Why do you think they made the C&A changes?

I've been thinking. . .I know, crazy, right? :rolleyes: We're all pretty appreciative that we got some nice bennies for our loyalty instead of RCI taking some away again. I am anyway. But, why did they do it? Have they been losing money and need to regain some of their customers that bailed after the last change? I know Mr G said they have listened to us but the last time we spoke on cc anyway, there were 162K views and 4200 comments after many many deletions. We've been speaking for over a year. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Why did they do it?

Its all down to the bottom line.

They pulled Mariner out of LA because she wasn't making the money they expected.

They pulled the benifits we all enjoyed because they needed to cut back in order to save the company (speculation)

They are giving it back because we the Nation of Why Not :rolleyes: were immigrating to another country! :D

Its all down to the bottom line.

 

They pulled Mariner out of LA because she wasn't making the money they expected.

 

They pulled the benifits we all enjoyed because they needed to cut back in order to save the company (speculation)

 

They are giving it back because we the Nation of Why Not :rolleyes: were immigrating to another country! :D

I was just thinking that! WHY NOT! :D

Its all down to the bottom line.

 

They pulled Mariner out of LA because she wasn't making the money they expected.

 

They pulled the benifits we all enjoyed because they needed to cut back in order to save the company (speculation)

 

They are giving it back because we the Nation of Why Not :rolleyes: were immigrating to another country! :D

Good way to put it. I read somewhere in all the verbiage yesterday that it's because bookings are actually up so they can afford to be more generous to keep/bring back everyone.

I'm just happy they did it. I never left (well, yes I did; I went on a Princess Mexican cruise that was cheaper and we were curious), and I'm happy to have my cruise prices/experience enhanced.

We may never know but I'm guessing the backlash from the last time they cut benefits hurt their business. We travel with another couple and he was so mad he refused to sail RC........so for 18 months we have been on Princess, HAL and doing a two week land tour in Europe and did a 10 Land tour to Hawaii......our friend voted with his wallet. We have since talked them back to RC.

I think advance bookings were down..........that adds up to a lot of cash flow for RC..........

Don't know that we will ever know the exact reasons......

Maybe they just wised up some and decided the Public Relations hit they took wasn't worth the cost savings...........we may never know.

They obviously think that the additional bookings will more than offset the additional cost.

Plain and simple math.

If you notice, many of the changes/perks encourage advance bookings in one way or the other. That's simply because advance bookings are way down. My guess is that is mainly due to the horrible economy. Royal didn't make these changes because they are nice. They made them because they feel the positive PR will generate more revenue for the company. Nothing wrong with that. If the company is healthy our overall cruise experience will more than likely be improved. The company also feels they lost a lot of past customers after they dissed the Diamond members last September. This is a way to try to make amends.

Our RCCL rep told us on board bookings PLUMMETED when they took away the combinability so I think they are trying to regain some of that business

Our RCCL rep told us on board bookings PLUMMETED when they took away the combinability so I think they are trying to regain some of that business

Makes sense Sue...............somebody missed the possible "headcount" on that decision.

Our RCCL rep told us on board bookings PLUMMETED when they took away the combinability so I think they are trying to regain some of that business

I can believe that. Two years ago on the Serenade there was always someone at the LA's desk. This past December on the Adventure, I don't recall seeing anyone with the LA anytime we walked past.

Our RCCL rep told us on board bookings PLUMMETED when they took away the combinability so I think they are trying to regain some of that business

Well, I know we did not book anything on board after they made that change. However, it seemed that there was always someone with an appointment doing a booking when I passed by:rolleyes:....so I figured it didn't really hurt them that much.

Our RCCL rep told us on board bookings PLUMMETED when they took away the combinability so I think they are trying to regain some of that business

Lack of combinability definitely had a negative effect on future bookings. We dumped our stock specifically because of it. No benefit in keeping it.

Also, no reason to purchase a future cruise booking. They may still lose out on that unless they decide to let us use it with balcony discount or coupon.

Also, no reason to purchase a future cruise booking. They may still lose out on that unless they decide to let us use it with balcony discount or coupon.

They do now let you combine the onboard future booking obc with a coupon or balcony discount. This is part of the new program effective yesterday.

The way I look at it is since we cannot get the price reduction anymore after final payment, but I can get a combined obc and balcony discount or coupon, then that obc is my insurance against the price drop I may lose just before the cruise. I now plan on booking all my cruises on board, and let my TA have the commission, too!!:D

I agree that I think it really hurt onboard bookings. I used to book ALL my cruises while on a cruise. Once the combinability went away, I stopped doing it since I either had a balcony discount or my SH discount.

Now, I will book onboard b/c I can combine the OBC with the balcony discount whereas I cannot combine my SH credit with the balcony.

I will keep my stock in the hopes that eventually they will let us combine that again. Besides which, I made a killing on the shares I did sell, so keeping 100 shares that are still making me a lot are worth it.

Another reason might be that price of crude is going down and since Royal Caribbean hedges a large percentage of their fuel they are in for some nice savings in the near future.

Another reason might be that price of crude is going down and since Royal Caribbean hedges a large percentage of their fuel they are in for some nice savings in the near future.

They are about 50% hedged. If they would have used marketing to keep the advanced bookings up, they would have been able to hedge a lot more when crude went to $27.00 a barrel. It wasn't rocket science to see it wasn't going to stay that low, after dropping from around $150/bbl.

Not enough advanced bookings, not enough cash to hedge like crazy. Think how much they would be making now, if they planned better then.

I wonder if a small part of the added benefits is that they are adding the Allure to the roster in November and need to fill another +5000 people on a ship? Between the Oasis and the Allure, that is a lot of capacity to add in 12 Months time. I'm sure they have added a lot of new customers, but they've had to steal some from their other ships also.

I wonder if a small part of the added benefits is that they are adding the Allure to the roster in November and need to fill another +5000 people on a ship? Between the Oasis and the Allure, that is a lot of capacity to add in 12 Months time. I'm sure they have added a lot of new customers, but they've had to steal some from their other ships also.

Plus the two Celebrity ships that came out, Eclipse and Equinox with 2 more of them due. 2850 more pax per ship there.

Perhaps because we in the US are going to need more money to fly to Europe, where they are basing more and more of their ships?

It is called c o m p e t i t i o n and bottom line. RCI brought on line the oasis with 5500 pax and now the alure. They need 11,000 more pax per week! We are in a very soft market and RCI is trying to get their base to book more which is cheaper than attracting new pax essentially from other cruise lines. IMO it is a bit light and a little late. How generous of RCI!

I'd like to think it was based on my feedback last year. :D Perhaps I wasn't the only one. I went by the loyalty ambassador and explained that we were on our fifth RCCL cruise in five years, but I wasn't booking another one for several reasons, two of which they addressed yesterday. Before yesterday, as a platinum, there was no reason to book on board, and frankly, the coupon book I got as platinum in 2009 stunk compared to the one I got as a gold in 2008.

This year, we're on Princess where RCCL offers a virtually identical itinerary. Once I see how we like it on the other side, we'll see where the next cruise gets booked.

I think some high up at Royal Caribbean decided that Royal should be catering to a young or family oriented passenger. So they tried to push the 'older' and more frequent cruisers to Celebrity. Take away the frequent cruiser benefits on the RCI ships and add the benefits to Celebrity cruisers. Guess what - the economy has taken a big hit and we Diamond cruisers have taken our travel dollars elsewhere. We have a lot of choices with our travel dollars. And since our last Celebrity cruise was disappointing our money has gone elsewhere. Last year many cruiselines were offering such deep discounts we took cruises that we would not have otherwise done. Seabourn and Oceania were very good. I did a thread - How the Other Half Cruises - because I think its good to make informed decisions when spending discretionary (? is there a spell check) money.

Just maybe their advance bookings being way down, including on-board bookings- they need more deposit money in the coffers to bring out Allure.

Most of these "new" benefits had been around in prior times. When the economy tanked and oil prices surged, they had to cut back on the benefits. Now they are restoring some of them as the economy improves.