Sticker Shock

[Bridgetbien]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I am SHOCKED at the prices on Royal now. We did a weekend cruise on Freedom last Nov. It was great. We looked into another weekend Nov 2024 cruise and couldn't believe the prices for Allure or Liberty. We worked with our travel agent to find the best weekend deal she could get us (which saved us over $500 booking through her compared to the website-use a TA!!!) because luckily we could be flexible about which weekend/which ship. Then I looked at excursions and things-$400 for a beach bed on Coco Cay?! We paid $169 last year! I know cruising is still cheaper for us than even just going to florida for a long weekend once you add in entertainment, transpo, food, drinks, etc. However, it was a wake up call to see the prices of things now. Whew. 

[smokeybandit]

Why shocked? Interest in cruising is at an all time high right now.

[Srp431]

Prices have been increasing across all vacation destination, including cruises. This is on the news / internet pretty much weekly, with lots of people vacationing due to the shutdown destinations opening up.

[Happy Cruisers]

Nothing new, but cruise pricing has changed dramatically since the pandemic, certainly in the last two years.  In late 2021, we started planning a multi-generational trip intended to be on Icon with extended family for when it launched.  Long story short, we still took the trip in January 2024, but the family is instead just back from a land-based trip to Grand Cayman and saved quite a bit of money over Icon in doing so (AirBnb is great when it works out well).  Recent comments from Bayley suggest that there is enough sustained demand that pricing won't be returning back to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon, at least with respect to the most-desirable ships and itineraries.  We can all complain about it like we do taxes, discourteous drivers and all the other things in life that don't change to suit us - or, if its not worth it to you, do what we did: take your vacation time and dollars somewhere that offers a better value proposition for your travel party, whatever that may be to you guys. 

Honestly, it was nice not to worry about getting a package for this, a package for that, deciding where and what time we're going to dinner on a Wednesday night that is 6 months from now, waiting for the elevators, dealing with chair hogs, tiny rooms and inconsistent service/housekeeping, terrible on-board dining options, being constantly hit up for even more money in tips... it was like we were on vacation or something!  Oh, and we weren't making our 1000th trip to Cozumel, St. Kitts, etc... 

The company makes a lot of noise about comparing the price of a cruise relative to the price of an equivalent land vacation (probably some fuzzy math in there somewhere, too), but a cruise vacation and land based vacation are not fungible replacements of one another.  Cruising offers advantages (mainly economical in nature, but often also logistical) over land based vacations, where we find land based vacations offer significant advantages over cruising. After this trip, the evidence is in: it'll be quite some time before we consider a family cruise again. 

[steverk]

There's no question that cruises are more expensive than they've been for some time.  Possibly ever. However, it is still possible to find occasional deals. For example, I just returned from a 9 day cruise on Explorer that cost me $500 per person. That's the exception, but it can still be found.

My best advice is to book as far out as possible. 2025 sailings are still being released. Booking as soon as they hit the market will usually snag the best deal.

[Biaggio]

We have 6 cruises booked over the next 18 months that were booked a while ago. Looking at prices now, we are more selective on what we book. I’d love to go on The Icon, but find good deals on older, smaller ships. Repositioning cruises offer good value. Comparison shop; Costco travel, RCL website, travel agencies, and the web.