Wrist Pinger

I’ve just been doing a little research into the particular boarding procedures used by Royal Caribbean cruise line for our upcoming voyage.

They have an option for guests to use a wristband instead of their Seapass card.

If you don’t know, onboard cruise ships you can’t use money or credit cards at all. You use the card you were issued for every purchase, and they are charged to your account. This gets settled with a single charge on your credit card at the end of your trip. The cards also act as your id for things like spa appointments, and drink packages you may have purchased. They also act as your room key. It is very nice not needing to carry a wallet, or a separate key. The cards are also what you need when in port to check out and back onto the ship.

So as I was saying, our next ship will have the usual cards, but guests can also get wristbands that serves all of the same functions. Well, almost all. You still need your card for going ashore and getting back onboard.

To most people this wouldn’t be a major thing at all, and online there are tons of posts of people blasting this new practice. The biggest concern that they all seem to have is the price. Getting a wristband carries a $4.99 price tag.

On Royal Caribbean, a domestic beer costs $7.99USD, and a glass of wine from $9 to $25. A bottle of water or soda costs $3.25.

About half of everybody gets a drink package. The cheapest version is only for soda pop, and costs $12 per day. The kicker is that you can’t buy one day. You have to buy for the entire voyage. As this sailing is 10 days long, a pop package would run you $120 USD. The same goes for plans that include booze, and for this trip those would run from $665 USD for the trip and up. There are few bargains on board the ships. It is quite possible to not spend even a penny beyond your cruise fare, but folks that do that are pretty rare.

As I no longer drink booze at all, and am not interested in paying their price for soda pop, and prefer the main dining room and main buffet, I won’t rack up even a single extra dollar spent, unless I find a cool tshirt in one of the shops. I’m a sucker for tshirts.

Therefore, my entire additional outlay for this 10 day voyage will be $4.99 for a wristband.

Why are those people all so concerned about this outrageous cost? It is totally optional. I guess they don’t cruise the same way that I do.

With my band, I need never take my card swimming, or to the gym, or dig through my pockets to be able to access my room. It will be there, with me, always. I will be able to walk the decks with nothing in my pockets at all if I so choose. This is very freeing.

No money, no wallet, no credit cards, no nothing. Just a thing on my arm that makes things go ping when I need it to.

I’m sold, and am happy it will be so cheap.