On a cruise ship, the little things sometimes add up and make for a better experience.
As Royal Caribbean has designed its newest ships, it has thought deeply about small details that improve your cruise.
Icon of the Seas, for example, pioneered many such technology changes. The biggest of those is arguably its destination elevators.
Related: Royal Caribbean passengers will love its latest big plan
Instead of everyone piling into an elevator and picking a floor, passengers now input their floors on a tablet near the elevator bank. They are then assigned to elevators by letter; those elevators arrive quickly and each makes only a limited number of stops.
The system ends the (sometimes tense) situations where everyone lined up for the same elevator and no one knew who got there first. In addition, it eliminates elevators in which a kid hits every floor, leading to an endlessly long trip.
Royal Caribbean has also made it easier to log in to its internet on its newest ships, and it has added new, easier-to-use touch-based drink dispensers for its free beverages.
The cruise line has clearly been thinking about making every aspect of cruising easier for passengers — but not every move it has made is customer-friendly.
Image source: Daniel Kline/TheStreet
Buying a drink package on board will cost you
Traditionally, it has always been cheaper to buy Royal Caribbean's Deluxe Beverage Package before your cruise. If you track its price and wait for a sale, you may be able to purchase it for as low as $60 to $70 a day (plus an 18% gratuity). It's more commonly offered in the high $70s to low $80s, but prices vary a lot.
Seasoned cruisers know that when you see a good price on the Deluxe Beverage Package, you should pounce on it. And if the price goes down, you can cancel your purchase and buy it again.
There are no real rules shared with passengers as to how the pricing gets set. It's based somewhat on demand and tends to be cheaper per day on cruises of more than seven nights, but that's not always the case. In addition, there are often sales over holidays but not for every ship or every sailing.
In general, it has always been more expensive to buy the deluxe drink package on board. Royal Caribbean did, however, traditionally have a buy-one-get-one offer for people purchasing on the ship.
That almost always still costs around $90 per person, per day. Now, the cruise line appears to have dropped the BOGO offer fully, and buying the Deluxe Beverage Package on Utopia of the Seas on the July 29 sailing costs $115 per day, per person plus an 18% gratuity.
The cruise line has not made a statement on this, but a report from Royal Caribbean Blog shows that it's happening on many, if not all, ships.
Sign up for the Come Cruise With Me newsletter to save money on your next (or your first) cruise.
Royal Caribbean on-board revenue is way up
In general, it's important to book as much of your on-board added-fee spending before your cruise as possible. It's not just the drink package; excursions, internet and dining packages are usually cheaper before you cruise.
Royal Caribbean has been able to raise prices across the board, not just on its beverage packages when they're purchased on the ship. That's something Royal Caribbean Group CEO Jason Liberty spoke about during his company's second-quarter earnings call.
"The North American consumer who represents approximately 80% of our sourcing this year continues to be robust, driving strong yield growth across all key products," he said. "In addition to strength in the Caribbean, European and Alaska summer itineraries are performing exceptionally well, and we have experienced greater pricing power than expected since our last earnings call."
ALSO READ: Top travel agents share how to get the best price on your cruise
Passengers are also booking their on-board purchases earlier in the process.
"Once booked, guests are quickly engaging with us and buying significantly more on-board experiences per booking than in the second quarter of last year, both earlier and on meaningfully higher [available passenger cruise days,] translating into higher satisfaction rates and higher on-board spend," he added.
Related: Get the best cruise tips, deals, and news on the ships from our expert cruiser
