Michael Bayley reveals new promotion featuring beverage package launching Feb 14 2015

[bouhunter]

Unlimited water is already delivered to your room at all times, midnight included.

 

Wow aren't you funny..............:rolleyes: You know that's not what the other post meant...........

[Garavar]

Celebrity's 123Go Promo offers a choice of Drink package, On board credit and Free Gratuities. If you book a concierge class cabin or above you get all 3

 

Maybe Royal will offer a similar promo ?

 

I would do that then since I book JS or above. Fingers crossed

 

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[Hoopster95]

So assuming Royal makes their promos equal to Celebrity's. allow me to use the current Celebrity package in a real case scenario.... So now Royal would give me what, a "free" $45 per day drink package which cover only up to $8 drinks, which is only half of the current Celebrity bar menu, and therefore Celebrity pretty much forces you to upgrade for $11 per day. On the 14 day South America itinerary I was looking at they tell me I'm getting a $1372 drink package for free! Awesome... too bad there are 10 port days out of 14 days with 3 overnights where I'm likely not on the ship most if the day.

 

In order to get the value of that $45 + $11 = $56 drink package you need to have a at least 6 $10 drinks. Really think hard, and there are many of you who do drink a lot, but I am 100% positive that not everyone has more than 6 drinks per day. And then what happens to my D+ happy hour benefit? Do I drink 9 drinks a day... 9 drinks! 9 martinis, 9 Capt Morgans and Coke, 9 Gin & tonics... 9! That makes you drunk every single day for 14 days straight. Good luck site seeing. Basically makes the CL & DL benefit null and void. Just my 2 cents....

 

Why are NCL, X, Royal all jumping on this band wagon? Because this is a HUGE win-win only for the cruise lines (and alcoholics), a major lose for the average cruiser. The price of the cruise is up around $1000 so I am being forced to pay for something that is supposedly "free" that I will not use and don't want to pay for. I would rather pay for drinks as I go (as I do now) as I don't need to drink $1372 (plus having 2 upgrade at $11pp for 2 people) of booze for 2 weeks.

 

As a side note, I priced out a 3-week South America land vacation at cheaper than the 14 day cruise, first time I felt forced to do so, and I'm really glad I did. It really opened my eyes. If Royal adopts this pricing policy with "free" drinks packages which I don't want & "free" other stuff, and then pricing gets further elevated, this will push me even further away than I am now to wanting to fill those 4000+ person ships all these cruise lines are building.

 

This reminds me of the condo markets in all large cities in North America, and ultimately the fire sail when too many are built and there are no buyers.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Hoopster95

[ehfl]

On today's Cruise Critic Live! Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley answered a question and revealed a new promotion.

 

Here is a link to the Q/A and the text:

 

[/indent]

 

I hope they do the 123 package Like on Celebrity.

[trojan3000]

In the UK the free beverage package puts £400 to £700 pp on a cruise.

[yolanda1]

There is no such thing as a free lunch. If any promotion comes on board, you can bet the prices are manipulated to cover it. It's not a freebie.

 

In the UK (and I believe in other countries) we don't get the price drops that American customers are entitled to, so checking prices wouldn't make a difference. We're stuck with the price we pay, or cancel and lose a lot of money.

 

My other concern would be that on previous cruises where "free" drinks packages have been given, there appears to be a lot of drunks! :D

[icsys]

In the UK the free beverage package puts £400 to £700 pp on a cruise.

 

At first I thought that those figures were a bit exaggerated, but then I just checked the current price on our 9 Night Southern Caribbean Adventure later this month.

 

We paid £449 pp for a balcony cabin - no added extras.

Price now with AI + $150 Onboard Spend = £1809pp :eek:

[pjlee3333]

Unlimited water is already delivered to your room at all times, midnight included.

 

In bottles that can be carried off the ship? :)

[RocketMan275]

In bottles that can be carried off the ship? :)

 

One bottle can be refilled an unlimited number of times in your stateroom.

[LuCruise]

This is interesting as I noticed other cruise lines such as NCL offer it as one bonus option in their booking. Aren't there currently multiple drink packages offered? Wonder how it'll work? And if it would include alchoholic drinks. We only have $100 OBC so this could be good for us...but then again, not if they raise the prices as only DH would probably benefit (I drink water all the time whereas DH is a big soda drinker). Guess we'll have to see what Saturday brings (and if it can even be applied to current bookings)

[LMaxwell]

 

Why are NCL, X, Royal all jumping on this band wagon? Because this is a HUGE win-win only for the cruise lines (and alcoholics), a major lose for the average cruiser. The price of the cruise is up around $1000 so I am being forced to pay for something that is supposedly "free" that I will not use and don't want to pay for.

 

generally speaking, true, but not always. I was able to book NCL with a double promo - Kids Sail Free and Free adult beverage packages. 3 people in a balcony room, 1 week, brand new ship, with all fees, taxes, AND travel insurance, is $2400. That is an average of $114 per person, per night for a balcony room. If I subtract out the value of the two beverage packages, $812, I come up with a composite number of $75 per night, per person (all three people). I'd be hard pressed to get that same value anywhere else. NCL certainly isn't going to sell me the same cruise for $1600 for 3 people without the beverage package.

 

Now, on the flip side, if the cruise lines weren't making money at the current pricing on these packages they'd go away or raise the price. It doesn't cost NCL $812 to give us drinks for the week. Not even close.

[Carolla5501]

Wow! Yup RCI has definitely increased the price of the fares to coincide with this "promotion"! I had checked my prices for my FOS sailing in 2016, less than two weeks ago on Jan. 30 and just since that time my balcony cabin has increased $680 and the oceanview has increased by $700 with two people in each room!

 

I keep reading this... so I just went and checked. When I booked my cruise it cost...$2,635. Now it costs $2,500 or so. (And the difference is taxes so I expect if I actually kept going on the RCCL site it would cost almost the exact same amount!) Mine really hasn't moved at all since we booked around Christmas.

 

I think some of you are looking at deals you got months ago and expecting that as the ship gets full RCCL will lower the prices? I admit I am not a cruise expert but I do travel a lot and generally closer to departure pricing goes UP unless there is some "distress" event

Edited February 12, 2015 by Carolla5501

[shipshape sam]

On today's Cruise Critic Live! Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley answered a question and revealed a new promotion.

 

Here is a link to the Q/A and the text:

 

[/indent]

 

I will bet higher prices too. No company gives profits away for long, if even for short periods of time.

[nolesrule]

I love how the automatic assumption about price increases is that it is solely related to a promotion or upcoming promotion.

 

Supply and demand also plays a factor in the pricing algorithm. As more cabins are booked in a certain category, inventory will decrease, so price will go up. Prices drop after final payment because demand drops as you get closer to the sail date, because for most people it's difficult to schedule a vacation (especially if it requires airfare) on shorter notice.

 

Oh, and I just checked final price on the cabin category I have booked in July. It's up a whopping $26.64, a combination of a $74 total fare increase and a taxes and port fees decrease. And it's been that way for since Feb 2nd. Prior to that, there hadn't been a price change since mid-November. And before that, it was just flipping back and forth between the regular and BOGOHO price for months

[shipshape sam]

I love how the automatic assumption about price increases is that it is solely related to a promotion or upcoming promotion.

 

Supply and demand also plays a factor in the pricing algorithm. As more cabins are booked in a certain category, inventory will decrease, so price will go up. Prices drop after final payment because demand drops as you get closer to the sail date, because for most people it's difficult to schedule a vacation (especially if it requires airfare) on shorter notice.

 

Oh, and I just checked final price on the cabin category I have booked in July. It's up a whopping $26.64, a combination of a $74 total fare increase and a taxes and port fees decrease. And it's been that way for since Feb 2nd. Prior to that, there hadn't been a price change since mid-November. And before that, it was just flipping back and forth between the regular and BOGOHO price for months

 

Lucky You. The empirical accounts on Celebrity threads is that prices are up on Celebrity from where Bayley just came and he did start 'including' things via promotions. Hey I don't blame him as that is his job, to increase revenues, profits and improve customer experience. So if he can do it by packaging things and customers like paying for for things being packaged....

[Hotel CA]

I have booked 2 cabins (1 ocean view and the other D1 aft cabin-- for total of 5900) on SOTS for Nov 13 sailing (10 day) and just received Celebrity 123 mailer.

 

So I looked at Equinox 10 day and 2 Concierge cabins (so we get all 3 offers) = 8400 but if you subtract 10 day drinks (1800 for all 4) and gratuities another 480 and the 600 OBC you have a net of 5520 for 2 Concierge cabins (vs D1 and Ocean view) --380 less than Royal so not a bad deal in the end except we do prefer Royal over Celebrity.

 

Am anxious to see what Saturday brings

[Clipper123]

Wow! Yup RCI has definitely increased the price of the fares to coincide with this "promotion"! I had checked my prices for my FOS sailing in 2016, less than two weeks ago on Jan. 30 and just since that time my balcony cabin has increased $680 and the oceanview has increased by $700 with two people in each room!

 

Just found out they have adjusted the CND/US$ exchange rate so a large part of that increase would be the exchange rate since we paid in CND $. With such a huge drop in our dollar I don't think any promotion will benefit us since we would have to rebook at the going exchange rate.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Clipper123

[LuCruise]

I keep reading this... so I just went and checked. When I booked my cruise it cost...$2,635. Now it costs $2,500 or so. (And the difference is taxes so I expect if I actually kept going on the RCCL site it would cost almost the exact same amount!) Mine really hasn't moved at all since we booked around Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

I think some of you are looking at deals you got months ago and expecting that as the ship gets full RCCL will lower the prices? I admit I am not a cruise expert but I do travel a lot and generally closer to departure pricing goes UP unless there is some "distress" event

 

 

 

Did you call and get the price reduced (assuming you haven't hit final payment yet)?

[Carolla5501]

Did you call and get the price reduced (assuming you haven't hit final payment yet)?

 

 

No because there really is not a price reduction to get. The difference was just things not yet added in.

 

 

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[Phamer55]

Well this was a total waste about getting excited about. Here's the offer:

 

"Book almost any 5-night or longer sailing departing after May 15, 2015 and you can enjoy up to $200 onboard credit, plus Buy One Get One 50% off OR a beverage package for two guests."

 

So you only get the drink package if you pay the higher price (i.e. don't take BOGOHA). Stupid.