Tips for Saving Money on RC

[crazypriest]

Hello... I am at Diamond Level with RC. I am always looking for the best deal. I am just recently throwing myself into the experience base of Cruise Critic and see that a lot of you have "techniques" I have never heard about in order to get the best deal.

 

General Question.... What are the tricks that you use? How do you find out things like the Tuesday Sale... What are good resources to be aware of???

 

Specific Question.... We are hoping to book a trip on a TransAtlantic for Spring 2014 and know they will be published soon. What are people's experience on those in terms of prices? (Please make up your own question if I am not asking the right ones here)

 

So ANY hints/resources for getting ahead of the game would be most welcome!

 

Thanks and blessings,

 

Ernesto (CrazyPriest)

[misty57]

I love balconies and although I could handle and inside cabin, DH refuses! So.. I book the lowest category ocean view balcony and watch for price drops. I have had 1-2 price drops on our last 2 cruises. I just call RCI and they credit my account without any hassle. I know there are some exceptions but I have changed levels of category when the price drops.

 

Watch for discounts for 55+ or resident discounts if you qualify.

 

I use the Royal Visa for most everything. We accumulate lots of OBC this way, and we pay it off every month so no interest payments.'

 

Use your savings certs or your balcony discounts.

 

We take advantage of the next cruise program too. For discounted deposits you get OBC too.

 

I have heard some people have stock in RCI and this gives them some discounts but they are not combinable with some others.

 

That's all I know to do. I hope others have some other tricks to get the best deals!

[Clarea]

Here is the Tuesday sale link:

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/sales/royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

 

The PDF file is updated every Thursday afternoon for sales the following Tuesday. The sale prices are good on Monday for C&A members.

[crazypriest]

Hello Bob,

 

Is the sales link you provided something that everyone can access???? How does a person find out about that link??

 

Ernesto

[Beth C]

Hello Bob,

 

Is the sales link you provided something that everyone can access???? How does a person find out about that link??

 

Ernesto

 

They email the sales to me weekly and this is the link they use... I'm sure someone at some point just saved it to their favourites and realized it changed weekly. You can see the deals before the Monday with it.

 

For TA cruises... If you're not set on a specific cabin I would wait and book last minute... I.e. after final payment. I haven't seen too many that haven't dropped to rock bottom prices in the 60 days prior... Heck the Brilliance transatlantic balconies were going for $349 last week! Since airfare only usually goes UP I would book it and wait out the cruise...

 

For the TA's I've booked for people it has always been cheaper to fly them somewhere else before flying them home... For my dads Rome to Halifax post cruise flight... If I had booked a flight that automatically came up with one airline for those exact cities it would have been in the $1500pp range (and 2+ stops)... Instead I booked a charter airline direct flight from Rome to Montreal and then booked a Montreal to Halifax flight with Air Canada. Each leg was in the $200-250 range & it actually got them home faster! Yes they had to gather luggage, check in again etc but for $810 rather than $3000 a little inconvenience is ok.

 

For that TA they booked about 50 days out... It ended up costing about $1300 pp due to amazingly cheap flights, cheap cruise, nice OBC because of next cruise certificate...

 

For my next cruise to Hawaii we had 10 people booked with an ballpark cost of cruise, hotel and airfare before of $29,000- $30,000 from what prices in August 2012 were (in insides and OV's... Balconies were and are still double the price!). By watching cruise prices like a hawk, putting a senior / higher tier C&A member in each stateroom, using next cruise certificates for the $150 OBC, booking hotels on Priceline, watching airfare prices etc we're at about $19,500... It takes some work but the savings are usually there to be had... Just have to be willing to gamble and play your hand ;)

 

 

Sent from my Speak & Spell using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

Hello Bob,

 

Is the sales link you provided something that everyone can access???? How does a person find out about that link??

 

Ernesto

The link is for anyone to use. I got it years ago from someone here on Cruise Critic.