Not much discount for 3rd and 4th in room

[56 chevy cruise]

Just looked at RCCL and Carnival web site and not much discount for 3rd and 4th kids in adults room.

[DavidO]

I have two children who have gone on several cruises with us. My observation on 3rd/4th price is is it depends when you sail. The same ship can offer no discount for it during peak times, some discount during medium busy times, and better discounts during slower times. The old supply and demand game.

 

I have seen times where the 3rd/4th was the exact same price as the first two people in a cabin so we book two cabins instead for the same price. It is always nicer when the 3rd/4th is less though. So my advice is look at different dates that are available to you and different demand seasons.

 

Good hunting!

 

David

[cali-croozer]

True........any time the kids are out of school, the 3rd/4th person rates are high. We sailed in quad cabins on Carnival twice. This past cruise, my kids were older (15 and 17), so we went with 2 inside rooms on the Riviera deck for about the same prices as one oceanview quad. Some ships have connecting rooms, which is nice for families, but you need to book early.

[balibeachboy]

We sailed on the CP in January with two kids, and I think we paid something like $125 per child. I don't know how you can beat that price.

[Onessa]

The lines cost each cruise separately (thanks to the miracles of modern computing!:D ). General cost accounting theory will result in somewhat higher 1st/2nd pax and bargin 3rd/4th in times when they don't think that they will get many 3rd and 4th pax fares. The 1st/2nd pax need to cover their fixed costs and the 1st/2nd pax variable costs. In times when they can count on selling those 3rd and 4th pax spaces, they will hike the price counting on enough "inflated" fares to help cover fixed as well as variable. Add in the fact that they have times when they know that they will have a hard time running "full" and other fluxtuations.

 

The more flexible you can be in your scheduling, the better off you will be in securing a bargin. For example, I just booked three night's hotel room in Chicago - we could have gone down any of three different times in Sept through Nov - the same hotel room, for the same number/ages of people varied from $129 (Thanksgiving weekend) to $189 (labor day weekend) to $242 (a 'random' weekend in October). Go figure! (BTW the $129 also included breakfast, the other two did not!)

[cruisinqt]

I've cruised both RCI and Carnival and each time my kids fares were discounted. The kids fares were a little less than half the price of our adult fares. I agree with the above posters, you must be researching for a cruise during peak season like when school's out or during a holiday. Try for some other dates and see if you see a difference in price and then you'll know for sure what's happening.;)

[56 chevy cruise]

You all are right, I went back and checked on several dates and found that there are some good deals, you just have to be flexible about the dates you want to sail.

[Chucksta63]

Check out the Group Cruises!!!!! 3rd & 4th are cheeper!!!!

 

Cabin Credits too!!!!!

[atlcple2]

I have two children who have gone on several cruises with us. My observation on 3rd/4th price is is it depends when you sail. The same ship can offer no discount for it during peak times, some discount during medium busy times, and better discounts during slower times. The old supply and demand game.

 

I have seen times where the 3rd/4th was the exact same price as the first two people in a cabin so we book two cabins instead for the same price. It is always nicer when the 3rd/4th is less though. So my advice is look at different dates that are available to you and different demand seasons.

 

Good hunting!

 

David

 

We did the same thing...We booked the Glory this week for the Feb 18 sailing, eastern caribbean. It was $200 more for us to have 2 inside cabins, side by side on the Panorama deck and are very pleased with the location and of course privacy from the kids! All the connecting rooms were already sold out. The kids are on winter break, so we didn't really have a choice about when we were going, so we had to pay the extra $$ for that week. It will be our 5th cruise, first one taking the kids. They sailed on the Glory on one of the first few sailings and loved it! They wanted to go on the same ship, so we booked it!

[tidyoyster]

We booked Carnival Miracle this past January for the Oct. 2 sailing and paid $299.00 for 3rd and 4th person for an inside guarantee and was upgraded to a balcony stateroom on Empress deck.

[thunderbird1]

When we were looking for cruises for (mid-) December (not Christmas), it also seemed to depend on which port we chose. The 1st and 2d passengers were almost the same price from Tampa and Port Canaveral, but the 3d and 4th passengers were much cheaper out of Tampa (by a couple hundred dollars each). Maybe because Port Canaveral is most popular for families also doing Disney World?

[thunderbird1]

Almost forgot--we cruised DCL in 1998 when dd was 15 mos, and she was FREE. Discounts don't get much better than that:D! Well, we did have to pay port fees and taxes, but they were minimal.

 

I don't know the ages of your kids or what the cut off was for free kids, but it was probably 2 (like the airlines) or 3 (like the Disney theme parks).

 

Of course, when we were looking for cruises last year, even with one free kid Disney was still more expensive than Carnival, so it would have been hard for us to justify paying more to cruise on an older ship, even if it was Disney.

[glen tev]

There again it's all when you cruise.I have a 3 1/2 yr & 1 1/2 year and find the 3rd and 4th rates disturbing at times.We sail out of ny a lot(doing voyager in 2 weeks) and i looked at explorer for next summer when my company shuts down for 2 weeks.RCCL wants $1000 for 3rd and 4th on a inside cabin.When you have a small child that the line won't let into any activitys because of age,have to bring your own food and diapers or allowed in any pools what in gods name do you pay $1000 for!My son is currently 10 months and we are leaving him with relatives for our cruise on voyager and just taking my daughter.NCL has the right policy that if the child is under 2 you pay port charges and thats all.And thats the way it should be.:rolleyes:

[bplazo]

Thank goodness the cruise line has that policy or the ships would have too many children. Even parents with kids say that there are sometimes to many kids on the ships.

[glen tev]

"I am always amazed at people that go to family resorts or family orient cruises and complain about kids.Real simple if you don't want to be around kids go on Raddisson or silver seas were you can sit in your thousand dollar tux,drink domperigion and talk about your stock portfolio with the other stiffs all day.It's llike reading the Disney boards and hearing the people complain that have to stand in line amongst screaming kids,It's a family orientated park same as RCCL ,carnival etc are geared towards familys.The problem is people that do no research whatsoever on the cruises there going on-as you see from the boards there are cruises geared towards every genre out there singles ,seniors and yes even familys with kids.real simple ,don't want to be around kids pick a cruise line that doesn't have any.

[bplazo]

I do not think that anyone one was complaining about children on the cruise, just about the people who do not want to pay 3rd and 4th passanger rates for infants or children. I bring my daughter on a cruise and pay that rate with no problem, however I did wait until I thought that she was old enough to behave properly.

[glen tev]

ok i'll give you that,were leaving our 10 month old with relatives on our upcoming voyager cruise and bringing our 3 year old due to the fact she's potty trained and can participate in the kids programs.I guess what i'm saying is that the industry as awhole has a big discrepancy as far as 3rd and 4th.NCL will charge you only port taxes for a child where RCCL is 1000.as i said before i can see this fair for a adult but not a small child.RCCL is my favorite line and have great perks like the inroom sitting but NCL definatly has the best pricing.For what a 2 year old eats in a week would only cost 50 to 100 on a land vacation and you can't use the argument that your paying for the ship when the kid isn't allowed to do any of the programs.We left our son with relatives just for the fact that i would rather give the money to a family member that would put it to good use than to a cruise line that i have to supply everything.When he turns 3 and can participate i'll have no problem paying the rat but right now no way.

[bplazo]

Well, I think that it is smart to have a family member watch the infant. To pay that kind of money is expensive because there is nothing a child that age can do and is not relaxing for the parent. My husbands grandson is four right now and we will probably take him on a cruise in a year or two.

[glen tev]

i agree any age 3 and up is a good age (depending on the child)my daughter should get along great on Voyager.Some familys don't have the luxury of leaving the child with a family member so they just don't go which intern cost the cruise line.I wonder how much the lines lose due to familys just not going instead of making small concessions.If i was a c.e.o i would give the concession for kids under 3 because that family is still going to spend 2-3 grand on the cruise and anothe 1 -2 on board,sometimes you have to step over the nickel to pick up the dollar.