Is 3rd not free sale really free?

A friend of mine had previously booked two cruises with some okay deals. They called their TA to take advantage of this third day free sale, and found out it would cost $1000 for one and $700 more for the other one. Need to watch these "sales" carefully. Sometimes they're nothing more than a marketing ploy.

It's all different types of marketing. All things being equal, the third night free promo is only going to be a better deal than the regular 30% promos if your cruise is a multiple of 3 nights... 3,6,9,12,15,18 (I have no idea what the longest length cruise is).... which translates to 33%. Once you hit 18 nights, the percentages will stay at or above 30% regardless of length. Any other cruise length and there aren't enough free nights to hit the 30% mark of the "regular" promo.

4 nights = 25% (1 of 4)

5 nights = 20% (1 of 5)

7 nights = 28.6% (2 of 7)

8 nights = 25% (2 of 8)

Just noticed another scare tactic - on the RCCL Website on several categories they say only 2 cabins left, only 3 cabins left, etc. Well, when I checked the same categories on the same cruises on a TA website, there were actually over 25 cabins available on several decks!

So, I suggest you not panic and book because RC says there are only a couple of cabins left. Look at other online websites to see if they show more cabins. Chances are you will probably find a better cabin. Or call RC to see what cabins are actually available. There new website is absolutely terrible when trying to find cabins!

The common recent sales I have seen are 30% off, 60% off the second passenger and every 3rd night free.

Since you have to pay for 2 guests, 30% off or 60% off the second passenger are pretty much the same discount (unless you have high enough C&A to get a discount on a single passenger).

Every 3rd night free is not as good a discount for most cruises since as pointed out above the discount varies between 20-33% depending on the number of nights on the cruise. It is best for 3, 6, 9, 12, etc nights cruises at 33%, but worse for all other cruises of non multiple of 3 nights.

Then there is the on board credit random appearances to factor.

Then there is the individual cabin inventory on a particular ship that varies. For example there are several different balcony categories, each priced differently, also variations by deck and section. The quote on the web is of course for the lowest priced one in inventory at that moment. So if you are looking at it one day and see a price of X, then look another day and see a price of Y, you actually have to get into the cabin selection to see if there is really a difference in price or just that a different category is available. You will notice when going into the booking that you can have a different deck/section for only a few $$ more that the cheapest one that was shown on the web site initial price. You could see a price drop because someone cancelled a lower priced cabin, or you can see a price increase because the last cabin at the lower rate was booked. But, actually the other cabins stayed the same price.

Essentially they do not really vary the price very much. A lot of flux due to minor differences in the "sale/obc" . But, if you really want to do a true tracking you would have to actually go into the booking and compare the actual price of the same cabin day by day to get an accurate picture.

We are actually now thinking of doing a 12 day on the Anthem of the Seas instead of a 7 day on the Allure. It sounds like that might be a bit of a savings with the current deal but at a much steeper deposit I have almost no choice but to put it off for a little bit.

I booked a cruise in early Feb (Allure balcony in October) and have been tracking all the great "sales" and promotions since. Here is what I have tracked:

Booked Feb 12th: $1,793.32

2-22: $1834.32

2-24: $1874.32

2-28: $1856.98

3-2: $1981.32

3-8: $2032

3-14 & 3-22: $2304 & $200 OBC

4-2: $2303 & $200 OBC

So all the great "sales" since I booked have been more expensive. This includes the Oasis class free balcony upgrade sale which was worthless.

The only way to feel good about booking a cruise is to:

1- continually monitor prices so you know what a good price is.

2- book it and then just go and enjoy your cruise. Check the price a few times after booking and before final payment in case it goes down and you can get some $$ back.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Booke 3/25 under whatever promo (believe 30%) with $100 OBC

The recent sail - 3rd day free with $200 OBC, all in would be $13 less. Wasn't about to mess with it for price of one drink

Not sailing till next March, will continue to check

In 70 days at sea on Royal Caribbean the only true discount aka awesome deal I have managed to snag was our Hawaii repo in 2013 - was a price drop of $500pp (we had 5 cabins!) around 6pm which I was going to put off until I got off work but something told me to call right away... luckily I did because by 10pm the price was higher than my original booking. Being a group of 10 on that cruise it was a nice little savings :)