Never a price drop on a "holiday" time cruise?

We have booked the New Years cruise on the sunshine. I have been checking and never seem to see a price drop. Is it because it's a more popular date? I read all the time people getting a price drop but never seems to be on this one.

Just wondering if I'm wasting my time checking all the time if they won't do price drops on these sailings.

Thanks

You're still 8 months out. Keep checking.

Keep checking, but New Year's is the second most popular sailing date of the entire year. Chances are that you'll see prices go up rather than down

I can see New Years being a really popular time for cruises. My family is going the week of Thanksgiving on the Carnival Dream. Hopefully that week is a bit less popular. It would sure be nice to have a few extra dollars in the vacation fund to spend on excursions, etc.

supply in demand

but keep checking

Look at prices for your ship in November and December....the sudden increase in prices in mid-December is a reflection of demand.

As mentioned, an increase is more likely than a decrease.

New Years will be expensive no matter what. However, over several years, I've seen Carnival have a sale on "Holiday" sailings. Seems to come out late summer as I recall. As others have already said, keep checking the price.

I did two New Years sailings on Princess and they were great. Would love to do one again sometime. Have fun!

It seems like if there is plenty of availability (at least in my current cruise) the price will drop. Once a category is sold out or has a limited amount of cabins the prices are ridiculously high. I would keep checking anyway. It'll probably drop the one day you don't check. Lol

We have booked the New Years cruise on the sunshine. I have been checking and never seem to see a price drop. Is it because it's a more popular date? I read all the time people getting a price drop but never seems to be on this one.

Just wondering if I'm wasting my time checking all the time if they won't do price drops on these sailings.

Thanks

What you see on Cruise Critic regarding price drops must be taken in context. Many, many cruises never see any price drops. If you book a cruise "expecting" price drops you may have set yourself up to be disappointed.

I booked about 2 months ago, the cost of my cruise continues to rise ( as I expected).

We have booked the New Years cruise on the sunshine. I have been checking and never seem to see a price drop. Is it because it's a more popular date? I read all the time people getting a price drop but never seems to be on this one.

Just wondering if I'm wasting my time checking all the time if they won't do price drops on these sailings.

Thanks

We have done 3 NYEs cruises with another one this year. We did get a few small ones---I think in October/November. We also got a OBC for $50. Not much but I'll take it. So don't expect much but keep checking & jump on it when you see it.

lizardhowson is spot on. What you see here and on other social media sites is not reflective of the true numbers. No one is going to post each time they check the price and it is the same or has gone up. They (we) are much more likely to post about a price match that earned a nice sum of OBC.

That same holds true about good cruise/bad cruise. 4000 people get off the ship and one has a bad trip and comes here and blasts the cruise line. We don't hear from the other 3999 that had a wonderful trip.

Keep checking, you never know when the price might drop or perhaps you might be eligible for an upgrade.

I'm hoping mine will drop. It is Jan. 2 so not technically a holiday cruise...

I've seen huge price drops on these holiday sailings= on some ships. If you have ES rates, these usually are for late bookings, so, the "checking" needs to be more aggressive then.

lizardhowson is spot on. What you see here and on other social media sites is not reflective of the true numbers. No one is going to post each time they check the price and it is the same or has gone up. They (we) are much more likely to post about a price match that earned a nice sum of obc.

That same holds true about good cruise/bad cruise. 4000 people get off the ship and one has a bad trip and comes here and blasts the cruise line. We don't hear from the other 3999 that had a wonderful trip.

Keep checking, you never know when the price might drop or perhaps you might be eligible for an upgrade.

+100

Holiday price drops are rare but they do happen occasionally. Case in point Christmas 2014 we were tracking prices on Carnival Magic (Galveston) and Carnival Dream (NOLA). We can drive to either port so we gambled and held out to the last minute to book. In October Carnival had a 36 hour sale. Low and behold the Dream cruise was listed on the sale. We were set to pay $1800ish for a inside cabin for two. However a balcony guarantee was $1200ish for two. WE JUMPED ON IT!!! I still can't believe the deal we got on that Christmas cruise.

I suggest having more than one cruise option you want to take, be flexible and track the prices. Also check other cruise lines at the same ports. I like the MIA and FLL ports. I just purchase an airline ticket for the week I want to cruise and watch the prices for all cruise lines and ships cruising out of those ports for that week. There are 8-12+ ships going in and out each week.

We were on the Ecstasy 2014 for Thanksgiving. I checked daily and about two to three weeks before, the price dropped for our family of four $750. We used that as on board credit for the week since it was after final payment. We also upgraded from a balcony to suite for $100.

We cruise Christmas/NYE week. I will say that we have been very lucky in getting several price drops on our cruises - we book ES. After final payment is due seems to be a good time to really start checking every day, as they start to push the unsold cabins then. On a side note, I check all my cruises at least once a day for price drops, from the minute I book up to 3 days before!

I sailed on the Breeze for Christmas 2013 and NYE 2014. I had more price drops for the Christmas sailing, but I did have 2 for the NYE one. Not as much, But I will take it.

We are sailing NYE again this year and I had to pay $10 more to get $50 OBC. Now it is up $200 more than what I paid! So not sure I will see any drops this year.

As others have noted, NYE cruises are popular. We've done them the past 3 years and have gotten a little spare change back. Sunshine, contrary to the haters here, is a fairly popular ship. It's especially popular with families that can cruise during the Christmas/NYE holiday time period.

Your best bet is to watch for specials on gift cards. Those discounts will apply to any and all sailings....at least they have in the past.

supply in demand

 

but keep checking

Supply and demand also. :p

Watch for limited time offers especially the 24 hour only specials. Last year our Thanksgiving cruise which was I priced around 2500 -4 people for on outside in March went down to to just over 1700 for an outside--4 people during the Halloween 24 hr special. I am not picky about location i just want to have a window so it was great for us that i waited to book.

I routinely check prices twice to three times a day-morning/noon/night because prices do change and if you are not watching you will miss a great deal. For my cruise prices stayed level until summer and then rose , about end of Sept/oct the prices started to drop slightly. The best price was the Halloween sale, even last minute prices were higher than what i paid.

FYI i just got my email Carnival just started a 12 hr flash sale. So check your prices maybe they went down for your cruise.