RCI Early Booking Offers

[swcruise]

For the past number of year's RCI has ran an early booking offer at this time of year for the following year's cruise that have money off per stateroom and also some OBC. I have been looking ahead for 2011 since the RCI schedules were published but this offer is not there.

 

Does anybody know if RCI plan to run this promotion again this year ??

 

Tks

[swcruise]

Typo, I meant I am looking ahead for 2012 and am wondering if RCI will be running the promotion for bokking for next year..

[trolleydolly]

I phoned them the other day to enquire about a cruise for next year on the Indy. Though they didn't mention anything about early booking offer they did off me obc. This wasn't on offer when cruises first came out in march (or whenever they opened up)

 

If you are thinking if booking direct with them I would phone a couple of times because it seems to be down to the agent as to how much obc they will give you out of their 'personal' allowance!

[sandancer]

We were told by RCI UK earlier this year that they were not going to offer early booking discounts and that they had reduced the cruise fares to take this into account. Said this would apply to both RCCL and Celebrity. A couple of weeks later I noticed on the X website that they were offering early booking and OBC. We were able to book 2 Celebrity cruises for 2012 and got a total of £400 discount. No OBC for the cruises we had chosen though. It is very confusing when they tell you one thing and then do another. Trolley dolly is right when she says you should speak to more than one agent if you don't get anywhere.

[insidecabin]

Pricing is variable as are the extras

 

Early booking discounts are marketing tools so don't asume these will be the cheapest rates for any trip, often good for the popular trips less so for the empty dates.

[sandancer]

InsideCabin is absolutely right in his comments. The 2 cruises we chose were well sought after and the prices have increased considerably since we booked - however, it seems to be a lottery these days, there are some good rates for late deals on certain cruises. Add to that the changes made to "price drop" rules and unless you are set on a particular cabin, you might want to pass up the "early booking offer" and take your chances.

[swcruise]

Yes, it seems like there is no incentive to bok early this year so I think I will take my chances and keep track on a couple of cruises that are taking my fancy for 2012..

 

Tks