HUGE price difference due to Geo pricing

[LittleJoefromKokomo]

I am looking at a 7 day cruise on July the 6th 2025 out of Barcelona on Allure for a Western Mediterranean cruise and notice that there is a huge price difference if I look at the cruise from Royals US side compared to their European one.

If I book this cruise from the EU site they want $3759 for an interior GTY but if I book it from the US site it only costs $2519. Of course Royal makes it hard for us Europeans to do that since we need to fill in a US state to be able to book and then it doesn't match the adress they have on file but I am wondering if I call the Club Royale can I book this cruise through their casino numbers and get the US price regardless if I have a casino offer?

I have read somewhere that it is possible to book through Club Royale regardless if one have any current offer. Club Royale uses US pricing regardless of where the customer is I belive.The other option is going through a US travel agency I suppose.

Have any other Europeans done this successfully? I refuse to pay almost $4000 for an interior GTY on Allure...

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, LittleJoefromKokomo said:

I am looking at a 7 day cruise on July the 6th 2025 out of Barcelona on Allure for a Western Mediterranean cruise and notice that there is a huge price difference if I look at the cruise from Royals US side compared to their European one.

If I book this cruise from the EU site they want $3759 for an interior GTY but if I book it from the US site it only costs $2519. Of course Royal makes it hard for us Europeans to do that since we need to fill in a US state to be able to book and then it doesn't match the adress they have on file but I am wondering if I call the Club Royale can I book this cruise through their casino numbers and get the US price regardless if I have a casino offer?

I have read somewhere that it is possible to book through Club Royale regardless if one have any current offer. Club Royale uses US pricing regardless of where the customer is I belive.The other option is going through a US travel agency I suppose.

Have any other Europeans done this successfully? I refuse to pay almost $4000 for an interior GTY on Allure...

The option to go via a US travel agent is probably the best. US travel agents offer also on board credit and discounts, which European travel agents don’t. 

[FamilyCruiserUK]

4 hours ago, travelberlin said:

The option to go via a US travel agent is probably the best. US travel agents offer also on board credit and discounts, which European travel agents don’t. 

Can you point any of us uk/europeans in the right direction of a good us travel agent......

[travelberlin]

22 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Can you point any of us uk/europeans in the right direction of a good us travel agent......

The rules from Cruise Critic do not allow to mention travel agents names. But maybe some one on this board can give you some hints.

[silentbob007]

I think there are some potential areas of difference between US and other bookings including cancellation policies, gratuities, etc ... not that there necessarily are in this case, but something to make sure you take a look at when comparing prices and what is best for you.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

53 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

The rules from Cruise Critic do not allow to mention travel agents names. But maybe some one on this board can give you some hints.

Ah thanks for that.

[Host Hattie]

1 hour ago, travelberlin said:

The rules from Cruise Critic do not allow to mention travel agents names. But maybe some one on this board can give you some hints.

Hinting isn't allowed either 

[gavvy]

Ah well sorry!

 

Do a google search, I assume the big ones will be top of the list.  Some USA agents do refuse to deal with UK though, the one that's all over YouTube is one.  Also some of them you have to call up- not all seem to have a online booking engine

[travelberlin]

12 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Hinting isn't allowed either 

Thank you for pointing this out Host Hattie.

[little britain]

2 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Can you point any of us uk/europeans in the right direction of a good us travel agent......

If we ever cruise together I'll share the names of mine!

[little britain]

1 hour ago, silentbob007 said:

I think there are some potential areas of difference between US and other bookings including cancellation policies, gratuities, etc ... not that there necessarily are in this case, but something to make sure you take a look at when comparing prices and what is best for you.

Yeah! You are forced to prepay gratuities when booking MTD on UK bookings (rirespective of where the cruise may depart from) whereas this is not the case in the USA!

You can get price drops in the USA whereas in the UK you have to cancel and rebook or just suck it up!

 

Some insurance companies (apparently) do not cover you if you are not booked via UK agencies however I have never found that.

 

LB - 13/14 future bookings made via USA

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

Yeah! You are forced to prepay gratuities when booking MTD on UK bookings (rirespective of where the cruise may depart from) whereas this is not the case in the USA!

You can get price drops in the USA whereas in the UK you have to cancel and rebook or just suck it up!

 

Some insurance companies (apparently) do not cover you if you are not booked via UK agencies however I have never found that.

 

LB - 13/14 future bookings made via USA

TAs in canada have some kind of insurance if the cruiseline goes under, or that's what it sounded like to me during covid when people were worried. Someone from Canada I'm sure knows what this is called. 

[LittleJoefromKokomo]

2 hours ago, little britain said:

Yeah! You are forced to prepay gratuities when booking MTD on UK bookings (rirespective of where the cruise may depart from) whereas this is not the case in the USA!

You can get price drops in the USA whereas in the UK you have to cancel and rebook or just suck it up!

 

Some insurance companies (apparently) do not cover you if you are not booked via UK agencies however I have never found that.

 

LB - 13/14 future bookings made via USA

You are correct that tips are prepaid and not optional when booking from Europe but they are specified and I actually removed them when I made my comparison, otherwise it would have been almost $250 more. I also belive we have a very little bit more protection such as possibility to cancel and get our slightly lower (about $400 instead of I belive $500 in the US)  reservation fee back. As far as I know we can't book non refundable cruises here but we also miss out on the matching price if the cruise price becomes lower. 

But regardless, if the same cruise, same cabin is $1200 cheaper I am going to hunt for an American travel agency that accepts European customers alternativly give Club Royale a call and see what price I get there.

[DerekB]

I live in Europe, but book my entire families cruise together (they are all in the United States). My European address shows up on the booking - but I get the US price. I have done this via phone with the US number (partially because we travel with my sister's service dog). We've not had any issues at all, anywhere. 

[cruiseboy89130]

12 hours ago, LittleJoefromKokomo said:

I am looking at a 7 day cruise on July the 6th 2025 out of Barcelona on Allure for a Western Mediterranean cruise and notice that there is a huge price difference if I look at the cruise from Royals US side compared to their European one.

If I book this cruise from the EU site they want $3759 for an interior GTY but if I book it from the US site it only costs $2519. Of course Royal makes it hard for us Europeans to do that since we need to fill in a US state to be able to book and then it doesn't match the adress they have on file but I am wondering if I call the Club Royale can I book this cruise through their casino numbers and get the US price regardless if I have a casino offer?

I have read somewhere that it is possible to book through Club Royale regardless if one have any current offer. Club Royale uses US pricing regardless of where the customer is I belive.The other option is going through a US travel agency I suppose.

Have any other Europeans done this successfully? I refuse to pay almost $4000 for an interior GTY on Allure...

Any US address will do! No problem! You are way overthinking this! But remember booking in the US means you give up your consumer rights!

[LittleJoefromKokomo]

4 hours ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

Any US address will do! No problem! You are way overthinking this! But remember booking in the US means you give up your consumer rights!

We have good friends that live in Florida so I might try to put my name on their adress when booking. Will be interesting to see if it works out. Consumer rights are good to a certain degree, but not if I need to pay $1200 more...

[LittleJoefromKokomo]

5 hours ago, DerekB said:

I live in Europe, but book my entire families cruise together (they are all in the United States). My European address shows up on the booking - but I get the US price. I have done this via phone with the US number (partially because we travel with my sister's service dog). We've not had any issues at all, anywhere. 

I can get the US price online aswell, but when trying to make a reservation I haven't gotten further than what US state to put in and since I don't live in the US I never went further. Maybe it will be easier if calling.

I can see that some cruises such as Transatlantics are almost the same price, but European cruises differ very much in price and is always much more expensive to book for Europeans than from the Usa. Would be interesting to know if it is the same price for Canadians and US market for the same cruise?

[Ourusualbeach]

38 minutes ago, LittleJoefromKokomo said:

Would be interesting to know if it is the same price for Canadians and US market for the same cruise?

Canada and the US share the same booking platform and the only difference in price is the exchange rate

[Ourusualbeach]

10 hours ago, firefly333 said:

TAs in canada have some kind of insurance if the cruiseline goes under, or that's what it sounded like to me during covid when people were worried. Someone from Canada I'm sure knows what this is called. 

Not all of Canada.  Only Ontario.  Its part of the coverage under TICO.  Applies to airlines as well. 

[cruiseboy89130]

7 hours ago, LittleJoefromKokomo said:

We have good friends that live in Florida so I might try to put my name on their adress when booking. Will be interesting to see if it works out. Consumer rights are good to a certain degree, but not if I need to pay $1200 more...

You will be missing out on Royal's xmas present and on their b-day present!

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, cruiseboy89130 said:

You will be missing out on Royal's xmas present and on their b-day present!

Which presents? I have never got those presents and I am Diamond at Royal. What are they?

[cruiseboy89130]

4 minutes ago, travelberlin said:

Which presents? I have never got those presents and I am Diamond at Royal. What are they?

You need to call C&A to activate that!

[hallasm]

I have cruised 30+ times with RCCL and have booked my cruises on their European pages or with European/US TA depending on where I got the best deal.

- most European RCCL web prices include all taxes and gratuities due to EU rules for prices.
Although the EU price appears to be higher than for US prices, they can be lower or the same when additional taxes and tips have to be paid in addition to the US list price.

[LeeW]

Good point.  Not sure I have ever seen a sales tax on bookings here.  Just port taxes.  Do you have to pay VAT in Europe on cruise sales?

[cruiseboy89130]

8 hours ago, hallasm said:

tips have to be paid

You don't have to pay tips.....