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Cruise Price Hike


B&S

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Recently saw the cruise price hikes...ouch!  We've been LOYAL Royal cruisers, switching from Carnival, for 15 years now.  I read how Jason Liberty is raving about the price increases and saying he's getting no backlash from passengers.  Is this really true?  We're Diamond+ and Prime, but it looks like we're being priced out of future cruises.  Does anyone else feel this way?  Also, what are the "WatchList" icons when looking at cruise fares?

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Everything and I mean everything has gone up in price. It's not realistic to expect cruises wouldn't or shouldn't. I would however happily pay more then except cuts to quality. What being Diamond has to do with the price of tea in China is lost on me. Inflation and price hikes can and should effect all. And as for feeling "priced out", well how do you think people who have had 30% and 40% rent increases feel? It's tough all over my Diamond friend. LOL.

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The "post COVID" price hikes are pretty astounding.  I used to be able to snag an Oasis-class L1 loft cabin for ~$5600 if I purchased early and paid attention.  They're now like $15K.  Ouch, indeed.  A GS for my upcoming AK cruise was ~$6800 with all of the various discounts; like being old, D+, a degenerate casino player, and a shareholder.  I'm not a cheap date, but they're pricing me out.  Tempted to switch to land vacations until normalcy returns.

Screenshot 2023-02-12 at 11.32.20 AM.png

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I was just thinking about this kind of subject last night.  I am starting to get used to paying double for everything.  The inflation in the last two years has caused almost everything to jump up.  I don't purchase meat at the store anymore.  Eggs are something I have not had in the last year.  When I stop and get a burger and drink, I am not suppressed to pay over $10 for something I got for $6 two years ago.  The only thing that has not gone up is my paycheck.  

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Money-harvesting by CEOs has had a profound effect on the planet.  

Perhaps it's only a western problem, but at some point soon these companies and individuals are going to be taxed very hard.  I suspect it'll be the first item of business for the new UK government in May 2024.  Hopefully Biden and the EU follows suit. 

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14 minutes ago, teddy said:

The cost of goods has risen everywhere.   
 

My wife and I were talking this morning that the days of us finding cruises for around $75 per person, per night are gone. 

Oddly enough, Royal recently cancelled our Brillance cruise to Hawaii, and the replacement cruise we selected from Baltimore to Canada was only $82 per night for Ocean View, before taxes, etc.  This price was less than the lowest price we saw online for same room.  Now they switched us from refundable deposit to nonrefundable, not sure why, but the savings seem worth it.   

But back to the OP, the price of balcony rooms on this cruise was ridiculous, some $850 more per person ($4600 for the two of us) than the longer, cancelled Hawaii cruise we booked a few months ago.

I think the better rooms are seeing the most significant price increases.

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31 minutes ago, ChessE4 said:

Oddly enough, Royal recently cancelled our Brillance cruise to Hawaii, and the replacement cruise we selected from Baltimore to Canada was only $82 per night for Ocean View, before taxes, etc.  This price was less than the lowest price we saw online for same room.  Now they switched us from refundable deposit to nonrefundable, not sure why, but the savings seem worth it.   

But back to the OP, the price of balcony rooms on this cruise was ridiculous, some $850 more per person ($4600 for the two of us) than the longer, cancelled Hawaii cruise we booked a few months ago.

I think the better rooms are seeing the most significant price increases.

We paid $1184 after taxes but before gratuities for the 8-night Anthem cruise we just finished.  Interior on deck 9.  This will be hard to beat. 

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I haven't been keeping track with a ledger, so take this for what unrecorded observations are worth. It seems to me that Royal has increased base fares slightly for when sailings are first offered. However, the maximum price per sailing has gone up significantly and price increases from their demand-based pricing algorithm increases fares quicker than they used to.

 

2 hours ago, B&S said:

I read how Jason Liberty is raving about the price increases and saying he's getting no backlash from passengers.  Is this really true? 

Backlash, in this case, is decreased bookings. I'm sure they're receiving angry emails and telephone calls about the price increases.

 

3 hours ago, B&S said:

We're Diamond+ and Prime, but it looks like we're being priced out of future cruises.  Does anyone else feel this way? 

Not more than any other vacation option. This might sound a little funny, but due to general price increases and the fares on the older ships in the fleet (which have already hit the average service life in RCL's fleet at retirement) I'm considering two B2Bs in 2025 if the fares and itineraries are right to hit Diamond Plus. Since status is kept for life, figure I might go ahead and vacation for multiple weeks with Royal again in 2025, get the second-highest loyalty tier, then receive the benefits on future bookings. Price increases are easier to take with the comps given due to status.

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I guess I look at the price increases a little differently.  Yes, prices are going up. No doubt about it. 

I don't like it, but what's the alternative? I'm not willing to stay home and sit in a rocking chair.  Land based vacations are also on the rise and don't seem much cheaper.  RV life is unaffordable now.

Therefore, I plan to grin and bear it. Perhaps I'll choose a cheaper room or ship. Or maybe a cheaper itinerary. But I'll still go.

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Prices will be set based on supply and demand economics -- plain and simple.  As long as ships continue to sail at high capacity, prices will continue to go up as it means there is someone willing to pay those higher prices.  We have experienced heavy inflation and interest rate hikes that we have not seen since the early 80's which will impact a lot of people.  Unfortunately, there are people on fixed incomes (think retirees) that may be priced out and will not be able to afford a luxury like cruising (or may cut back on frequency), but it is what it is.  RCL has a lot of high interest debt to paydown because of covid and that will be their priority for the next few years, even if it means losing some loyal customers.  Until the debt can be paid down or restructured with lower interest (which isn't going to happen anytime soon), and dividends begin being paid again to their investors, we are going to just have to suck it up and pay the higher prices or find other more affordable vacation alternatives.

Our best bet to get back to cheaper prices is to hope that competition remains strong with the cruise lines and none of them go out of business.  When inflation and interest rates settle, there will hopefully be a new price war campaign as each of the major lines will change their priority focus away paying down debt and more towards gaining market share.

At the end of the day though, cruising still provides a tremendous value over other vacation alternatives.  I can still cruise with Royal a lot cheaper than going to Disney World.

I hope I am not coming across as mean as I defiantly sympathize and understand everyone's frustration.  I have had to make some lifestyle changes, as I am sure a lot of you have done too, just to maintain my base standard of living.

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It does suck but lots of people are to blame, lol. People who pay $75k for a family room for 7 nights drive up the cost. I cruised a lot last year because the casino comps and prices were amazing. Now anything I look at is at least double what I was paying before and after covid......but it's true for everything. Cruising still provides an amazing value but I will have to do it less considering I don't live near a port. 

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For a largeish family, such as mine, cruises are still the most economical vacation. Our 10 nighter on Vision over spring break and Easter is less than $4000 for 6 of us. Adding 3 nights hotel on either side of that and excursions we’re probably around $6000. I priced that against 7 nights at Disney World the same week and that would have cost us at least $10K, and Disney is a much more exhausting non-vacation. Even our 7 nighter to Alaska is significantly cheaper than a Disney World vacation. Side note, if you have an Alaska cruise planned out of Seattle this summer the flight prices on air2sea are insanely cheap right now. I got 8 first class tickets on delta, round trip, nonstop for $137!! They showed up almost immediately in the delta app for us to pick our seats. 

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We are in the middle of inflation nation the price of everything has gone up. Have you seen the price of eggs recently?  Now imagine how many eggs Royal Caribbean is using fleet wide every week? And that's just eggs that doesn't take into account any other food that is included in the price of the cruise.  I'm the grocery shopper for my husband and I what use to cost me $150 dollars in groceries is now over $300 dollars for the same groceries.

Next think about the cost of fuel which is still expensive and then labor cost have gone up, also something most people don't think about is the cost associated with with waste removal once the ship is back in its homeport.  I know from working in the airline industry disposal of waste both garbage and human waste has gotten extremely expensive.  

If customers feel like they are being priced out of cruising I would suggest choosing a cabin in a lower category or chose an older ship. If you're looking to cruise on an Oasis Class, Quantum Class and for sure Icon class expect to pay a lot more money.  Anyone expecting prices to come down over the next year or so is going to be greatly disappointed.

My husband and I just decided to turn our October cruise on Wonder into a B2B they had one Crown Loft suite left it cost $13,560 dollars, a lot more than the Crown Loft we had already booked and paid for.  At first we were going to book a junior suite at $3,982but  dollars because their were no Grand Suites available we changed our minds and decided to pay the higher price because we wanted a Crown Loft, wanted access to the suite deck, and Wonder has less Crown Lofts/Grand Suites than any other Oasis Class ship. Since we were already book in a Crown Loft and we didn't want to play the RoyalUp game with so few suite we decided to just pay the price and enjoy our vacation. To go from a Crown Loft on week one to a junior suite on week two was a compromise we weren't willing to make so we paid the the higher price.

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There have been a number of blog posts here and elsewhere over the past several months warning that price increases are coming or have arrived.  The writing has been on the wall for over a year.  

However the same can be said for other forms of travel.  Recently the CEO of the Hilton brand stated the days of cheap hotel stays are gone.   Airfare has trended upward as well since demand increased. 

I'm not sure where everyone is going.  I used to enjoy Delta Skyclubs pre-pandemic.  They would be busy at times and often near capacity but since the restart there have been waiting queues outside the clubs to get in.  I never saw that pre-pandemic.  Recently it took over an hour to find airport parking and I had to park at the wrong terminal and take a train to my terminal.  Where are all the people going?  Just a lot more travel going on now.  

I had shifted some of my cruising to MSC until they recently increased the cruise fare of a confirmed booking months after I made it and when I complained they adjusted my final payment due date to try to have me miss final payment leading to cancelation.  Fortunately I noticed the day before and cancelled just in time to get my deposit back.  So while there are cheap cruises on other lines they can be down right shady companies.  

It's shaping up so I may not have any Royal cruises in 2023 and I only have a 2024 Royal cruise booked because it's Icon.  That one cruise is sucking up a massive amount of my annual cruise budget for the year.

So it seems Royal while is finding people to sail their ships, it's just not me, I can't afford it.

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17 hours ago, B&S said:

Recently saw the cruise price hikes...ouch!  We've been LOYAL Royal cruisers, switching from Carnival, for 15 years now.  I read how Jason Liberty is raving about the price increases and saying he's getting no backlash from passengers.  Is this really true?  We're Diamond+ and Prime, but it looks like we're being priced out of future cruises.  Does anyone else feel this way?  Also, what are the "WatchList" icons when looking at cruise fares?

They believe the value gap of cruise to land based is "too good, too much value."  So prices will go up.  If your ships are at 100% occupancy despite being moved into less markets because one of your profitable markets is closed, then you have to raise prices.  As others have said, there's still some pretty good values out there and fair prices.  As I usually have internet, drink package, etc, I have found cruising on Celebrity or Princess is better for me at this point with their bundled fares.  Went on Oasis last month, dont have another Royal cruise booked, but have 2 on Celebrity and waiting for North American Sun Princess sailings.  

That said, after being on Oasis (really enjoyed it) I do know I would be just as happy on Adventure, or Radiance, or whatever which adds more options to find interesting itineraries at good prices.  

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we were ready to book a JS on symphony in feb of 2024 and nearly had a cow as it was over 5k for two. i understand that may not be much for some, but for our travel budget, that could cover 2-3 NICE cruises for us. and there were not many cabins left in that category, so folks are taking full advantage.  

we lucked out and have 2 more cruises planned this year that we got great deals on, but will be hard pressed to book for 2024 at this rate. thinking of exploring virgin (valiant + scarlet lady) since we have noticed a completely different type of cruiser demographic aboard these days (not bad, just different), as well as many many children running rampant. 

i love kids; and firmly believe they should get to BE kids. but running up and down the hallways at night, yelling while their parents cheer them on — may not be our cup of tea these days. 

so i guess we see what we will see! 💚

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9 hours ago, twangster said:

I had shifted some of my cruising to MSC until they recently increased the cruise fare of a confirmed booking months after I made it and when I complained they adjusted my final payment due date to try to have me miss final payment leading to cancelation.  Fortunately I noticed the day before and cancelled just in time to get my deposit back. 

Thank you for the heads up so we can actively monitor.

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On 2/12/2023 at 12:00 PM, B&S said:

Recently saw the cruise price hikes...ouch!  We've been LOYAL Royal cruisers, switching from Carnival, for 15 years now.  I read how Jason Liberty is raving about the price increases and saying he's getting no backlash from passengers.  Is this really true?  We're Diamond+ and Prime, but it looks like we're being priced out of future cruises.  Does anyone else feel this way?  Also, what are the "WatchList" icons when looking at cruise fares?

Yes, prices are higher.  Just like everything else.   I book my cruises mostly as soon as they are published.  If the prices drop you can change your price, as long as it is before final pymt.  Pretty much though, when you book that early you will have the best price.  

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I agree that all price increases are crazy.  Between the pandemic, the Ukraine war, the crazy weather, and the increase of minimum wages, our world has changed.  I am fortunate that I can still afford to cruise.  However, I may need to choice a different room type to afford the cruise.  While the balcony or above is nice, I will take an interior room just so I can cruise. 

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29 minutes ago, FireFishII said:

I agree that all price increases are crazy.  Between the pandemic, the Ukraine war, the crazy weather, and the increase of minimum wages, our world has changed.  I am fortunate that I can still afford to cruise.  However, I may need to choice a different room type to afford the cruise.  While the balcony or above is nice, I will take an interior room just so I can cruise. 

16 hours ago, JasonOasis said:

If customers feel like they are being priced out of cruising I would suggest choosing a cabin in a lower category or chose an older ship. If you're looking to cruise on an Oasis Class, Quantum Class and for sure Icon class expect to pay a lot more money.  Anyone expecting prices to come down over the next year or so is going to be greatly disappointed.

... To go from a Crown Loft on week one to a junior suite on week two was a compromise we weren't willing to make so we paid the the higher price.

11 hours ago, twangster said:

There have been a number of blog posts here and elsewhere over the past several months warning that price increases are coming or have arrived.  The writing has been on the wall for over a year.  

That's what we're running into also - we can still technically afford to go on the cruises we're looking at next year, we will just pay the same as the past two cruises in a much lower class of rooms. Or pay much, much more for the same class of room that we had. Our concession for this upcoming cruise in April from last year was to shift from connecting balconies to just adjacent balconies with our teens (but still thrilled to have balconies!!). Not sure we'll opt to have balconies on our next one and it really stinks to have to downgrade once you've gotten used to something! And it's not just a little bit more, like 10% or 20%, it's more than double. 

Cruising on Oasis+ class is obviously more expensive, but also the time of year makes a huge difference. I'm sure there are still some good deals to be found if you can cruise at a time of year that is less popular or out of a port that is less busy, but only if you have a flexible schedule to do so. For those of us who have kids or teens in school, prices are horrible for spring break or summer. Our friends told us a few weeks ago that they want to take a cruise with us next year. By the time we figured out what dates will work for both families (only 3 different weeks/options in summer 2024) and I looked again, prices had skyrocketed for those weeks and there aren't really even great cabins left - for a year and a half from now! I'm really hoping my TA has some group rates they bought up when prices were lower that we might be able to take advantage of.

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We’re very fortunate that we’ve been able to book four cruises through March 2025 at “old” prices, three of which are “bucket list” itineraries.  One of them is with another company, but other three are with Royal. 
 

We’re (im)patiently waiting for the rest of the 2025 itineraries to be released. Our fingers are crossed that we’ll be able to afford another bucket list cruise, but we’re not overly confident.

 

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12 hours ago, twangster said:

I had shifted some of my cruising to MSC

Completely off topic, but have your written about any of these cruises?  I have always enjoyed your live blogs and photography and I would be interested in your experience on another line. Not that I am really shopping around, as I only cruise ever 4 years or so. 

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22 hours ago, StayFrosty said:

Completely off topic, but have your written about any of these cruises?  I have always enjoyed your live blogs and photography and I would be interested in your experience on another line. Not that I am really shopping around, as I only cruise ever 4 years or so. 

I did elsewhere at the time but I haven't on any recent sailing.

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You can’t compare pandemic prices when people weren’t traveling to a now post-pandemic where everyone is suffering from “cabin fever” and traveling again in near record numbers.  I realize that prices are rising on most goods and services.  And I assume that the cruise industry as a whole will float prices up to what the market will bear.  I my opinion, the value that RCL offers grows smaller with each price hike.  Their marketing department is extremely unimaginative.  I’ve been seriously following RCL and these boards for maybe 14 months now.  I’m tired of the “30% and kids sail free” promotion that seems to be their only strategy that plays on an endless loop to my inbox. 

I’ve stated in another thread that we have 2 sailings this summer.  One on the Quantum OTS to Alaska and one on HAL Rotterdam to Norway.  Both trips are within $500 of each other (HAL is more).  Balcony room, mid-ship, deck 7 (HAL), deck 8 (RCL). 

With HAL we received as part of the cruise, drinks package (similar to DBP), Wifi for 2, pre-paid gratuities, one night in specialty restaurant, $100 ea. excursion credit, $100 OBC.  This beats the snot out of “30% off and kids sail free” (those with kids might disagree) and this is REAL value to me as an empty nester.

RCL is not only raising cabin prices, but add-ons are going up as well.  Per this board, the days of $50 or $55/pp DBP are gone. Wifi is creeping up. Restaurant quality appears to be going down (at least in the MDR). 

Give me some pricing during shoulder seasons when a lot of kids are not sailing. Stop nickel and diming me on the on-board stuff. Beef up existing offerings like the Key. The Key should have some nice spiffs and it just doesn’t (Look at the Club Orange on HAL). What RCL charges for Wifi is obscene.

I know this is a fan site, but this fan will look for greater value as prices rise. 

 

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We have cruises booked the next two augusts on Voyager class ships out of Canaveral. August 24 on Wonder (similar cabin, etc) was going to be just shy of twice what we paid for Harmony August 22.  And yes I understand that isn't apples to apples, it's the only Oasis class ship to compare for those dates.

I have a post tax season/daughters wedding Vegas trip booked for May.  Trust me, cruising isnt the only thing that costs considerably more than recent history. I suspect I will end up canceling it. 

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On 2/12/2023 at 7:33 PM, Squid said:

 I suspect it'll be the first item of business for the new UK government in May 2024

Given the revolving door No 10 has had this past year we cannot be sure that this government will last that long! Lol 😆 

On a side note this Government has already implemented the Windfall tax, hitting energy companies who have made larger than normal profits the past year, even though they say it costs more for gas and oil due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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