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Royals New "This Is A Big Deal" promotion - Actually it's a MASSIVE price increase!

davehurd
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davehurd

davehurd

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I've been looking at booking a balcony cabin on Allure in February 2019 for a 7 night cruise.

 

Yesterday the price was showing as £579 per person, not including my Diamond discount.

 

I had heard that a new bookings promotion was about to start today so held off booking.

 

The new promotion has started today, you now get "free" Deluxe drink packages for the first 2 passengers in the cabin and "free" wifi for one passenger. The only problem is that the price is now £967 per person, an increase of £388 (Around $524) per person or £776 ($1050) increase in total for my wife and I.

 

The increase in price is outrageous, Royal must think we are fools, I definitely wont be booking at those prices.

 

What I don't understand is that there doesn't appear to be an option to book and to not take the "free" stuff so if you are not a drinker you are stuck with these ridiculously high prices.

 

I really don't want to but is it time to start having a look at what alternative cruise lines have to offer?

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k,m,d&m

k,m,d&m

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I agree. I booked on 20 th April for 7 nights next August. I was pleased with my deal 3 adults in JS inc gratuities and $500 spend.I paid £3100 total. I mentioned it to a friend and she tried to book today. Exactly the same people and grade cabin was £2100 more expensive with no drinks or gratuities. I do not understand this ?

Edited by k,m,d&m
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grapau27

grapau27

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Posted
I've been looking at booking a balcony cabin on Allure in February 2019 for a 7 night cruise.

 

Yesterday the price was showing as £579 per person, not including my Diamond discount.

 

I had heard that a new bookings promotion was about to start today so held off booking.

 

The new promotion has started today, you now get "free" Deluxe drink packages for the first 2 passengers in the cabin and "free" wifi for one passenger. The only problem is that the price is now £967 per person, an increase of £388 (Around $524) per person or £776 ($1050) increase in total for my wife and I.

 

The increase in price is outrageous, Royal must think we are fools, I definitely wont be booking at those prices.

 

What I don't understand is that there doesn't appear to be an option to book and to not take the "free" stuff so if you are not a drinker you are stuck with these ridiculously high prices.

 

I really don't want to but is it time to start having a look at what alternative cruise lines have to offer?

This happened to us in October 2016 when we booked Freedom for June 2018.

They almost filled the ships with the promotion so there was no price reduction afterwards.

 

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Not every promotion is a good deal for "you". It may be for someone else.

 

Book when you like the price. Don't book when you don't.

 

And stop expecting every "sale" to bring YOU a reduction.

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broberts Excellent Advice! Rare

broberts

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No body is forcing you to book Royal and no one cares if you book another line. People on here regularly book others.

 

A curiously hostile seeming response. Was that the intention?

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grapau27

grapau27

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Not every promotion is a good deal for "you". It may be for someone else.

 

Book when you like the price. Don't book when you don't.

 

And stop expecting every "sale" to bring YOU a reduction.

You are right but for some of us we cannot confirm with our employers our holiday dates when the cruises are released and these so called free packages are paid for by all of us in vastly inflated cruise prices just like some have already posted.

 

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

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Big_G

Big_G

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No offense to the deal seekers but we pretty much ignore the promotions. Like Merion_Mom said, if we like the price we book it. If not we don't. There's still deals to be had but usually you won't find them in a promotion. You just need to do some homework.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

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waterbug123

waterbug123

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I agree. I booked on 20 th April for 7 nights next August. I was pleased with my deal 3 adults in JS inc gratuities and $500 spend.I paid £3100 total. I mentioned it to a friend and she tried to book today. Exactly the same people and grade cabin was £2100 more expensive with no drinks or gratuities. I do not understand this ?

 

Supply and demand. If Royal can charge more and the market will bear it, they will. If not, you'll see the price go back down.

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proggieus

proggieus

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The cruise line are just reacting to the purchasers habits-

 

Cruisers used to wait until the last minute to book when cruise lines would slowly lower the prices as the cruise date got closer and closer.

 

this is horrible for the cruise line since they are sitting with a half empty ship and no promise of it filling up, so they stopped dropping the prices as time went on and instead offered the lowest fares earlier rather than later-

 

from the cruise line standpoint it makes sense- they fill the ship earlier reducing the risk of a undersold cruise and get to hold onto(and put to work) the deposit money for a much longer time.

 

The prices will slowly increase and the service will slowly drop until they can no longer fill the ships, but so long as the ships are operating at or near capacity they really don't care if you stop cruising or not- so long as someone takes your place-

 

they can only build so many ships a year and can only accommodate so many cruisers In the existing ships

 

they are better off sailing with 90% of the berths sold at $100 avg. per night/per berth

 

then 100% sold at $70 avg. per night per/berth.

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gooners1968

gooners1968

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I've often found that after about a week or two of the so called free drinks package offer there will be an option to book a guarantee cabin that's without all the add ons. I'd keep checking the cruise you are interested in and see if it happens.

 

As a cruiser that drinks very little I like the guarantee option-we've had 14 night cruises from the UK in the summer holidays for around £1k each!

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