Lucky Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 Alright, I'm looking at an Icon sailing for November 30, 2024. I'm already booked, however my parents were also considering going but were flabbergasted at the price and said no way. Please tell me if I'm doing something wrong because this just isn't making sense to me. Here's the scenario: This sailing is part of a kids sail free promotion. I can book an ocean view with large balcony for 2 adults and 2 kids for $7125.96. However, just booking the same ocean view with large balcony for only 2 adults is $9444.48. There's no way this is right, is there? Can someone explain the phenomenon that is happening? Neesa and RCIfan1912 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 Sounds like Royal Caribbean math has struck again. I'd book the 4 slot with 2 real friends that aren't going and have them be no shows. Neesa and RCIfan1912 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 I'll add one more. If you do 2 adults and 1 kid it's $9600 TessFromFlorida and RCIfan1912 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky Posted January 19 Author Report Share Posted January 19 3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said: I'll add one more. If you do 2 adults and 1 kid it's $9600 How the heck are they even calculating this... RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlantix2000 Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 35 minutes ago, Lucky said: Alright, I'm looking at an Icon sailing for November 30, 2024. I'm already booked, however my parents were also considering going but were flabbergasted at the price and said no way. Please tell me if I'm doing something wrong because this just isn't making sense to me. Here's the scenario: This sailing is part of a kids sail free promotion. I can book an ocean view with large balcony for 2 adults and 2 kids for $7125.96. However, just booking the same ocean view with large balcony for only 2 adults is $9444.48. There's no way this is right, is there? Can someone explain the phenomenon that is happening? Are you sure you're booking the EXACT SAME cabin in this comparison? It's highly unlikely that you are. Cabins for 2 and cabins for 4 are generally different sub-categories. And yes, those sub-categories will have different pricing due to different levels of demand. The proper comparison is a cabin for 4 (2 adults with 2 kids) vs a cabin for 4 (4 adults). Then, even if you have managed to get Royal's website to let you book a cabin that sleeps 4 people for only 2 people, of course it will be more expensive on a per person basis. If Royal lets you leave beds empty, then they are giving up the extra revenue those missing passengers might have spent on board. To make up the difference, they would have to charge more for that cabin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 Price breakdown, all for the same cabin number 2 adults, 2 kids P1: $4837 - $219 for KSF P2: $4837- $2990 for KSF P3: $1049 - $1049 for KSF P4: $1049 - $1049 for KSF 2 adults, 1 kid: P1: $6808 - $298 for KSF P2: $6808 - $4204 for KSF P3: $1049 - $1049 for KSF 2 adults P1: $6808 - $298 for 60% off 2nd guest P1: $6808 - $4204 for 60% off 2nd guest RCIfan1912 and Neesa 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky Posted January 19 Author Report Share Posted January 19 23 minutes ago, Atlantix2000 said: Are you sure you're booking the EXACT SAME cabin in this comparison? It's highly unlikely that you are. Cabins for 2 and cabins for 4 are generally different sub-categories. And yes, those sub-categories will have different pricing due to different levels of demand. The proper comparison is a cabin for 4 (2 adults with 2 kids) vs a cabin for 4 (4 adults). Then, even if you have managed to get Royal's website to let you book a cabin that sleeps 4 people for only 2 people, of course it will be more expensive on a per person basis. If Royal lets you leave beds empty, then they are giving up the extra revenue those missing passengers might have spent on board. To make up the difference, they would have to charge more for that cabin. I checked what you said, and to your point, the subcategories are not the same. However, you still cannot convince me that it makes sense to charge less for 4 people than 2 people. RCIfan1912 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlantix2000 Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 1 hour ago, Lucky said: I checked what you said, and to your point, the subcategories are not the same. However, you still cannot convince me that it makes sense to charge less for 4 people than 2 people. It totally depends on supply and demand. If there are a lot of 4 person cabins available but the 2 person cabins are almost sold out, then the 2 person cabins will rise in price. That's just how dynamic pricing works. They could easily sell out the entire ship with a single set price per person, but they'd rather sell out with the maximum possible profit. They also don't want to sell out too early because some people book very last minute and they can charge pretty much whatever they want for those because you either have to pay or not go (and someone will pay). There's plenty of threads here with more in depth analysis. Yes, it sometimes produces weird results like the "you pick your cabin" being cheaper than a "we'll pick your cabin" (also known as Guarantee bookings or GTY) when there's only a small number of GTYs left on the ship. Nobody has to like it, but Royal is currently enjoying great success financially so it's clearly working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 Cruise pricing is dynamic and influenced heavily by supply and demand. When a category of cabin such as 4B has ample empty cabins the price for this specific category can be lower than another category such as a 3B cabin which is a cabin that can sleep 3 or more guests. It's all about how well a specific category is booking. "Balcony" is not a category, "interior" is not a category. Consequently it is very common to see a discrepancy between actual categories such as 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B etc. If you had priced this cruise the very first day it opened you would have likely observed that cabins for two guests, such as 2B or 4B would have been lower than cabins for more than two guests such as 1B, 3B, or 5B, etc. Over time as various categories start to book up the demand factor is applied to each category independently of any other category. For your cruise, in a month's time the cabins for 3 or 4 guests maybe nearly sold out (because there are fewer of them) and their price may be much higher than the current rate on that day for a cabin that holds two. On the other hand if these same cabins aren't being booking the rate can go lower than it is today to stimulate bookings. There is no fixed price for any cabin. There is the rate on the day the shipped opened for booking and there is today's rate or what they call the prevailing rate. You may see it as "whacked out", I see it as an opportunity to find deals since my schedule is flexible. Since I am okay in any type of cabin I can play the dynamics across many types of cabins from interior to suites. They all fluctuate independently of each other and some days they drop rates to stimulate bookings, but they only drop rates for categories that aren't booking as well compared to a category that is booking well. The rate you booked was the prevailing rate on the day you booked. At some previous point in time it may have been higher or lower. We'll never know. At some future point in time it may be higher or lower. You'll only know if you check often. aubtfan, TessFromFlorida, Ampurp85 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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