Holiday pricing advice from RCI experts, please!

[A.Emgee]

Looking for some advice from all the great RCI experts on this forum!

 

I am a Crown and Anchor Diamond but I have not sailed with RCI, and have not been following this forum, for a few years. I have never booked a holiday cruise, so do not have experience with that. Therefore I am a bit out of the loop, and looking for advice.

 

I am looking at booking Mariner of the Seas December 29, 2015 5-day cruise from Singapore. I believe holiday cruises have a 90-day final payment policy, and so final payment will be due very soon on September 30, 2015.

 

Currently, pricing for the cheapest inside cabins start at $977 per person, which includes the discount from BOGO-half off "promotion". There is also $150 OBC with the Holidays promotion (but this cannot be combined with any Diamond discount). I think these can be combined with Next Cruise (and apparently my 4-year-old Next Cruise bookings are worth more than the new ones you can purchase).

 

I noticed that on that "fish" website that tracks price drops that in mid-August inside cabins were only about $650 per person. There was not any BOGO promotion then.

 

Do these holiday sailings get cheaper after final payment? Will they appear on the weekly sales (I knew them as "Tuesday sales" and then "RCI Sales Event" but I guess now they are "Going Going Gone" sales with what appears to be very limited offerings?!?).

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Clarea]

There is no way to predict pricing trends. If you can take a chance paying more (maybe much more), or not going at all, then I'd wait until after final payment date. However, holiday sailings tend to be popular, so I would not be surprised if there are no significant price drops at all.

[Biker19]

It depends on inventory and the trend of that inventory. If there are many cabins left and they are not selling many, then you are likely to see a price drop. You are close enough to final payment that you might as well wait and see what happens next week. But as I mentioned above, check the inventory every other day for a week. Look for the trend to tell you where the prices are headed. BTW, the best place to see the inventory is RCI's UK site. Also, that fish site has historical prices to give you an idea what and when the lowest price was for a similar cruise.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Biker19

[grandgeezer]

There is no way to predict pricing trends. If you can take a chance paying more (maybe much more), or not going at all, then I'd wait until after final payment date. However, holiday sailings tend to be popular, so I would not be surprised if there are no significant price drops at all.

 

I agree. Every year we wait for prices dropping on holiday cruises as they are normally priced quite high. It hasn't happened yet. Like any cruise, if you think it's a good price, do it. If not, you'll probably be spending the holidays at home, like us.

[molly361]

I don't know about overseas Holiday pricing but final payment has just passed for the Oasis holiday sailing on 12/19 and prices started dropping right after that. You can get a balcony for a pretty good price for a Christmas sailing on one of those ships

[Droop]

It really depends on the person or preference. We are really picky about the cabin location for our cruises so we usually try to book well ahead of time.

 

One of the problems could depend on if you have to fly to the port to get on the ship. If you wait to get a great deal you run the risk of your airfare shooting up. It gets pretty high during the holidays and the flights (with better flight times) sell out (with a higher price). So you may save money on the cruise but you pay in the airfare.

 

If you don't have to fly that's even better but you said that you were looking at flying out of Singapore. I wish you well in your decision. Happy Cruising!:)

[marci22]

I would never book anything the day before final payment is due. That's crazy.

[lyban]

It depends on inventory and the trend of that inventory. If there are many cabins left and they are not selling many, then you are likely to see a price drop. You are close enough to final payment that you might as well wait and see what happens next week. But as I mentioned above, check the inventory every other day for a week. Look for the trend to tell you where the prices are headed. BTW, the best place to see the inventory is RCI's UK site. Also, that fish site has historical prices to give you an idea what and when the lowest price was for a similar cruise.

 

Where do you look in RCI 's uk site to try and find inventory.

I have been trying to see how much is sold on my cruise and am not sure how to do this?

Thanks

[Tee & Chilli]

Where do you look in RCI 's uk site to try and find inventory.

I have been trying to see how much is sold on my cruise and am not sure how to do this?

Thanks

 

The RCI website only shows a few cabins at a time. There's no way of seeing all available categories. You could manually enter the cabins numbers to determine availability.

[Diplomacy]

Do these holiday sailings get cheaper after final payment?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

The best time to score a last minute cruise is usually ~40-50 days before final sailing... unfortunately you are gambling that the cruise won't fill up in that time.

 

The best last minute deals are on sailings that don't loop back to the same port.

 

Don't forget to check the crown and anchor section of the website. There is a "just for members" section that might be even better than the current sale.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Diplomacy

[Ken at the beach]

Where do you look in RCI 's uk site to try and find inventory.

I have been trying to see how much is sold on my cruise and am not sure how to do this?

Thanks

 

You have to pick your cruise and do a mock booking. It will give you the option to change the cabin that it assigned. You will then see up to 50 available cabins.

 

On the US site it will only show you 15 cabins.

[Ken at the beach]

We found big price drops on our Oasis cruise for this Christmas 1 week prior to final payment. In past years it has been closer to sailing. One year (2012) it was 10 days prior to sailing.

 

Bottom line is there is no set answer as it will vary from year to year and by ship within that year.

 

My advice is have a price in mind that you think is fair and if it hits that price then book and only look at the prices again if you are checking to see if you can upgrade.

[Biker19]

You have to pick your cruise and do a mock booking. It will give you the option to change the cabin that it assigned. You will then see up to 50 available cabins.

 

On the US site it will only show you 15 cabins.

Unlike all other RCI sites, the UK site doesn't assign a cabin when you pick a category. Actually, that site seems as if it's run by a different company - the layout and navigation is totally different.

 

Once you navigate to the cruise you want to research and get to step 2 (picking a cabin) you simply click on the desired category and click on the View Available Staterooms link. The one disadvantage to the UK site is that it simply lists the cabins available - you have to go to another link to see where that cabin is on the ship. I go there simply for the inventory numbers - because the raw numbers and trend will be the major determinant in pricing.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Biker19

[A.Emgee]

OP here, back with an update.

 

Thanks all of you wise people for your advice and comments. It's a shame none of us have the magic crystal ball to predict pricing on these cruises!

 

I have still not booked, and have been monitoring. The price DID drop slightly after final payment, but not that significantly (was $977, now $898, but I think the OBC is a bit lower now too). It appears that cabins are available in nearly every category, including X and Y guarantees (but not Z).

 

Droop, re: last minute airfare. I will be in Singapore at the time of the cruise anyway with already booked airfare. I have cancellable hotel reservations, so I can take a bit of risk of not getting on the ship at all (although of course that really would NOT be preferable!).

 

Biker 19, re: historical pricing. Thanks for the great tip. It appears that Mariner of the Seas has done this same New Year's cruise for the past several years. However, it appears that history does not necessarily predict the future! In 2013, the lowest price was a stunning $450 but this did not occur until November 29. In 2014, the lowest price was apparently $860, and that last appeared in March 2014, about 9 months before sailing!

 

Thanks again, and will keep you all posted!

[pcur]

Ooooooh, I REALLY like the UK booking site! All those cabins lined up like little soldiers in a list. My new go-to for checking availability and location.

 

Holiday cruises are pretty much the ONLY ones that I recommend booking within 30 days of the cruise. You won't get a good cabin selection, but the prices do drop (usually). I remember how surprised I was last year on the Caribbean prices during the last half of December.

 

We have taken two family cruises in mid-December, and last year we left on 12/7/14 and got balcony cabins for $759 per person.

 

This week's sale shows the Allure on 12/13/15 with some good pricing:

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

[Biker19]

Anything in December other than xmas week is low season and not a holiday week. There might be some rare price drops during the holidays but even the lowest price during xmas is likely to be double earlier December sailings. The week after Thanksgiving (first week of Dec) has sometimes the lowest prices of the year so price drops then can happen. Also, price drops for non-Carribean sailings (like the OP's) could have different patterns.

[A.Emgee]

OP here - just wanted to post an update, now 16 days from sailing.

 

Price never dropped.

 

I paid through the nose and booked anyway (double the price of the nearly identical 5-day cruise leaving right after we disembark, just for the privilege of sailing over New Year's).

 

The only saving grace:

1. On Cyber Monday there was an additional $50 OBC;

2. Because it is so close to sailing, Family Oceanview (FO) rooms got released into general inventory exactly 4 weeks prior to sail date, so I managed to snag the largest oceanview on the ship (300+ sq. ft.).

 

It was more than I wanted to pay of course, but who can complain when going on a cruise vacation?

 

Thanks for everybody's help!

[OTownNick]

I'm sailing on NYE on Enchantment and booked this one year in advance. Prices only went up. Never down