Anyone Else Leaving or Considering Leaving RCL Over Prices?

[The Sunset Glow]

We are D+ and have been sailing only Royal since our first cruise in 2000. We tried some other lines early on but settled with Royal as it fit our needs, preferences and price point the best. We have one more Royal cruise this year (booked when prcing was still very good) but that's it. This is the first time over a decade that we have not had multiple bookings in our planner. We will be looking at more higer-end/inclusive lines or land vacations going forward.

 

And this is not just because of the cost. Royal's pricing has gone way up but the food quality and service has been cut big time. The value for dollars is no longer there for us so we are moving on. This is not to say that we'll never be back - it would just have to be a better value than what they currently offer.

[BK79]

I haven't been on a cruise in years and am on Harmony next month. I am taking my family of 5 and was literally just mentioning to my wife that I hope the boys don't get too attached because the same/or similar cruises for next year are over 3k more. With minimal dining add ons, drink packages, gratuities etc... the cost is insane(and I am not cheap). As someone who has cruised in the past but have been taking land vacations for the past 15 years, I just don't see a value in cruising and dealing with the lines, crowds and questionable food when you can go to fantastic resort for cheaper. Hopefully the cruise is so awesome it changes my mind. But for a family of 5 I could go to Cancun next year, and a couples trip to Vegas for the same price as most of the Oasis ships. 

[island lady]

2 hours ago, Anton said:

Remember when they had a full hot breakfast menu in there when it was a concierge lounge?  It was great. 

 

Yes, absolutely!  Though that was on just slightly older twin sister Oasis.   Funny thing with the "Diamond Lounge" which was on deck six over the Promenade...was only for coffee.  The happy hour was on deck four in...was it the "Cript"?   Totally a dungeon.  😄  

 

Then that area became the DL later.  

[GetToLivin]

Nope, we love the brand and I feel like if I tried another line I'd just be comparing it to RCCL the whole time anyway. I have, however, come to terms that I may only be able to sail once a year instead of two, and per usual, will have to remain very flexible on travel dates so I can lean into any "deals" I find.

 

DH and I did an AI at a 5-star resort in 2021 before the cruise lines lifted the vaccination requirements - all I did the whole time was look out to the ocean wishing my room was waaaaaay out there in the middle of the sea 🫠

[firefly333]

5 minutes ago, GetToLivin said:

Nope, we love the brand and I feel like if I tried another line I'd just be comparing it to RCCL the whole time anyway. I have, however, come to terms that I may only be able to sail once a year instead of two, and per usual, will have to remain very flexible on travel dates so I can lean into any "deals" I find.

 

DH and I did an AI at a 5-star resort in 2021 before the cruise lines lifted the vaccination requirements - all I did the whole time was look out to the ocean wishing my room was waaaaaay out there in the middle of the sea 🫠

As a solo a land vacation or AI doesnt appeal. I think a lot of solos prefer cruises. Not just me.

[kruzerci]

2 hours ago, The Sunset Glow said:

We are D+ and have been sailing only Royal since our first cruise in 2000. We tried some other lines early on but settled with Royal as it fit our needs, preferences and price point the best. We have one more Royal cruise this year (booked when prcing was still very good) but that's it. This is the first time over a decade that we have not had multiple bookings in our planner. We will be looking at more higer-end/inclusive lines or land vacations going forward.

 

And this is not just because of the cost. Royal's pricing has gone way up but the food quality and service has been cut big time. The value for dollars is no longer there for us so we are moving on. This is not to say that we'll never be back - it would just have to be a better value than what they currently offer.

My sentiments exactly. 

[Cooper30]

6 hours ago, SUgwoz said:

I find that to be a common theme in reviews for MSC, along with mentioning that the few times they leave the YC area for other parts of the ship they have an escort.  Makes it sound like the ship outside of YC is not appealing and more chaotic.

We dipped our toes in MSC on Divina out of Miami back in January….Fantastica “experience”.  Some things were better than RC, but some weren’t. We had a good time and would do it all over again. 
 

All things being equal (including price), we would go with Royal.  We are Inside Guarantee people most of the time, so our budget is on the low end, and even down there, MSC’s Fantastica experience beats Royals GTY most of the time. 
 

We have five cruises booked through January 2026….three with Royal and two with MSC.  

[firefly333]

I still have nothing booked from may 2025 until jan 2026. Nothing appeals to me at the prices offered or it's just a duplicate of what I already have booked. First time for me that I cant find anything to book. Hopefully last minute I find something after I get moved to florida. Might or might not be with royal. 

[BecciBoo]

5 hours ago, firefly333 said:

I think only those with anytime dining can eat once in the semi pay restaurants.

There was nothing but late seating left since we just booked her and we leave in 3 weeks so I called and mentioned this very thing to the rep and she laughed at me!  Anytime dining was not even available to click on "waiting list"... but she said she got us on it.  My only hope is to work it out with the MtrD onboard.

[firefly333]

31 minutes ago, BecciBoo said:

There was nothing but late seating left since we just booked her and we leave in 3 weeks so I called and mentioned this very thing to the rep and she laughed at me!  Anytime dining was not even available to click on "waiting list"... but she said she got us on it.  My only hope is to work it out with the MtrD onboard.

I sure would. 3 pay restaurants that are not free if you have assigned times.

 

Imo they made the dining room too small to hold everyone on purpose hence this way of handling the overflow. Used to be unlimited in these pay venues, just recently they said 1 night free of each. 

 

 

[barbeyg]

21 hours ago, SG65CB said:

It would be interesting to know if anyone has done an apples-to-apples comparison of prices for similar ships, same stateroom category and size, same home port and similar itinerary to see if Royal is higher compared to others or if the others have gone up too. 

Other lines have gone up too.  What we have discovered is that all lines have particular cruises that are less expensive, at different times.  You have to hunt for them.  By doing that on multiple lines, you can find more bargains.  For example, we love Celebrity’s suite class (much better than RCI), and shop until we find a great price.  We don’t really have a preference on when we go, other than I won’t cruise the Caribbean during the summer (after decades on the Gulf Coast, this Tennessean hates the heat then).  
 

We found an itinerary we loved on NCL Prima from Iceland to GB, sailing the Norwegian Fjords.  It was priced less than RCI’s older, smaller ships doing similar itineraries.  If we had only been willing to sail RCI, we would have paid more, for a lesser experience.

 

So yes, the more lines we are willing to consider, the better bargains we will find. 🙂 At least, that’s what we are finding. 

[plethera1]

6 hours ago, Vibe said:

I disembarked the Allure this morning. The ship was clean and in decent shape considering it will go to dry dock soon. Mamma Mia and the rest of the entertainment was excellent!  The crew was very friendly.

I see no reason why you wouldn’t enjoy your future cruise on her.😊

Good to hear.  My family and I have a short cruise next Friday.  Introducing my mother-in-law to cruising.

[JoieNsk]

I guess I will join the group who is not loyal to any cruise line. But I never really was. Except probably for Disney. But even with Disney now when our daughter is grown up - I feel like it is over, till we maybe have grand kids some time.

 

For me - too - it is itinerary/price combination that matters.

 

We did do couple cruises kind of for the ship experience, as I found some great deals and they were on some significant dates (like anniversary etc). And we totally enjoyed them.

 

But now I am not in charge of our travel plans anymore (like I was when my husband was still working). Now my husband is retired, and he swore to plan couple non-cruise trips for us. We will see :)))

 

So the few cruises we have already booked right now are ALL itinerary driven, Europe and South America. And all of them are on different cruise lines.

[JoieNsk]

I feel like "higher price/worse experience" combo is all over tourist industry right now. 

 

Maybe it's pent-up demand for travel. Maybe it's still staffing shortages. Most likely both.

[Crazy planning mom]

On 2/29/2024 at 5:45 PM, crazyfrazee said:

My cruising history started with Carnival. I was a cruise away from turning platinum when they did me wrong. I left and didn't think I'd ever go back. I switched to Royal and became platinum and have really enjoyed cruising with them until they went crazy with pricing. I know "pricing" has been beat to death on here!

 

I booked Carnival Celebration which is less than 2 years old, 183,000 GT, 7 day cruise in an ocean view suite for only $3100. The room has a divider so it's like 2 rooms with 2 large screen tv's. 

 

Anyone else looking at other cruiselines until the prices come back down with Royal?

Use a travel agent.  I got a much better price recently when I used a travel agent to book my Fall Symphony of the Seas sailing.

[jean87510]

Yes.  We already discovered and love MSC YC.  

 

Will only do Royal again if booking is port intensive and does not include CocoCay or Nassau.  We have 4 cruises booked upcoming.  After that we will stick with either MSC YC for Europe or a smaller luxury line for French Polynesian or Caribbean.  The ICONs and the CocoCay is just not what we want.  Maybe when my kids were younger.  

[lovesthebeach2]

I’m not sure if it’s because we live in Florida, but so many TV ads the past couple of days are all “Weekend Cruising” commercials for families showing young kids on all the amusement type pool activities. Theres nothing wrong with that, but it shows that clearly Royal’s primary target audience is families with young children. Again, that’s ok.

 

But with so many of the large ships out of Florida doing only 3 and 4 night cruises, their current audience which likes to take longer cruises, and not short cruises as B2Bs, are being overlooked, and they seem to be closing the door to many that usually take multiple cruises at a time and do this often.

 

Yes, they have 2 other cruise lines we can use, but I hope this decision to focus on “Weekend Cruises” only where most who book them will not take multiple cruises like so many of us do, doesn’t backfire. I don’t like to use the word “Loyal” but we’ve been happily comfortable cruising with Royal, but if we look around and try other lines, we can get comfortable there too…. And we cruise more than a weekend a year as do many others that have more time and money than young families.

[snaefell]

Just an observation as we are not avid cruisers,any we choose to do it tends to be chosen by the itinerary.

We are soon to depart on our 2nd Royal cruise,on Anthem,our one previous Royal experience was on Quantum from China to Singapore in 2019,loved the ship,we should have done more cruises with Royal but IME they kept changing itineraries after we booked,very annoying.

Itineraries aside the issue I have with Royal price wise mainly is the cost of speciality dining,we did try Chops one night on Quantum,good food & service,the big disappointment was the mean portions with the sides.

That is something we won't be repeating on Anthem,last year we had a 3 week Med cruise with P&O,we enjoyed our best ever meals at sea in the Ocean Grill,all for around £30,the Indian themed restaurant Sindhu,gave us almost equal quality for a similar price,service & portion size were excellent in both,drinks on board were a similar price to what we would pay in bars at home,without 18% added on!

Our cruise planner is currently showing Chops available at the bargain price of £55pp,tempted,you must be joking!

We could be seeing a lot of the Windjammer on Anthem if the MDR turns out to be as bad as it was on Quantum!

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’m not sure if it’s because we live in Florida, but so many TV ads the past couple of days are all “Weekend Cruising” commercials for families showing young kids on all the amusement type pool activities. Theres nothing wrong with that, but it shows that clearly Royal’s primary target audience is families with young children. Again, that’s ok.

 

But with so many of the large ships out of Florida doing only 3 and 4 night cruises, their current audience which likes to take longer cruises, and not short cruises as B2Bs, are being overlooked, and they seem to be closing the door to many that usually take multiple cruises at a time and do this often.

 

Yes, they have 2 other cruise lines we can use, but I hope this decision to focus on “Weekend Cruises” only where most who book them will not take multiple cruises like so many of us do, doesn’t backfire. I don’t like to use the word “Loyal” but we’ve been happily comfortable cruising with Royal, but if we look around and try other lines, we can get comfortable there too…. And we cruise more than a weekend a year as do many others that have more time and money than young families.

Last night I was looking to add in an 8 nighter at the end of April. The pricing was eye popping. I'll be staying home.

[island lady]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’m not sure if it’s because we live in Florida, but so many TV ads the past couple of days are all “Weekend Cruising” commercials for families showing young kids on all the amusement type pool activities. Theres nothing wrong with that, but it shows that clearly Royal’s primary target audience is families with young children. Again, that’s ok.

 

But with so many of the large ships out of Florida doing only 3 and 4 night cruises, their current audience which likes to take longer cruises, and not short cruises as B2Bs, are being overlooked, and they seem to be closing the door to many that usually take multiple cruises at a time and do this often.

 

Yes, they have 2 other cruise lines we can use, but I hope this decision to focus on “Weekend Cruises” only where most who book them will not take multiple cruises like so many of us do, doesn’t backfire. I don’t like to use the word “Loyal” but we’ve been happily comfortable cruising with Royal, but if we look around and try other lines, we can get comfortable there too…. And we cruise more than a weekend a year as do many others that have more time and money than young families.

 

I love this commercial that Virgin did awhile back.  Yes, there were children on the ad....but for a very different reason.  😄 😄 

 

 

 

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’m not sure if it’s because we live in Florida, but so many TV ads the past couple of days are all “Weekend Cruising” commercials for families showing young kids on all the amusement type pool activities. Theres nothing wrong with that, but it shows that clearly Royal’s primary target audience is families with young children. Again, that’s ok.

 

But with so many of the large ships out of Florida doing only 3 and 4 night cruises, their current audience which likes to take longer cruises, and not short cruises as B2Bs, are being overlooked, and they seem to be closing the door to many that usually take multiple cruises at a time and do this often.

 

Yes, they have 2 other cruise lines we can use, but I hope this decision to focus on “Weekend Cruises” only where most who book them will not take multiple cruises like so many of us do, doesn’t backfire. I don’t like to use the word “Loyal” but we’ve been happily comfortable cruising with Royal, but if we look around and try other lines, we can get comfortable there too…. And we cruise more than a weekend a year as do many others that have more time and money than young families.

 

Considering RCI is having no issues selling out their ships at ever increasing rates, I think RCI knows exactly what they are doing. Unfortunately businesses change over time and cruise lines like RCI are no exception. Either you accept the changes or move on to another cruise line that is more in line with what you like. Expecting RCi to go back to doing things the way they did before is not realistic. 

[island lady]

Funny thing is being Pinnacle, with the extra perks...I should stay with RCI.   Being an RCI stock holder, I should stay.   Having an RCI Visa card with those perks...I should stay.

 

 

But I am not.  😉   I still have few on the books with RCI, but am booking with other lines as well now.  

 

Though my stock sure has gone way up with all these cut backs and price increases.  😄 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2 by island lady

[Ocean Boy]

5 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 Expecting RCi to go back to doing things the way they did before is not realistic. 

Until the next recession or pandemic comes along. Then RCI will be doing everything they can to get us back on the ships.

[Engineroom Snipe]

2 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

Considering RCI is having no issues selling out their ships at ever increasing rates, I think RCI knows exactly what they are doing. Unfortunately businesses change over time and cruise lines like RCI are no exception. Either you accept the changes or move on to another cruise line that is more in line with what you like. Expecting RCi to go back to doing things the way they did before is not realistic. 

There were so many memories on those past cruises.

 

Always sad when a relationship is going the wrong  way.

 

"After all, tomorrow is another day". (Gone with The Wind,  Vivian Leigh's last line in the movie which was overshadowed by Clark Gable's "Frankly, my dear, I don' give a damn." The audiences were so shocked by his line that most of them did not even hear her response line afterwards.)

 

We are Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable is 'Royal'. Royal is moving on whether we like it or not.

 

😞

 

 

[barbeyg]

13 hours ago, JoieNsk said:

Maybe it's pent-up demand for travel. Maybe it's still staffing shortages. Most likely both.

I think many businesses, especially the Travel industry, has beaten that “staffing shortage” excuse to death.  🤷🏻‍♀️ That, and supply shortage.  After cutting them slack for quite some time, I see the issues as trying to squeeze the budget more and more, to see how far they can push profits before they start losing customers.

 

It’s much like restaurants on land.  We personally eat out less often, and in better quality restaurants these days,  I’m an excellent cook, and love cooking.  Most restaurants use substandard, or lesser quality, ingredients these days, and it shows in the food they offer.  That’s why we are seeing restaurant chain closures.  People have decided they aren’t willing to spend on inferior products in those restaurants.
 

There will be a tipping point to cruises too.  If there isn’t, like many others, we will sail less, and spend our $$$ on a better travel product.  We aren’t the only ones who would rather reserve our travel budget for better choices.  🙂