Royal's Dynamic Pricing Policy Is An Absolute Joke

[SRF]

Just now, grandgeezer said:

No, a sale infers a lower price. The sign tells you the current price only, not that it went down.

 

True, they do not say SALE.   

 

But I can tell if the prices are up or down in my local area.  And since stations are typically clustered, I can pick the lowest price.

[grandgeezer]

7 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Most businesses do this.  It is supply and demand.

 

They may not change prices daily, but they do change based on cost and supply and demand.  Did you buy any toilet paper about 18 months ago????

I don’t know if I did. I was smart enough that I saw what was coming up so I stocked up ahead of time, at the normal price. By the time I needed to buy more, pricing was closer to what I had been paying.

[SRF]

But you know what happened to prices.

 

That is dynamic pricing.

 

Airlines and hotels and resorts also use it.

 

Price the daily rate of a strip hotel in Vegas.  Weekdays, it can be $45 per night.  But Friday will be around $200 (demand), and Saturday will be $300. the Sunday night back to $45.  Have a special event and prices rocket up.   Until a few days before, and not sold out, prices drop.

 

It makes sense for the BUSINESS.

[Iamcruzin]

47 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Don't the stations in your area have a sign with prices out for everyone to see???

 

Isn't that advertising a sale??

 

 

Yes, but it's not advertised as a sale by any means  They do advertise debit same price as cash which is on average 10 cents a gallon lower than a credit card.  You know that you will pay more if the station is closer to a main highway and the national brands are always more money than the phantom brands.

[Merion_Mom]

11 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Fourth and fifth will be on a B2B on the Oasis in June.  Did the Indy, Explorer and a small vessel right after 911 on a real cheap 4 day before Christmas.  We have the UDP on our 7 day after going to Canada on a 5 day.  The UDP as well as our first Oasis Class ship is something I'm looking forward to.

 

See you on the Oasis!  Maybe we can share a meal, as I too have purchased the UDP.  🙂 

 

11 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I remember when they gave S&H green stamps for a fill up.  Also remember gas @ 0.33 / gallon.

 

Not only do I remember the green stamps, I still HAVE some of the things that I bought with the green stamps!  And I could show you the place (the building's not there any more, of course), where the redemption center was.  😄 

 

ETA:  Since you are relatively local - it was in Willow Grove.

 

10 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I appreciate it.  It seems like I never have a problem with the women that post on here, it always seems to be the guys.  Being on the opposite side of the line in the sand regarding an issue and overreacting always leads to nothing positive.

 

With some obvious exceptions, how do you know what gender a poster is?

[LGW59]

7 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Apologies for the wrong assumption.

No worries at all 

[grandgeezer]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:15 AM, LGW59 said:

Well Celebrity now has the AI program for Sky Suite and above and it includes premium drinks package.  Of course I know we are paying for it in the cost of the cruise but cest lavie.

Wrong again, Celebrity offers AI for all categories including inside and oceanview.

[PhillyFan33579]

On 11/28/2021 at 1:21 PM, SNJCruisers said:

As usual, Royal's Dynamic Pricing policy is an absolute joke when you compare it to all of their competition.  Many companies such as Celebrity offer all inclusive pricing that has the drink package already included.  Others such as Princess, NCL, MSC and HAL offer the drink package as an optional add on package with other perks either all of the time or on occasion like HAL.  Carnival offers their Cheers package as a stand alone add on @ 51.95 per day if bought pre-cruise and 56.95 on board.

 

The Dynamic Pricing policy fluctuates depending upon which ship you're sailing on and when you sail.  The on board price of 88.00, which recently went up is only better than NCL's 99.00 per day, but nobody pays those prices.  At a 30% discount it comes to 60.99 and even @ a 40% discount it's 52.80 a day, still slightly more than Cheers, which can be purchased at anytime prior to sailing on Carnival and you don't have to keep wasting your time looking for a "sale" like you do with Royal.

 

On all 14 cruises I have taken over the last 9 years since drink packages started up I have gotten them whether through a perks situation like NCL, Celebrity or MSC or a la carte on Carnival and Royal.  But 30% off at 60.99 per day, plus the 18% gratuity on top comes out to 71.97 per day.  This equates to just over a grand for a 7 day cruise for two people.  I will be taking a hard pass and get the refreshment package @ 50% off and save about 725.00.  I'll survive on my B2B on the Oasis.  I have the drinks package on my 9 other cruises booked for 2022 on Celebrity, NCL, Princess and Carnival.

One of the many great things about cruising is all the options available, to include the option to book on multiple cruise lines. Obviously RCI’s dynamic pricing policy is not a joke or they wouldn’t do it. If I felt the way you do (I don’t but I can definitely understand your perspective) I would simply not cruise on RCI.
 

What I think is a joke, to use your word, is how Carnival has a daily drink limit and doesn’t allow use of Cheers on their private islands, two things RCI doesn’t do. That is one of many reason why we no longer cruise on Carnival. 

Edited December 4, 2021 by PhillyFan33579

[SNJCruisers]

9 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

No don’t stop… Fight the power!

It's like a treadmill...why bother.

[SNJCruisers]

5 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

🙂

With some obvious exceptions, how do you know what gender a poster is?

Can usually infer easily via nickname, such as you being female or Johnnlala being male.  Or after seeing them post for years, such as Firefly being female.  Am sometimes wrong, but I'm more familiar with those posting on the Carnival boards.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

What I think is a joke, to use your word, is how Carnival has a daily drink limit and doesn’t allow use of Cheers on their private islands, two things RCI doesn’t do. That is one of many reason why we no longer cruise on Carnival. 

If you need to drink more than 15 alcoholic drinks in a day while on vacation, then you have more of a problem than I do regarding Royal's dynamic policy. And HMC is Carnival's only private island and you can take beers off the ship with you in a cooler if need be.

[firefly333]

40 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

If you need to drink more than 15 alcoholic drinks in a day while on vacation, then you have more of a problem than I do regarding Royal's dynamic policy. And HMC is Carnival's only private island and you can take beers off the ship with you in a cooler if need be.

Idk to me  mahony bay, roatan is the same as a private island. It's a area only carnival docks. Rcl docks elsewhere. 

 

My problem with cheers was I didnt like the wines I tried and never saw a wine list, but I know the wines on rcl will be more to my liking. Twice I asked for something like a german riesling and both time they brought some italian wine I hated that was sickly sweet. They must know 0 about wine. Couldnt suggest anything. That icky sweet italian wine tasted nothing like a german riesling. Me and cheers didnt work out well on carnival. I'm too picky. 

 

Cheers is good up to $20 which is nice but isnt good the first day out of Galveston but rcl drinking pkg is good the first day out of Galveston.  They pay the texas taxes and you can use it. So there are a lot of differences. 

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, SNJCruisers said:

If you need to drink more than 15 alcoholic drinks in a day while on vacation, then you have more of a problem than I do regarding Royal's dynamic policy. And HMC is Carnival's only private island and you can take beers off the ship with you in a cooler if need be.

When you get up at 8 AM and stay up to 1 AM on a cruise, 15 drinks in a day is less than one drink an hour. I don’t consider that a problem, although I don’t drink like that when I am at home. Carnival Corp owns/leases several islands that are only used by their ships. For what it’s worth, HMC is owned by Holland America, although they fall under Carnival Corp. 

[xpcdoojk]

2 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Idk to me  mahony bay, roatan is the same as a private island. It's a area only carnival docks. Rcl docks elsewhere. 

 

My problem with cheers was I didnt like the wines I tried and never saw a wine list, but I know the wines on rcl will be more to my liking. Twice I asked for something like a german riesling and both time they brought some italian wine I hated that was sickly sweet. They must know 0 about wine. Couldnt suggest anything. That icky sweet italian wine tasted nothing like a german riesling. Me and cheers didnt work out well on carnival. I'm too picky. 

 

Cheers is good up to $20 which is nice but isnt good the first day out of Galveston but rcl drinking pkg is good the first day out of Galveston.  They pay the texas taxes and you can use it. So there are a lot of differences. 

Huge difference between a Riesling and a muscato.

[xpcdoojk]

20 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I remember when they gave S&H green stamps for a fill up.  Also remember gas @ 0.33 / gallon.

I must be older than you, I remember 21.9 a gallon when a price war broke out.,

[xpcdoojk]

17 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Great post.  Looking forward to our first Oasis Class cruise in June on the original.  Maybe Cats will be put out to pasture by then.

Avoid the Oasis if you don’t like Cats…. There are other O class ships out there.

[SNJCruisers]

12 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

I must be older than you, I remember 21.9 a gallon when a price war broke out.,

The 0.33/gallon was in 1968 in suburban Philly.

[SNJCruisers]

14 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

Avoid the Oasis if you don’t like Cats…. There are other O class ships out there.

I know, but had it reserved last August and it got cancelled.  Added on the 5 day on the front end.  If Cats is still around, it's no big deal.  Heard that the redone shorter version is better than the original.

If we like it, then we'll try newer versions out of FLA. (The ship, not Cats)

Edited December 5, 2021 by SNJCruisers

[ReneeFLL]

26 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

I know, but had it reserved last August and it got cancelled.  Added on the 5 day on the front end.  If Cats is still around, it's no big deal.  Heard that the redone shorter version is better than the original.

If we like it, then we'll try newer versions out of FLA. (The ship, not Cats)

The newer version of Cats is still on the Oasis. Saw it for my first time this November. I will find something else next time to see or just skip the shows. The Book was also strange to me.

[tanyaewa]

On 11/28/2021 at 10:21 AM, SNJCruisers said:

As usual, Royal's Dynamic Pricing policy is an absolute joke when you compare it to all of their competition.  Many companies such as Celebrity offer all inclusive pricing that has the drink package already included.  Others such as Princess, NCL, MSC and HAL offer the drink package as an optional add on package with other perks either all of the time or on occasion like HAL.  Carnival offers their Cheers package as a stand alone add on @ 51.95 per day if bought pre-cruise and 56.95 on board.

 

The Dynamic Pricing policy fluctuates depending upon which ship you're sailing on and when you sail.  The on board price of 88.00, which recently went up is only better than NCL's 99.00 per day, but nobody pays those prices.  At a 30% discount it comes to 60.99 and even @ a 40% discount it's 52.80 a day, still slightly more than Cheers, which can be purchased at anytime prior to sailing on Carnival and you don't have to keep wasting your time looking for a "sale" like you do with Royal.

 

On all 14 cruises I have taken over the last 9 years since drink packages started up I have gotten them whether through a perks situation like NCL, Celebrity or MSC or a la carte on Carnival and Royal.  But 30% off at 60.99 per day, plus the 18% gratuity on top comes out to 71.97 per day.  This equates to just over a grand for a 7 day cruise for two people.  I will be taking a hard pass and get the refreshment package @ 50% off and save about 725.00.  I'll survive on my B2B on the Oasis.  I have the drinks package on my 9 other cruises booked for 2022 on Celebrity, NCL, Princess and Carnival.

I agree 100% and have no idea why the cheerleaders defend it 

[LGW59]

5 minutes ago, tanyaewa said:

I agree 100% and have no idea why the cheerleaders defend it 

Perhaps because it’s their money and they can decide how to spend it, regardless of what you think.  Just like you decide how to spend yours.  

[xpcdoojk]

4 hours ago, tanyaewa said:

I agree 100% and have no idea why the cheerleaders defend it 

Welcome to the Royal board.  😆

[grandgeezer]

15 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

When you get up at 8 AM and stay up to 1 AM on a cruise, 15 drinks in a day is less than one drink an hour. I don’t consider that a problem, although I don’t drink like that when I am at home. Carnival Corp owns/leases several islands that are only used by their ships. For what it’s worth, HMC is owned by Holland America, although they fall under Carnival Corp. 

To each his own. Start drinking at 8am, and downing fifteen alcohol drinks, a day, for god knows how many days, might be viewed differently by others, but who cares. 
I asked myself, if I would do this, why, since it would change my consumption dramatically.I could come up with two: 1) It made cruising palatable, and 2) It gave me bragging rights being able to say, “I got my moneys worth from the drink package.”

 

[SRF]

On 12/4/2021 at 11:55 AM, Iamcruzin said:

Yes, but it's not advertised as a sale by any means  They do advertise debit same price as cash which is on average 10 cents a gallon lower than a credit card.  You know that you will pay more if the station is closer to a main highway and the national brands are always more money than the phantom brands.

 

It depends on the area.  In my area, most stations are the same price for cash or credit.

 

And prices change based on the location.  Some because they can.  And some because the lease on the land it higher.

 

And national brands are not always higher.  One of the cheapest places in my area is right off an interstate and is a national brand.  It is across the street from a non-national brand, which keeps their prices low.

[SRF]

On 12/5/2021 at 1:09 AM, tanyaewa said:

I agree 100% and have no idea why the cheerleaders defend it 

 

Well, again, you are paying for everything you get on board.  Either directly for it or in your cruise fair.

 

So why should someone pay for "free" drinks, if they don't drink?  Or pay for any of the "free" things if they do not need them?

 

You probably fly SouthWest thinking that you really aren't paying for your luggage. 😄