I discovered something that really made our decision to sail Regent's Barcelona-Rome 14 May cruise even more appealing...ironicly, it's the price.

Just for kicks, I did a query against some of the mass market lines. Finding an "apple to apple" comparison was a bit difficult as so many of the other line's suites which approach 300+ square feet with a balcony were already sold out and I couldn't get the cost from their websites, but I found the closest comparison that I could: Royal Caribbean

RCCL offers a Barcelona-Barcelona 7 night cruise which leaves just 2 weeks after our Voyager Barcelona-Rome cruise. I used RCCL's Junior Suite which measures at 277 square feet with a 67 square foot balcony. This suite is still about 24 square feet smaller than our H-Class suite on the Voyager.

When I use RCCL's airfare, their price is $8,517.50.

Our price for our RSSC Voyager cruise is $8721.6.

Now, of course, the RCCL price does not include the nearly $248 in gratuties based upon RCCL's guidelines. Nor does it include the price of specialty restaurants, drinks with dinner or, from my understanding in 2007, drinks from the bar as with Regent.

Now, in all honesty. Our RSSC prices does include the 20% savings for being past sailers and I'm sure that RCCL's Crown and Anchor Club has similar savings. But, wow.

Knowing that we're:

1. Going to be sailing the Med.
2. Going to be sailing the Med w/out our kids.
3. Going to be sailing the Med w/out our kids on Regent.
4. Going to be sailing the Med w/out ur kids on Regent for mass-market cruising prices.

That brings a nice, warm feeling all over me.

v/r

Jan

Oh...

I forgot to add, apparently it would be an additional $84 for my wife and I to have soft drinks each day, regardless of whatever wine/beer/spirits we drank.

So, so happy. So very, very happy.

v/r

Jan

Don't you just get the warm fuzzies when you find something like that? And you left out the fact that you will have a fraction of the number of fellow passengers around you!

You will have such a great cruise, I just know it.

Pam,

I know, we will only be able to make 698 new friends instead of 3112 new friends.

...Maybe we should reconsider...

v/r

Jan

Jan, I think you made the right choice! You forgot to add the the cost for not having to stand in long lines..... priceless!!

Wow, that is really amazing!!

I would never have thought that it would come out like that. There is no comparing the lines and that really gives you warm and fuzzies!!!

That is interesting. We have friends that will only sail on RCCL. We have tried to tell them that they spend more money to cruise in the same type of cabin, but we are just wasting our breath. We have been trying to convince them for the past couple of years to try either a Silversea or Regent cruise with us and can't get them to do it.

I can understand if people sail in a lower priced cabin in a mass market line. But to pay the same amount of money as in Regent and not have even soft drinks included makes no sense!

I might go in a mass market line next summer to Alaska with my kids :( .Quite frankly I don't see the point to spend all the money to upgrade to a junior suite. The ship you share with the other 2000+ people is still the same. So, I'll save my money and make do with a regular outside cabin.

We watched a show on the travel channel tonight about sailing on Freedom of the seas. Makes me shudder to even think about it. Frankly if I wanted to be in a city, I'd just stay home and take the train to Manhattan. It would be alot cheaper (even with show tickets or movie tickets each night)than the mega-ships.

And the food would be better, Arlene!

Masaki

One piece of this comparison I think may not be fair.
I think (?) you used the RCCL list price vs the price you were given for Regent? If so, I think you have to subtract more from the RCCL price than in your example. Those cruises are often more deeply discounted. That will bring the prices a little more favorable to RCCL, but still showing Regent to be a nice bargain in comparison.

Gil,

You're absolutely right. My intent was to get a approximation of costs. I used the RCCL websites reserve-a-cruise portal which figured the costs.

I did go to vactionstogo and to the USAA members' cruise pages and their JS prices were the same as what was listed on the RCCL website.

v/r

Jan

Mark's partner just went on the NCL ship that Masaki and Amanda were on. They were upgraded to a Penthouse Suite, and he said being able to have breakfast in the steak house was the only saving grace. The constant tipping made him crazy, and then to be told that on top of what was already charged to his account, he needed to "slip a little extra" to his butler and steward (by the concierge) sent him over the edge. And paying extra for various eating establishments (plus tip) wasn't fun either.

He said the food was barely okay, and he won't be repeating that experience. Oh, and he had been told that this cruise was called the "Honeymoon Cruise" because of its Monday sailing. He is in his early 60's and said he felt very youthful amid his fellow passengers.

WOW! And they are supposed to be "discount" cruise sites. Just shows to go ya, we do get the best deals right where we are!

Gil, RCCL will not allow any site or TA to discount their cruises. That has been their policy for about a year or so.

I did the same comparison and got what Jan did. When you figure in the airfare and the SSS discount it comes to about the same. Even if somebody was a Crown and Anchor frequent sailor with RCCL, the largest discount coupon would be for about $250 per person. It is unbelievable. Figure in the drinks and gratuities and you end up spending way more on a MEGA ship!

Doesn't make sense to me!

We met a couple on SAND who were both travel agents, on their 16th cruise, on a variety of lands. This was their first rssc cruise. When I asked her which cruiseline she like best, she said Royal Caribbean, hands-down. She also complained about how "plain" Navigator was, with no huge chandeliers and a big atrium. Go figure. But I've tried to price an RCCL western caribbean 7-day next December against our Voyager booking, and RCCL looks a lot cheaper, even with a comparable cabin (not that I would cruise on those ships, especially after observing one of them in Nassau last week.)

In 2002 we booked the Celebrity Millennium. We'd sailed on Mariner the year before so I tried to make it a comparable experience and booked a jr suite with a verandah. By the time we added wine with dinner, soft drinks and whatever it took to be equal and compared the final bill, we came within a few hundred dollars. ..
This summer when I took the kids on the weekend cruise in adjoining 119 sq ft staterooms on RCCL, my cost was actually over $220 per person per day - hardly a RSSC Experience. My SAND costs were just over that - Fare only. If you look for the right itinerary on RSSC you can actually pay about the same!

It still is not about the money no matter what the price differece is..

Service and a more elegent cruise experience can not be had on the mega ships.

Much better. Dylan Prime anyone? ;) or Rosa mexicana

Exactly. Of course you don't have the mega-chandeliers or huge atriums. ;)

Or the people who know you from your last cruise. On the Mariner when we took our second cruise on her, we were in the theater the first night about to order a drink during the show and the waitress said, "Mrs. R, would you like a Grand Marnier?" I was astonished that two years later not only did she remember me, but she knew what I drank! You don't get that service just anywhere. Pinky was off when we were on MUSH. She was promoted to Travel Manager but she also had a baby.