A Royal Rip Off…?

When you book your cruise, you do so for the itinerary and the chance to visit new or some familiar places, rather than being stuck in one destination for the duration of your holiday. One of the other things that attracts you is the wealth of entertainment on board the ship, often multiple bars, West End style theatre shows, and the list can go on.

Royal Caribbean are probably one of the best in offering on board entertainment. They are never afraid to push the boundaries of what you you expect on board a cruise ship and every new ship they launch has something new and innovative on board. Some of their most ‘out there’ additions that you would never associate with cruising are dodgems and ice rinks, robotic bars as well as the North Star which looks to be inspired by the London Eye. When you sail on your cruise, you expect these entertainment facilities to be included within your price.

This week, Royal Caribbean have announced that they are going to start charging for some of their on board facilities on Quantum of the Seas from November this year.

Starting in November the cruise line said that in order to improve guest experience and to minimise wait times, there will be a fee for the North Star and Ripcord by iFly on Quantum of the Seas as well as a fee for the express lane on the dodgems.

The new fees will be as follows:

Ripcord by iFly: $29 pp USD
North Star: $12 adults pp USD / $8 child pp USD (up to 11 years)
Bumper Cars: Complimentary (with option to upgrade to Express Lane for $5 pp USD)

Im not sure I agree with this. Royal Caribbean have been increasing their pricing for a number of years, and this has largely been due to the levels of facilities that are offered on board for their guests. To then start charging for some of them, makes some of their pricing unjustified, and I am not sure it would necessarily improve customer experiences.

And where does it stop? Once they charge for this, are they going to start charging you to go to the theatre in the evening?