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Everything posted by twangster
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Welcome to the message boards! I often buy frozen turkey and chicken patties at Costco. I also freeze some hamburger buns. When I feel like a burger but I'm trying to limit my red meat intake I'll throw a frozen turkey patty on the grill and pop in a frozen bun near the end to warm it up and toast it slightly. Easy summer lunch that takes 10 minutes. Local grocery stores offer them as well, typically in the same area that pre-made beef patties are found.
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I think the system tries to dampen some of the drive by noise. When ever I am on the phone with my agent looking at prices she will put a hold on any cabin we talk about even if I haven't committed. This way someone else can't scoop that cabin out from under my feet if I tell her go ahead. Imagine a coupe of different agents at different agencies doing the same at any given moment. The system displays it like it is available but also recognizes someone is in the system potentially booking it but they have not fully committed to it.
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Cruise Planner Sale July 15, 2019
twangster replied to twangster's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Excursion also follow supply and demand practices. The last time excursions went on sale I grabbed a dozen or so across a handful of cruises. Many of those were booked at rock bottom prices. They went back up in price after that sale until this sale came along. In some cases maybe I was the only person who had booked excursions in New Zealand 7 months from now. Some came down in price and I saved even more. in other cases it's possible other guests also jumped in during the last sale. If an excursion is half booked they aren't going to deeply discount it this far out. It went on sale just not as deeply discounted as it was when I booked. I keep a spreadsheet with my excursions listed and I check them frequently which is how I found this sale. I have a total of 19 excursions booked right now and saved over $120 from this sale. However not all of my excursion dropped below the price I previously paid. I don't see this "new math" but simply as supply and demand. -
Galveston Ports of Call? Can Change Happen?
twangster replied to cruise-y's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Me too. I sailed a 12 night transatlantic that had one stop when I booked it. And I loved it! -
New Fees on Quantum of the Seas
twangster replied to Oliver's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
The business model Royal uses in China was developed locally in that region. Other cruise lines have failed or had limited success in China because they tried to take their standard product from another region and force it to work in China. Royal didn't do that, they built their China business model from scratch following cultural norms and expectations for Chinese consumers. I had a conversation with a hotel director who spent 7 contracts working in Asia. In China specifically it's apparently normal to charge for everything. Chinese guests are not shocked by this practice, it's accepted. Expanding this successful model to include Singapore likely isn't being done blindly or out of greed. Singapore consumers possibly track closer with some Chinese cultural norms than they do with some Western norms and expectations. It also reduces crew confusion as ships like Quantum shift between Singapore and China home ports. European consumers are similar to, but also different than North American consumers in some areas. Royal and some of the other big cruise industry players take a North American product and plug it into Europe. This works to some degree because a lot of North Americans end up on those European cruises but there is evidence of the incongruity with European consumers in areas like gratuity practices. Contrast that with China cruises where very few Westerners end up on ships sailing from a China home port. The "all inclusive" mentality of the cruise market is an interesting discussion. In the early days cruises may have been more towards all inclusive. There was one dining room on the ship where all meals were consumed. There was no buffet, no other smaller restaurants on board to supplement the primary dining venue like there are today. Back in that day sometimes wine was offered at dinner but most guests in that era wouldn't binge drink at dinner simply because it was offered. Ships held two or three hundred guests but many were from a similar cross section of society. Cruising wasn't mass market like it is today. Fast forward to today. Ships hold thousands of guests representing wildly different backgrounds and areas of society. Cruises are within reach for lower income households today when they never were in the early days of cruising. Cruising is much more affordable today than it was in the early days of cruising. If Royal offered complimentary wine at dinner today it would be mass chaos of chugging wine just to get another glass, and another glass. Some guests would go overboard binge drinking just because they can. Royal now has 26 ships with over 70,000 guests on board at any given moment. It would cost a small fortune supplying all that wine every night to tens of thousands. For guests that don't binge drink or don't drink at all they would have to pay higher fares to account for the cost of all that wine. Instead of forcing all guests to pay more so that some guests can over indulge, guests who wish to indulge pay for it while guests that won't, don't have to pay for it. This is where all inclusive begins to break down. The catch with all inclusive is that it isn't free. Someone is paying it and no for-profit company is going to write it off as a loss to offer all inclusive. Why force everyone to pay for things they don't want? Many cruisers don't want Voom. To make Voom included everyone would have to pay more including guests who don't want it. Some people don't drink alcohol. To include all alcohol cruise fares for everyone would increase. It isn't fair for a guest to pay for something they don't want and the something one guest doesn't want is different than the something another guest doesn't want. All inclusive simply doesn't adapt or scale to the mass cruise market because there are too many different consumers with wildly different needs and expectations yet people hark back to the olden days when more was included. Even people who weren't born then go back in time and draw comparisons to that all inclusive era missing that ships held a couple hundred guests who all tended to be affluent for that era. Cruises were more all inclusive back in the day because the affluent guests who booked cruises expected it and could afford it. It wasn't free, they paid for it. You still see this on certain boutique or luxury cruise lines. Ships are smaller with lower capacity and cruise fares are higher. More is included and the guests booking these types of ships tend to be more similar from a smaller slice of society. This is not mass market cruising. The same concept applies to activities. Ships have to offer outlandish activities to differentiate themselves from the hundreds of other ships. Many activities have to be included because of consumer expectations. These activities cost money to build and money to maintain and operate. It's conceivable that at some point they may need to charge for some activities so that they can continue to offer inexpensive cruise fares. Certain activities do carry a charge. Escape rooms for example. Why make everyone pay for all activities when not all guests can or want to use them? A flowrider costs money to build, maintain and operate. Why should a person who can't or doesn't want to use a flowrider pay for it? As I get older and stop using zip lines, ice skating, bumper cars, rock walls and so on I could make an argument for why I shouldn't have to pay for everyone else to use them. -
Typically this occurs when one was in the inventory but someone else clicked on it. When you price a cabin, any cabin, by clicking on it you lock that cabin out of inventory as you step through the process of booking. If you back out and look at another cabin that cabin you had clicked on takes up to 15 minutes to re-appear in the inventory. This isn't very obvious when there are hundreds of balcony cabins available. For suites though, particularly Star Class you can get a lot of drive by window shoppers clicking on the one cabin that might be available to see the price. A lot of external agency websites have live APIs through to Royal so people clicking on a number of different websites can cause this effect of a cabin popping in and out of inventory.
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Cruise Planner Sale July 15, 2019
twangster replied to twangster's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
When it comes to drink packages there is no pattern or logic. They are largely influenced by booking trends. If not enough people on a specific sail date have purchased drink plans, they might go down. If sales are strong for a specific sail date, they won't come down. The danger in waiting for a beverage package price drop is that it may never occur. Once sales cross a threshold, prices for that sail date will never come down again. -
Robes for non-suite cruisers
twangster replied to stephenkurucz's topic in Royal Caribbean Discussion
Hello? Photo credit? -
Galveston Ports of Call? Can Change Happen?
twangster replied to cruise-y's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Agreed. The ship is the destination. Bahamas as a destination may represent a nice change, but... Perfect Day plus Nassau is basically what Navigator and Mariner are doing on their 3/4 cruises. Beyond CocoCay it's kind of a boring itinerary. Only small ships can get into Key West. -
Galveston Ports of Call? Can Change Happen?
twangster replied to cruise-y's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
The reality is they are limited in where they can reach in the time allotted. If you wanted to drive a car from Galveston on a land cruise and you had to be back in 7 nights plus you could only drive at 25 miles per hour maximum, you have a finite area you can visit. No one wants a 7 night cruise that starts with 3 sea days, stops in one port then has 3 sea days back. No one wants ports of call that arrive at 2am and leave at 11am. People want to visit during daylight at a destination. Some people can spend more than 7 nights on vacation, the bulk can't. The quintessential American vacation is one week (or less). All cruises must include a foreign port of call by law. Put it all together and you have Galveston itineraries. You can't change the physics of the equation. -
Favorite Ship? Please share and why!
twangster replied to RobinL's topic in Royal Caribbean Discussion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bay_Seasoning Basically it's something that East coasters, particularly Marylanders put on every meal they can. -
Somewhat personal as both cabins are very nice. ATS gives nice aft views as well as views of the aqua show. They are a bit of a walk from the aft elevators banks though. L1/L2 loft suites are very conveniently located within close proximity to the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen. IMO the "wow" factor goes to the side facing L1 loft suites. L1 (side facing) versus L2 (rear facing) is a decision as well.
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Royal Caribbean first ever aircraft?
twangster replied to Skid's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
They were planning real skydiving but the Jones Act and PVSA wouldn’t let them disembark passengers early. -
It would suck if their loyalty program only awarded points AFTER the cruise. Double for solo would be nice though, or in a suite.
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Dad? Is that you?
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New way to count down to cruise day
twangster replied to JLMoran's topic in Royal Caribbean Discussion
Doesn't count, he's not on a Royal ship :) -
Cruise Planner Sale July 15, 2019
twangster replied to twangster's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Nice. Keep in mind that these sales often roll in slowly so check back tomorrow if you aren't seeing any deals today. You never know. -
New Fees on Quantum of the Seas
twangster replied to Oliver's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
No surprise really, this model has worked well in China for the Asia region. If (or when) it spreads West is another matter. -
Royal Caribbean first ever aircraft?
twangster replied to Skid's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
Just what I want to fly... a "glitch" flight. -
Caveat emptor... The most reliable and consistent product that I have experience with when traveling is the TP-Link AC750 model TL-WR902AC. It's a few years old now and there may be better and newer products out there.
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Favorite Ship? Please share and why!
twangster replied to RobinL's topic in Royal Caribbean Discussion
What ever ship I'm on... she is my favorite. Not always Mrs. Right, but always Mrs. Right Now. -
Favorite Ship? Please share and why!
twangster replied to RobinL's topic in Royal Caribbean Discussion
Empress? -
Cruise Planner Sale July 15, 2019
twangster replied to twangster's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
I suspect the intern is triple checking everything, potentially at their new job somewhere else. -
Canceled St. Thomas/St. Croix stops
twangster replied to mworkman's topic in Royal Caribbean News and Rumors
St Thomas is America. It's also a small island much like a small town and somebody always knows somebody else that can get an article pulled.