WOW Sale, Is It Worth It

[IrishLassie]

Can't decide if we should book during the WOW sale or wait to see if there's better sales in the next few weeks.:confused: Any suggestions?? Planning to cruise nx Oct./Nov.

[Janie1229]

Hi, I'm wondering the same thing! The downside to Royal vs. Princess is that deposits are nonrefundable (refundable option but you pay more for that option so why bother).

 

I was told you DO get any specials that are better than your booked special as long as it occurs before you pay the balance of your cruise.

[taglovestocruise]

No matter when you book you can always take advantage of price drops before final payment date. Take advantage of any perks offered by Royal and you then have 60 days to transfer your booking to another TA and take advantage of any perks they offer and still keep anything Royal has given you. Many times we have booked with Royal to get their OBC offer and then switch to pick up matching OBC, specialty dinning, and pre paid gratuities. happy cruising

[Clarea]

Can't decide if we should book during the WOW sale or wait to see if there's better sales in the next few weeks.:confused: Any suggestions?? Planning to cruise nx Oct./Nov.

Sales are unpredictable. However, if you book and see a better price, you can usually get a price drop if it is before final payment date.

[Sorcerer Tim]

Check the Allure 10/21 sailing. Great prices on suites.

[IrishLassie]

No matter when you book you can always take advantage of price drops before final payment date. Take advantage of any perks offered by Royal and you then have 60 days to transfer your booking to another TA and take advantage of any perks they offer and still keep anything Royal has given you. Many times we have booked with Royal to get their OBC offer and then switch to pick up matching OBC, specialty dinning, and pre paid gratuities. happy cruising

 

Thanks for the info. The TA I always book with shows OBC & specialty dinning, but I would also like pre paid gratuities if I can get it. I'll be booking 3 cabins as we gave our kids this cruise for Christmas. Just hoping the cabin cost doesn't go up ! :eek:

[taglovestocruise]

Thanks for the info. The TA I always book with shows OBC & specialty dinning, but I would also like pre paid gratuities if I can get it. I'll be booking 3 cabins as we gave our kids this cruise for Christmas. Just hoping the cabin cost doesn't go up ! :eek:

Good luck. Free grats for 3 cabins will put $580 in your pocket.. happy cruising

[MsMarley]

What about the “We pick your cabin” option? Has anyone tried this before?

 

 

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[Clarea]

What about the “We pick your cabin” option? Has anyone tried this before?

 

Yes, we've done a suite guarantee 3 times. Got two JS staterooms and one GS.

[STANMELB]

We were able to upgrade from Crown Lofts to Sky Lofts (Star Lofts) for our April and June 2018 Oasis Cruises. Feel we got very good deals for these Star Class cabins.

[casone]

No matter when you book you can always take advantage of price drops before final payment date. Take advantage of any perks offered by Royal and you then have 60 days to transfer your booking to another TA and take advantage of any perks they offer and still keep anything Royal has given you. Many times we have booked with Royal to get their OBC offer and then switch to pick up matching OBC, specialty dinning, and pre paid gratuities. happy cruising

 

 

 

I booked directly through RC. If you transfer your booking to a TA do you lose the non refundable deposit? What about room number?

 

 

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[Clarea]

I booked directly through RC. If you transfer your booking to a TA do you lose the non refundable deposit? What about room number?

Nothing should change when you transfer the booking.

[Arzeena]

What about the “We pick your cabin” option? Has anyone tried this before?

 

 

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We have done it a couple of times. Been assigned higher categories (so far:D).

[MaryBCruisin]

Watch your receipt when you book this Wow sale. Booked a GS. OBC is not combinable with the C&A discount and they didn't add the free gratuities. I had to call and have them add the prepaid gratuities. I can live without $200 of the $300 OBC. Prices are kinda high but maybe they will come down some before September 2019.

[Arzeena]

Watch your receipt when you book this Wow sale. Booked a GS. OBC is not combinable with the C&A discount and they didn't add the free gratuities. I had to call and have them add the prepaid gratuities. I can live without $200 of the $300 OBC. Prices are kinda high but maybe they will come down some before September 2019.

 

Hi Mary,

As far as I know the OBC from the WOW sale has never been combinable with C and A discount.

 

Enjoy your GS! And watch those prices, September 2019 is a long way off.

[nalatrixie74]

we just booked yesterday by phone, we got a better price than online pricing and somehow got more obc than the sale was offering. we couldn't be more happy! he checked pricing with both c&a and the wow sale. idk what he did but I was very happy! I'm not crazy about their website so I will call with payments.

[Sunshine_Barbie]

Thanks for the info. The TA I always book with shows OBC & specialty dinning, but I would also like pre paid gratuities if I can get it. I'll be booking 3 cabins as we gave our kids this cruise for Christmas. Just hoping the cabin cost doesn't go up ! :eek:

 

I don’t know if it’s ok to ask this, but would u share the name of the travel agent u have been considering? We feel overwhelmed trying to choose a TA

[robtulipe]

I don’t know if it’s ok to ask this, but would u share the name of the travel agent u have been considering? We feel overwhelmed trying to choose a TA

 

Rules on this forum do not allow members to recommend travel agencies by name so this can't be done without being reprimanded.

Best is to do an online search to see what online agencies are offering.

One of the regular ones we used in the past was offering free gratuities and an additional $50/cabin loyalty bonus for the two balcony cabins we booked for our next cruise for us and grandkids at last week's GGG sale offering. Those extras bonuses will save us over $500US.

[IrishLassie]

I don’t know if it’s ok to ask this, but would u share the name of the travel agent u have been considering? We feel overwhelmed trying to choose a TA

 

As others have said we're not suppose to name any TA's, so sorry about that. I have booked with the same one probably for our last 8-10 cruises & have always been pleased with what they offer. I know sometimes Cruise Critic actually has mentioned them on here on their home page (starts with the same letters cc). ;p

[IrishLassie]

Just wondering if anyone has ever asked their TA for more amenities on top of what they are offering?

[goksucats]

Our final payment is not due until July but we did go ahead and pay the cruise in full as well as all gratuities. It looks like based on what I'm reading since I've paid it in full we cannot transfer to a travel agent. This wasn't something I was really aware of being able to do in the past.

[Scootch]

I called during the last WOW sale and it was very beneficial....a few hundred off.

[MsMarley]

Rules on this forum do not allow members to recommend travel agencies by name so this can't be done without being reprimanded.

Best is to do an online search to see what online agencies are offering.

One of the regular ones we used in the past was offering free gratuities and an additional $50/cabin loyalty bonus for the two balcony cabins we booked for our next cruise for us and grandkids at last week's GGG sale offering. Those extras bonuses will save us over $500US.

 

 

 

My TA is AWFUL!! I’ve asked time and time again, what’s the point of booking through them and then I see this.

 

We did a group cruise spring break last year and my sister signed us all up through a local TA the summer before (8/16). I didn’t have any communication with her until I called to make our final payment (1/17) she then contacted some of the groups saying that she printed their paperwork about a week before the cruise (3/17). No contact with me though. They told me so I ran to her office to get whatever paperwork she had. Turns out I had already printed and completed everything on my own.

 

On that cruise (again March/17) we booked another cruise for this July. I guess since we booked the original cruise through her we got attached to her again for this cruise. No one in the group heard from her, no confirmations of the new cruise have been emailed, no communication at all.

 

Last month everyone had decided to bail on this trip except for us. As of Sunday they still have no idea if she has canceled their cruises as they requested. I called to move our cruise from July to June. Which she did do but even though I requested confirmation through email, nothing was ever sent. And she said she would look up flights for us and possible lodging in Anchorage and Denali. Silence on that as well.

 

Then comes the WOW sale. It drops $300 off our cruise and gives us an extra $25 obc. Not much but we are trying to be as economical as possible. After all, that extra money will cover an excursion we plan on doing. So I call RCCL. Find out all the details and then they tell me that I HAVE to go through her. Sale runs Saturday and Sunday only. So I call a mobile number I have for her and with a service industry (sarcasm) attitude, she informs me that she doesn’t work on Saturday and wants to know why the urgency. I told her that the sale only ran through Midnight Sunday or I would’ve waited, that I tried to go through RC myself and couldn’t and that if she’d like to conference call them real quick I’d be happy to do everything. I just needed her to complete the process. She agreed she would call.

 

Sunday I get an email from her simple stating that’s the best price they have. I know for a fact that’s bs so my husband handed me his card and says book it again, ON YOUR OWN. He’s fed up with her as well. So we are now double booked on the same cruise and she has yet to respond to my email telling her to cancel the first reservation. Luckily at most, we’ll only be out $50 if she doesn’t but really I believe TAs, in general, is a dying industry. There are only 2 left in this town when there used to be many. You’d think she’d want to keep people coming back.

 

 

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[mecred94]

On 2/10/2018 at 9:36 PM, MsMarley said:

What about the “We pick your cabin” option? Has anyone tried this before?

 

 

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We did this last cruise. The room that was assigned to us the next day and wasn’t what we really liked. So we were able to go back online and looked at the same booking but with the we were picking the cabin option. This allowed us to see what cabins were open in the same grade as ours. I have issues with motion sickness from time to time. I called RCL and explained that to the call taker and asked if we could switch to a specific room we new was available mid-ship. Not a problem at all. So we got the discount and the room that worked much better for us! Good luck and happy cruising 

[mailmama]

My prices for next May to Alaska on the WOW sale is actually now higher! Keep the onboard credit, I like the lower price!!