If you are at least a Diamond member or above in Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society, here is a great way to maximize your savings on a Royal Caribbean Voom internet package for your cruise.
This deal assumes a few things for it to be worthwhile:
- You must be at least a Diamond member or above in Crown and Anchor Society (Diamond, Diamond Plus, or Pinnacle).
- You are interested in buying a Voom package for the duration of your cruise.
- You want to get the best possible price on a Voom package.
- The price of a one-device Voom package on Royal Caribbean's Cruise Planner before your sailing is $15.99 per day or higher.
For years, Royal Caribbean has been offering a pre-cruise discount on its Voom internet packages, which is an option on top of taking advantage of the onboard internet package discount Crown and Anchor Society provides. Essentially, you can pick one, but not both.
Recently, Royal Caribbean has seemed to change the pricing of its Voom Surf and Stream internet package when purchased onboard, to be $19.99 per day (for one device).
The strategy
Thanks to Royal Caribbean Blog reader twangster, there appears to be a way to take full advantage of the onboard discount, which will yield better savings compared to the pre-cruise discount.
What you have to do is wait to book the Voom package onboard, and then wait to buy the internet package on day two of your cruise.
If you can skip buying the internet package on day one, you can reap significant savings. Most guests will have cell phone coverage to provide internet access on day one for most of the day. Assuming a 4pm departure time, it is likely you have just 8 hours until midnight of no internet access. With dinner, entertainment and everything else going on during the first day, waiting until day two to book a Voom package is seemingly easy.
Here is a breakdown of the discount options:
7 Nights
On board - 7 * $19.99 = $139.93 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $116.94
Pre-cruise - 7 * $15.99 = $111.93
Best buy - On board Day 2 - 6 * $19.99 = $119.94 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $96.95
9 Nights
On board - 9 * $19.99 = $179.91 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $156.92
Pre-cruise - 9 * $15.99 = $143.91
Best buy - On board Day 2 - 8 * $19.99 = $159.92 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $136.93
12 Nights
On board - 12 * $19.99 = $239.88 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $216.89
On board Day 2 - 11 * $19.99 = $219.89 - $22.99 Diamond discount = $196.90
Best buy - Pre-cruise - 12 * $15.99 = $191.88
The Diamond discount is effectively between 9.6% and 28.8% based on cruise length. Longer cruise yield less effective discount.
Of course, if you really want to get some additional savings and are okay pushing off internet access for another day, waiting until day three of your cruise will yield even higher savings.
Gold, Platinum and Emerald members
If you are a Platinum or Emerald member in Crown and Anchor Society, you get less of a discount (15%) off onboard internet prices, but the result is pretty close to the same as Diamond members. Just like Diamond members, the best buy is to wait until day two.
- 4-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 28.8%
- 5-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 23%
- 6-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 19.2%
- 7-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 16.4%
- 8-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 14.4%
- 9-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 12.8%
- 10-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 11.5%
- 11-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 10.5%
- 12-night cruise: Diamond Voom discount: 9.6%
For anything longer than 7 nights, the Platinum and Emerald discount is better than the Diamond discount.
For 12 night cruises, the Gold discount (10%) is better than Diamond discount.
