailing just before mine, so that finally explains why my junior suite was listed at ~$2,500/person for a 4-night cruise. The pricing on this February 20 sailing has even gone up since then, but since I now see it's one of the very first return-to-service sailings, that explains the higher demand.

 

So, hopefully the things that have been pointed out over the past year or so will have been addressed by the time I see her. 🤞🏻

 

I hope the refit exceeds expectations. Please post any observations when you get a chance.

[Vibe]

1 hour ago, Daghis said:

I'd been seeing some comments about Independence of the Seas looking rather worse for wear. I managed to get a comped cruise on her next month, so I was using comments like yours to help set expectations so that I don't start off disappointed by well-worn furnishings and such.

 

I just discovered that she's returning from drydock on the sailing just before mine, so that finally explains why my junior suite was listed at ~$2,500/person for a 4-night cruise. The pricing on this February 20 sailing has even gone up since then, but since I now see it's one of the very first return-to-service sailings, that explains the higher demand.

 

So, hopefully the things that have been pointed out over the past year or so will have been addressed by the time I see her. 🤞🏻

I noticed that when walking down the hallways when the cabin stewards had the doors propped open, I can easily see the beds in those rooms were also sunken in.  They probably will replace all of the mattresses during the dry dock.  
 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Daghis]

This talk about the mattresses does possibly confirm something for me. When we first sailed on Liberty of the Seas in 2007, one of the things they were touting back then was their amazing mattresses and luxurious sheet sets, which they sold separately so you could continue to enjoy the cruise (bed) experience at home. I found that those mattresses were really quite comfortable.

 

On recent cruises, though, it seemed that the mattresses were much firmer than I recall from the past. Based on comments like these above, I would now believe that maybe they've switched to firmer mattresses in order to gain more life out of them. 

[Engineroom Snipe]

10 minutes ago, Daghis said:

This talk about the mattresses does possibly confirm something for me. When we first sailed on Liberty of the Seas in 2007, one of the things they were touting back then was their amazing mattresses and luxurious sheet sets, which they sold separately so you could continue to enjoy the cruise (bed) experience at home. I found that those mattresses were really quite comfortable.

 

On recent cruises, though, it seemed that the mattresses were much firmer than I recall from the past. Based on comments like these above, I would now believe that maybe they've switched to firmer mattresses in order to gain more life out of them. 

 

Or the average cruiser was gaining too much weight from the great meals! The springs could not handle the truth. 

 

Solution, cut back on MDR items available and install heavy duty stiff mattresses. 🤣

[aubreyc1988]

I noticed a change back in Sept of 2022 with the pricing going way up for NCL sailings. I went on a cheap cruise out of my homeport of Galveston on Liberty and now I'm just taking casino offers from Royal until they dry up. I know I pay for it in the Casino, but lucked out this year and am ahead so I'll take what I can get. 

[CruisingNole]

I’m doing a 4 night on Celebrity in March. The rate was all inclusive and I used provided OBC to upgrade to premium drink package and book a speciality restaurant or two. 
 

And it was cheaper than 3 nights on Indy or Mariner once you factored in cost of beverage package and gratuities.
 

 

[jencruzin]

On 1/26/2023 at 3:38 PM, HappyTexan44 said:

Curious how soon is that cruise?  
 

5 months out.

[irisbax3]

Hi, can someone tell me how to recheck Air2Sea prices, after your initial booking? Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Biker19]

13 hours ago, irisbax3 said:

Hi, can someone tell me how to recheck Air2Sea prices, after your initial booking?

You should be able to go directly to the site and search prices, though the online site may not list all options which are available if you call.