How can you tell when NCL is having a legitimate sale?

[cruiseagona]

I don't follow their prices closely and I read that the correct 30% sale is a "fake" sale because they raised their prices before the sale. So how can you tell when they are having a legitimate sale? Do I have to follow their site daily like following the stock market? What are the indicators it is real? I am a Latitudes Platinum member. Would that give me any additional price off?

[tallnthensome]

You would have received a discount a while back around thanksgiving for being a Latitudes member. Now you have to watch prices daily to see which direction the cruise price goes. Pricing goes up and down even when they aren’t having a so-called sale. The term sale is useless with NCL now just like it is with Royal . It’s basically a price increase or a price reduction regardless of what the advertising banner says on the main website page. Watching your cruise price daily is the only way now. No current pricing discount for platinum status. Prices are sky high at the moment except for last minute sailings some of the times. 

[raitch]

Once a week I price out my cruise and see where it’s sitting.  It’s a pain but as you said, their advertised sales are just lip service.

 

I do wish there was a site that would do this for me though... 

[Joanne G.]

1 hour ago, cruiseagona said:

. . . . . Do I have to follow their site daily like following the stock market?  . . . . .

 

Even if you did this, you would never know if a great price will get even better or if a high price will go even higher.    Like many sellers, the cruise lines - all of them, I suspect - change prices and promotions all the time to generate interest.   And as with airlines, I am sure prices go up or down based on how the ship is filling up.  We will never know their secrets.

 

After years of cruising, I have a per-day price range that is acceptable to me.    If an itinerary appeals to me and is within that range, I book it.  If "free" perks are included, I accept that the per-day price might be higher because, let's face it, nothing is "free."   

I like a good deal, but I accept that there will be people on the ship - and the plane - who paid less than me, as well as people who paid more.   I work with an experienced travel  agent who monitors price and promo changes, and I trust her to let me know if I am eligible for anything.   Then I focus on planning my vacation rather than obsessing over whether I got the lowest possible price or not.  

 

Long story short - keep shopping around so that you recognize a good price for you when you see it. 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, cruiseagona said:

I don't follow their prices closely and I read that the correct 30% sale is a "fake" sale because they raised their prices before the sale. So how can you tell when they are having a legitimate sale? Do I have to follow their site daily like following the stock market? What are the indicators it is real? I am a Latitudes Platinum member. Would that give me any additional price off?

Cruise prices are like any product. There is a “retail price” for the product. If it isn’t selling as fast as you need, you lower the price. If it is selling well, you raise the price. If you want to sell a lot, fast, you run a sale. When it gets close to the “use by date”, you dump it at cost or less to get it out of your inventory. 
 

The current 30% off pricing has been in place for over 3 months. How long are your going to wait?  

 

Book your cruise. If the price drops dramatically before final payment, rebook (but you will be stuck with the promotions at the time you rebook). 
 

Be happy with your purchase. Enjoy your cruise. Stay away from the daily review of cruise prices 

 

While NCL is not sophisticated enough to do it, some hotel and airline websites monitor for repeated bookings (churn) and will add cost to the reservation. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by BirdTravels

[FLAHAM]

Even the luxury cruise lines run "2 for 1" sales that are not real sales.  

[timf2001]

I don't expect base prices to ever go back to what they were before they started 30% off.  All you can do is watch prices and book if you see a price drop.  The best hope would be the 20% off for Latitudes members comes back, but even that only applied to longer and exotic sailings.

[Starry Eyes]

Some people choose to personally devote some time to regularly checking cruise prices.  By being attuned, they are adept a spotting deals and catch price drops.  

 

Others have travel agents who may keep an eye out for deals or price drops on their behalf.  Some agents are undoubtedly more likely/better at this than others.  Some very good customers likely get better service than the infrequent clients.

 

If you do not care to devote your limited time to scouting out cruise deals constantly and you do not have a trusted TA doing it for you, do not feel bad; you have lots of company.  Check prices a few times on the itineraries that interest you, perhaps on differently cruiselines (assuming you’d at least consider cruising other lines).  Decide what your budget will bear.  Decide what you feel good about spending.  Like a poster above, I have a good idea of how much I will pay per person per day after port fees and taxes (some cruiselines have higher fees  than others, so I like to look at the sum).  If I am paying that rate or less I am happy enough.  If somebody else pays less, good for them; it happens, though maybe sometimes I catch the bottom.  For some destinations and some times of year, the rates will be higher; I suck it up and pay more if sailing those routes or times.  Conversely, there are times I expect a bargain rate as demand is routinely low (such as Caribbean after Thanksgiving week into early to mid December).  

 

[Gershep]

Yes you have to monitor the prices yourself.  The million of sale emails and mailed brochures are just useless.

[luv2kroooz]

5 hours ago, cruiseagona said:

So how can you tell when they are having a legitimate sale?

 

Just go to their website and search for the dates you want to sail. NCL doesn't advertise these as sales because they would rather you buy in to the 30% off or Free at Sea promotions. But those aren't sales. Those are marketing efforts, disguised as sales.

 

By way of example, I see lots of 7 day Caribbean cruises starting under $299 pp on the following departure dates:

 

Feb 23 Encore

Feb 29 Escape or Breakaway

Mar 1 or Mar 8 Pearl

Mar 1 Getaway

Mar 15 Star (15 day South America) starting at $349

Mar 22 10 day from San Juan $399

 

These are your sales and they are generally happening 1 month or less prior to sailing. 

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by blcruising

[Até]

The Cruise lines did a pretty good job putting the Fish site out of business.  After a few years of data spiking by the cruise lines, combined with the site's own internal problems, the site pretty much tanked last April.  But is still partially running, apparently without anyone managing it.   It's very difficult to navigate and only a small few cruises have current information.  Most data collection ceased months ago but you can find a few cruises where price histories have recently been updated.  The historical stats data is still good, but you have to be aware of basically what the cruise line was offering back at the dates you look up.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Até

[gatorchinsky]

20 minutes ago, blcruising said:

 

Just go to their website and search for the dates you want to sail. NCL doesn't advertise these as sales because they would rather you buy in to the 30% off or Free at Sea promotions. But those aren't sales. Those are marketing efforts, disguised as sales.

 

By way of example, I see lots of 7 day Caribbean cruises starting under $299 pp on the following departure dates:

 

Feb 23 Encore

Feb 29 Escape or Breakaway

Mar 1 or Mar 8 Pearl

Mar 1 Getaway

Mar 15 Star (15 day South America) starting at $349

Mar 22 10 day from San Juan $399

 

These are your sales and they are generally happening 1 month or less prior to sailing. 

 

 

 

With this so called sale my usual Thanksgiving cruise is around $1500 more than what I paid last year.  For the first time I’m probably going to wait to closer to the cruise and see where the prices are with NCL and the other cruise lines.

[luv2kroooz]

1 minute ago, gatorchinsky said:

With this so called sale my usual Thanksgiving cruise is around $1500 more than what I paid last year.  For the first time I’m probably going to wait to closer to the cruise and see where the prices are with NCL and the other cruise lines.

Generally speaking, NCL beats everyone on last minute pricing. If you aren't terribly picky about stateroom location and don't need months of advance planning, you can get some great deals. I'm in my cabin from 1am-7am and then maybe late afternoon for a few hours to nap or get ready for the evening. Couldn't care less where they put me, but I've had good experiences with the guarantee stateroom.

[Starry Eyes]

2 minutes ago, blcruising said:

Generally speaking, NCL beats everyone on last minute pricing. If you aren't terribly picky about stateroom location and don't need months of advance planning, you can get some great deals. I'm in my cabin from 1am-7am and then maybe late afternoon for a few hours to nap or get ready for the evening. Couldn't care less where they put me, but I've had good experiences with the guarantee stateroom.

Yeah, cabin category doesn’t matter much if you are just there to sleep, shower, change, etc.  My DH harbors a bias against inside cabins, but NCL last minute inside prices were so low, we are going to give one a try tomorrow...it’s been many years since we sailed in a traditional inside cabin.  I hope it goes well, as it would open up more impromptu bargain sailing opportunities.

 

If one cannot sail at the last minute (need to fly to port, etc), ignore those fire-sale prices.  Concentrate on finding a fair price on a cruise that will allow to also make the rest of your travel plans such that you can get decent air fares, time off from work, etc.

[don't-use-real-name]

Cruise fares are just like air fares - they are a perishable commodity !

Once the plane has pushed back from the gate -

The cruise ship backed away from the pier -

It is the point of no return -

Time to make a sale is POOF gone.

 

It is a game -

Select the time available -

Select the destination -

The cruise line -

The ship - small/medium/huge

Cabin accommodations

 

The more time in the planning stage the better -

Probably a year and a half at best with NCL

 

Booking far in advance gives a better cabin selection and location locking in the price

then adjusting the fare as it goes down keeping or gaining those perks bonuses OBC

upgrading optional

 

Checking often is great - NCL posts Insider Offer (Past Guest deals) at the first of the

month - other sales occur with the change of seasons destinations - Caribbean -

Mediterranean - Baltic - Alaska - etc. (don't forget the Repositioning Cruises).

Careful planning cruises to the Caribbean in the spring - think "Spring Break"

 

Of course you must use the NCL website for reference in checking fares but find

out what other sources there are - Automobile Club - Big Box retailer - and your

own Travel Agent - scan newspapers travel periodicals maybe even a TV ad for

hints leads to the marketing trend.

The cruise fares that NCL charges are the base and these other sources will

not of course charge more than that but the perks bennies bonuses OBC can be

the same or different.

 

You can do all this yourself - but using a TA is helpful having someone watching

the pulse of the cruise market often if not daily.  

 

 

[mianmike]

Good rule of thumb: If NCL is heavily promoting a "sale"; it's not a sale it's a marketing gimmick.  

 

  

[IrieBajan54]

.

.

Like a few others, cabin location and the so-called FREE perks are of no importance to me. It's Sail-Away every time and I have been happy with my cabin assignments. I just book one and was assigned deck 11 aft. I have gotten the last minute price I wanted from 6 weeks to 4 days ahead of sailing.

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by IrieBajan54
correction

[Zippeedee]

If you use the Cruise Critic "find a cruise" link at the top of every page, you can search and then set a price alert. You'll get an email whenever the price changes on the cruises you choose to watch. There are a few other sites that offer the same service.

[bonvoyagie]

Simple - book when they don't call it a sale. Some of it is just blind luck as this industry as a whole has very fluid pricing. Also I don't expect my TA to watch pricing as his commission is based on the price of the booking - so every time the price goes down so does his paycheck. 

 

I tend to book early, choose my cabin and perks then check back and do mock bookings to see the current pricing. IMHO the only real discount is the 20% past guest offer on certain cruises. You can do this right up to final payment, after that NCL will often give you one price adjustment and usually in the form of either OBC or FCC. 

 

I recently had a 2100.00/person price drop after final payment and received a 50% FCC. I was also lucky enough to book that cruise (I had one in mind) before the 30% off sale and while the cruise was still on the past guest list. Now it is no longer on the past guest list and the 30% off sale had a 25% price increase just prior.

 

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than smart.

[JamieLogical]

Sales are completely meaningless. Base fare pricing is always going to be what they think the market will bear and will changes as the market responds. High demand for a sailing? Prices go up. Low demand for a sailing, prices go down. Even on a single sailing, you will see category prices change independently from one another as supply and demand for those specific categories rises and falls. An across-the-fleet sale is a marketing ploy and nothing else. It won't actually affect the out-of-pocket price of individual sailings or even individual categories. The best "deals" to be had on NCL are promos like added perks, free or reduced air, etc. But even those ultimately get reflected in your bottom line pricing.

[4774Papa]

22 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Some people choose to personally devote some time to regularly checking cruise prices.  By being attuned, they are adept a spotting deals and catch price drops.  

 

Others have travel agents who may keep an eye out for deals or price drops on their behalf.  Some agents are undoubtedly more likely/better at this than others.  Some very good customers likely get better service than the infrequent clients.

 

If you do not care to devote your limited time to scouting out cruise deals constantly and you do not have a trusted TA doing it for you, do not feel bad; you have lots of company.  Check prices a few times on the itineraries that interest you, perhaps on differently cruiselines (assuming you’d at least consider cruising other lines).  Decide what your budget will bear.  Decide what you feel good about spending.  Like a poster above, I have a good idea of how much I will pay per person per day after port fees and taxes (some cruiselines have higher fees  than others, so I like to look at the sum).  If I am paying that rate or less I am happy enough.  If somebody else pays less, good for them; it happens, though maybe sometimes I catch the bottom.  For some destinations and some times of year, the rates will be higher; I suck it up and pay more if sailing those routes or times.  Conversely, there are times I expect a bargain rate as demand is routinely low (such as Caribbean after Thanksgiving week into early to mid December).  

 

Every once in a while, I ask friends on a cruise what they paid for the cruise.  These are people that I have established a relationship with and trust.  Many use travel agents and do get modest benefits, however, when comparing what was paid for the cruise, I have NEVER had anyone tell me that they paid LESS that what I paid.  Usually they paid more.  I am always checking for price drops.  I usually book early and only about 1/4 of the cruises that I book do the prices drop, but I always get the lowest prices.  I have had friends complain that their travel agents were not available in time to make the arrangements for the new lower rate.  I would never trust a travel agent to do this for me.  

[Peachypooh]

What I do is look at the cruises that they have just posted (usually leaving in over a year) and pick one

that looks interesting. If I think the price is somewhat fair I will book it and then check from time to

time to see the direction the prices are heading. One thing I like about NCL is that you can cancel or

have a price adjustment up until final payment. Some other lines you either lose your deposit or they

keep it to apply to another sailing. With NCL you are out zero dollars if you cancel before final

payment. I find the best prices the earlier I book. Sometimes like the( 20 percent latitude sale) the price can be adjusted quite a bit.

[kathybelcher2433]

Just substitute the word “Macy’s” for “NCL” and proceed accordingly.


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[graphicguy]

It's just like anything else you purchase big ticket.  You have to stalk the fares and see when they change.  I know some like to purchase way in advance.  I find the fares on NCL tend to drop the closer you get to sailing as they fill up the last remaining cabins.

 

I know RCCL is just the opposite, where the earlier you book, the better the fare.

 

All these sales, on all the cruise lines, are marketing fodder to get you to their WEB site, or to talk to their sales people (or personal cruise consultant if you prefer).

 

Just got to track down the fares for when you want to cruise.  

[cksv]

There really is never a true sale as NCL runs promos year round. What I usually do is make a completely refundable booking at a price I'm comfortable with and then check rates on a weekly basis to see if there are any price drops. I've found that in most cases pricing actually goes up, especially for popular times of the year like spring break, summer months, and NYE.