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Last minute deals


jasperado
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Hello

Just wondering....has anyone managed to get a very late last minute deal and was it for silly money?

DH and I are still working and have the main holiday/cruise booked for late September, but we have a week off at the end of June. Before I start to get excited ( and maybe disappointed if it doesn't come off ) is it possible to pick up a deal for a bargain price with just a couple of days before sailing? Have any of you wonderful people managed to do this? If so, please tell me wonderful stories :)

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I've picked up 2 bargain cruises over the years. 1 was booked 5 weeks before departure and the other a few months before cruising. One was with RCI, the other with NCL. The NCL one was picked up as I'd sailed with them before and got an email and it was such a bargain! 10 nights in a mini suite for £530 each that it had to be snapped up!

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I hope that you get some useful answers to this question as I asked a similar question some time back and didn't!

 

People telling you that they paid £x for x days on a cruise to wherever is completely irrelevant unless they tell you what level of discount that was.

 

And of course, what you really need to know is which websites or tour operators provide the best last minute deals and there is a completely irrational fear of stating that on this site for fear of it contravening site rules (which, if true, renders the site pointless in that regard). Some people even resort to laughable cryptic codes to try to inform people, for fear of getting into trouble!

 

So, come on you knowledgeable types. Live dangerously and answer the original posters question properly!

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I hope that you get some useful answers to this question as I asked a similar question some time back and didn't!

 

People telling you that they paid £x for x days on a cruise to wherever is completely irrelevant unless they tell you what level of discount that was.

 

And of course, what you really need to know is which websites or tour operators provide the best last minute deals and there is a completely irrational fear of stating that on this site for fear of it contravening site rules (which, if true, renders the site pointless in that regard). Some people even resort to laughable cryptic codes to try to inform people, for fear of getting into trouble!

 

So, come on you knowledgeable types. Live dangerously and answer the original posters question properly!

We cant live dangerously as if we keep on quoting TA websites you can get banned from the forums, which rather defeats trying to help people.

Poster will just have to search on google under cruise deals, and see what comes up.

Also it would be impossible to state what sort of discount was gained, as with fluid pricing and obs deals you could only quote what you actually paid for a cruise, but then you may have got £100's in OBS, which would obviously have some bearing on the overall cost of the holiday in the end.

Suffice to say the nearer to sailing you are, if a cruise is not selling well, you could probably pick up a deal. May even get a half decent cabin. If however the cruise is selling well then you would end up with a cabin nobody else really wants (usually due to its position-under a pool/sun deck/above a theatre)

Also the people who found deals actually had to look for them themselves ,or sign up for mailings from various sites, so could not the OP do that.

The one thing that is very very very boring is for your sole topic of conversation on board to be I got this cruise for £x , how much did you pay.

I always decline to answer as it is between me and no one else.I know and accept others may have paid a lot less than me, but there are more interesting things to talk about.

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And I agree totally with the english lady.

 

Selbourne, you are quite correct. It is a rule of these forums that we cannot name or refer to TAs or websites even with 'laughable cryptic codes', so this is not the place to come for an answer to that kind of question. All kinds of other cruise info yes, but not as to precisely where you will get your best deal.

 

Best to search all the sites to see what is around - or visit one of the compare websites to see what they say.

Edited by Scriv
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I think leaving it to a couple of days before departure is too late. I think 4-6 weeks is when the bargains come out. You have to keep watching the prices on a day to day basis. It is not possible to say what discount you get as no one knows what the 100% price is. It's better to look at the price per night when comparing. The best deal I have had recently was a 20 night cruise on Arcadia, in a balcony for £999 or £49.95 per night. This was 18 months ago and was booked about 5 weeks before departure. After I booked, the price went up.

The price was the same on the P&O website and with the cruise travel agent I booked with.

Brian

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There used to be the golden rule of how much of a good deal you're getting by sailing for less than £100 per person for night!

I also got a good deal for my cruise last year as I booked under the cruise company's promotion and I've not seen prices like that again from them!

Price is all relative as there are so many different aspects to consider for a cruise!

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Someone posted a website once that compared cruise prices for every cruise. Unfortunately I clicked out of it on the I pad and now can't find it again. I've tried googling it and others have come up but none of them as good as this one.

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English Lady is correct in that recommendations and links etc to travel agencies are banned by Cruise Critic Guidelines which you all accepted by signing up to Cruise Critic. If you omitted to read them I have posted them below.

 

I don't see that this in any way invalidates the usefulness of the forum for cruise related information of all other kinds.

 

Back to the OP - the only way is to sign up for email notifications from as many agencies etc you can find and hope for some bargains. I have certainly some come through in the last few days - unfortunately I have no leave left from work :(.

 

"Our Cruise Boards are meant to be a cruiser's exchange of advice and tips where cruisers can talk about their travels -- not a marketplace for advertising and selling services. There are thousands of cruise professionals online and if we didn't insist on a non-solicitation policy the cruise boards would be very quickly overrun with nothing but ads.

 

Cruise Critic defines advertising as an individual or company's attempt to generate business or other commercial enterprise, either directly or indirectly, by using our Cruise Board. Solicitation includes, but is not limited to, requests to be E-mailed, the posting of phone numbers for your business, constantly mentioning that you are in the travel business, and the referring to or posting of one's own Web site address.

 

"There shall be no third-party recommendation (whether positive or negative in tone) of travel agencies on any forums within Cruise Critic. General discussions regarding the TYPE of AGENCY to be used to purchase a cruise will be allowed, as long as no recommendations for any source of purchase are posted.

 

Touting of your personal cruise agent or cruise line "personal cruise consultant" (or any other venue by which you purchase a cruise) is not allowed on our message boards. Postings that contain "tell them John sent you" will be removed without notice.

 

This means you should not ask about someone's travel agent, nor should you respond in kind. Offering to email someone your travel agent's name or info is also not allowed, nor is asking members to email you for the information.

 

It also means you cannot post links to travel agencies, no matter what the specific reason.

 

Cruise Critic will remove violations of the "third-party recommendation" guideline without warning. Additional posts will result in permanent suspension of your posting privileges."

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Hi again.

Sorry if I caused any problems with posting the question but I was just throwing a thought into the ring. With about a month to go I just wanted to know if I missed the boat (as it were) and wished to find out what was the last possible times cruises were offered, then I would stop looking after that time. I just wanted to benefit from your greater experiences.

:)

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"Our Cruise Boards are meant to be a cruiser's exchange of advice and tips where cruisers can talk about their travels -- not a marketplace for advertising and selling services. There are thousands of cruise professionals online and if we didn't insist on a non-solicitation policy the cruise boards would be very quickly overrun with nothing but ads.

 

Cruise Critic defines advertising as an individual or company's attempt to generate business or other commercial enterprise, either directly or indirectly, by using our Cruise Board. Solicitation includes, but is not limited to, requests to be E-mailed, the posting of phone numbers for your business, constantly mentioning that you are in the travel business, and the referring to or posting of one's own Web site address.

 

"There shall be no third-party recommendation (whether positive or negative in tone) of travel agencies on any forums within Cruise Critic. General discussions regarding the TYPE of AGENCY to be used to purchase a cruise will be allowed, as long as no recommendations for any source of purchase are posted.

 

Touting of your personal cruise agent or cruise line "personal cruise consultant" (or any other venue by which you purchase a cruise) is not allowed on our message boards. Postings that contain "tell them John sent you" will be removed without notice.

 

This means you should not ask about someone's travel agent, nor should you respond in kind. Offering to email someone your travel agent's name or info is also not allowed, nor is asking members to email you for the information.

 

It also means you cannot post links to travel agencies, no matter what the specific reason.

 

Cruise Critic will remove violations of the "third-party recommendation" guideline without warning. Additional posts will result in permanent suspension of your posting privileges.

 

 

That told us :D:D

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Hello

 

Just wondering....has anyone managed to get a very late last minute deal and was it for silly money?

 

DH and I are still working and have the main holiday/cruise booked for late September, but we have a week off at the end of June. Before I start to get excited ( and maybe disappointed if it doesn't come off ) is it possible to pick up a deal for a bargain price with just a couple of days before sailing? Have any of you wonderful people managed to do this? If so, please tell me wonderful stories :)

 

 

Assuming you want to go with P&O and you only have a week then your choice is limited. On Sun. 21st you can go on Arcadia, 7 nights or Sat. 27th there is Britannia. If you hols are fixed that gives you one of those. Oceana may be difficult as she sails Wed. To Wed. With that information contact a couple of Internet TA's. The deals are generally available to all TA's. To get the best deal you have to be a bit proactive and do some of the work yourself so you need to know the ordinary price so you can compare.

 

Personally I book up to 20 month ahead for cruises as I am lucky enough to be able to do so.

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Hi jasperado

 

I would definitely keep a look out for the next couple of weeks at least :) Hope you get somewhere. :)

 

Thanks Scriv

and thankyou to everyone for the suggestions of getting on email lists. Ive registered with as many as I can think of. Fingers crossed now :)

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I get a daily email from my TA - which of course I am not allowed to mention, but they have amazing singles deals as well as for couples. I'm sure if you type into google. "last minute cruise deals", you would loads coming up.

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I keep a close eye on the prices of a number of sailings whilst I'm waiting for the Saver fare to come down to what I'm prepared to pay. Unfortunately I've noticed that the Saver fares on the ones I'm watching have actually been going up particularly in the last couple of weeks since the budget.

 

In fact one of the July Adonia cruises I've been watching currently has a much higher Saver fare than the Early Saver fare was in March!

 

I think last minute bargains are going to be few and far between this year.

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there are bargains to be had on later cruises. We booked Select fare on Oriana in September and it's now a lot less both as a Select fare and a Saver fare. It's the first time I have seen this happen. I thought the Select fare would always go up and the saver fares would be cheaper. So an inside cabin for instance for 21 days is either £1599 for Select or £1199 for a Saver. That's a very good deal.

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I keep a close eye on the prices of a number of sailings whilst I'm waiting for the Saver fare to come down to what I'm prepared to pay. Unfortunately I've noticed that the Saver fares on the ones I'm watching have actually been going up particularly in the last couple of weeks since the budget.

 

In fact one of the July Adonia cruises I've been watching currently has a much higher Saver fare than the Early Saver fare was in March!

 

I think last minute bargains are going to be few and far between this year.

 

 

I think you're right. It makes sense to maintain higher prices and even sail with empty staterooms to keep the price higher. Once this becomes the norm, people will not wait until the very last minute to book and may even book earlier than normal to get the stateroom and dining times that they want.

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We have lots of emails from different TAs, and yes, we booked Aurora 3 weeks before, and Ventura 8 days before, in the last few months. About prices....let's say we thought they were very good indeed, and much less per day than the £100 we think of as a reasonable price.

We usually book one desired cruise a year, well in advance, and then hunt for bargains as the time allows.

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