How do you find out about price drops?

[dateacher]

I have a TA but I am a bit of a control freak. How do I find out about price drops other than stalking the Celebrity website daily?

[CathyCruises]

Ha! I sometimes look 5 times a day. If you bookmark the right page, it only takes few seconds to be sure you're not missing out.

[Cinziaeye]

And well worth doing. We are doing a 15 day Panama Canal cruise in 2 months. I have been watching to see if any FV's opened up and at what price. When they first posted two weeks ago, it was going to cost me $1400 per person to switch. No deal. But I kept checking daily and two days ago they dropped - only $300 pp. We were able to get 9156, one of the REALLY big ones. Since we are traveling with 3 other couples, this was a no brainer for us, but I had to be diligent in checking. Half of the cabins posted were already gone by the time I got home from work that night and managed to get through to X.

[boogs]

Just do a Google search for "Cruise Price Drops" and my favorite site is at the top. You have to subscribe, but the cost is a reasonable $4.95. That will cover monitoring five cruises at $.99 each. You can monitor as many cabin categories as you want for each cruise, and you can monitor any or all of four conditions - price goes down, price goes up, price becomes unavailable, price becomes available. You can also monitor availability of discounts - senior, residency, etc. And, you can request that an email is sent whenever one of those conditions occurs.

 

We book over a year in advance to get the best staterooms, and to start planning. I have saved over $3,500 on my last three cruises since I signed up, including $1,830 on my last cruise alone. All for an investment of $2.97!

 

CruiseCritic now has a price drop section, though it's not as helpful.

Edited February 14, 2014 by boogs

[4774Papa]

Just check the X website regularly.

[teecee60]

Ha! I sometimes look 5 times a day. If you bookmark the right page, it only takes few seconds to be sure you're not missing out.

 

Sounds like a REALLY good strategy...allows for more facebook time! :p

[ptrpanpens]

The site mentioned is very good, however not infallible. You still should check celebrity frequently to make sure you get all the good deals.

 

As an example, the Reflection TA in April had balcony guarantees listed and they were never posted on the fish site. Even today, they are still available on celebrity and the site has STILL never posted them.

 

I have also discovered price drops on the celebrity site that are not posted on the other site immediately. Sometimes by the time you are notified, the fare is gone as I have seen them last only an hour.

 

The bottom line IMO is that it still pays to check Celebrity several times a day especially immediately before and after the final payment date. It is a full time job. Lol:D

[CathyCruises]

The site mentioned is very good, however not infallible. You still should check celebrity frequently to make sure you get all the good deals.

 

As an example, the Reflection TA in April had balcony guarantees listed and they were never posted on the fish site. Even today, they are still available on celebrity and the site has STILL never posted them.

 

I have also discovered price drops on the celebrity site that are not posted on the other site immediately. Sometimes by the time you are notified, the fare is gone as I have seen them last only an hour.

 

The bottom line IMO is that it still pays to check Celebrity several times a day especially immediately before and after the final payment date. It is a full time job. Lol:D

 

I totally agree with this, and that's why I've never signed up on the fishy site. I once found a very short deal on a 575 sq. ft. FV cabin, 12 day sailing on Solstice in the Med, for $999--If I hadn't been compulsively checking, I never would have snagged that fare.

[Fouremco]

Cruise Critic is now running its own price drop notification program, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Has anyone else tried it?

[Biker19]

Cruise Critic is now running its own price drop notification program, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Has anyone else tried it?

That is just a front for an online TA - but it does work, sorta. Like the examples above, it doesn't catch all price drops.

 

The issue is that any site external to Celebrity gets its info from Celebrity on some interval. The longer that interval, the more chance the price drop listing is delayed.

 

The site mentioned towards the top of this thread rarely list GTY rates so it's not as useful for folks looking for those. But it does list specials like senior, military and fire/police discounts.

[dateacher]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm now on it.

[miched]

Have always had to check the websites. Every TA that I have ever had except for one told and promised me how great they were and how they would check and make sure that I always got the price drops and etc except for one that told me the truth and told me it is best to check myself. That is the one that I now use because they are trujful Don't believe the lies that most of the TAs tell you, they are related to car salespersons.

 

 

 

🌅🚢🍸🍻

[boogs]

Have always had to check the websites. Every TA that I have ever had except for one told and promised me how great they were and how they would check and make sure that I always got the price drops and etc except for one that told me the truth and told me it is best to check myself. That is the one that I now use because they are trujful Don't believe the lies that most of the TAs tell you, they are related to car salespersons.

 

Wow! Kind of harsh! I have dealt with several TAs over the last decade and have never had a reason to feel as you do. But then again, I don't have trouble following me around as some people seem to do.

[BBsails]

I'm a frequent checker too. Our cruise is now on the Tuesday Special/Exciting Deals link. We're booked through a TA who is closed on weekends. In the past if there is a price drop, I get a screen shot of the drop, the TA will contact =X= on Monday, and the drop has always been honored. Any advice about how to change from a C2 cabin to a CC cabin, which is now less than our C2? Not expecting $$$ back but would love to switch to a CC. Do I need to wait until Tuesday to contact the TA? I'm not at all sure about this process.

[MarkusToe]

Within Germany you have to allert the TA about the Price drop.

Never seen a TA doing this without notice....

Now first Time i've used US TA, will US based TA honor this automaticaly?

[Giorgi-one]

It is not reasonable to expect a TA to check for price drops, particualary if you book with a large agency. They could easily have hundreds or thousands of active bookings. Lets just say they hace 50 active bookings and it takes about 5 mintues each day to check the price. That would be 250 minutes a day or over four hours just checking prices. People really need to be realistic!

[Duffman72]

What's the latest you guys/gals have seen prices drop prior to sailing?

Edited February 15, 2014 by Duffman72

[Fouremco]

It is not reasonable to expect a TA to check for price drops, particualary if you book with a large agency. They could easily have hundreds or thousands of active bookings. Lets just say they hace 50 active bookings and it takes about 5 mintues each day to check the price. That would be 250 minutes a day or over four hours just checking prices. People really need to be realistic!

Yet clearly some TAs do. Maybe they do something as simple as setting up an alert with one or more of the websites that monitor price drops for each of its clients that book. Even if they miss some drops, they'll catch most, to the benefit of their clients. It would only take a couple of minutes to set up for each client and they don't need to actively monitor every day, just open any resulting alert emails.

 

So yes, I think it's very realistic.

[CathyCruises]

What's the latest you guys/gals have seen prices drop prior to sailing?

 

A few days?? Normally you start seeing them after final payment date passes, but some cruises are so popular that the prices never come down.

[CathyCruises]

I'm a frequent checker too. Our cruise is now on the Tuesday Special/Exciting Deals link. We're booked through a TA who is closed on weekends. In the past if there is a price drop, I get a screen shot of the drop, the TA will contact =X= on Monday, and the drop has always been honored. Any advice about how to change from a C2 cabin to a CC cabin, which is now less than our C2? Not expecting $$$ back but would love to switch to a CC. Do I need to wait until Tuesday to contact the TA? I'm not at all sure about this process.

 

You must have a 2C, not a C2. Yes, you'll have to wait until Tuesday, but the prices don't go into effect until then anyway so you're not missing anything.

[bjs1234]

Hello

So how does this work.

 

I currently have a cruise booked directly with Celebrity.

 

I have OnBoard credit & the beverage package which by my calculations on a 14 day cruise is worth just over a £1000 plus the £200 OnBoard credit so a total of £1200 approx.

So if the cruise price drops from the amount I agreed when I booked do I loose these benefits and my deposit if I ask them to book at the revised lower price

 

Thanks

[BosoxI]

The site mentioned is very good, however not infallible. You still should check celebrity frequently to make sure you get all the good deals.

 

As an example, the Reflection TA in April had balcony guarantees listed and they were never posted on the fish site. Even today, they are still available on celebrity and the site has STILL never posted them.

 

I have also discovered price drops on the celebrity site that are not posted on the other site immediately. Sometimes by the time you are notified, the fare is gone as I have seen them last only an hour.

 

The bottom line IMO is that it still pays to check Celebrity several times a day especially immediately before and after the final payment date. It is a full time job. Lol:D

 

+1 I'm listed on three cruises at this moment and I have gotten rates for two of them that have never appeared on the fish site to this day.

[iSailor]

Hello

So how does this work.

 

I currently have a cruise booked directly with Celebrity.

 

I have OnBoard credit & the beverage package which by my calculations on a 14 day cruise is worth just over a £1000 plus the £200 OnBoard credit so a total of £1200 approx.

So if the cruise price drops from the amount I agreed when I booked do I loose these benefits and my deposit if I ask them to book at the revised lower price

 

Thanks

 

Everything will remain the same except the price drop.

[BBsails]

You're right, cathy, It's a 2C. Will send TA an email Monday in hopes that she'll have everything lined up to pounce on =X= at the earliest moment on Tuesday. There are lots of CC cabins available. Fingers crossed.

 

Betsy

[denby]

I check all prices on a daily basis. I am usually the one to alert our TA about price drops. I have saved a lot of money over the last 4 years.