just love these "deals"

[mac_tlc]

We booked an L1 on the Oasis for January 2018 on Saturday, just in case the new "deal" wasn't a deal.

 

As of tonight, its $334 higher, and that is without the free grats but with the CAS Balcony discount. If

 

If wanted the free grats, I have to give up the balcony discount. That trade is basically a push -- $225 balcony discount vs. $232 for the grats.

 

In any event, the price is up over $300 for the new "deal".

 

The only way I see the new deal being better than last weeks deal is if you are a new cruiser, and don't have to choose between the grats and CAS balcony discount, and/or you have 4 people in a cabin and can take advantage of the 25% off 3rd/4th passengers.

 

mac_tlc

Edited April 4, 2016 by mac_tlc

[Cuizer2]

,

Just so sneaky to me. Are they gambling on the fact that "most" people don't check these things? I, for one, check the prices every morning.

 

Royal Caribbean knows that most people would prefer 20% off of a $2,500 fare than to pay full price of a $1,900 fare.

[mabkcruisers]

We were lured by today's BOGOHO deal. We had 2 interior rooms reserved on a 5 day sailing on the Empress in July (still waiting to see what will happen with that, so it might not be a deal at all!). For $125 we were able to upgrade both to ocean views. We figured $25 a day for a window and more space ($12.50 per stateroom) was a decent deal.

[tserface]

That is a terrific deal. It's nice to hear a success story! Congratulations!

 

Tom

 

We were lured by today's BOGOHO deal. We had 2 interior rooms reserved on a 5 day sailing on the Empress in July (still waiting to see what will happen with that, so it might not be a deal at all!). For $125 we were able to upgrade both to ocean views. We figured $25 a day for a window and more space ($12.50 per stateroom) was a decent deal.

[Yanks6296]

Confused! With the new "deal", do you get the OBC and free gratuity. Or is the OBC to be used to pay the gratuity?

 

 

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[mabkcruisers]

Confused! With the new "deal", do you get the OBC and free gratuity. Or is the OBC to be used to pay the gratuity?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

Per a conversation with a Crown & Anchor rep tonight, the gratuities are "free" through the onboard credit. We will be billed for gratuities on our onboard account, but our OBC will cover them.

[DonnaK]

It's no deal for the cruise I was hoping to book. It's up almost $400 from yesterday, and the gratuities make up for less than half the difference..

[Clarea]

Tried it "sign out" too.

 

Royal is pretty slick.....raising prices to cover the "free" grats. I don't check prices near as much since buying cruises on release day. The thrill of finding a cheaper fare is gone.

For sure.

[Clarea]

Confused! With the new "deal", do you get the OBC and free gratuity. Or is the OBC to be used to pay the gratuity?

Correct.

[PompeySailor]

It's no deal for the cruise I was hoping to book. It's up almost $400 from yesterday, and the gratuities make up for less than half the difference..

 

Same for us, we priced up a sailing on Saturday, and today with the new offer was $400 more expensive.

 

Wordplay and number % switching + initial fare increase doesn't fool everybody.

 

Thanks to cc and the wealth of knowledge shared on here, we have grown older and a little wiser;)

[cruzrman]

I just tried booking online. It looks like if you check off pre paid gratuity, you still get the OBC. You save both.

 

 

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[mabkcruisers]

I just tried booking online. It looks like if you check off pre paid gratuity, you still get the OBC. You save both.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

Interesting....it didn't give me that option. We could add insurance but not gratuities. No box to check online.

[DubstoZees]

We booked 3 cabins on Friday night for a family trip. I signed on this morning and checked our prices after the new sale. For about an hour this morning, all 3 of our cabins showed a price drop of between 250 and 350 dollars.

 

I wrote these down, and screen shotted them. Unfortunately, by the time my lunch break came around and I had time to call about the price drop, the prices were different and MORE expensive than I paid on Friday night.

 

Of course the rep on the phone knew nothing and could only see the higher prices. :confused:

 

Anyone else had this happen before? She said there was "no way" it could have been lower for only an hour or so.

 

You were right. Same thing happened to ours, but we managed to adjust our fare when the "mistake" was still on the website. We saved $400 and had two friends book under the mistake fare as well. Another friend tried to book literally 4 hours later and her trip would have been almost $600 more expensive than ours was AND it didn't include gratuities. Our travel agent fought with RC for over an hour since she had just booked two fares at the previous rate but had no luck.

 

So moral victory for you, but unfortunately it doesn't translate to the lower rate :(

[ramanda]

royal sure knows how to cut a deal. between 30 percent off last week and the 50 percent off second passenger plus free pre paid gratuities and some OBC this week, well, i've done the math and the rates have gone up just enough with this new promotion so that it comes out to the same as last weeks when everything is added up. terrific marketing campaign though. smh

 

Yes that's what I calculated as well. However I will say that we did get a really good deal when we went to our local travel show sponsored by the car organization that begins with the letter A - not sure if I am supposed to say the name. We booked our cruise there and got a good deal on the price plus we got a very useful and valuable coupon book and two free pieces of Sampsonite luggage which would be quite expensive to buy and we got a few other freebies which escape my memory at the moment. It was well worth it to go to the show

Edited April 5, 2016 by ramanda

[johnjen]

Seeing as no one else has responded I will!! That's a fabulous price drop! I'd be pretty darn excited to get that. Though, I think you are the exception rather than the rule, based on what I see around here. Our cruise has gone up $2000 since we booked, but the ship is also getting close to capacity, so not surprising. Supply and demand and all of that Econ 101 stuff!:p

 

Thanks, well, how this all came about, there was the original price drop, but the girl asked DW if we were military. She mentioned me as being a veteran, so that was added in. However, on the original booking, I mentioned the vet status and was told I could take that one or the other one, but not both. THIS new girl at RCL said that this was a mistake and that veterans are always entitled to the discounts, regardless. So this really proves the point that, if someone ever tells you no on ANYTHING, call back the next day and you'll get a different answer.

[shirlen123]

We saved a LOT of money on our recent price drop. Are you guys saying pretty much that, what they do, is nothing but clever marketing tools by making everyone think they're getting a decent deal? If so, please explain it to me. We saved literally over $1200 in a price drop. I think that's pretty good.

 

I also saved a lot recently on my June cruise to Alaska on Radiance. It was after the final payment deadline so they did end up taking 500 dollars to cancel my original booking but I still saved over $1000. The balcony guarantee was the same price as an inside room for aprox. 48hours!! I think the savings is more about having unsold rooms with not much time left before the cruise vs. an actual "sale". Icing on the cake when we received an upgraded room from what was assigned under the original balcony guarantee booking. I know some people like to pick the stateroom and you do take a chance with guarantees but imo the savings was worth it even without the upgrade

Edited April 5, 2016 by shirlen123

[Choozin Croozin]

So I am a bit confused:

 

I have been looking at a few cruises. I have priced everything out both ways, with my diamond discount and with the free grats. The diamond disc is still better. The one that I booked a week ago on our cruise is only higher by the amount of the grats. When I price out the cruise logged in, there is no place to pre-pay the grats. I thought you had to pre-pay grats if you had MTD. Plus I like to have everything taken care of ahead of time. Does anyone know, does the price (with D disc) incl the grats too?

[Clarea]

So I am a bit confused:

 

I have been looking at a few cruises. I have priced everything out both ways' date=' with my diamond discount and with the free grats. The diamond disc is still better. The one that I booked a week ago on our cruise is only higher by the amount of the grats. When I price out the cruise logged in, there is no place to pre-pay the grats. I thought you had to pre-pay grats if you had MTD. Plus I like to have everything taken care of ahead of time. Does anyone know, does the price (with D disc) incl the grats too?

Royal no longer requires prepaid gratuities if you choose MTD.

[Choozin Croozin]

Royal no longer requires prepaid gratuities if you choose MTD.

 

Thank you, Bob. I had no idea. I always assumed that and prepaid them. :)

[Clarea]

Thank you' date=' Bob. I had no idea. I always assumed that and prepaid them. :)[/quote']

If you have any bookings with MTD that are before final payment, you can contact whoever booked your cruise and have the prepaid gratuities removed.

[knittinggirl]

There were two price drops I received from that price drop site Radiance 6/30/17 & Radiance 7/7/17. Anybody else able to get them? Keep trying to contact the TA about them, but she hasn't responded. Would have worked out to almost $1,200.

Edited April 6, 2016 by knittinggirl

[Bound4Bermuda]

I have to retract my statement about this sale. I checked a few days ago when the sale started and the price was the same. However, a member of my roll call posted that prices on our cruise dropped overnight. I just upgraded from inside to ocean view and SAVED $500! Because inside isn't eligible for the free gratuities, that room ends up costing more overall than the OV.

 

 

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[cruiselife4me]

Our already booked cruise is roughly $300 lower per person (booked on the 30%. sale). I'd lose my $200 C&L discount but would gain OBC and gratuity. Hmmm... Don't think I'll bite and keep what I have.

 

 

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[P&C4/16/67]

We have 5 booked and turns out on the one coming up in June, we were able to upgrade from inside to oceanview for a net of $23 pp when factoring in the free grats.

[caribou9]

I just tried booking online. It looks like if you check off pre paid gratuity, you still get the OBC. You save both.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

I saw the same thing. When I selected the link to view the details of the price, taxes and fees per person, the gratuities are added to the price of the cruise.

 

There is nothing free about that.