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The "sweet spot" cruiser


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From PR Week:

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"Our sweet spot is the maturing millennial, in their late 20s and early 30s with kids, to grow our brand," said Royal Caribbean CMO and SVP of marketing Jim Berra. "As you start to find vacations that work for your family, you tend to repeat those experiences. We have a great chance to reach that audience and create loyalty that will last decades."

That's me!

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18 minutes ago, Matt said:

From PR Week:

That's me!

Not me....i took my first cruise 2 years ago at 47 with teenagers.   I was busy being disney's sweet spot lol!  I do wish Id found cruising earlier,  but teeing to make up for lost time.   I hope though that in aiming towards that group, total doesnt lose other groups in the process.  I know WAAYTOO has mentioned that rc doesn't treat loyal repeaters well in trying to get new cruisers.   Jane

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2 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

Not me....i took my first cruise 2 years ago at 47 with teenagers.   I was busy being disney's sweet spot lol!  I do wish Id found cruising earlier,  but teeing to make up for lost time.   I hope though that in aiming towards that group, total doesnt lose other groups in the process.  I know WAAYTOO has mentioned that rc doesn't treat loyal repeaters well in trying to get new cruisers.   Jane

This is really funny, as I'm taking my first cruise next year and will be 48 at that point, also with teenagers. And I booked when 46 (less than a month before my birthday). ?

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29 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

This is really funny, as I'm taking my first cruise next year and will be 48 at that point, also with teenagers. And I booked when 46 (less than a month before my birthday). ?

 

2 hours ago, mom2mybugs said:

Not me....i took my first cruise 2 years ago at 47 with teenagers.  

Got ya both beat. First cruise at 52! :10_wink: Better late than never!

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48 minutes ago, rjac said:

Beat cha.....58 for me, with in laws. 

You got me...barely.  

My first was at 53, and now it's pretty much all I think about anymore.  You can bet your sweet bippy that 

I won't go 23 months without a cruise again (until I cruise on up to Heaven!)!!!

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19 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

Hmm... my first was at 25 with my future in laws. 

I am now 27 and I've been on... 7. 

I caught the addiction early. 

First one's always free...then you check in to the CAF...Cruise Addiction Foundation...commonly know as the Diamond Lounge...then one day you get your Diamond+ luggage tags in the mail...then...then...then...I can stop any time...nevermind that I have two futures booked...that means nothing...wait...why are all these people in the room...noooooo...there is no such thing as a cruise addiction intervention!!

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2 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

Hmm... my first was at 25 with my future in laws. 

I am now 27 and I've been on... 7. 

I caught the addiction early. 

How the heck do you seven cruises in 2-3 years (depending on the timing relative to the birthdays)??

And #8 coming up in just a few months! ?

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I started at 36..single and no kids.....and did 10 cruises in the next 3 years......I did 7 in the first 2 years when I really caught the bug and could find some great deals.....

 

But I am not the one Royal makes much money from...I refuse to pay extra on extras on top of taxes and fees and upgrades and perks and gratuities etc.

 

I look for the cheapest/best deal.....buy the drink package(and they don't make any $ off me from that I can assure you) and I enjoy the ship for what it is and the ports but don't spend hundreds or thousands extra on top of the cruise fare like they want and expect!!

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1 hour ago, Floski said:

She's an international assassin, so she gets a lot of time off between jobs...

 

:15_yum:

SHHH! 

Actually, I'm a consultant for a company that makes software for software developers and write custom code/do training/consulting on configuration/a whole bunch of really exciting stuff. I'm still fairly young for what I do so my vacation time is a little short so all of the cruises I've taken have been 3-5 days... so it sounds like more than it is.

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5 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

SHHH! 

Actually, I'm a consultant for a company that makes software for software developers and write custom code/do training/consulting on configuration/a whole bunch of really exciting stuff. I'm still fairly young for what I do so my vacation time is a little short so all of the cruises I've taken have been 3-5 days... so it sounds like more than it is.

Software consultant, right! That's ok, your secret is safe here! :10_wink:

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On 6/22/2017 at 8:18 AM, monctonguy said:

I started at 36..single and no kids.....and did 10 cruises in the next 3 years......I did 7 in the first 2 years when I really caught the bug and could find some great deals.....

But I am not the one Royal makes much money from...I refuse to pay extra on extras on top of taxes and fees and upgrades and perks and gratuities etc.

I look for the cheapest/best deal.....buy the drink package(and they don't make any $ off me from that I can assure you) and I enjoy the ship for what it is and the ports but don't spend hundreds or thousands extra on top of the cruise fare like they want and expect!!

I'm curious, do you use the savings to get any excursions or other off-ship activities (I'd assume directly through third parties to have more options and also similarly save some money vs. booking directly through Royal)? Is it to offset the costs of flying to the cruise ports from Canada? Or is it simply so you can cruise as much and as often as possible?

I like exploring new places I'm seeing as much as possible, which to my mind means doing some kind of excursion if there are historical ruins in the area, or a good snorkeling spot, or something else out of walking distance / taxi ride (and that I can manage with my mobility limitations). Maybe it's because I know I only have so many years left before my mobility limits get worse and I'm not able to do it any more, or maybe it's just that I'm an Aquarius with an insatiable sense of curiosity. :10_wink: And of course, that means more money spent on the trip, possibly lots of it. Never mind the museums, cultural spots, and restaurants. (oh my!)

But I can totally see how if you're not looking for more than just walking around the port area or maybe taking a cab to a nearby town (like going to Marigot in St. Maarten), enjoying the beaches, and otherwise just relaxing, and that's what makes a great vacation for you, then an excursion is pointless and a total waste of money.

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It is basically to offset the flight cost from Canada....it ends up being somewhere between $750 to $1000 for flights and to stay the night before at a hotel.

So at that cost I could only afford to do one long nice cruise with all the extras and perks....or I have to try and find 2-3 cheaper cruises a year and make that work. I prefer to cruise more often and do less when on the cruise. I still enjoy the ports and the casino when on board....I just don't usually spend $100's extra on each port stop for excursions.

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@monctonguy, ouch!! That is a serious nut to crack with the airfare. I know in another thread you were talking about trying to drive to Cape Liberty port to save on the airfare and be able to get some nicer cruise options, that sounds like it might be a really good thing to investigate.

For what it's worth, I've also seen a handful of cruises that depart from Boston (although I think those are mainly New England and Trans-Atlantic itineraries, plus a "Beantown and Beaches" trip I saw that goes down the coast in an open jaw run to Florida). Depending on where in Canada you live, that might be another option and possibly a more reasonable drive than New Jersey. I know just getting to Niagara Falls from my home in northern NJ is a good ten hour drive, so I imagine you're looking at somewhere between 12 and 16 hours. Of course, an extra overnight in a hotel along the way is still way cheaper than that flight. :51_scream:

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Yeah, its a long drive for sure. I live about 3 hrs from the Maine/Canada border.

Hard to balance it out between the driving time and the flight costs.....but I am looking at options for driving. Most of my cruising is done during the winter mths though when driving is not enjoyable or desirable.

 

Just waiting for some vacation confirmation and then I will be able to see if I am able to take the extra time it will require to drive of if flying it will have to be and deal with the high costs.....

 

 

 

 

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Airfare is the killer for me. It's usually $1,000-$1,200 for the family just for airfare alone plus hotel costs. For this December, I was able to secure a great return flight price ($121 per person), but the outbound flight is likely going to run about $350 as it's a holiday cruise. 

Of late, we've been favoring Europe as the airfare hasn't been that much higher and often the cruises are longer, so the per night rates had been as or more competitive than the Caribbean sailings. 

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22 hours ago, DocLC said:

Airfare is the killer for me. It's usually $1,000-$1,200 for the family just for airfare alone plus hotel costs. For this December, I was able to secure a great return flight price ($121 per person), but the outbound flight is likely going to run about $350 as it's a holiday cruise. 

Of late, we've been favoring Europe as the airfare hasn't been that much higher and often the cruises are longer, so the per night rates had been as or more competitive than the Caribbean sailings. 

And this is why we got into looking at the europe river cruises...the airfare isn't that much more.   It used to be that i could be 250 max for a chicago to Orlando spring break (late March)  flight.   I just purchased tickets for 550 to fort lauderdale because im afraid to risk them going up.  Although if you can believe it, American was cheaper to fly first class than coach by 30 bucks or so a ticket and it included 2 bags each so we did that.

If time isn't an issue (more in the summer), then we can drive the 21 hours...it stinks,  but doable.   For spring break,  even if we drive straight through both ways we have a hard time fitting it in.   My airfare for freedom next march was literally 500 less than the whole cruise.   Yuck...  Jane

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On Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at 8:17 PM, Matt said:

From PR Week:

That's me!

That was us .

Ok it was18yrs ago when I was 30(gulp !) but they are right , we started Cruising and found our thing.

We srarted with Carnival (great) then P&O (crap) and finally found our home with RC and haven't looked back , just wish we had found RC years ago. 

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On 6/27/2017 at 8:19 AM, mom2mybugs said:

And this is why we got into looking at the europe river cruises...the airfare isn't that much more.   It used to be that i could be 250 max for a chicago to Orlando spring break (late March)  flight.   I just purchased tickets for 550 to fort lauderdale because im afraid to risk them going up.  Although if you can believe it, American was cheaper to fly first class than coach by 30 bucks or so a ticket and it included 2 bags each so we did that.

If time isn't an issue (more in the summer), then we can drive the 21 hours...it stinks,  but doable.   For spring break,  even if we drive straight through both ways we have a hard time fitting it in.   My airfare for freedom next march was literally 500 less than the whole cruise.   Yuck...  Jane

I live in Chicago also. I will get up and check Southwest in the middle of the night. I have several flights to Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale. I have purchased my holiday tickets to Tampa roundtrip at 250 per person.

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5 hours ago, Sweety said:

I live in Chicago also. I will get up and check Southwest in the middle of the night. I have several flights to Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale. I have purchased my holiday tickets to Tampa roundtrip at 250 per person.

Great price.  I wish southwest flew out of ohare!  Lately american has been our best options in terms of convenience but not necessarily the cheapest.   Im starting to try and price now for the January half marathon at disney...need to fly in and out of Orlando but those prices are better than in Dec or march.  Jane

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Three things I use when I'm booking airfare, everyone may know these, maybe I was just late to the game at finding them, airfarewatchdog.com, skyscanner.com, setup alerts for destinations and travel dates, these both will email you and tell you if pricing has changed, Hopper, is an APP you can load on your smart phone, it does predictive analysis on perspective destinations and dates to "predict" when the best pricing will be available, one warning, Hopper only predicts on coach, not business or first. I also use Google flights to get a basic idea of flight cost, and if dates are flexible the calendar view really helps.

I used all of these last year when I was flying to Barcelona for a Mediterranean cruise and was able to snag really cheap Business class airfare, half what I was going to pay, I fly out of Tulsa, OK, and don't have a lot of choices, American has a large maintenance facility here, so I usually fly with them. I have found like mom2mybugs stated, it has been cheaper to fly first class then to fly coach with American lately.

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1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

Three things I use when I'm booking airfare, everyone may know these, maybe I was just late to the game at finding them, airfarewatchdog.com, skyscanner.com, setup alerts for destinations and travel dates, these both will email you and tell you if pricing has changed, Hopper, is an APP you can load on your smart phone, it does predictive analysis on perspective destinations and dates to "predict" when the best pricing will be available, one warning, Hopper only predicts on coach, not business or first. I also use Google flights to get a basic idea of flight cost, and if dates are flexible the calendar view really helps.

I used all of these last year when I was flying to Barcelona for a Mediterranean cruise and was able to snag really cheap Business class airfare, half what I was going to pay, I fly out of Tulsa, OK, and don't have a lot of choices, American has a large maintenance facility here, so I usually fly with them. I have found like mom2mybugs stated, it has been cheaper to fly first class then to fly coach with American lately.

Another one is ita matrix.  Ive just decided though im not good at searching airlines!   Sigh....

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Yea, I still believe it is hit and miss, I have had really good luck with Skyscanner. They notified me of a price drop on international tickets that I had already bought, even after paying the change fee to the airlines I still saved $1000.00

It gets really confusing when the "experts" start saying for domestic the "sweet spot" for buying is x number of days away from flight date and international is xx number of days way, Asia/Pacific is something different.

 

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35 minutes ago, tiny260 said:

Yea, I still believe it is hit and miss, I have had really good luck with Skyscanner. They notified me of a price drop on international tickets that I had already bought, even after paying the change fee to the airlines I still saved $1000.00

It gets really confusing when the "experts" start saying for domestic the "sweet spot" for buying is x number of days away from flight date and international is xx number of days way, Asia/Pacific is something different.

 

Glad we live close enough to Florida so we don't have to fly! Nice easy 2 day car ride.:27_sunglasses:

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