Cruise Sales Changing

[lindafromns]

We’re new to Celebrity and are looking at a cruise to New Zealand in December. Currently there is a 40% off sale but it ends tonight. 
Should I make sure I snatch this up or is there likely to be another sale starting tomorrow that’s very similar pricing?

I would like to take more time to think about it but I don’t want to pay several hundred $ more in 2 weeks. 
Experienced Celebrity cruisers opinions welcome. Thanks. 

[jwlane]

7 minutes ago, lindafromns said:

but it ends tonight. 

Fat chance.

FWIW, our TA holds cabin(s) for us as we mull over our choices.

[wrk2cruise]

The last "sale" was extended every few days for over 6 months.  Every week or so they would add or delete a bonus $50 of OBC.   I expect this one to be much the same although this "sale" resulted in prices being a few hundred more than the last one on the multiple cruises I have booked.

 

As long as your booking is not within final payment you can reprice it to the current "sale" without penalty.  As others have said you could put it on 24hr hold today and compare prices tomorrow.

[Mauidiver]

We booked our Nov 2024 New Zealand cruise very early because the category of cabin we wanted seems to always sell out quickly.  If you’re like us, booking sooner rather than later for any cruise is important, but if you’re going for one of the more plentiful categories, you can pretty much book whenever you’re ready.

 

Also, prices for our cruise already went up about $400 from when we booked.

[jelayne]

We repriced a cruise when the 40% off started, saving $875.  I looked  today and the price is $250 more and the $200 OBC is not offered.  It seems every time they extend the promo they tweek it a bit.

[phoenix_dream]

I'm anything but new to Celebrity (30 years and 75+ cruises) and my only honest answer would be it depends.  They continually have one type of sale or another.  I have to say it's been years since we were able to reprice and find a better deal (or at least one with enough difference to bother).  Some have been luckier.  In general, the next big sales would be near Labor Day, and then at the beginning of the year during what they call the wave season, when many people are getting sick of the cold and snow and are thinking about cruising.  But right now many ships are sailing full, and there is a new person running the show, so it's impossible to predict for sure.

[twins_to_alaska]

The pricing is dynamic.. even during the same 'sale' the price can change for a cabin category by the hour. I've repriced down more than once on the same day.

[keesar]

9 hours ago, lindafromns said:

We’re new to Celebrity and are looking at a cruise to New Zealand in December. Currently there is a 40% off sale but it ends tonight. 
Should I make sure I snatch this up or is there likely to be another sale starting tomorrow that’s very similar pricing?

I would like to take more time to think about it but I don’t want to pay several hundred $ more in 2 weeks. 
Experienced Celebrity cruisers opinions welcome. Thanks. 

 

Don't rush into making a decision.  Do your research and then compare prices and perks being given.  There is always a sale going on.  

[mahdnc]

9 hours ago, lindafromns said:

We’re new to Celebrity and are looking at a cruise to New Zealand in December. Currently there is a 40% off sale but it ends tonight. 
Should I make sure I snatch this up or is there likely to be another sale starting tomorrow that’s very similar pricing?

I would like to take more time to think about it but I don’t want to pay several hundred $ more in 2 weeks. 
Experienced Celebrity cruisers opinions welcome. Thanks. 

Celebrity is always having a variation of essentially the same sale. The variations allow them to run a FOMO countdown clock and when it is over it is either extended (by popular demand of course) or a different form of essentially the same sale is started with a new countdown clock. 

Edited July 17, 2023 by mahdnc

[critterchick]

We held a cabin for Infinity to the Greek Isles while onboard Millennium a couple of weeks ago (I booked it from our cabin, not through the future cruise desk). We got a good rate on the 4th of July sale, with $1250 OBC for a 10-night cruise.  When I looked a couple of days later to see if it would make sense to book onboard, the price had gone up over $2000 and the OBC cut to $800. While it’s true that X will always have some kind of sale going on, some really are better than others.  Book at what you believe to be a fair price and keep checking prices.  Our Edge TP sailing has had two price drops since we booked in April.

 

[OysterD]

I wouldn't worry about having to book quickly before a particular sale ends. As others have pointed out the last sale started sometime last November and whenever the arbitrary countdown timer got to zero it magically reset itself and added another week or so on. That continued for a good 6 or 7 months. 

 

I'd expect the current 'sale' to be the same. 

 

In reality this sale isn't much different to the last, which was 75% off 2nd passenger. Let's say a cruise is priced at 1000 magical beans per passenger, the first sale would have come out to 1250 total (1000 + (1000 x 0.25)). This sale would come to 1200 (2000 × 0.6) magical beans total, and with various tweaks to OBC offered there really isn't much in it. 

 

If you've seen a cruise you like and the best rate currently offered is booking directly with X then there probably won't be much difference between booking it now or booking it next week (don't hold me to it!) Apart from maybe a slight change in OBC or the cabin you wanted potentially getting booked in the mean time.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise if you go for it 🙂

[horseymike]

these so called sales tend to be a bit confusing to me. Almost like a shell game.

[odysee]

Wish they would just show the correct price per person and not play this game of high prices which then get reduced by 75% or 40 % etc.

Just looks more and more like a Turkish bazar where everybody except the very naiive knows the prices are completely inflated to give a good feeling afterwards of having “bargained them down”.

[TeeRick]

55 minutes ago, horseymike said:

these so called sales tend to be a bit confusing to me. Almost like a shell game.

Yes agree.  They are not really true sales.  You can usually get the best price as soon as the cruise gets announced.  Or by booking onboard sometimes for the better OBC offer as an example.  After that, these sales are just marketing campaigns with confusing pricing, usually not less expensive than previous campaigns.

[Oceangoer2]

Last week I checked our '24 cruise for pricing...it had come down almost $400....good sale!  This week it had come down another $200, but X had removed the OBC.  No savings or 'sale' there.  If you book your cruise now and it comes down a few weeks (or months) from now, X will honour the new pricing.  Be careful you're not losing any OBC to save just a few $$s.

[twins_to_alaska]

My most recent I happily gave up $200 OBC for $120 price decrease.