arebee Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I was talking with a friend who sails on Carnival, we were wanting to meet someplace during a cruise. We looked at shore excursions and found something interesting. Carnival, for the same excursion is cheaper. Now, why does RC charge more for the same excursion? Example: Salsa, Salsa and Margaritas: Royal - $99.00 Carnival - $69.00 Snuba Royal - $89.00 Carnival - $69.99 Tulum Royal - $119.99 Carnival - $89.99 Now some have different names but the descriptions are the same. These are only a few we found others the same way. Anyone know why RC charges more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 My guess is that Carnival can leverage better pricing given the number of lines that Carnival Corp. owns. The other possibility is that their customer base won't pay as much for excursions, so they either run more people on each tour and/or cut the price. I will say I've had some very small tour groups on Royal compared to Carnival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 There are a lot of factors involved in pricing anything. Heck, the price of Chops Grille varies from Royal Caribbean ship to ship. DocLC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jticarruthers Posted February 21, 2016 Report Share Posted February 21, 2016 Because they can ? Marc, Michel and WAAAYTOOO 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 RCI is interested in a higher profit level. It is really very simple their model is to lower the cruise price and then charge more for the extras. Have not done a USA cruise start in a very long time. But I can tell you in every single port I tried throughout Asia with RCI, I was able to find much lower pricing or a price that included much more by booking off the ship vs through the cruise line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jticarruthers Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 Not sure I would agree that they lower the price and then charge more for extras, more like raise the price and continue to charge what they think they can for extras. In regards to shore excursions though you will almost always be able to find the exact same excursion available for less if you do some research and book around the cruiseline. You lose the "peace of mind" factor of going through the cruiseline but you save $. Personally I usually book through the cruiseline my first time in a port until I decide whether I am comfortable with taking a private tour. On any tour of significant length I will book through the cruiseline to get the "we wont leave you" semi-guarantee. On two occasions we have done tours to the Mexico mainland from Cozumel for example and in both cases we were late back to the ship ... in one case we hadn't even boarded the ferry yet on the mainland side at "all aboard" time, definitely glad it was an RCI tour on that occasion !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 While I agree that onboard revenue is an important source of income, it doesn't explain the price differences expressed in the initial post since Carnival is routinely cheaper than Royal. Thus, one would expect Royal to charge more for the excursions to make up the difference which isn't the case. In the end, I agree with others in stating that they charge what they can get away with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdixon22 Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Ask your Travel agent for a 3rd party excursion company. We have done it twice and had great results at a much lower cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilson Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 We have always booked through the cruise line. In April we will be booking everything on our own. Seems by doing so you can save a substantial amount of money, be with much smaller groups and get more time doing the excursion than what the ship offers. Most advertise that none of their customers have ever missed the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asphodel Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 Couple times I've done things on my own. Maybe I did it wrong but I didn't see substantial savings. I have however, seen (well heard of) people missing the ship. My past cruise, the ship was delayed an hour and a half waiting on their own tour buses delayed because of increased traffic in Jamaica (that they warned about upon docking) because of a local election. On that day, I don't think it would have been wise to go on a third party excursion, no matter the guarantees. I've been on another cruise where departure was delayed because of weather causing traffic backup and the rumour later was people had missed the ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 One cruise I was on in 2014, eight people missed the ship in Aruba. Have great video of some of the pier runners who missed the ship which left more than an hour late as it was, so they were really late. In the Caribbean, the on your own savings have been no more than 10-20% for the excursions we wanted, so we just booked with Royal. In Europe, Royal's excursions were excessively over priced, so we booked most on our own, but in one case Royal was cheaper than doing it on our own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Posted March 5, 2016 Report Share Posted March 5, 2016 One cruise I was on in 2014, eight people missed the ship in Aruba. Have great video of some of the pier runners who missed the ship which left more than an hour late as it was, so they were really late. In the Caribbean, the on your own savings have been no more than 10-20% for the excursions we wanted, so we just booked with Royal. In Europe, Royal's excursions were excessively over priced, so we booked most on our own, but in one case Royal was cheaper than doing it on our own. In Asia the markup for Royal Excursions is much more. In general I have found that the true local price is one quarter to one third of what Royal charges, and as a tourist you should be able to say 50% or more off the prices charged by Royal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocLC Posted March 6, 2016 Report Share Posted March 6, 2016 In Asia the markup for Royal Excursions is much more. In general I have found that the true local price is one quarter to one third of what Royal charges, and as a tourist you should be able to say 50% or more off the prices charged by Royal. Sounds like it's the same as Europe. In addition, the tour groups seem to be much smaller when you go with a local/private tour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise-y Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Yes, Carnival shore excursions are cheaper, probably for the same thing. Carnival cruises are cheaper too, but you don't get the same thing. So, if you want the lesser-quality Carnival cruise so that you can get the (probably same quality) shore excursion for less, then that is a choice you make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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