Cruise prices for next summer

[mommyto3girls:)]

My family of five plus my dad are planning an Alaskan cruise next summer. My dad plus the kids in one cabin and my husband and I in a second. We haven't decided for sure but may drive from the Midwest and see yellowstone and glacier on the way out. We know this trip will be long and pricey. I get tons of hotel points so many of our rooms will be covered. Gas(or airfare) will be a major expense as well as tips food excursions and parking. We are struggling to find cruise rates that are remotely affordable. We have taken mostly Caribbean and we know Alaska is more but it's still more than I had expected. We do not do upgraded rooms. Have had outside and frankly it makes me seasick to have the curtain open so we just do inside rooms. I have no desire for a balcony. Cheap is my goal:o. I remember checking prices for summer 14 in the months leading up to summer and inside rooms were not that high. Is that typical? Do prices drop closer to summer or was that a fluke?

Thanks for any info that you can share.

[mommyto3girls:)]

Just to clarify right now I am seeing rooms for two over 2k to 3k and rooms for 4 close to4k. Again inside cabins. We had hoped to get both rooms between 5 and $5500. We don't care about which line but wanted round trip from seattle.

[CruiserBruce]

Prices may drop, or they may not. You definitely run the risk of not getting the price drop on the dates you are committed to.

 

Remember, most (but not all) cruise lines honor price drops up to final payment da few will compensate you for drops after final payment.

[Putterdude]

I have watched Alaska fares for about 15 years now....its kind of a game with me. Generally "launch" fare are high, then there is a cabin dump in the very early spring for late spring and early summer sailings followed by another cabin dump in late June for late summer into August sailings. There are just to many ships plying the Alaska itinerary and almost every year another line says "me to". This month there were flash promotions for insides as low as $500pp, taxes and port charges all in.

 

Most of the mass market lines will honour price reductions for exisisting bookings if you ask. If you are not fussy about which cabin you have then you can wait for a big promotion or if you really want a specific cabin then book now and ride the price down....if for some reason the fare doesn't drop you can always cancel.

[mommyto3girls:)]

Thanks Putterdude. I know this isn't a science but just wondering if there was any kind of pattern. We have been talking seriously about this for over a year so I started watching prices six months ago or so. I was hoping someone else had been watching for much longer:). We have been looking at a couple for 15 one on carnival and one on NCL and so far carnival is about the same but ncl went up. I was a little concerned about that. Now to decide if we want to book and watch and wait or wait until the dumping begins.

In General would you say early March for the drops to begin?

[mommyto3girls:)]

Prices may drop, or they may not. You definitely run the risk of not getting the price drop on the dates you are committed to.

 

Remember, most (but not all) cruise lines honor price drops up to final payment da few will compensate you for drops after final payment.

 

Yes we have taken advantage of price drops in the past. My luck I would book on the one cruise that is booked solid without a price drop.

[Putterdude]

In General would you say early March for the drops to begin?

 

Every year is just a little different depending upon the success of sales campaigns. The beginning of March would likely be just a tad on the early side to book but a good time to start watching. The real bargains are like not going to be seen until the April/May time frame. Also, remember the deep discounts are not likely to be had from July thru mid-August, this is prime time. There is always a trade off between time, cabin selection, cruise line, itinerary price and go or no go. For instance we missed the '$500 all in flash promotion' by a couple of days and I have told our TA that we won't pay a dime more.....so here we sit on the beach with about 2 weeks left in the season and I have a notion we may well still be sitting here when the last ship relocates south.

[Hotdog 52]

Princess out of Seattle has a good itinerary. End of May, first part of June will have good prices. We got a great deal on the Black Friday sale, day after Thanksgiving. We booked our flights in Sept. and by May, the flights had went up 50%.:)

[paddingtonbear]

Putterdude,

Once they have requested final payment and you pay, they will not offer anyone who has paid a further discount will they?

 

Mommyto3girls,

 

If you give yourself a bit of leeway around the start and finish of your cruise you may be able to pick up a good last minute deal. Even if you (and I know it is your whole family!) have to travel to Vancouver to pick up a great deal from a ship departing there it may be worthwhile for you.

 

I have seen some great ex Vancouver deals ($499 inside) but I don't know about the Seattle departures.

[Putterdude]

Putterdude,

Once they have requested final payment and you pay, they will not offer anyone who has paid a further discount will they?

 

.

 

This seems to vary from cruise line to cruise line. My experience with Princess is that if you have booked through a TA and that TA knows what buttons to push you will get the reduction. This not the case if it's a "flash" promotion but only TA's have access to those anyway. Now after all that:

 

- you may not get 100 cents on the dollar and it may be in the form of an OBC.

 

- you need to be mindful of how you are booked, with some promos your deposit may be non-refundable if you change your booking....so the loss of your deposit may be greater than a fare drop after final.

 

All this dictates to me that I need to use a good TA who knows what he/she is doing and explains this to me as well as discloses any fees that they may charge for changes to the booking.

[zephyrella14]

Princess out of Seattle has a good itinerary. End of May, first part of June will have good prices. We got a great deal on the Black Friday sale, day after Thanksgiving. We booked our flights in Sept. and by May, the flights had went up 50%.:)

 

 

I've booked my cruise already for next summer, if there are sales during the holidays, like black Friday for example, I can get my rate reduced correct? Final payment for my cruise isn't until may.

[paddingtonbear]

Mommyto3

 

Have you checked the cruise critic price drop page? Some 2015 cruises have reductions already. : )

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/price-drop/?destination=Alaska&cruise_line=Princess%20Cruises&departure=Whittier,%20Alaska&order_by=DESC&order_type=drop&p=1

[lovetotraveltx]

We have a celebrity cruise booked in a concierge cabin next June and our cabin has gone up $1400 since we booked in March.

[cigarboo]

I booked our end of July(2014)alaska cruise in January(2014). Aside from a few small changes up and down in early February, our cruise price went up and up til sail date. At the time I was booking for 2014, I also peeked at 2015prices for July and thought prices were pretty high. I concluded either there was not much savings for early booking, or prices were much higher for 2015...So we went in 2014. We saved around $1500.

 

Think if you want to go peak time, booking early and watching prices would be good. If anytime before mid June or late august, you might get a better deal waiting til close to, or inside PIF date.

[L&S80]

Check Princess website..........they're having a promotion right now........inside $498.00 plus 3rd & 4th less til the end of September.............

 

 

 

Sharon

[Budget Queen]

It is NOT common to get price adjustments after final payment anymore. It seems all the cruise lines have firmed up on this. You are looking for an "exception" to your booking terms so don't count on anything.

 

The cheap deals- mentioned above were the $500 rates are most always, late booked, like a month or less prior. I picked up 6 of these this summer, 5 were less than $1000 for 2 inside. I do find rates higher out of Seattle. The winner deals this year were with NCL on the one way Sun. You may want to consider 2 weeks in Alaska, and pick up a B2B which were the best deals that I found. Last few years, it was Princess with those less than $500pp total winner rates.

 

 

My last minute pick ups, were 2 round trip Seattle, end of May, 1 one way in July, 1 round trip Seattle end of August, 2 one ways in Sept. Plus, an early booked mid May round trip Seattle. :)

[Putterdude]

The cheap deals- mentioned above were the $500 rates are most always, late booked, like a month or less prior. I picked up 6 of these this summer, 5 were less than $1000 for 2 inside. I do find rates higher out of Seattle. The winner deals this year were with NCL on the one way Sun. You may want to consider 2 weeks in Alaska, and pick up a B2B which were the best deals that I found. Last few years, it was Princess with those less than $500pp total winner rates.

 

 

 

Glad you got some...I missed the $500 all in flash promo by just a couple of days and refused to pay $785 all in....so here I sit on the beach watching the last few ships heading to Alaska.:mad: I guess we still have another 10 days for HAL but I am not optimistic.