Help me make sense of this pricing...

[JamieLogical]

I am sailing on the Bliss to the Eastern Caribbean on February 2nd. We booked this sailing last February while on board the Escape. At the time, we booked our BA room for $1079 per person. The current price for a BA is $1859 per person. But it's not just that the price has increased drastically, it's that the price of BAs in relation to other staterooms on the sailing make zero sense.

 

On the Bliss, a BA is a "mid-ship balcony" on deck 11 or above. The Bliss has a very generous definition of "mid-ship" to the point that only about 12 staterooms deep is considered "forward" and only 15 staterooms deep is considered "aft". So the VAST majority of rooms on the ship are considered mid-ship.

 

On a typical sailing, one would expect many room categories to be priced higher than a BA. But here are some of the prices for "better" room categories on our sailing:

 

B6 (Large Balcony): $1849 ($10 cheaper than the BA even though it has a much larger balcony)

B9 (Spa Balcony): $1929 (only $70 more than the BA when a spa pass costs $200 per person)

B1 (Aft-Facing Balcony): $1799 ($60 cheaper than the BA even though these are usually considered prime real estate)

MA (Mid-ship Mini-Suite): $1789 ($70 cheaper than the BA even though it has a bigger, nicer bathroom)

M6 (Mini-Suite w/ Large Balcony): $1849 ($10 cheaper than the BA and the same price as the B6, despite the larger bathroom)

 

Anyone have any theories on why things are priced this way for this specific sailing?

[WyomingGuys]

I have wondered if NCL prices mid-ships that way so when you buy a balcony guarantee and you are assigned a BA mid-ship if the price drops on the balcony guarantee and you want an adjustment NCL can be like "well you are in a mid-ship balcony and that price hasn't changed". I'm not sure I have seen a mid-ship balcony price ever change.   

 

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by WyomingGuys

[dcipjr]

Hard to say. I thought it might have to do with connecting staterooms, but those appear to be all BB on the Bliss. My guess is that most of the BAs are already sold, so they're trying to drive people to other categories so they can use the available BAs as upgrades for people that are bidding on upgrades.

[JamieLogical]

50 minutes ago, dcipjr said:

Hard to say. I thought it might have to do with connecting staterooms, but those appear to be all BB on the Bliss. My guess is that most of the BAs are already sold, so they're trying to drive people to other categories so they can use the available BAs as upgrades for people that are bidding on upgrades.

 

 

It's hard to say how many are left, because the site will only show up to 15 available rooms in a given category. However, I can tell you that the exact same 15 rooms have been available since at least October 22. So, if their strategy is to discourage people from buying those rooms, it's working!

[kochleffel]

I suspect that prices change dynamically based on supply and demand, probably according to an algorithm that ignores the pricing of better (or poorer) cabins, or weights it only lightly, and that human judgment isn't factored in. If that's the case, the price of a BA would rise as fewer remain, while the prices of other, originally more expensive, cabins, might not if there are relatively more of them still available.

[Trimone]

Possibly trying to get better upgrade bids?

[TFLG]

It seems prices go up and down based on the # of available cabins. When a category has loads of open cabins the prices drop, when there are only a few prices go up.  I've snagged some great deals on higher end cabins a few times.  Last year we got an Aqua Class on Celebrity for less than an outside was selling for (outsides were $1900 and we got Aqua for $1700).  That didn't last long tho, a week later they were back up to $2600.  When I booked the Bliss we got a mini-suite for less than the balcony I was looking at.  It was only $50 or so less but still it was a better deal. Cruise pricing is all over the place especially about 3 to 6 months prior to the sail date.  

[bonvoyagie]

The only time they have cabins priced by "value" ie location is when they do the very first pricing. After that the cabins go up or down based on how they are selling.

 

I would suspect that Mid Ship cabins on the mega ships are considered more prime due to their proximity to the waterfront on 6,7&8.

[littlelulu01]

I think it’s got something to do with gt/sail away bookings that can sell drastically lower at the last minute.

 

I booked a sail away mx rate on the Bliss Alaska after final payment.  I was immediately assigned a MC accessible  Mini.  It was less than half  the initial, “pre-sale” prices they first offered. 

 

i think the price structures and price dumping patterns also switch up to keep us guessing.  They have to sail full but try not to piss too many folks off with all the reductions necessary to fill the ship.   

 

 

[kayjay76]

We're on this sailing too! 🙂 Our group, like you, booked last Feb and luckily booked at the much lower prices than what they are going for now. Feel like we all got a great deal. 

 

One thing I think is really "funny" is the bliss has greatly reduced their BD aft and forward balconies... thus making the number of mid ship balconies go up. And they have always charged more for midship. When we were on the Escape our BD aft balcony was right outside the elevators. With Bliss when we were booking out aft room started much further down the hall and we are now about 12 rooms from the elevator. Seems the new ships are doing this to get more $$ with having more midship rooms.

[Daytonasailor]

21 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

I am sailing on the Bliss to the Eastern Caribbean on February 2nd. We booked this sailing last February while on board the Escape. At the time, we booked our BA room for $1079 per person. The current price for a BA is $1859 per person. But it's not just that the price has increased drastically, it's that the price of BAs in relation to other staterooms on the sailing make zero sense.

 

On the Bliss, a BA is a "mid-ship balcony" on deck 11 or above. The Bliss has a very generous definition of "mid-ship" to the point that only about 12 staterooms deep is considered "forward" and only 15 staterooms deep is considered "aft". So the VAST majority of rooms on the ship are considered mid-ship.

 

On a typical sailing, one would expect many room categories to be priced higher than a BA. But here are some of the prices for "better" room categories on our sailing:

 

B6 (Large Balcony): $1849 ($10 cheaper than the BA even though it has a much larger balcony)

B9 (Spa Balcony): $1929 (only $70 more than the BA when a spa pass costs $200 per person)

B1 (Aft-Facing Balcony): $1799 ($60 cheaper than the BA even though these are usually considered prime real estate)

MA (Mid-ship Mini-Suite): $1789 ($70 cheaper than the BA even though it has a bigger, nicer bathroom)

M6 (Mini-Suite w/ Large Balcony): $1849 ($10 cheaper than the BA and the same price as the B6, despite the larger bathroom)

 

Anyone have any theories on why things are priced this way for this specific sailing?

It's all about the $. The bean counters have been watching the cabins and determine the price on what they think will work. I'm on the Bliss 3/16/19, BC deck 9. Paid $3078 for two. Now it's $3738. Less cabins available, more money charged. We are looking forward to Dec on the Epic and Mar on the Bliss. What's funny is that I couldn't tell you how much the cost was on any of my past cruises, but know to the penny how much my next cruises are. Looking forward to enjoying em all.

[GirlWriter]

I used to work for an IT company that developed software for a major hotel chain. The purpose of the software was to figure out at any given moment what the room rate ought to be. It used a pretty complicated (and not always logical) series of algorithms that took into account factors such as: how many rooms are left in the category and what is the likelihood based on historical data that more people will want the rooms than there are rooms available; what time of year it is / proximity to a major holiday; amenities offered at the property and whether they were all accessible at that moment (i.e., is it too cold for the pool, is there construction going on in the gym, etc); etc.

 

And it was not at all rare for the system to spit out a nonsensical set of prices, which someone had to review and which the majority of the time was due to a faulty setting somewhere in all those factors.

 

Said all that to say, perhaps it's just a software anomaly. 🙂

Edited November 8, 2018 by GirlWriter

[deliver42]

You can always call to confirm the price. I have also found that if you look at a BB or a BC, you can be 1 cabin from a BA and have the savings.

[WillCruiseForMoney]

I think that sometimes they just make pricing mistakes.  A couple of months back I booked an Owners suite (SB) with 2 balconies on the Star for April 2019 at $2099 per person.  The only suite that was less expensive was the family suite (SJ) at $1899 per person.  Normally on the Star only the Garden Villa would cost more than than an SB.  

 

I just looked at it as an opportunity 

 

 

[JamieLogical]

I would buy the whole "supply and demand" argument if it actually seemed to apply in this case. The exact same 15 BA rooms have been available for about 3 weeks now. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, there was only one MA left and it was selling for $70 cheaper than the BAs.

[rtkenmore]

2 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

I would buy the whole "supply and demand" argument if it actually seemed to apply in this case. The exact same 15 BA rooms have been available for about 3 weeks now. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, there was only one MA left and it was selling for $70 cheaper than the BAs.

 

You have no idea what's going on behind the scenes and whether a large chuck of BA has been reserved by a TA for  group or any other potential outcomes.