Booked a cruise now price dropped!!!

[cheeseheads4ever]

My wife and I booked a cruise on celebrity for a cruise about a year or so out. I know we are planners. We put down a small deposit. Now we looked and they have the price $150 less per person than what we paid.
We get the 123 go drink package,gratuities and onboard credit. But it looks like they are offering the same deal now. What's my chances they will reduce my cruise cost or do I have to cancel and rebook? Any help would be appreciated.

[LHT28]

Call who you booked through & ask for the new pricing
They will not usually do it automatically

[paul929207]

Call and ask. Just be sure you are comparing apples. Be sure you are getting all the same perks. Also check if you are cancelling the original cruise. If so, you may get a difference cabin and you may lose your deposit. Your booking agent should be able to give all this info.

[Hlitner]

Your chances of getting the cruise repriced is excellent. And you are correct that your leverage is the ability to cancel and rebook. We have done bookings where we have repriced 3 times so your situation is very normal. If you use a cruise/travel agency it is helpful to choose agencies that do not charge any extra fees to handle rebookings. When we see a price drop we usually make a quick call (or send an e-mail) to the agency and everything is done within the day. In many cases the agency can simply call the cruise line and have it repriced without having to change booking numbers. Last year we had booked an expensive long cruise for about $23,000 and by the time we got to the final payment date our price had dropped to less than $12,000. Go figure.

Hank

[BlueRiband]

[quote name='62chevyguy']My wife and I booked a cruise on celebrity for a cruise about a year or so out. I know we are planners. We put down a small deposit. Now we looked and they have the price $150 less per person than what we paid.
We get the 123 go drink package,gratuities and onboard credit. But it looks like they are offering the same deal now. What's my chances they will reduce my cruise cost or do I have to cancel and rebook? Any help would be appreciated.[/quote]

Check the fine print on the new pricing. Would you lose anything if you should cancel and rebook? It may be guarantee category only, have a non-refundable deposit, or carry other restrictions.

If you cancel your present cabin immediately goes back into inventory. Somebody could jump on it before you rebook. If you carefully chose it for a reason it could be gone and you could get stuck with a bad location.

You will also have to pay a larger deposit. The closer a booking is made to sailing the more money the cruise line wants up front, with very late bookings requiring full and immediate payment. Edited March 24, 2015 by BlueRiband

[donaldsc]

Happens sometimes. That is the way it is.

DON

[Krazy Kruizers]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5]It never hurts to call and ask for the lower.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=5]If you booked through a TA, that person will need to do the calling.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[kelmac]

In the last 30 cruises, I've never ended up with the original price I paid at booking. I monitor prices every week and my TA will help me take advantage of price drops, as well as upgrades after final payment.
Every offer is different, so make sure you are fine with OBC changes or loss of 1,2,3 Go perks.
I've had bookings change six to eight times before we finally board the ship. I'm not a "book and forget" cruiser. Playing the game is half the fun!:)

Enjoy!
Kel Edited March 25, 2015 by kelmac

[John Bull]

[quote name='donaldsc']Happens sometimes. That is the way it is.

DON[/QUOTE]

Hi, Don.
Happens a[B] lot [/B]in the UK.
Brochure prices are ..... errr, let's call them "optimistic", but with early-booking concessions for the first few weeks. Then close to the date most prices tumble in order to fill ships, & about 6 weeks out some are at half the brochure price or less. Makes life complicated, & causes resentment especially amongst enthusiastic newbies because deposits are forfeit as soon as they're paid and stage payments are required, so it's rarely viable to forfeit monies already paid by cancelling & re-booking.

Compared to the US market, Brits are gouged if they book early but get exceptional value if they're prepared to gamble on a late booking.
Makes it difficult to plan ahead, especially for those with fixed vacation dates.

Not complainin'
Just sayin' ;)

[B][COLOR="Red"]JB[/COLOR][/B] :)

[BlueRiband]

Another member came up with 5 criteria that must all be true if one is to wait out for late price drops:

[LIST=1]
[*]Lowest price over any other consideration is your priority,
[*]You are not tied to just one sailing date,
[*]You can accept a category guarantee,
[*]You can accept that the prices might go [I]up[/I], or the ship could sell out before you make up your mind, and
[*]Airfare is not an issue.
[/LIST]
All of us have to decide between the assurance that we have our sailing date and cabin selection secured versus the hope of snagging a killer deal.


I booked my summer voyage a year ago and there are now perks for new bookings...but the overall fare has gone up and my preferred category is sold out. My math for cancel and rebook looked like:
new perks + new fare - pick exact cabin = a wash.

[marco]

We've been using the same TA for a number of years. I guess she stays on top of things because on a few occasions she's called and said, "I'm sending you a new invoice for final payment. It will be less because the price went down". And this is why we always book with this TA.

[ebeluga]

Hi Kel,

Your TA sounds wonderful. I have a very difficult time finding a good TA as diligent. Do you mind sharing their contact info? My email is ebeluga at gmail dot com.

Thanks.

[quote name='kelmac']In the last 30 cruises, I've never ended up with the original price I paid at booking. I monitor prices every week and my TA will help me take advantage of price drops, as well as upgrades after final payment.
Every offer is different, so make sure you are fine with OBC changes or loss of 1,2,3 Go perks.
I've had bookings change six to eight times before we finally board the ship. I'm not a "book and forget" cruiser. Playing the game is half the fun!:)

Enjoy!
Kel[/QUOTE]