Price of Labadee cabanas

[Big_G]

$495, lol.

 

Royal is probably LOLing too...all the way to the bank. ;)

[John&LaLa]

Of course it's not the same. The only way to get the same thing is to book a crazy priced cabana on one of their private islands.

 

Just think, you could even go to the Florida Keys if cruising out of South Florida. A nice hotel on the beach and even has a pool. There are plenty of them where you could easily stay 2 - 3 days for the price of the cabana. Sure you would have to go buy your own food, drinks (hit the liquor store and have them on the beach) and probably even have to rent a car, but you would get so much more out of it. The drive down is beautiful and you could do some sightseeing. If you stayed 1 day and with the other expenses it would be about the same for the RCCL cabanas. Add several more days and make it a mini vacation.

 

But you won't get a cabana included with your room. A Vegas pool cabana can start at $500 and head north quickly.

[LMaxwell]

Royal is probably LOLing too...all the way to the bank. ;)

 

Good for them. I LOL alongside.

[Doug S]

We got a cabana on our upcoming Oasis sailing, but were a bit confused on the pricing shown in the checkout section of the excursion booking, so we inquired via e-mail. The excursion department was very quick to reply, and while everyone would love to get one for less, I can understand where RCCL is coming from on this. Echoes the sentiment many have expressed earlier in this thread. Also confirms my moving price point theory depending on demand on a particular sailing.

HERE"S THE E-MAIL

From:

shorex@rccl.com

Date:

September 25, 2015 at 11:15:12 AM CDT

To:

XXXXXXXXX

Subject:

Cabana pricing

 

 

Dear XXXXXXXXX,

 

Thank you for contacting our Shore Excursion Team with this issue.

 

Cabana prices always fluctuate due to the high demand they have. There are only eight Over the water cabanas and three beach cabanas in Labadee, Our Department deals with over 40,000 tours worldwide, and yet 20-30% of emails we receive are for cabanas, and let me emphasize that there are only 12 in total that guests can book. Out of 100 emails 20-30 of them are requesting one, in sailings where they are usually sold out.

 

There is such a high demand that we attempted to withold purchase and sell them on a first come first serve basis onboard, but there are guests that go to extreme lengths for a cabana, and it starts a kind of bidding war that we try to avoid.

 

Therefore, with cabanas, the revenue is actively managed and pricing increases as they are sold. Please note that this mean that the pricing shown in the Browse section of the website always ends up being lower than the actual cost of a cabana for a given voyage if the demand for the voyage is high, which it usually always is. They are viewed as the golden ticket to a chocolate factory, and I have never seen a sailing where they do not sell out. Though we do regret that the price fluctuated while you were booking, we cannot override it. We do have a disclaimer of this, but we understand why this would seem misleading. This situation only occurs with cabanas, as they are extremely hard to acquire in the first place.

 

We hope this explanation helps clarify why this is, and we apologize for the inconvenience. However, we do hope you enjoy it, as thousands of people consider it well worth the investment, something we are reminded of constantly, daily, always... There isn't a single negative review of them that we can find, and it adds to its allure.

[ReneeFLL]

But you won't get a cabana included with your room. A Vegas pool cabana can start at $500 and head north quickly.

 

You might not get a cabana with the room. There are some B & Bs in the Keys and smaller mom and pop hotels that do have something similar. Maybe not the same build, but still a "private" thing on the beach and a pool to boot.

 

A Vegas pool cabana doesn't even compare to a place in the Keys with a pool and a cabana like structure on the beach. There are no real beaches in Vegas.

Done.

 

Back to the topic of the overpriced RCCL cabanas.

[Lionesss]

I am over - whelmed by the new prices.

 

It got my mind racing.

 

I guess you can say maybe RCI will offer this on Oasis class ships as a new highest suite perk.................that is

 

Book an aqua theatre suite, you get a cabana......

 

Nah.........RCI wants the money.

 

Later

[Midwestgal]

The responding e mail , Royal seems to be a little full of themselves.:eek:

[mark22mac]

I am over - whelmed by the new prices.

 

It got my mind racing.

 

I guess you can say maybe RCI will offer this on Oasis class ships as a new highest suite perk.................that is

 

Book an aqua theatre suite, you get a cabana......

 

Nah.........RCI wants the money.

 

Later

 

 

The new prices everyone is talking about is this just Nellies or BB also?and is this current or next year?

[ReneeFLL]

The responding e mail , Royal seems to be a little full of themselves.:eek:

 

Just a little? :) Who ever wrote that email must have been smoking something.

 

".....there are guests that go to extreme lengths for a cabana, and it starts a kind of bidding war that we try to avoid...." :rolleyes: Who do they think they are fooling? I think only themselves. How can you have a bidding war when there is a set price? If that is the case, then they need to start an auction for them on their website. :roll eyes:

Edited September 25, 2015 by ReneeFLL

[John&LaLa]

The ship has sailed, the price has gone up, there is nothing you can do about it. They will continue to sell out. What else is there to discuss. There are a lot of folks with disposable income, $495 split amongst 6 people is a cheap excursion. YMMV

[marci22]

It's cabanamania. Worse than trying to get an Xbox at Christmastime.

[marci22]

Btw I loved that sassy Royal Caribbean email. I read it twice.

[Doug S]

Kinda sorry I shared the e-mail. Just trying to be helpful. Not holding any ill will toward RCI for our exchange of e-mails.

 

Thing is, the e-mail is true, even if you don't like the pricing or how it came across to you. It was to us and we didn't read it as overly snarky in the context of our back and forth e-mails. They did answer our question promptly, but stuck to their guns on pricing which is their prerogative. Perhaps it loses some of its context standing on its own. It does try to lay out the company position on how they are evolving in how the allot a limited resource. I bet the pricing program is still a work in progress. Yeah there was some cheer-leading, but isn't that their job? They "promote" excursions. I haven't seen any negative comments on cabanas either, except for the current pricing issue.

 

Found it interesting, but not really surprising to hear that so many e-mails come in trying to get cabanas, especially since they were sold onboard only. I imagine that influx of e-mails contributed to the change in both pricing and pre-selling. I for one, am glad to at least have the option to book one in advance. Our previous choice was to try to board as early as possible and race to the excursion desk to get in the line of people trying to get one, and probably come up empty. Rather have it locked down in advance and not add that stress to my vacation. We did not pay $495, but the price definitely has gone up.

 

Seems they are gonna price the Cabanas more like the cruises themselves. Some will be more than others and the price may flex. Can't really blame them. If I had 12 rent houses I would rent them at market levels. If somebody complained because 2 years ago I had rented for a lower amount and try to hold me to that price I'd tell them to go pound sand. No intelligent company is in business to sell stuff far cheaper than the going rate. As others have said, prices will come down if RCI is left with unsold cabanas. I personally doubt that will happen. Only gotta sell 12 cabanas on Nellies, and sometimes there are 2 ships in port fighting over them. I have done Cozumel , Falmouth, and Grand Cayman often enough that this can be our preferred 'excursion' expense. Granted some people will get priced out of the cabana market, just like I feel priced out of the owners suite market, and the big holiday cruise market. We all have different ways we choose to spend our money. Capitalism at work.

[cincicruisers]

When is your cruise

 

February 28th - March 5

[cincicruisers]

BB $175 for a standard $250 over the water.

 

I hope to reserve through the concierge for cabana on barefoot beach. Price is much more reasonable.

[spazzyjanet]

So I know that this is slightly off-topic, but I wanted feedback on the over-the-water with kids. We will have 5, 8, and 10 year-old kids with us in the cabana (along with my 66-year-old Dad). How deep is the water here? Do they sell floaties or should we pack some? I read reviews of the excursion on RCL's website and a few of them mentioned having kids with them with no issues, but I'm just trying to get a picture for what to expect. Thanks!

[Deptacon]

I completely agree with all you stated! However, in all reality there will always be people that are not budget consious that will pay the price no matter what it is. Especially considering there are not that many cabanas, and when a ship full of several thousand passengers pulls up, it'll be easy to fill them all even at $495. It is unfortunate as they are pricing many many people out of them, but that's how it goes.

 

 

Nailed it... Just off the Oasis, and watching the 1000s of zombies at the merchandise sales shelling out hundreds for cheap mass produced jewelry, hundreds for watches that cost less in an outlet mall.... It blows my mind how people blow money on vacation and have no sense of what the value of something really is....

 

That said, people keep paying. So royal will be there to take their money...

[Deptacon]

A little off topic, but does anyone else take the unopened Evian bottles from your cabana cooler back to the ship with you? They gave us 5 bottles last week.

 

 

Pays $250 for a cabana for less than 8 hours.... Takes the unopened water.....

[marci22]

Kinda sorry I shared the e-mail. Just trying to be helpful. Not holding any ill will toward RCI for our exchange of e-mails.

 

Don't feel bad, I enjoyed reading it!

 

I was intrigued by the email because it sounded so uncorporate. The Royal employee who wrote it sounds really jazzed by those cabanas. It kind of gives you an idea of what's being talked about over pepperoni pizzas in the conference room.

 

I loved, 'golden ticket to a chocolate factory'! So good.

[Lionesss]

Along with this increase in cabanas, I just wondered if anyone else is tracking the price of a cruise they are sailing in the future.

 

I have been, and there is usually a "little" price reduction around September.

 

Nope, nothing, the cruise prices have only gone up.

 

HMMMMM, I know it will go down after final payment.

 

Sea Ya

[Cuizer2]

I just noticed that the cabanas now cost $495. I thought they were $250? Quite a price jump! I'm willing to pay $250 but not $495. Do suite guests get them at a better price?

 

$495 for eight hours? That is five star hotel territory. Is Royal Caribbean offering a five star experience? :confused:

[Midwestgal]

$495 for eight hours? That is five star hotel territory. Is Royal Caribbean offering a five star experience? :confused:

 

Its not even like are including much. 2 floating mats and some water if your in the over the water ones. I know I keep comparing the Half Moon Cay cabanas where you got 4 mats, 4 snorkel gear, 6 bottles of water 8 cans of soda , chips and salsa & a fruit plate for about $230.00 and to top it off it was at HMC and if you never been there your really missing out. This place is absolute heaven, probably the nicest private island out of all of them.

[Doug S]

Don't feel bad, I enjoyed reading it!

 

I was intrigued by the email because it sounded so uncorporate. The Royal employee who wrote it sounds really jazzed by those cabanas. It kind of gives you an idea of what's being talked about over pepperoni pizzas in the conference room.

 

I loved, 'golden ticket to a chocolate factory'! So good.

 

Thanks Marci... That's kinda the way we took it. Don't understand the rush to negativity. The employee came across as more real to me, which was refreshing after all the corporate cookie cutter mailer bot replies and mailings we get in this day and age.

 

Anyway, we're looking forward to our tour of "The Chocolate Factory".

[TomAceEsq]

Along with this increase in cabanas, I just wondered if anyone else is tracking the price of a cruise they are sailing in the future.

 

I have been, and there is usually a "little" price reduction around September.

 

Nope, nothing, the cruise prices have only gone up.

 

HMMMMM, I know it will go down after final payment.

 

Sea Ya

 

 

Yep. They're watching your (and others) sailing specifically and eagerly awaiting you to make final payment so they can drop it in some weird scheme to drive you away. They're out to get you for sure.

[John&LaLa]

Nailed it... Just off the Oasis, and watching the 1000s of zombies at the merchandise sales shelling out hundreds for cheap mass produced jewelry, hundreds for watches that cost less in an outlet mall.... It blows my mind how people blow money on vacation and have no sense of what the value of something really is....

 

That said, people keep paying. So royal will be there to take their money...

 

Who are you to decide how folks should enjoy their vacation