Price drop closer to sail date?

[BrandFam4]

15 hours ago, APDMOM said:

My advice is that you book when the price looks good to you, making sure you book “refundable deposit” if you may need to make changes.  Then, keep checking for price drops until final payment.

 

Here are some charts that show price changes we have been tracking.  Green dots represent the price we paid.  Blue dots represent the price changes at given dates.  I check a few times a week, but only document if a price changed...  As you can see, booking well in advance is key.  However, in the off season you can occasionally get a great deal, like we did on Allure in mid May one year.

 

7-9 day cruises:

 

 

 

4 and 5 day on Brilliance (4-day Brilliance dropped below our paid price - the only one in many years of cruising Royal):

 

Love your graphs!

[BrandFam4]

15 hours ago, Jembeccatoo said:

Newbie here with Royal Caribbean.

I know NCL’s fares drop the closer you get to sail dates I would like to try Royal Caribbean for my next cruise and was wondering if the same thing applies. Thanks for any info you can share.

I have been able to get several price drops on several of our cruises. And I agree with others book when you are comfortable, because we have one cruise that has increased $800 since booking it less than 2 months ago. We would never book it at the price it is at now. 

[APDMOM]

23 hours ago, Coralc said:

Baby steps John. Baby steps. 

 

Baby steps...That is how I learned to do the charts! I took the easy way out.  Despite my geeky streak, I still believe in saving time by finding the lazy....ahem, I mean “easy” way.  I use the iPad with the free Numbers App (The Mac version of Excel...Windows lovers, please don’t have a coronary for my comparison 😂)

 

5 easy steps:

1. Type dates and prices into 3 columns

 

2. Highlight the three columns and choose “Cell Actions...”

 

 

 

3. Choose “Create New Chart”

 

 

 

4. Decide how fancy you want the chart to be... 2D, 3D, or interactive

 

 

 

5.  Pick your favorite visual representation of the chart, and voila!  Here is an example of one of the 3D options...

 

Have fun!

Edited May 2, 2019 by APDMOM

[Coralc]

That is cool. I have an iPad. I haven't set it up yet though. That is a great thing to know how to do though. I have saved your instructions as well. Thanks for all the help! 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

There's an online website that tracks cruise prices (and does all that work for you). If you want to follow a specific cruise...they charge a whopping $1.

 

Our experience has been that booking early - as much as a yer or more - renders the best prices. While prices do fluctuate up and down in the time preceding the cruise date...tracking all 10 of our previous cruises showed the best prices came a year or more in advance.

[Ourusualbeach]

32 minutes ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

There's an online website that tracks cruise prices (and does all that work for you). If you want to follow a specific cruise...they charge a whopping $1.

 

Our experience has been that booking early - as much as a yer or more - renders the best prices. While prices do fluctuate up and down in the time preceding the cruise date...tracking all 10 of our previous cruises showed the best prices came a year or more in advance.

Definitely don’t rely on that site.  It seems to be permanently  broke lately.