Cost for children

[cruisinsb]

We are paying full price for my 10 month old son when we go on the crown princess in a few weeks. I was just wondering if this is just princess's policy, or if all of the other cruise lines charge full price for infants as well.

[Canadian Tyler]

I know it's the third passenger rate for Royal Caribbean as well, not sure about the other lines. Sucks, doesn't it?

[cruisinsb]

It really sucks, as much as I love cruising, it makes me want to start thinking about all inclusives instead!

[cb at sea]

Some charge full price for every "body"...some discount kids.....some have "special" rates at different times....

[jtm22372]

we paid 3rd pass rate for my 19 month old then got discount for an infant rate think it was 100$ cheaper than the 3rd pass rate

[Cuizer2]

A single person has to pay for two.

[cruisinsb]

Ugh! I know! It sucks!

[Cuizer2]

what do you mean, you have to pay for 2 people in the cabin??? Is this only on princess, or all cruise lines? That is ridiculous!

 

A single person has to pay any where from 150% to 200% of the single person rate. This is true on Carnival, Disney, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity, HAL and I am sure on the other too.

[mrs.mobster]

We paid the full 3rd person rate for our (will be) 11.5 month old daughter for our upcoming sailing on Celebrity. Her price was $249; lots less then for DH and I, but still the full 3rd person rate.

[RENMama]

we are paying "full" third, fourth, and fifth person rate for our kids but each kids rate is half of ours.

[yogi2929]

Sometimes the lines will offer $99 or free 3 or4 pax in a cabin. I've seen this on HAL and Disney.

[jam82]

We've cruised several times with our two year old. Paying full price doesn't bother me so much anymore. I just try to look at it as a total price, not individual.

 

If you are really considering an all inclusive, try Club Med. They are great and have awesome child programs. I love cruising, but Club Med is more relaxing and they have better food than any cruise line I have been on.

[beachchick]

I do not at all mean this as a flame or put down or anything else. I understand why the fares might seem excessive.

 

One of the reasons is that, unlike on an airline where they can do "lap babies" and such, cruise ships have exact and finite numbers of passengers allowed to be booked on each cruise. Every person, from 6 months to 100 years, is counted as a full person for life boat capacity and safety. Parents who choose to bring young children are bringing a "full person" as far as the cruise line (and Coast Guard) is concerned; thus, most of them charge full rates. As well, a good deal of revenue for the cruise lines comes from onboard expenses such as shopping, casinos, bingo, excursions, alcohol/soda, and so forth. Babies and toddlers don't generally contribute to that revenue, so the cruise lines seem to feel (and I tend to agree) that charging full fares (generally 3rd/4th, which are lower than 1st/2nd anyway) is a way to compensate for it.

 

The bottom line is that parents can either pay whatever fare the cruise line charges and accept that; find a cruise line that charges only port and tax fees; look for specials that some cruise lines often have, for example "kids cruise for just port fees and taxes" or "3rd/4th passengers only $99" or "50% off additional passengers"; wait until they feel the child(ren) will get enough onboard "benefit" to justify the fare cost; or choose another vacation. (Yes, I'm a parent and grandparent; yes, I remember paying full fares for some things for our DD; yes, we were always happy to accept any discount offered.)

 

I hope you are able to enjoy your cruise and introducing your little one to the pleasures of travel and cruising. IMO (and only that), it will be easier if you try to consider the fare and any other required expense as part of the "cost of doing business" as a parent.

 

beachchick

[tmitchell82]

We took our DD who is 5 on a cruise and we paid the same third person fare that we would pay if we brought another adult. One other thing, they do add the automatic tip for third person as well on Princess. Granted, that was our DD entire folio at the end of the cruise.

[crusinmama06]

Yes it sucks. Disney has a kids sail free program going on right now for some sailings but the price of the 1st/2nd person in the cabin may be a lot more than sailing on a cheaper Royal Caribbean or Carnival cruise.

 

NCL has many $99 or $129 specials for 3rd/4th. And actually, for NCL, our daughter was only charged port fees/taxes.

 

Royal Caribbean, Princess, Carnival and Celebrity all charge full price (or 3rd/4th rate) for the kids, no matter the age.

 

And yes, the single supplement sucks too. :p

 

The trick is to go on a cheaper cruise. Then the 3/4 rate is not as ridiculous. For instance, the 3/4 rate on my Explorer cruise is $899 EACH CHILD without taxes/port fees and I have two kids - so I cancelled my Explorer cruise. I just couldn't justify the price any longer. I tried but couldn't do it. We'll be going on Grandeur for the same amount of days, but the 3/4 rate is $199. MUCH better. :D

[Onessa]

To add to beachchick's point, many port fees are also based upon pax head count. Like the coast guard and other authorities, the port doesn't differenciate between pax based upon the pax age. The third/fourth pax has an opportunity cost associated with it.

 

Third and Fourth pax rates are a fair representation of what it costs the line to sail with that pax. I'm not certain why kids should be charged less than an 18+YO pax:

• Even toddlers eat.
  
• All pax use towels and bedding.
  
• All pax smear fingerprints on elevator doors necessitating cleaning.
  
• Much of the kids programming on ships are free and/or non-revenue producing.
  

My DH is pushing 60YO and we often qualify for "Senior Citizen" pricing (the whole cabin). We've "shopped" cruises to find ones where the third pax is a discounted rate (including two RCCI cruises where all third/fourth pax were $199). We've also qualified for a "residency" discount. It's not so much that it "sucks" it is all just marketing.

[vavasmom]

Also if you are a single parent of 1 child, you pay full fare for the child since they are the 2nd passenger in the cabin. I am not complaining - at least there are two of us in the room - unlike the single.

[Liltx31]

We took our DD who is 5 on a cruise and we paid the same third person fare that we would pay if we brought another adult. One other thing, they do add the automatic tip for third person as well on Princess. Granted, that was our DD entire folio at the end of the cruise.

 

I think the real reason they don't charge less is because of the above. How much revenue do our children bring in beyond the cruise fare? They don't drink, gamble, go to the spa, dine in specialty rest (well as much), and don't spend as much on excursions, if any. They do require supervision in the clubs. The ships do better if they have more adults and less children. I do agree about looking for the cheaper fares. Ours were $169 for the 3rd/4th this time.

 

Monica

[crusinmama06]

I think the real reason they don't charge less is because of the above. How much revenue do our children bring in beyond the cruise fare? They don't drink, gamble, go to the spa, dine in specialty rest (well as much), and don't spend as much on excursions, if any. They do require supervision in the clubs. The ships do better if they have more adults and less children. I do agree about looking for the cheaper fares. Ours were $169 for the 3rd/4th this time.

 

Monica

 

Well actually.....kids can be expensive. I spend twice the amount on excursions as any couple. I spend lots in the gift shops. And how many parents can say "no" to a picture of their kids? We can easily spend $500 for pictures per cruise. How many adults without kids do that? ;)

 

Parents are suckers for their kids pictures. :D

 

Oh and add MSC "Kids sail free - 17 and under" to the list. I forgot about them in my post above.

[larronry]

Nothing wrong with asking if it's standard across cruise lines. I will say that if my son get's the service I don't mind paying the fair (well not that $899 :eek:) nor the full tip (I will however reduce or eliminate it if my son is ignored or treated poorly by a crew member). Last cruise if I could have afforded to pay double the tip to our wait staff I would have.

 

At least with my son I'd say his fair covers food and, in this case, camp carnival.

[beachchick]

Nothing wrong with asking if it's standard across cruise lines. I will say that if my son get's the service I don't mind paying the fair (well not that $899 :eek:) nor the full tip (I will however reduce or eliminate it if my son is ignored or treated poorly by a crew member). Last cruise if I could have afforded to pay double the tip to our wait staff I would have.

 

At least with my son I'd say his fair covers food and, in this case, camp carnival.

 

Nothing at all wrong with asking. Parents should always be looking for children's discounts. As long as they don't "demand" that their children cruise (or whatever) for free or almost nothing, why shouldn't they check into it?

 

Gosh, I hope your son has never been ignored or treated poorly by any crew member. If he ever is, please make sure to lodge a complaint right then and there! That kind of behavior by any crew member is completely unacceptable. But if it's only one crew member and you don't let management know, they can't correct the problem and then all the other good crew members who have treated your son well suffer when you remove the tip amount for your son.

 

beachchick

[larronry]

Gosh, I hope your son has never been ignored or treated poorly by any crew member. If he ever is, please make sure to lodge a complaint right then and there! That kind of behavior by any crew member is completely unacceptable. But if it's only one crew member and you don't let management know, they can't correct the problem and then all the other good crew members who have treated your son well suffer when you remove the tip amount for your son.

 

beachchick

On the Celebrity Millennium the Waiter was horrible. Couldn't even get a glass of milk waiting for us on the table, in fact most nights couldn't even get a glass of milk without asking several times. One day I went up to the Buffet and brought down food for him my self. Not only was he not the first one served he was usually the last. We lodged complaint after complaint after complaint. Gotta say that several years ago on a Carnival ship when all the orders kept getting mixed up (eg: med well with onions medium rare w/o had the onions come on the wrong burger and something like this happened every meal) there the maitre' D stepped in to help so I was surprised on the Millenium. We were often the first table seated and in our section (3 different waiters) we were consistently the last ones served and the last ones out of there. Well our friends were as either my husband or myself had already left with our son.

 

That waiter did not get full tip for my husband or myself and nothing for my son. And we gave nothing to the maitre' D But we did hand out tips to various wait staff who did actually take care of us. Including those we only saw in the Buffet area.

[imsulin]

When's your next cruise, larronry?

[cruisinsb]

Yes it sucks. Disney has a kids sail free program going on right now for some sailings but the price of the 1st/2nd person in the cabin may be a lot more than sailing on a cheaper Royal Caribbean or Carnival cruise.

 

NCL has many $99 or $129 specials for 3rd/4th. And actually, for NCL, our daughter was only charged port fees/taxes.

 

Royal Caribbean, Princess, Carnival and Celebrity all charge full price (or 3rd/4th rate) for the kids, no matter the age.

 

And yes, the single supplement sucks too. :p

 

The trick is to go on a cheaper cruise. Then the 3/4 rate is not as ridiculous. For instance, the 3/4 rate on my Explorer cruise is $899 EACH CHILD without taxes/port fees and I have two kids - so I cancelled my Explorer cruise. I just couldn't justify the price any longer. I tried but couldn't do it. We'll be going on Grandeur for the same amount of days, but the 3/4 rate is $199. MUCH better. :D

 

I would love to be able to do this, and maybe at some pont in our lives we will, but since I am a teacher, the only times I can reall go away are winter break and spring break and I know that prices are at least triple during this time period. That being said, our upcoming cruise over winter break probably is one of the only weeks the rate for a third person in the cabin is so high. I was just wondering if anyone knew any other cruise lines that do discount for kids. Thank you to everyone for your help, I will be looking into your suggestions for our next trip. It will most likely be a different cruise line since (so far) it seems that princess doesn't cater to kids as well as some other cruise lines. Hopefully this will not be the case and it will be different once we are on board!

[cruisinsb]

On the Celebrity Millennium the Waiter was horrible. Couldn't even get a glass of milk waiting for us on the table, in fact most nights couldn't even get a glass of milk without asking several times. One day I went up to the Buffet and brought down food for him my self. Not only was he not the first one served he was usually the last. We lodged complaint after complaint after complaint. Gotta say that several years ago on a Carnival ship when all the orders kept getting mixed up (eg: med well with onions medium rare w/o had the onions come on the wrong burger and something like this happened every meal) there the maitre' D stepped in to help so I was surprised on the Millenium. We were often the first table seated and in our section (3 different waiters) we were consistently the last ones served and the last ones out of there. Well our friends were as either my husband or myself had already left with our son.

 

That waiter did not get full tip for my husband or myself and nothing for my son. And we gave nothing to the maitre' D But we did hand out tips to various wait staff who did actually take care of us. Including those we only saw in the Buffet area.

 

One of my first cruises was on the celebrity millenium, it was our first and last on celebrity. Back then I was a teenager and my brother and sister were even younger, and we found that they did not cater to kids at all. We felt that there were so many unnecessary restrictions and the staff seemed "put out" when we asked them to accomodate to our needs.