RCCL Kids Sail Free 2015

[Jennifer]

Hello!  Has anyone heard if the KSF sail will be returning this year?  I believe it was on in March of 2014.  

 

For those of you who were familiar with it, should I expect the pricing to change for the adult prices?  Ie.  if I am looking at a cruise now and the price for 2 adults is $995 ea, do you think the price will be higher for those two once they are throwing in the kids for free?  To compensate?  

 

I am trying to figure out if it is in fact as good a deal as I am hoping or whether I should go with the current RCCL promotion?

 

Many thanks!!

[Matt]

Haven't heard if it will return.  I know many people enjoyed it last year (myself included).

 

For those of you who were familiar with it, should I expect the pricing to change for the adult prices?  Ie.  if I am looking at a cruise now and the price for 2 adults is $995 ea, do you think the price will be higher for those two once they are throwing in the kids for free?  To compensate?  

 

So one thing you have to understand is pricing changes daily (if not more often).  Some people believe RC increases the price during these sorts of sales but I don't buy it.  You can't compare the price today versus a few weeks from now if/when this sale is announced because prices change all the time.  

 

Last year I had a cruise booked and then KSF was announced and we re-priced and saved money on it.  YMMV

[DocLC]

I tend to agree with Matt. Over the past two to three years, regardless of the cruise line, I haven't noticed substantial price changes. Maybe a couple of hundred dollars, a few percentage, but it has usually been offset by an onboard credit and thus reducing the net savings. In addition, Disney, Carnival, and Royal have all publicly stated that they're changing their pricing models to encourage early booking and discourages those who were accustomed to last minute sales to book.  Therefore, it would be in the interest of all cruise lines to offer their best pricing far out, regardless of any sale or promotion, for this paradigm shift to take place.

[jlynn222]

I hope they do..I would love to take my kids on the oasis

[jticarruthers]

Agree and disagree :)

 

I was tracking pricing on several cruises about this time last year trying to get a family group together. Those cruises included Summer of '14, Thanksgiving '14, Springbreak of '15, Thanksgiving of '15 and ultimately Springbreak of '16. (I was posting somewhat frantically asking when the itineraries for late '15 and early '16 would be released right about this time last year because I was going to be on Allure late in March and wanted to book then if possible for the On Board Booking benefit).

 

When the BOGO/KSF deals first came out there were some real reductions in price from what they were at right before the deal. After a very short window, maybe a week or two ? (in which I put deposits on all of the above) the prices "bounced" back to almost exactly what they were before the sales started. Since then they have only ever trended up :)

 

On the one hand you are right in that all cruises trend up over time (at least until final payment) that's the nature of the pricing game, but it's also clear that the BOGO deals basically became a much more exciting way of saying "the price is the same as it has been for months and it isn't going to go down for any reason but this sounds like a great deal doesn't it".

 

If they don't want to discount, fair enough, no problem. The price is either reasonable or it isn't. But the constant game playing gets old. Would much rather see a clean price and then an occasional OBC offer rather than a constant BOGO barrage with all kinds of not-combinables with this or that which make it hard to figure out what the price really is.

[Matt]

When the BOGO/KSF deals first came out there were some real reductions in price from what they were at right before the deal. After a very short window, maybe a week or two ? (in which I put deposits on all of the above) the prices "bounced" back to almost exactly what they were before the sales started. Since then they have only ever trended up :)

That's exactly what RC wanted.  They put out a promotion and lots of folks jumped to book it, thus inventory was reduced and prices increased.  

 

I know lots of folks believe the BOGO (and perhaps KSF) promo come with inflated base prices but I think you're giving RC too much credit for having some evil plan :)

[jticarruthers]

Might be working for them, it might not.

 

I do know I have now cancelled the Springbreak '16 cruise and booked NCL at a much better rate and am really struggling to find an RCL cruise to go on with the prices being skyhigh ... wonder how much this will impact their "we wont discount after final payment" strategy if people start cancelling the cruises that have been priced up :)

[Matt]

Might be working for them, it might not.

 

I do know I have now cancelled the Springbreak '16 cruise and booked NCL at a much better rate and am really struggling to find an RCL cruise to go on with the prices being skyhigh ... wonder how much this will impact their "we wont discount after final payment" strategy if people start cancelling the cruises that have been priced up :)

Royal Caribbean isn't stupid.  They've been moving towards this new pricing structure because they can.  They've seen bookings get better and better and onboard spending increase every quarter. But if bookings stagnated or fell, they'd have to respond, regardless of their pricing initiatives.  They can't send half full ships out, regardless of how much people paid to be on them.

 

I hate to say it as a consumer but we were lucky for many years with basement pricing on cruises, thanks to an economic downturn.  Times are getting better by many economic measuring sticks and thus, Royal Caribbean is reaping the benefits.  

 

I don't think the product is going to get to a point where it's out of any of our prices ranges any time soon but I do think the days of sub-$100/day cruises are numbered.