Have you ever seen the price of Early Saver Rate increase ? Booking 1.5yrs in advance

Have you ever seen the price of Early Saver Rate increase ? Booking 1.5 yrs in advance.

I did a search and could not find this question has been asked. Not the typical Early Saver question !! Or maybe I wasn't using the right search terms to find an answer. It doesn't help that there are sooooo many Early Saver question threads ! And the titles of the threads are not detailed enough. Why is every thread titled 'Early Saver Question' ?!?! LOL

We are considering a 3 week (B2B) cruise for Jan 2016 on Carnival Pride - 11 days from Baltimore to San Juan and then 10 days back from San Juan to Baltimore. We are not sure that hubby will be able to get 3 weeks off, this far in advance.

Early Saver is currently 3500 and Past Guest is currently $280 more than current Early Saver rate.

What we would like to do is book as Past Guest now. Just in case we need to cancel. The reason to go ahead and book now is so we can get the cabin that we want. Then, we will change to Early Saver when it gets a bit closer to cruise time, around May or June of 2015, in order to take advantage of the immediate lower fare as well as any price drops that may come up to 2 days before the cruise. I do understand the restrictions of Early Saver.

My questions are ... have you ever seen the Early Saver price go higher from the initial cruise price ? What are the chances the price for Early Saver will be higher than the current Early Saver rate, or even worse, higher than the current Past Guest rate when we are ready to switch to Early Saver. Or is it more likely to still be 3500 for Early Saver in 9 months ? We currently have a cruise booked for early 2015 and the Early Saver price has stayed exactly the same in the 4 months since we booked. So I am wondering if this is typical ? How much does time of year, ship, and itinerary come into play for this pricing ?

When you reply, if you have experienced this (increase or decrease), please also include how far in advance you booked and what time of year was your cruise. (please also reply if you have general knowledge, even if you haven't experienced it personally : )

We booked our Breeze cruise while she was being built, 602 days in advance :eek:. We booked early saver and never got any drops and watched the price go way up over the next year and a half. It was an 8 night southern so a very popular itinerary. I didn't feel bad about no price drops and instead was very glad that I booked when I did or it would have cost us much more than we paid.

Yes,

ES rates can go up. On our upcoming cruise the ES rate went nothing but higher until it "aged" out.

Current promotions are also higher than initial booking under ES.

It just depends on the demand of the cruise.

Booked the Pride reposition cruise 14 months in advance with ES. Within 6 weeks of booking this, the price went up almost 75% from what we paid. Since then, it has come down slightly but still significantly more than our initial price. Not expecting to see any price OBC on this cruise. Glad we got the price we did. :)

for our cruise next Aug 2015 on the Magic. I've been watching prices and the price for an ocean view actually has gone UP for that sailing date. inside cat that we booked is still the same and I don't remember if the balcony has changed much. we are still hoping that they'll go down before we pay off the cruise next may and we can upgrade to something different, however i'm not holding my breath either! glad we were able to get what we got!

Based totally on supply/demand for that ship, that date, that cabin category.

I have received OBC for price drops after booking and I have seen price go up after booking. In both instances I have been very happy that I booked Early Saver.

There are restrictions on this rate. That's where only you can decide if it's a good gamble for your situation.

Have you ever seen the price of Early Saver Rate increase ? Booking 1.5 yrs in advance.

 

I did a search and could not find this question has been asked. Not the typical Early Saver question !! Or maybe I wasn't using the right search terms to find an answer. It doesn't help that there are sooooo many Early Saver question threads ! And the titles of the threads are not detailed enough. Why is every thread titled 'Early Saver Question' ?!?! LOL

 

We are considering a 3 week (B2B) cruise for Jan 2016 on Carnival Pride - 11 days from Baltimore to San Juan and then 10 days back from San Juan to Baltimore. We are not sure that hubby will be able to get 3 weeks off, this far in advance.

 

Early Saver is currently 3500 and Past Guest is currently $280 more than current Early Saver rate.

 

What we would like to do is book as Past Guest now. Just in case we need to cancel. The reason to go ahead and book now is so we can get the cabin that we want. Then, we will change to Early Saver when it gets a bit closer to cruise time, around May or June of 2015, in order to take advantage of the immediate lower fare as well as any price drops that may come up to 2 days before the cruise. I do understand the restrictions of Early Saver.

 

My questions are ... have you ever seen the Early Saver price go higher from the initial cruise price ? What are the chances the price for Early Saver will be higher than the current Early Saver rate, or even worse, higher than the current Past Guest rate when we are ready to switch to Early Saver. Or is it more likely to still be 3500 for Early Saver in 9 months ? We currently have a cruise booked for early 2015 and the Early Saver price has stayed exactly the same in the 4 months since we booked. So I am wondering if this is typical ? How much does time of year, ship, and itinerary come into play for this pricing ?

 

When you reply, if you have experienced this (increase or decrease), please also include how far in advance you booked and what time of year was your cruise. (please also reply if you have general knowledge, even if you haven't experienced it personally : )

Yes they go up. My current cruise I booked at 832pp. Shortly after it went to 1200 pp.

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For our current cruise we booked another promotion well in advance because of a reduced deposit.

We then changed later to ES, although had to pony up for the whole deposit then. Since that time, we have had several price drops we were able to take advantage of, both before and after final payment. Love ES!:D

Since you are so far out, book your PG rate, see how the fares go, and then you can switch later as long as you do it in time, before ES goes away.

I booked a cruise about 10 months in advance. Because we did not yet have a commitment that the vacation time would be available at work, we booked a sale rate of some kind (which also included a reduced deposit) rather than our preferred ES rate. When the vacation time was firmed up at work, I kept an eye on fares and when I saw a senior rate that was lower than our previous rate and lower than ES was running at the time, I called in and changed to ES. This pretty much confused the rep I was talking to, but I talked her through it and I paid the remainder of a regular deposit. Then I immediately went online and put in for the senior rate which I got within hours.

So, yes, ES rates can fluctuate, but if you keep an eye on things, you can do okay. I know it can be frustrating to wait for vacation approvals at work! Hang in there.

I read about this cruise today and am seriously considering doing the b2b also. I haven't sailed Carnival since 2004 so am unaware of the early saver etc. I hate to have things non refundable however we would purchase travel insurance and would need to do that shortly after booking in order to get pre-existing conditions covered and that price would be non refundable. :( This particular cruise is a one time only cruise so I would imagine the fares would go up because a lot of people might book this.

Anyone know how long this cruise has been available to book?

Our expierence with early saver. The cost does go up and it does go down. I have seen it change twice in one day. I have seen it stay the same for a month or more. I have seen prices go up and down betweenn its highest and lowest prices posted. Only Carnival knows what the price will be each day. We book our cruises at least a year out. Sailed in the winter, summer, spring, and summer.

We booked ES in late July for next March spring break. It has gone up $330 for our balcony room with 3 people and $360 for balcony with 2 in it. We usually see price drops but have not seen the price go up this much in 6 cruises.

Yes we have. We booked a Valor leaving December 28th and the price has continued to go up over the last 10 months. I am not expecting any type of reduction in the price but I still check every day.

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Booked ES rate back in May for our upcoming April cruise on the Dream out of NO, and I just discovered this past week that our cove balcony rate has gone up $30/pp.:mad: We booked ES last year, about the same time for our April cruise on the Magic out of Galveston, and ended up with a couple hundred in OBC from price drops. I'm not counting on price drops this time.

I read about this cruise today and am seriously considering doing the b2b also. I haven't sailed Carnival since 2004 so am unaware of the early saver etc. I hate to have things non refundable however we would purchase travel insurance and would need to do that shortly after booking in order to get pre-existing conditions covered and that price would be non refundable. :( This particular cruise is a one time only cruise so I would imagine the fares would go up because a lot of people might book this.

 

Anyone know how long this cruise has been available to book?

I believe these cruises for Pride were announced on August 19. Or sometime very close to that date, possibly only one or two days before that.

Read about the Early Saver restrictions ... Basically, if you book ES, you pay the normal deposit (which is 400 per person, per cruise for these 2 cruises because they are 10+ days - so 1600 deposit). No name changes are allowed with ES. You may not cancel or change to another cruise without paying a 50 pp per cruise 'change fee' / penalty (so 200 total if you booked these B2B). The remainder of the deposit is not refunded to you - it is held up to 2 years and can be applied to a new cruise. If you cancel after final payment date, the normal penalties apply, which are based on how many days before the cruise as to how much the penalty is (deposit, 50%, 75%, or 100% of cruise fare penalty).

The advantages of Early Saver - Guests choose their cabin type (inside, OV, balcony, etc) category (8A, 8B, 8C, etc) and specific stateroom, save some money, and get price protection. If the fare on the same cabin category drops up until two business days prior to sailing, Carnival honors the rate reduction or offers an upgrade. Although, they will not price match to a "guarantee" rate because there is no category to match to. i.e. If you purchase an ocean view guarantee, you know you will get at least a 6A, but you could possibly get anything from a 6A to a 9C or maybe even a suite (very rare!), so there is not a specific cabin category to 'match' to. These Early Saver fares are only available by booking early - three to five months before sailing, depending on cruise length. But they are also capacity controlled. Sometimes (not often) Early Saver will not be available when it's still further out than 5 months because so many ES fares have been sold.

Most of the other advance fares that Carnival offers allow fully refundable deposits up until final payment date, and price drops or upgrades only up until final payment date.

Note: do not confuse Early Saver with Easy Saver, a different fare type that Carnival offers

Angela12345- Thank you very much for explaining this all to me. We used to sail Carnival before we took a break from cruising. There was no early saver then. Lots of things have changed! Hopefully we both will be on this cruise.

Booked our Liberty for 9/13 over a year ago. The price is still $144 higher then we paid at booking. We have a 4J and they just keep going higher and higher.

We just booked a January 2016 cruise under early saver. Our carnival pvp expected that our rate would go up and then go down unless the cruise wildly sells and then that's when you generally don't see it start to go back down. Or according to her at least. She said she's been doing this for a long time and has been watching prices for a long time so she's very well aware of how they work. She said when the cruise is first released into booking it's an introductory price and that's the best time to book if you are able because typically that's the best price you will get especially if it's a popular cruise.

Given ours is in January I really hope our's goes down close to the cruise. I would love to have some OBC!!!

We booked our January 2012 cruise on the Liberty 14 months out. Early Saver just kept going up and up. A couple weeks before the cruise it did come down some, but still well above what we booked at.

We booked the Pride Repo cruise next March right after they opened it. Within just six weeks Early Saver disappeared for regular balconies for 2 people (and the 2 berth regular balcony rooms sold out very quickly). However, this weekend, Carnival opened the Early Saver back up for 2 people because they added all 3 to 4 berth staterooms available for 2 to book. The current ES rate is $920 more per person than what we paid.:eek:

IMO if you feel you might cancel, book past guest rate and keep fingers crossed that you can switch to ES later. But my guess, those cruises you want will do nothing but rise and rise because they are unique itineraries.

We booked on the Sunshine this past January for next February and the price has only gone up. Up to the tune of almost $200 per person for an interior.