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I Just Bought The Key and Here's Why


FManke

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I know there has been a lot of back and forth about if The Key was really worth it. @Matt did a great job, pointing out why it wasn't a good deal for everyone.

So with all that being said, here's my reasoning for buying it.

The current price for The Key for our cruise is $16.99 pp/pd. That's the lowest I've seen on any cruise since The Key program started. I'm sure the price has to do with the fact that it's about 340 days from sailing and it's for Rhapsody, a smaller ship with admitted limited Key benefits. The total for our cruise with tax comes to $237.93.

We would have purchased Voom Surf and Stream for one device anyways. The current price for one device is $15.99 pd for a total for our cruise of $111.93.

So, with all that being said, the net cost, The Key minus the Surf and Stream for one device comes to $125.93.

I felt the benefits of The Key, besides Voom Surf and Stream, were well worth what comes down to $9 pp/pd.

With all that being said, I will probably put a Royal Bid in when it comes time to move up from our current JS to GS or OS. If I win, I will just cancel The Key and just add Surf and Stream.

Does this seem to make good sense? It did to me.

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We also recently bought The Key for a Rhapsody 7-night cruise in late January for similar reasons.  But the math is actually a little better.  The Key for 2 people for 7 nights (at 16.99/pp/day) works out to $237.86.  Remember that for each person, The Key includes Voom Surf & Stream.  If we were to purchase a 2-device Surf & Stream package for 7 nights, that works out to $199.43 (28.49 x 7).  So The Key is only $38.43 more and for that price we get to drop off our carry-ons on the  first day and Chops Lunch, nice sit-down breakfast on the last day and the ability to cut the line leaving the ship.  The special hours for the rock climbing does not interest us and the reserved seating (in the balcony) doesn't interest us either since we prefer to sit up close.  (Rhapsody doesn't have Studio-B)

The bottom line is that if you weren't interested in the Surf & Stream in the first place, The Key may not be worth it.  However, if you were planning to purchase a 2-device Surf & Stream package anyway, the Key may very-well be worth it. 

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4 hours ago, FManke said:

I know there has been a lot of back and forth about if The Key was really worth it. @Matt did a great job, pointing out why it wasn't a good deal for everyone.

So with all that being said, here's my reasoning for buying it.

The current price for The Key for our cruise is $16.99 pp/pd. That's the lowest I've seen on any cruise since The Key program started. I'm sure the price has to do with the fact that it's about 340 days from sailing and it's for Rhapsody, a smaller ship with admitted limited Key benefits. The total for our cruise with tax comes to $237.93.

We would have purchased Voom Surf and Stream for one device anyways. The current price for one device is $15.99 pd for a total for our cruise of $111.93.

So, with all that being said, the net cost, The Key minus the Surf and Stream for one device comes to $125.93.

I felt the benefits of The Key, besides Voom Surf and Stream, were well worth what comes down to $9 pp/pd.

With all that being said, I will probably put a Royal Bid in when it comes time to move up from our current JS to GS or OS. If I win, I will just cancel The Key and just add Surf and Stream.

Does this seem to make good sense? It did to me.

Also comes with chops embarkation lunch and intercontinental breakfast debarkation no?

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2 hours ago, baltodave said:

We also recently bought The Key for a Rhapsody 7-night cruise in late January for similar reasons.  But the math is actually a little better.  The Key for 2 people for 7 nights (at 16.99/pp/day) works out to $237.86.  Remember that for each person, The Key includes Voom Surf & Stream.  If we were to purchase a 2-device Surf & Stream package for 7 nights, that works out to $199.43 (28.49 x 7).  So The Key is only $38.43 more and for that price we get to drop off our carry-ons on the  first day and Chops Lunch, nice sit-down breakfast on the last day and the ability to cut the line leaving the ship.  The special hours for the rock climbing does not interest us and the reserved seating (in the balcony) doesn't interest us either since we prefer to sit up close.  (Rhapsody doesn't have Studio-B)

The bottom line is that if you weren't interested in the Surf & Stream in the first place, The Key may not be worth it.  However, if you were planning to purchase a 2-device Surf & Stream package anyway, the Key may very-well be worth it. 

You're correct in your assessment of savings with the 2-device Surf and Stream package. Since we were only planning on getting the one device plan, I just factored that into the cost of ours. Enjoy The Key and happy cruising!

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On 10/24/2019 at 10:19 AM, FManke said:

I know there has been a lot of back and forth about if The Key was really worth it. @Matt did a great job, pointing out why it wasn't a good deal for everyone.

So with all that being said, here's my reasoning for buying it.

The current price for The Key for our cruise is $16.99 pp/pd. That's the lowest I've seen on any cruise since The Key program started. I'm sure the price has to do with the fact that it's about 340 days from sailing and it's for Rhapsody, a smaller ship with admitted limited Key benefits. The total for our cruise with tax comes to $237.93.

We would have purchased Voom Surf and Stream for one device anyways. The current price for one device is $15.99 pd for a total for our cruise of $111.93.

So, with all that being said, the net cost, The Key minus the Surf and Stream for one device comes to $125.93.

I felt the benefits of The Key, besides Voom Surf and Stream, were well worth what comes down to $9 pp/pd.

With all that being said, I will probably put a Royal Bid in when it comes time to move up from our current JS to GS or OS. If I win, I will just cancel The Key and just add Surf and Stream.

Does this seem to make good sense? It did to me.

It makes sense to me.  The math works.  It amazes me the number of people who have decided The Key is not worth the money.  I am of the feeling it is worth the money if you value your time and the other things it offers.   We think The Key is worth it and we bought it for $21.99.  I am hoping there is a further sale but if there is not I am fine with what I paid.  I wish the people who have never used The Key because they don't think it is worth it would stop judging those of us that do.  Everyone is different.  What I value is different from what someone else does.  I get it.  However, your opinion on the value is not relevant if you haven't experienced the benefit.

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Agreed!

I purchased it for our January sailing on Mariner after weighing out the worth for me. It was priced right for my budget on that sailing and for just a 3 nighter it made sense in our case; we plan to use the FlowRider and slides and have an extremely flexible schedule so won't mind using it during port or dinner times. Another reason this time was for priority debarking. 

 

However I did not purchase it for our seven night Allure sailing next year because the price was a bit higher and our schedule/vibe is a little different for that sailing (might change my mind ?). Priority disembarking not important that time, schedule won't be quite as flexible, and we will need only 1 Voom device. 

I definitely don't feel judged by anyone who offers their opinion as to why it is or isn't worth it for them,  I appreciate the variety of opinions and viewpoints to help me make an educated decision, including yours!

 

 

Edited by PRebecca
Always too many words ?
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Considering that we always purchase Voom for both myself and the wife on each cruise, and that the cost of Voom makes up the major portion of the cost of THE KEY, for us the cost of THE KEY makes a lot of sense.  If you do not value having internet access for your entire cruise, then perhaps THE KEY is not for you.  Also remember, The Key is only available to a small number of guests....I mean, if everyone had it, what good would the exclusivity be?

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4 hours ago, kuruczpa said:

We ended up buying it for a little more than we wanted to but in the end we think itll be well worth the purchase ?

I think like others have said, what it's worth, or the value of The Key depends on what it's worth to you personally. We have no interest in reserved time for rock climbing and things like that on Rhapsody. So that has very little value to us, even if we were on a larger ship with Flowrider and such, those days are behind us. The other benefits seemed worth it to us when the price hit $16.99, but not before that. Since this a fairly new program, it will be interesting to see how it fairs in the future. Being that we are still 11 months from sailing, I find it interesting that the price has dropped from $24.99 at the start to it's current price of $16.99. Seems like a steep price drop so far out.

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6 hours ago, FManke said:

I think like others have said, what it's worth, or the value of The Key depends on what it's worth to you personally. We have no interest in reserved time for rock climbing and things like that on Rhapsody. So that has very little value to us, even if we were on a larger ship with Flowrider and such, those days are behind us. The other benefits seemed worth it to us when the price hit $16.99, but not before that. Since this a fairly new program, it will be interesting to see how it fairs in the future. Being that we are still 11 months from sailing, I find it interesting that the price has dropped from $24.99 at the start to it's current price of $16.99. Seems like a steep price drop so far out.

Good point! We are going on our first cruise and are 28 and 25 so the rock climbing and flow rider times will be good for us since we will want to do those activities. 

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I just bought the key too, again, we were getting voom, nice lunch when we board instead of lining up for the buffet, having not to drag my wine, soda, carry on around till the rooms ready! Plus can board early, not wait in lines, breakfast and off the ship when you want, etc the math works, got the $16.99. 

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