Voom Price Reductions

[4ensic]

The cost of Surf and Stream has dropped for at least 2 cruises.

For the President's Cruise (09-29) on the Harmony, Surf and Stream is down to $10.79 a day.

The Symphony T/A (10-28), Surf and Stream is $11.99 daily.

 

Check your Cruise Planners, fellow propellerheads and save some coin.

 

Update:  Still active for these cruises, possibly more, as of August 24.

Edited August 24, 2018 by 4ensic
Update Availability.

[Alex]

Can you make phone calls with this package or just text to home... USA? 

[4ensic]

5 minutes ago, Alex said:

Can you make phone calls with this package or just text to home... USA? 

Voom is a data plan and doesn't allow directly for calling or texting on its own. 

If your phone can do Internet calling, this package will provide it.

But for the majority of phones you need a Voice Over IP (VOIP) app like Skype, Viber, or WhatsApp.  If you use a MagicJack or an Ooma for your home phone, the respective app will work fine with your home number.

For texting, the free Google Voice numbers work well, also.

[twangster]

27 minutes ago, Alex said:

Can you make phone calls with this package or just text to home... USA? 

It depends on your phone and carrier.  Voom is a wifi plan only, much like you may have at home with your wifi router.  

Many US based post-paid cell phones support wifi calling (TMobile, Verizon, ATT, Sprint, etc). 

Right now at home I can turn on airplane and connect to my home wifi, then place calls just like I can when airplane mode is off.  If you can do the that, at home, right now, you are all set.  If not you can talk to your cell phone provider or use a wifi calling app such as those that @4ensic mentioned.  

I found Magicjack to work, but not great compared to my native TMobile wifi calling capable phone.  

 

[Jonereno]

Agreed... go check it out, folks!  My cruise (Allure, Sept 16) just dropped the price from $15.99 a day to $11.99 a day.  I just had checked the price yesterday.  Both offers listed it as a 20% discount, which makes it appear that they've dropped the base price.

I'm booking mine right now just in case it's a glitch.

Good stuff!!!!

Jon

[Dawn T.]

I just checked my upcoming Harmony cruise for the internet price.  It is on sale for $19.99 per day for 2 devices.  I don't think I have ever seen the 2 device plan that low (but I could be wrong).  We are diamond plus.  Is this cruise planner sale today better than buying onboard with the DP discount?  I was planning to wait until day 2 onboard per @twangster's suggestion, but now I don't know if that is the best price.  Please help. 

[mworkman]

I'm having issues getting the RCCL site to load...anyone else?

[mworkman]

15 minutes ago, Dawn T. said:

I just checked my upcoming Harmony cruise for the internet price.  It is on sale for $19.99 per day for 2 devices.  I don't think I have ever seen the 2 device plan that low (but I could be wrong).  We are diamond plus.  Is this cruise planner sale today better than buying onboard with the DP discount?  I was planning to wait until day 2 onboard per @twangster's suggestion, but now I don't know if that is the best price.  Please help. 

I would jump on that one!!!

[Lovetocruise2002]

23 minutes ago, Dawn T. said:

I just checked my upcoming Harmony cruise for the internet price.  It is on sale for $19.99 per day for 2 devices.  I don't think I have ever seen the 2 device plan that low (but I could be wrong).  We are diamond plus.  Is this cruise planner sale today better than buying onboard with the DP discount?  I was planning to wait until day 2 onboard per @twangster's suggestion, but now I don't know if that is the best price.  Please help. 

Not sure about the D+ discount factor (you have to wait for @twangster to chime in on that one) but it is never $19.99/day for 2 devices.  I would grab it now and then cancel it later if needed.  

[KLA]

22 minutes ago, mworkman said:

I'm having issues getting the RCCL site to load...anyone else?

I am as well. Confirmed on multiple browsers. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

22 minutes ago, mworkman said:

I'm having issues getting the RCCL site to load...anyone else?

 

Just now, KLA said:

I am as well. Confirmed on multiple browsers. 

I can access my cruise planner on 2 of my 4 bookings.  The other 2 lead me back to the sign in page...

[mworkman]

@KLA This is all i get.

[KLA]

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 

I can access my cruise planner on 2 of my 4 bookings.  The other 2 lead me back to the sign in page...

 

Just now, mworkman said:

@KLA This is all i get.

I'm getting the same as @mworkman - clearing cache doesn't resolve it either. 

It looks like I can get to the Cruise Planner the back way but they must be updating the main site. 

[WhiteSoxFan]

I've been having the same problem on and off for the last week.

[Boston Babe]

10 minutes ago, WhiteSoxFan said:

I've been having the same problem on and off for the last week

Me too, but I just signed in Incognito and it finally worked! Thank you @4ensic for the heads up!  I just cancelled and rebooked our Voom for our feb cruise.  Saved $32.40!  That pays for at least one picture right??? LOL

[WhiteSoxFan]

7 minutes ago, Boston Babe said:

Me too, but I just signed in Incognito and it finally worked! Thank you @4ensic for the heads up!  I just cancelled and rebooked our Voom for our feb cruise.  Saved $32.40!  That pays for at least one picture right??? LOL

Yep, that works.  Still the same base price of 19.99 for the GC.  But 20% off right now so $15.99.

[Marc Van Niekerk]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.  Just locked in 11.99 VOOM for Symphony in Feb 2019!

(used incognito too)

[RachelLevena]

Also getting the "Something Went Wrong" page, but I am still able to log into cruise planner. No discount on VOOM though, showing as $15.99 per day for Brilliance March 2019. Currently I'm just hoping for Black Friday deals for deluxe beverage and VOOM.

[Matt]

Saved $30 on my Voom for my upcoming Brilliance cruise.

[ellcee]

Mine went down to $11.99 which is pretty good. Also the deluxe drink plus voom is at a very decent price.

[twangster]

1 hour ago, Dawn T. said:

I just checked my upcoming Harmony cruise for the internet price.  It is on sale for $19.99 per day for 2 devices.  I don't think I have ever seen the 2 device plan that low (but I could be wrong).  We are diamond plus.  Is this cruise planner sale today better than buying onboard with the DP discount?  I was planning to wait until day 2 onboard per @twangster's suggestion, but now I don't know if that is the best price.  Please help. 

The two device plans are harder to calculate because there can be greater variance on-board.  Based on what I have have captured in the past, the two device plan on-board is often $18.99 per device for Surf and Stream, full voyage.   That's $37.98 for two devices total.

Consequently getting it for $19.99 total including two devices in the cruise planner is pretty close to the 50% off on-board prices they are suggesting in the cruise planner and a very good deal.  Just make sure you only apply it to one person.  If you select both people when checking out you are actually buying two, two device plans for a total of four devices.

For an upcoming 9 night cruise with my friend's daughter I am buying it at this price and saving $115 versus on-board using D+ discount.

 

[Dawn T.]

Thanks so much @twangster!  This is exactly the type of help I was hoping for.  You are awesome!  Also, a big thanks to @4ensic the for the initial tip on the prices!  It is $19.99 per day for 2 devices on my next 2 cruises, so I'm going to book for both.  

[KLA]

Awesome - looks like I'll get about $11 in savings by re-purchasing for my next sailing. Drink packages look like they are where I purchased them over the last sale. Thanks for the tip!

[melski94]

@4ensic  Thanks for the heads up!  I checked out my 3 cruises.  

November cruise has Voom for 1 device at $10.79 and 4 devices $29.99!  Booked that one as I don't think I've ever seen a better price!

March cruise Voom for 1 device is $15.99 and 4 devices $54.36.  Haven't bought that one yet.  

May cruise Voom for 1 device is $15.99.  I'm waiting on this one too.

[Boston Babe]

Mine was $10.79 I don’t think it will get any less than that!

[twangster]

For the Symphony TA the drink package is now $39 per day, $49 for Deluxe + Voom.

Voom S&S is $12 per day.

I'm buying the drink package at this price point.  Deluxe + Voom when Voom is $12 effectively makes the Deluxe drink package just $37 per day.  

That's a Kraken Lavaflow and two nice glasses of wine per day.  Very easy to do that.  Add a few beers, bottled water and fruit smoothies plus the fact there are supposedly in excess of 2,500 D/D+ on this cruise and the Diamond Lounge is going to be insanely overcrowded each night.   

[twangster]

Some excursion have dropped in price too.  Saved a whopping $5 on one in September. But heck, it's $5.  I'lll take it.

[JLMoran]

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this! 2-device Surf & Stream for my 5-night Anthem cruise in just 50 days was stuck at $26.58/night forever, today it's marked as 30% off on-board price and down to $19.99/night! You just saved me $32.95!

For those who were having browser problems (@KLA and @mworkman) -- I had no issues with Firefox on my mac here at the office, although that's the only browser that works through our proxy server here.

[mworkman]

it's working now...they fixed it.

 

[twangster]

1 minute ago, mworkman said:

it's working now...they fixed it.

 

Mandatory hamster union break.  They are all back on their wheels now.

This is how Royal IT powers the website:

[NS8VN]

Repurchased our Voom S&S two device for $20/day.  Saved us $20 from when we got it on sale(!) a few months ago.  I wasn't even looking for it, just got on cruise planner to see if anything new had popped up since we are nearing the 90-day mark.

Funny thing, for the first time on our cruise the Voom Surf package showed up for purchase, and on average cost a dollar more per day than Surf and Stream.  I know it's probably a case of one being on sale and the other not, but I had to laugh at that.

[twangster]

Thanks. 

Look at all the money i just saved... 

 

I swear every time they have an upcoming payment due on the latest ship under construction they run a sale like this...

[KLA]

10 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this! 2-device Surf & Stream for my 5-night Anthem cruise in just 50 days was stuck at $26.58/night forever, today it's marked as 30% off on-board price and down to $19.99/night! You just saved me $32.95!

For those who were having browser problems (@KLA and @mworkman) -- I had no issues with Firefox on my mac here at the office, although that's the only browser that works through our proxy server here.

I was able to get it working by using an Incognito Chrome browser and then going directly to the account sign in page. I was having trouble with the Cruise Planner timing out on non-incognito Chrome and IE. 

[KLA]

Just now, twangster said:

Thanks. 

Look at all the money i just saved... 

 

I swear every time they have an upcoming payment due on the latest ship under construction they run a sale like this...

Those Skymiles tho? 

[WAAAYTOOO]

No savings for me  

The past 2 Cruise Planner sales they've had my drink package (Christmas + NY cruise on Grandeur) went from $49 PP/PD to $51 PP/PD.  Then when the CP sale ends, the price for the package goes back down to $49.  Some sale !

[twangster]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

No savings for me  

The past 2 Cruise Planner sales they've had my drink package (Christmas + NY cruise on Grandeur) went from $49 PP/PD to $51 PP/PD.  Then when the CP sale ends, the price for the package goes back down to $49.  Some sale !

No savings on my close in sailings either (August/September).  October bookings through some in January saw some sale prices. 

My holiday cruise last year was never eligible for any sales, not even black Friday.   Seems like they are bound and determined to keep everything about holiday bookings at full price.

[KLA]

Just now, twangster said:

No savings on my close in sailings either (August/September).  October bookings through some in January saw some sale prices. 

My holiday cruise last year was never eligible for any sales, not even black Friday.   Seems like they are bound and determined to keep everything about holiday bookings at full price.

This seems accurate.... we're booked on the 1/4/19 sailing of Mariner (right after the holidays) with my family and drink packages are currently priced at a whopping $59/per day

[WAAAYTOOO]

52 minutes ago, KLA said:

This seems accurate.... we're booked on the 1/4/19 sailing of Mariner (right after the holidays) with my family and drink packages are currently priced at a whopping $59/per day

WOW !  I've never seen it that high on ANY cruise !  That's outrageous

[JLMoran]

1 hour ago, KLA said:

This seems accurate.... we're booked on the 1/4/19 sailing of Mariner (right after the holidays) with my family and drink packages are currently priced at a whopping $59/per day

13 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

WOW !  I've never seen it that high on ANY cruise !  That's outrageous

What strikes me about that is that I had read here and elsewhere that booking a sailing that departs right after New Years was almost always going to be much less expensive than booking the same sailing if it meant you'd be at sea on New Years. I guess Royal has decided that right after that holiday is "close enough" to still charge the premium price. I guess while that may apply to the base cruise fare, it doesn't apply to add-on purchases.

Which is even weirder when New Years for 2019 is on a Tuesday! I could maybe see charging the premium if the departure date fell somewhere inside the "holiday long weekend" period, but with New Years on a Tuesday, and people who want extended time off having to take Dec 31, it makes pretty much no sense. That sailing is squarely outside of any kind of time period you could call inside the holiday window.

Only thing I can think of is that with Mariner now just doing shorter "weekend getaway" and early week cruises, the fact that it's still inside the winter break period for college students is playing a part in how they're pricing everything. @KLA, I'm curious -- how does that same sailing's base fare compare to what you've paid if you were booked on 1/11 or 1/18 instead of 1/4? Most colleges are back in session by 1/18, would be interesting to see if this "weekend getaway" ship is being premium priced because of that.

[Lovetocruise2002]

40 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

WOW !  I've never seen it that high on ANY cruise !  That's outrageous

 

12 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Only thing I can think of is that with Mariner now just doing shorter "weekend getaway" and early week cruises, the fact that it's still inside the winter break period for college students is playing a part in how they're pricing everything.

Not just Mariner...Here are my prices for the next few...all $50+

Harmony March 2019 - $60/day

Anthem GC July 2019 - $50/day

Symphony July 2019 - $53/day