Engineroom Snipe

7 hours ago, KSprite01 said:

2/3 of success rate

 

"Two out of three ain't bad.." (Meatloaf, 1977).

I am only repeating what  I have read for many years.

1. The Royal Up program provides data to RCI about how much more cruisers are willing to pay for an upgrade beyond their original cabin purchase. This type of voluntary information is invaluable for future pricing and we give it away for free (courtesy of many @Biker19's  postings).

2. Their are no assurances that any rooms are actually available for upgrade when offered. This is just a general canvass like a trawler spreading a bottom net not intending to catch any specific fish but to "see what is available" should they choose to keep what they find.

3. The final decision to keep the catch is RCI's alone. Once they make the choice of your upgrade, there is no buyer's remorse but to say that the buyer has remorse. Your room is what it is and RCI's upgrade is non-reversible. 

4. The invitation is not specifically tailored to any Crown and Anchor Society status.

5. The latest availability of cabins listed on RCI's website has nothing to do with the odds of you obtaining an upgrade.

I, like so many other experienced cruiser, would advise you to reserve the cabin of your choice that would satisfy your needs without a hopeful wish of getting an upgrade beyond your originally  selected cabin.

Do not gamble your hard earned vacation days and money "hoping" to get the cabin of your desire.

Just book it and enjoy.

21 minutes ago, twangster said:

let me know which year and I’ll join you. 
 

doh! That defeats the purpose.  You first! 

Oh no sir, you first!

Oh no, no, no, sir, you first!

Unbelievable how polite we can be to save a buck!

🤣

36 minutes ago, twangster said:

Hideaway and many other optional purchases will always have demand pricing.  

Demand pricing and dynamic pricing are synonyms which are always compared to "supply and demand" pricing.

Everyone, everywhere, stop cruising for one year, I want a highly discounted cruise!

😉

5 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Assuming your information is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, one can conclude that people cruising out of Texas are willing to pay higher prices than people cruising out of Florida when it comes to Hideaway Beach (at least in the past). 

I think both Florida and Texas have great beaches available in season.

It is not like they have ski resorts and ice fishing as a specialty destination.

I have great beaches available to me throughout the year.

I enjoy Coco Cay and I am very happy to enjoy the included amenities and food.

I think the basic food included with Coco Cay has been superior to most of the Windjammer lunches I have enjoyed. Not that the Windjammer is in anyone extremely deficient, more that I do not need to pay any premium price on Coco Cay because that price does not significantly affect the food quality for one day on vacation.

I understand the cruise company is making more money from these add-ons. If people are willing to pay for it, it subsidizes my cruise and those who do not buy extras.

If it helps keep the ship economically afloat, have at it.

Thank you.

7 hours ago, nbajam said:

I think I win.  My Feb 15 Icon sailing has Hideaway priced at $99 with 0 discount offered.  That’s an easy pass.

Dynamic pricing yet again as they bounce the prices now and then like a fisherman's bait hook.

The highest price I have seen listed is $69. Your price is a significant difference even from my high prices.

12 hours ago, DutchCruiseFan said:

Wasn't Oasis 7 widely believed to be the last Oasis class?

No, you have to remember that everyone thought that CREED (2015), the seventh movie of the ICONIC Rocky series, was the last movie only to have CREED II (2018) in less than three years.

🤣

7 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

A gratuitous tip on the topic.

Excellent response!

Maybe you found my remark "superfluous".

😁

1 hour ago, Tlbecker1 said:

We enjoyed Hideaway, but we only paid $20/pp.  it isn’t worth more than that for us.

Add some insult to injury:

Our ship is the second ship to arrive at 9am with a larger ship arriving at 7am. The gangplank goes down at 9:30am. By the time we would get to any destination is roughly 10am. They announce at 4pm to start clearing out and get back to the ship.

So you want two cruisers to pay $108? As you stated, we paid $20.00/pp for a heated pool on our last cruise. That was a great deal. The food choices were not as good as the main island free offerings. The shrimp and fries were excellent but every other food offering was less than included offerings available elsewhere on the island.

The only advantage this part of the island has is the heated pool.

I leave that advantage as the ONLY reason to pay the price of admission.

NOT paying it on my next cruise in November.

Vision of the Seas in April out of Norfolk this year. Alcohol was served in various drink offerings. A bit early for me (cannot handle it like I used to). 

The band was great and I saw many people enjoying their libations.

If I was younger, this would have not affected my enjoyment of event no matter what time they had it.

🤣😃🤕🤢🤮

Always amazing how just mentioning the word "tip" or "gratuity" generates responses.

281 posts in six days.

If you search for the key words of "tips" or "gratuities" on Cruise Critic, it would take more than one year of reading to even go through half of them.

I just added one more post to read.

🤣

23 minutes ago, Heatherco said:

Thanks everyone!  We decided to risk it and go with an inside guarantee this time.  It is a last minute “extra” vacation so we really just want to get away and relax.  Figured we would save some money and roll the dice.  As long as it’s a bed we will be happy!

 

 

My wife and I did something similar on the Oasis out of Bayonne in Sept of 2022 and Sept 2023 for 7 day cruises. About 4 months before the cruise there were one week severe price drops and we booked. Both of the bookings were inside GTY cabins.

The ship was full and we had a great time. All cabins, as already mentioned, come with at least two singles that can be combined into a queen size configuration. Both rooms had a sofa that could fit two very comfortably with a chiller. Storage room was more than adequate for two people for seven days.

I hope you have a great time. There are an unlimited amount of spaces to relax and enjoy yourself outside of your cabin. We did not spend much time in the cabin except for sleeping. I tend to like smaller ships but if you go with the right mindset, there are some nice options available on the larger ships for activities.

19 hours ago, Laszlo said:

I can't imagine Septa or anyone else doing special busses for a cruise. Your talking about something happening once a week. My guess is maybe 10% of the cruises would use public transportation. Sure I can get to work via Septa but it would take a bus, to a train, to another bus and yet another bus

Maybe just wishful thinking on my part.

Quick follow up to most of the comments and yes, Septa does have many issues.

In 2026, summer, parking is going to be at a premium everywhere in Philly. The 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and FIFA will occur. Lots of associated events around these events.

A tourists bump is going to be filling up hotels and parking.

Make your reservations early.

Somehow, between now and the cruises in two years, I think Philadelphia Septa will create a special to get potential cruisers to this port via a public transportation option.

I have written Septa about providing special buses from the Airport and the Stadium to the port terminal.

If Philadelphia wants these cruise passengers to continue in the future on a regular basis, they have got to get the connections right and provide secure parking, possibly near the stadiums for such cruises.

I for one would like to see this new port destination work properly.

15 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

 I am way too cautious to play.  😉

Yes, I feel your caution. I have worked too many hours to just gamble on the stock market lottery.

I have only invested in super low cost S&P averaging investments for the past 45 years. A good reasonable return with very little drama or thought. Over that time, I have obtained an average 8.5% gain per year. Following the laws of 72, my nest egg and yearly investments have doubled every 9 years. My investments were small but time is a wonderful multiplier.

I follow all of the financial advisors and just find it ludicrous that my "hand-free" results have beaten almost 80% of them. I just do not feel the need to stress about that last 20% possibility.

The autopilot has navigated my investments well.

Everyone has their comfort level and expertise.

I would be the last person to profess I have expertise in the matter of investment. I just got lucky.

16 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I think he didnt dismiss them at all. His point was fear of a recession is overblown. He doesnt think the average cruiser is hurting that much and they can afford this experience. I didnt take it the way you are at all. 

 

I am rereading what you said. Cramer is a CNBC employee. Who are you speaking of that is arrogant. Cramer? Hes the one I mentioned seeing. He can be arrogant but not sure how much he cruises.

 

I'm not even sure why this is such good news. Issuing more stock? Where is the stock coming from being exchanged.  Rereading the news. Burst thru 153. Someone is sure buying. Hard to predict here for me. Take profits and run and rebuy lower or wait. August is a funny month. 

Understood. I guess I am not a Cramer fan.

You raise a good point about possible stock dilution if more stock "appears' without an explanation concerning its source.

27 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Lol yes I saw rcl on CNBC just now with cramer liking it. Says people who cant afford it arent the ones cruising. Or some such. He thinks the talk about recession overblown. 

 

One should never dismiss any potential customer, even those whom at the present time might not be able to afford cruising.

The attitude was one of ego and arrogance. It reeked of "Our cruise experiences are not designed for the commoners who might be affected by a tight economy so our bookings won't be affected."

I still shop for a good deal on my cruises. If the prices go up too much, I would have to cut back on the amount of cruises in the future. Enough people like me could affect their bottom line.

Not good PR in any case.

4 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Or this is where money is made when others fear to buy. Knife is falling. Where to catch it. I'm looking at nvda this mornjng. 97 premarket. Where is the bottom. There will be forced selling if this continues. There are always those on margin. Japan sell off was like 12%. Its causing a world wide sell off all the uncertainty. I say the opposite this is where fortunes are made.

You are not trading out of fear. This does not apply to you.

It is like a professional gambler who has a rationale idea of the odds and knows when to fold  when things are not making money. He also does not get too jubilant on a good day knowing that there are always some bad hands in the future.

This is opposed to the addicted amateur gambler who believes that every loss is closer to a jackpot without admitting that the odds of winning any specific hand do not change just because you lost or won the last deal of the cards.

There will be many people selling out of stocks irrationally because they want to "keep their money safe." They are doomed to miss the upturn when it comes.

Only 25% of professional money managers beat the S&P running averages But 100% of the money managers want their management fees when the investments go up or down.

🤣

Everyone reading too much into the unemployment figure this month.

Every single month for the past 18 months, it has been revised by a significant amount.

Because of the high evaluations, everyone has been waiting for a correction which is due but I think the market is over reacting. I worked in the exchange business in the early 1980s and much of this type of sell-off is always emotional. Harry on the floor sees Jack on the floor selling a specific stock. Harry does not know why Jack is selling the stock but he knows that Jack does not normally sell that amount of stock. Harry starts selling the stock Jack is selling and so it begins.

Add in the automatic computer trading and things get very volatile.

I play a long and steady game and try to not get emotional when things are very good or very bad.

That is when the money losing trades occur.

Just another cycle.

On the Vision in April of this year when it had to use Norfolk cruise terminal.

They specifically asked each person if they had wine bottles and how many.

The security person requested to visually see the top of the bottle for seal inspection.

She then announced to the scanner operator the amount of bottles coming through in the bag and that they were sealed.

This was the first time in my cruising career that the bottles were specifically counted and the seals were visually checked.

My wife and I must have looked shady but they did this to everyone.

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

I hadnt heard it was specifically unemployment numbers though those were up.

 

This was it specifically. Unemployment numbers exceeded expectations which fed into the narrative that the FED was late to the table once again and chasing their tail.

They waited too long and might be one step behind once again.

Fear.

1 minute ago, grandgeezer said:

Bookings can be cancelled.

Absolutely.

No argument.

That is the fear.

Will future travel bookings be affected?

So far, the people who can afford to book cruises have not shown any financial weakness.

That is the question.

If you build the ships, will they come?

So far, today, they are coming in record numbers but will "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" (Shirelles, 1960).

The stock dropped about 5.5% today based on Market fear regarding unemployment application numbers.

These numbers have constantly been adjusted every month this year and not very accurate.

Everyone is on edge for the past two years waiting for the market to adjust.

I think they have over-reacted.

The market has been extremely volatile.

The drop is more in line with a fear of general correction/recession than any concrete business reason.

Investors' knee-jerk reaction of a potential recession with decreased travel and tourism as it is a discretionary expense was to sell anything travel related.

If RCI has record bookings into next year, this is something that will not affect them (and any other cruise line) until 2026.

2 hours ago, firefly333 said:

For those of you feeling like you are no longer royals target pax, its probably true. They are trying to attract newbies to cruises who spend more $$$. 

 

 

I have had that feeling for awhile.

Sales cannot go on indefinitely beyond the grave.

Imagine how many cruise days for the newbies before they reach higher level of Crown & Anchor Status. (Money saved on perks).

It was a good run while it lasted.