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Black Friday sale?

inar

By inar,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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CruizinSusan70

CruizinSusan70

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, havanadaydreaming said:

ive never seen anything special on black friday for any cruise line.  

Since you've never cruised on RCI then you're not familiar with their dynamic pricing policy.  Regarding shore excursions, drink packages, specialty dining, and wifi, basically all of the peripheral purchases, the pricing is not set in stone.  It fluctuates depending upon which ship you're on, when you sail and how long your cruise is.  They are the only cruise line to have this policy. 

The best pricing of the year on many of these items is usually during their week long Black Friday sale, but as usual YMMV.

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kona_wahine

kona_wahine

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Posted (edited)

I saw a sale on another cruise line where the 2nd guest is free. 3&4 are free, free drinks, free dining, free excursions, etc etc, and it came out close to $8000 for a standard balcony room. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. What a great sale! 

Edited by kona_wahine
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Honolulu Blue Great Review Rare

Honolulu Blue

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, inar said:

What kind of sales does Carnival usually have on Black Friday?   Anything special or just the usual no deposit etc stuff?

This year is very unusual as 1) they've usually offered at least a little something for the past several years, and 2) other Carnival Corp. lines have announced sales or whatever, but 3) Carnival has announced nothing for this year.  Perhaps they'll whip up something at the last minute?  Perhaps they're happy with sales and prices where they are?  Perhaps they're waiting for Cyber Monday?  Your guess is as good as mine.

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shof515 "Live from...." Rare

shof515

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, kona_wahine said:

I saw a sale on another cruise line where the 2nd guest is free. 3&4 are free, free drinks, free dining, free excursions, etc etc, and it came out close to $8000 for a standard balcony room. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. What a great sale! 

That is NCL and those not really sales if you read their fine print in the terms and conditions. The free excursions is a very very big misleading false advertisement as you only get a 50 dollar credit for person 1 in the booking, other people in the booking do not get that credit

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dcedar

dcedar

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, kona_wahine said:

I saw a sale on another cruise line where the 2nd guest is free. 3&4 are free, free drinks, free dining, free excursions, etc etc, and it came out close to $8000 for a standard balcony room. 🤣🤣🤣🤣. What a great sale! 

Exactly! People will see that sale, not love the price, and then complain Carnival doesn't offer it. Others will jump on it and believe they got a better deal because there were free things... even though they are paying more than the price for all that on Carnival. 

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PMI1

PMI1

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About 15 years ago they used to do a 12 days of Christmas sale that had good offers.  Some were pay for a window, upgrade for free to balcony or $300 for Carnival shore excursions.  I think sale inventory was limited as I was never lucky enough to snag a deal

 

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CruizinSusan70

CruizinSusan70

Posted
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3 hours ago, dcedar said:

....even though they are paying more than the price for all that on Carnival. 

Can't make that blanket statement.  It all depends upon the comparison of ship to ship, date to date and cabin to cabin.  And of course a bottom line comparison after factoring in Cheers, airfare, specialty dining discounts, etc.  

If you're a bare bones cruise only at the cheapest price possible consumer, then Carnival or MSC are usually the best deals.  If you factor in the peripherals, the bottom line price can get a little murky.

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dcedar

dcedar

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7 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Can't make that blanket statement.  It all depends upon the comparison of ship to ship, date to date and cabin to cabin.  And of course a bottom line comparison after factoring in Cheers, airfare, specialty dining discounts, etc.  

If you're a bare bones cruise only at the cheapest price possible consumer, then Carnival or MSC are usually the best deals.  If you factor in the peripherals, the bottom line price can get a little murky.

My blanket statement was about the same-ish cruises. I have compared apples to apples during sales of '3&4 sale free' and/or 'free everything else'. If the price of the other cruise line is already double the price or more, their sale is not going to be good enough to get me to jump ship. Now if their base price was similar and then they offered all the extras for free, that would seem more like a sale. 

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CruizinSusan70

CruizinSusan70

Posted
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18 minutes ago, dcedar said:

 Now if their base price was similar and then they offered all the extras for free, that would seem more like a sale. 

That will only happen in fantasy land.  NCL is certainly doing something right with how their newest ships in the Prima Class set booking records with the Prima and the Viva.  They also have 4 more in the pipeline coming out in 24-27, which is 3 more than Carnival has coming out.

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MichiganFisherman

MichiganFisherman

Posted
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18 hours ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Can't make that blanket statement.  It all depends upon the comparison of ship to ship, date to date and cabin to cabin.  And of course a bottom line comparison after factoring in Cheers, airfare, specialty dining discounts, etc.  

It used to be that way but not anymore. NCL is all I used to sail but not anymore as they've become the worst value at sea . You can add all the things the NCL Free at Sea brings to Carnival bookings at it will still be way less than NCL. My 12 day to Europe on the Pride is $3500 with balcony. An 11 day with an almost identical itinerary on NCL is almost $11000. If I add Cheers its $5500. Does that look close?  7 day NCL out of Hawaii on the POA is $7600 with Free at Sea. I booked princess 16 day Hawaii, over twice the length of trip on NCL, with Drink package, tips, WIFI and $400 OBC for $6500. $1200 more for 7 days on NCL vs 16 on Princess. NCL pricing is the worst value of all the lines now vs when I said them on the Bliss and Escape. My 15 day Panama Canal cruise on the Bliss a couple years ago was $5600. Now it's $12000. A total ripoff and no other line has increased pricing like NCL. I'm booking Princess and Celebrity for half. 

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serene56

serene56

Posted
Posted

precovid i had sales for excursions, spas      cruise cash.    (in 2020 i had a buy 400 and get 100 cruise cash-        excursions were a certain percentage depending on how many you buy,    Spa was always cheaper onboard 

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firefly333

firefly333

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, serene56 said:

precovid i had sales for excursions, spas      cruise cash.    (in 2020 i had a buy 400 and get 100 cruise cash-        excursions were a certain percentage depending on how many you buy,    Spa was always cheaper onboard 

Rcl I got 2 excursions for 35% off when the sale started, now the % off is dropping as excursions fill up. I can book a allure cruise about $700. .. less than carnival vista price. 

 

I know carnival excursions dont give good pre cruise discounts, but even 10% would be nice. I have 5 unusual ports on my 14 day and to me carnival prices are sky high. 35% off rcl excursions were extra nice ..better than expected. I'd settle for anything off. 

 

Carnival sure doesnt want my business.

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CruizinSusan70

CruizinSusan70

Posted
Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, MichiganFisherman said:

It used to be that way but not anymore. NCL is all I used to sail but not anymore as they've become the worst value at sea . You can add all the things the NCL Free at Sea brings to Carnival bookings at it will still be way less than NCL. My 12 day to Europe on the Pride is $3500 with balcony. An 11 day with an almost identical itinerary on NCL is almost $11000. If I add Cheers its $5500. Does that look close?  7 day NCL out of Hawaii on the POA is $7600 with Free at Sea. I booked princess 16 day Hawaii, over twice the length of trip on NCL, with Drink package, tips, WIFI and $400 OBC for $6500. $1200 more for 7 days on NCL vs 16 on Princess. NCL pricing is the worst value of all the lines now vs when I said them on the Bliss and Escape. My 15 day Panama Canal cruise on the Bliss a couple years ago was $5600. Now it's $12000. A total ripoff and no other line has increased pricing like NCL. I'm booking Princess and Celebrity for half. 

Your comparisons don't hold much water.  First of all, you can't compare the POA with any other ship because nothing compares to it.  It's the only ship that is American flagged so the crew is primarily American and is paid like we are with OT and such.  Because of this their labor costs are in a different stratosphere compared to their competitors that cruise to Hawaii.  I say cruise to because all of their competitors cruise to Hawaii, whether that be from the mainland or from Alaska after the season ends in October.  The POA cruises around the islands year round so you're comparing an apple to an orange.

I don't put all of my eggs in one basket so I am loyal to a single line.  About half of my cruises have been on Carnival, but we currently have cruises reserved on RCI, NCL, MSC, Celebrity and Princess as well as 5 on the Celebration.

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MsOne

MsOne

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, MichiganFisherman said:

It used to be that way but not anymore. NCL is all I used to sail but not anymore as they've become the worst value at sea . You can add all the things the NCL Free at Sea brings to Carnival bookings at it will still be way less than NCL. My 12 day to Europe on the Pride is $3500 with balcony. An 11 day with an almost identical itinerary on NCL is almost $11000. If I add Cheers its $5500. Does that look close?  7 day NCL out of Hawaii on the POA is $7600 with Free at Sea. I booked princess 16 day Hawaii, over twice the length of trip on NCL, with Drink package, tips, WIFI and $400 OBC for $6500. $1200 more for 7 days on NCL vs 16 on Princess. NCL pricing is the worst value of all the lines now vs when I said them on the Bliss and Escape. My 15 day Panama Canal cruise on the Bliss a couple years ago was $5600. Now it's $12000. A total ripoff and no other line has increased pricing like NCL. I'm booking Princess and Celebrity for half. 

I'm with you, cool stuff on board but not 2.5x the price cool stuff on board. And actually even more when some of that cool stuff costs extra like the Escape Room, go-karts, etc.

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