I recently learned that Royal Caribbean uses dynamic pricing for all its charge types. This means that when demand is lower for their cruise/cabin type, shore excursions, the key, internet etc, the price will be lower and when the demand is higher for these things the prices rise. It can be quite annoying if your timing for booking any of these is off. It requires you to do the following
- book earlier for a cruise (i.e. now for some cruises its a year in advance to get a better price). This is especially noticeable of the longer cruises. The seven day Caribbean seem to stay steadier in the prices.
- check almost daily for internet and other services. It's especially hard for Canadians as we also have to watch our CDN/US exchange rates which also change daily.
- Shore excursions are just way too high even with the 10% offer. Long gone are the 30% off shore excursions. I have found they give a 20% discount on all Spanish speaking tours but only 10 percent for the English ones. But worst of all if you take public transit to the same sites, you will save greatly. An example are both trips to Mijas and or Murcia in Spain. Both will cost less than $10 Euros return by Public transit , yet RCL wants $95 and $72 respectively for "on your own" tours with their discounts.
- I have had first hand experience - the price of my upcoming spring cruise was $300 less for the cabin I wanted if I have of booked a year out and at 10 months it had risen due to increase demand. I carefully booked the KEY as it was only $1.50 per day more than the internet price and now the KEY is up by over $15 more a day than the internet.
I am sure this benefits RCL, but makes it hard for cruisers to get the best price. I much prefer Cunard, Holland America and Princess whose prices remain steady throughout unless they have a sale.
Hope this helps
Marcia
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