Article on how much $ ships make on passengers

[taglovestocruise]

19 minutes ago, CruisinCrow said:

 

And don't buy as many photos.  

Have not bought a photo in the last 5 years, just get the two free Diamond photos. 

[Robo1098]

The $1,116 per passenger for the cabin seems a little high.

 

[Robo1098]

Oh also! I would be up for adding a little to the $86 food cost to improve the quality. I guess that would cut into the specialty restaurants though.  

[gatour]

 

2 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Bingo is a HUUUUUGE profit source for RC! 😳

Yes.  A few years we ago we decided to do bingo.  The last time we had done it was years ago, when you used markers and paper cards.  It was a good cheap way to blow an hour or so.

 

So we decided to do bingo, between "renting" the electronic device and paying for the maximum number of games, we were around $300 if not more for just one session.  I kept this from wife.  The experience was not as fun as the paper cards/markers and it didn't help my mood thinking about the cost.

 

So last year we were on a cruise, and my wife suggested we do bingo.  I then told her how much it cost the last time we did this.  She agreed the cost vs payout was not worth it.

 

1 hour ago, Robo1098 said:

Oh also! I would be up for adding a little to the $86 food cost to improve the quality. I guess that would cut into the specialty restaurants though.  

 

That comes to about $12.25/day/person.  This is somewhat in line with other food cost figures I have heard in regards to cruise lines.

 

As a point of reference for land based restaurants food cost around %20 of total revenues is considered the norm.  However they can go up to %30.

[time4u2go]

2 minutes ago, gatour said:

Yes.  A few years we ago we decided to do bingo.  The last time we had done it was years ago, when you used markers and paper cards.  It was a good cheap way to blow an hour or so.

 

So we decided to do bingo, between "renting" the electronic device and paying for the maximum number of games, we were around $300 if not more for just one session.  I kept this from wife.  The experience was not as fun as the paper cards/markers and it didn't help my mood thinking about the cost.

I totally agree with this.  It was somewhat fun when you did your own cards, but the electronic devices take ALL of the fun out of it.  They may as well just do a raffle and pull tickets out of a bowl!

[grinningimm]

3 hours ago, Tapi said:

Cruise lines must not like me. Our onboard spending on our last cruise (5 nights) for my family of 4 was $57. 😂

Yeah, on our last cruise (which happened to be on Carnival) my wife and I spent zero.  If we do that again on our RCI TA, our OBC will cover our gratuities.😉

[mr walker]

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

On my first cruise, in 2002, the big jackpot on the final day, was over $10,000. 

 

Now you are lucky to see $300. 

 

Never seen the final day jackpot anything close to as low as $300. In fact can't even remember the final game each day being anywhere near that low. Guess there are more playing bingo on the cruises we have been on.

[Jasonmom]

4 hours ago, Robo1098 said:

The $1,116 per passenger for the cabin seems a little high.

 

 

Think about the people who pay $$$ for those suites.

 

[Merion_Mom]

2 hours ago, gatour said:

 

Yes.  A few years we ago we decided to do bingo.  The last time we had done it was years ago, when you used markers and paper cards.  It was a good cheap way to blow an hour or so.

 

 

 

 

My my recollection is a little different. 

 

No markers. 

 

You bent back back or folded under the tab when your number was called. 

 

🙂

[Maraprince]

Don't forget that ships have arcades where you pay for the games played.  Also, the spa and beauty salons do pretty good with the prices they charge.  You cannot exclude the speciality restaurants, a la carte venues, speciality coffees, ice cream pops (actually handed to the passengers) and other things like pasteries, Johnny Rockets (used to be free) all bring in revenue as well.  Bar beverages more than cover the cost of food that is served on land as well as at sea.

 

A lot of passengers pre pay to lower their final bill.

 

Some times, depending on the passengers, ships do not meet their quota of liquor sold but they are certainly not bleeding money since there are more ways to bring in revenue other than the gift shops.

 

MARAPRINCE

[mac66]

Well $1.8 Billion was a tidy profit for RCI in 2018. As long as they can hold the cost of the basic cruise to a reasonable level people will continue to buy their product. And as long as they can keep coming up with extras to spend your money on they will continue to make a profit.  There are plenty of people who buy the extras/add ons. 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

7 hours ago, akcruz said:

https://www.cruzely.com/heres-how-much-money-cruise-ships-make-off-every-passenger-infographic/

 

Can't verify what's in this article but if true interesting.  Uses Royal as example showing where they make $298 profit on average from each passenger.  This number is includes cabin, average $1116, and onboard spend, average $444.  So if onboard spend is down, easy to not make that profit.

 

Looked and didn't this posted before if it was sorry.

It's no accident that excursions, specialty restaurants, drink packages, internet service, and other extras are heavily promoted by cruise lines - that's where the real profits come from.

[gatour]

14 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

 

My my recollection is a little different. 

 

No markers. 

 

You bent back back or folded under the tab when your number was called. 

 

🙂

I remember those too.  The markers were way back.  😉

[pstone1]

19 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

On my first cruise, in 2002, the big jackpot on the final day, was over $10,000. 

 

Now you are lucky to see $300. 

 

Yep, that's how large the Jackpots were when we started cruising too!  Although we've never been regular Bingo players, we would usually buy cards for the last cover-all game that paid the huge jackpot.  One of us was usually standing at end, just needing that one number to win!  We never did but once a friend won $4K! 

[vacationlover_mn]

20 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

On my first cruise, in 2002, the big jackpot on the final day, was over $10,000. 

 

Now you are lucky to see $300. 

I love bingo!  In fact, I’m heading to casino bingo today 🙂. However, I’m done with cruiseship bingo.  It has gotten SO expensive, yet the prizes have gone down in value 😞. Also, it’s often super crowded and in an uncomfortable venue.  I did one session last month on Symphony, and it’ll be my last one...

[vacationlover_mn]

14 hours ago, mr walker said:

 

Never seen the final day jackpot anything close to as low as $300. In fact can't even remember the final game each day being anywhere near that low. Guess there are more playing bingo on the cruises we have been on.

The one day we did bingo on Symphony last month, the prizes were low, something like $350.  It wasn’t the family bingo, it was a normal session.  I think we had 3 or 4 games, and paid like $67 per person to play.  

[Biker19]

On 3/15/2019 at 3:10 PM, Robo1098 said:

The $1,116 per passenger for the cabin seems a little high.

The figures that RCCL reports are for all of the lines, including Celebrity, Azmara and SilverSea - prices on those pull up the average.

[crewsweeper]

So does this really matter that much?  The question isn't how much profit they make ( net revenues ) but what they do with it.  Goes to shareholders (most of which could probably part of your 401K or pension) or goes to capital spending (drydock, new ships etc.).  Thus if you think they should have less profits by offering lower priced drinks, excursions, spa treatments, specialty dining cabins, are you willing to cruise of lower quality food, poorly maintained and old vessels?

[CRUISEFAN0001]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

The figures that RCCL reports are for all of the lines, including Celebrity, Azmara and SilverSea - prices on those pull up the average.

Yeah...I'm sure the shareholders will like that kind of number...but I learned a long time ago that it's possible to make numbers say whatever the source wants depending on the mission...

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

...but I learned a long time ago that it's possible to make numbers say whatever the source wants depending on the mission...

All those numbers come from RCCL's 10K yearly filing with the SEC - not sure there's much leeway how/what kind of numbers they report there.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Just now, Biker19 said:

All those numbers come from RCCL's 10K yearly filing with the SEC - not sure there's much leeway how/what kind of numbers they report there.

No doubt.  My point was that if the choice was to report the average by cruise line...the results would vary significantly.

 

They chose to aggregate the number to get the highest result...certainly their prerogative to do so.

[RDC1]

On 3/15/2019 at 11:26 AM, ShillyShally said:

My on board tab goes down the more I cruise, and the more I can prepay so again I'm sure there is built in profit on the beverage package even if we break even, but I am no longer swayed by the shops or extras though it's always amusing to watch the t-shirt sale on the last day!

If you prepay certain items, such as the beverage package, it is still considered to be on board spending in the statistics.  Consider it this way, pretty much everything other than the fare, airfare and gratuity is considered to be on board spend.

[ShillyShally]

1 minute ago, RDC1 said:

If you prepay certain items, such as the beverage package, it is still considered to be on board spending in the statistics.  Consider it this way, pretty much everything other than the fare, airfare and gratuity is considered to be on board spend.

Yeah I know, just makes me feel better I'm not wracking up charges on top of that 🙂  And pay less by prepaying than I would on board.  No tab has ever been as high as the first cruise I took but what did I know then? 🙂

[Robo1098]

22 hours ago, Biker19 said:

The figures that RCCL reports are for all of the lines, including Celebrity, Azmara and SilverSea - prices on those pull up the average.

Okay, that seems more in line. Thanks

 

[snaefell]

That sounds like bad news for my Wife,she loves bingo & is looking forward to playing on our first RCI cruise in October,she only played the once on our last cruise last year on P&O's Britannia,the price put her off playing again & I think that was only about $30,the prices being mentioned here,along with not having a physical card & marker will probably keep her on the sunbed!

As for whether or not cruises are worth the money I guess is a matter of opinion & depends on what you like & enjoy,if you want to wake up in a different place each day then they are hard to beat,but if,like my Wife,you are just looking for a bit of sun IME land based holidays can be cheaper,last November we did a 2 week break in Portugal from the UK for around half of what we would pay for a mediteranean cruise,all food & drink included,huge room looking out over the adjoining beach & sea,so much comfier than your average cabin(I know there are better classes of cabin but again they cost more),I think I've seen too many documentaries about cruise ships being built,I just keep remembering that I am effectively in a container fitted out for somebody to sleep in!