Price Drops

We're on Britannia in October to the Canary Islands and the price has dropped by over £2000!!! Arrgghh. I just wanted a moan, I know I shouldn't have looked.

Had a look at the pricing for that cruise. The prices seem to be about the same as when the cruise started booking, I take it you booked in autumn last year when the prices were at there highest.

This confirms what I said earlier book at the beginning not in the middle of the process. You could wait and sometimes you will get a good deal but it will only be around the starting price.

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Had a look at the pricing for that cruise. The prices seem to be about the same as when the cruise started booking, I take it you booked in autumn last year when the prices were at there highest.

 

This confirms what I said earlier book at the beginning not in the middle of the process. You could wait and sometimes you will get a good deal but it will only be around the starting price.

 

 

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I booked late May. I appreciate the prices go up and down depending on demand. Who knows, it could go up again tomorrow. I'm going to stop looking! :D

I booked late May. I appreciate the prices go up and down depending on demand. Who knows, it could go up again tomorrow. I'm going to stop looking! :D

Yes that’s the best advice.

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I booked late May. I appreciate the prices go up and down depending on demand. Who knows, it could go up again tomorrow. I'm going to stop looking! :D

If I was you I would consider cancelling it and losing your deposit and then rebook at the lower price you might be better off.

If I was you I would consider cancelling it and losing your deposit and then rebook at the lower price you might be better off.

I'm thinking about it, I paid 15% deposit so around £980.00, I wouldn't save £2000 but I'd save just over £1000 which could get us a lot of wine on the cruise!

Obviously I'm bloody rubbish at booking cruises. :o:o

This price fluctuation (or dynamic pricing as they prefer to call it) is one of the most infuriating things about Carnival/P&O. Great for them, but getting advice that you should never check prices after you’ve purchased says it all!

The only time worth booking seems to be either at release or at the last minute, and if customers latched on to the likelihood that booking at any time in between is likely to be a big mistake that wouldn’t help their sales at all and we’d be back to the days of heavy discounting at the end.

Saga have a much fairer approach. Any price drops mean reimbursements for customers who paid a higher price.

Booked a wake balcony in October to the Canaries for just under £1000 - now on sale at nearly £1500 so happy. Of course there may be a price drop after final payment is due in the summer.

I thought PO had stopped late deals but no! We booked 2 years ago but our cruise to the Baltic has reduced considerably. Inside cabins being offered at £750 and De lux balconies at 1600. We booked early as we thought it would be the best price and at one point cabins were being sold for around £800 pp more than we paid but PO have gone back to their old ways and slashed prices with a couple of months to go. Won't be booking in advance again and will wait for the bargain basement price.

I thought PO had stopped late deals but no! We booked 2 years ago but our cruise to the Baltic has reduced considerably. Inside cabins being offered at £750 and De lux balconies at 1600. We booked early as we thought it would be the best price and at one point cabins were being sold for around £800 pp more than we paid but PO have gone back to their old ways and slashed prices with a couple of months to go. Won't be booking in advance again and will wait for the bargain basement price.

They havent gone back to there "old ways" but if a cruise isnt selling well or they perhaps have had a lot of cancellations due to current worry about Russia what are they supposed to do sail with a half empty ships or reduce price to try and fill the ship. They and all cruise comapnies and land based options use the option to reduce prices if a particular holiday isnt selling well.

They havent gone back to there "old ways" but if a cruise isnt selling well or they perhaps have had a lot of cancellations due to current worry about Russia what are they supposed to do sail with a half empty ships or reduce price to try and fill the ship. They and all cruise comapnies and land based options use the option to reduce prices if a particular holiday isnt selling well.

What?! I’m supposed to be worried about Russia too? :eek:

I took your advice, cancelled and rebooked saving about £1080. :)

They havent gone back to there "old ways" but if a cruise isnt selling well or they perhaps have had a lot of cancellations due to current worry about Russia what are they supposed to do sail with a half empty ships or reduce price to try and fill the ship. They and all cruise comapnies and land based options use the option to reduce prices if a particular holiday isnt selling well.

I appreciate quite a few must have cancelled due to worries about Russia and I presume lost all their money as its too near departure date but they have reduced Oriana too and thats going to Iceland! Sorry PO are going back to their old ways due IMO to the competition they now have sailing out of Southampton.

I appreciate quite a few must have cancelled due to worries about Russia and I presume lost all their money as its too near departure date but they have reduced Oriana too and thats going to Iceland! Sorry PO are going back to their old ways due IMO to the competition they now have sailing out of Southampton.

They have to sell cabins and fill the ship wherever the ship sails and whichever ship. What other options do they have if they have availability.

They have to sell cabins and fill the ship wherever the ship sails and whichever ship. What other options do they have if they have availability.

I appreciate they have to fill the ships but it would be far better to keep loyal customers happy by ensuring the best deals are when you book early. Over the past few years they appeared to get it right and I noticed hardly any low prices in the summer June - September. But as more cruise lines sail out of the UK they must be struggling to fill the ships hence why they have reverted to bargain prices again and it won't get any better next year. Therefore no more early bookings for us, we will be the ones waiting for TA emails to drop into our inbox, anything under £400 pw will do nicely in the summer.

I agree it would be better giving the better prices to early bookers which they have seemed to be doing lately but at the end of the day they never know that far in advance what cruises will sell well and those that dont so they will always offer good deals later on. The trouble with leaving it late is its one hell of a gamble that price will come down and then there is the lottery of cabin position which could ruin your whole cruise.

As well as the cabin position, it depends whether you would mind getting second sitting dining? That tends to be the last to go, so to speak!

I agree it would be better giving the better prices to early bookers which they have seemed to be doing lately but at the end of the day they never know that far in advance what cruises will sell well and those that dont so they will always offer good deals later on. The trouble with leaving it late is its one hell of a gamble that price will come down and then there is the lottery of cabin position which could ruin your whole cruise.

Yes it is all a bit of gamble unless people are in the position that they have to book last minute anyway or just want a random extra break in between pre planned holidays, which we sometimes do.

In that case you can get a really good bargain and avoid the cabin lottery by selecting a grade where there are not really any bad options so that it is less of a lottery. I would avoid a guarantee cabin on Britannia for example because you can just bet that you will get one of the sooty aft balconys.

I can think of few cabins that would “ruin” my whole cruise. In terms of noise there are regulations with regard to what is an acceptable level so while being on an A deck below the buffet or pool will generate early morning noise if you are an early riser anyway then it’s not an issue. They can’t have excessive noise in any cabin as part of the ship (noisy neighbours are another issue entirely)

It is all relative to your own personal requirements and what would cause you grief I suppose.

If you look at one of the tracker sites then it becomes clear that P&O muck about with pricing more than most and have greater highs and lows between the best and worst deals so you can see why people who get caught out, particularly those who booked early, get very annoyed by it.

I would avoid a guarantee cabin on Britannia for example because you can just bet that you will get one of the sooty aft balconies.

 

If you look at one of the tracker sites then it becomes clear that P&O muck about with pricing more than most and have greater highs and lows between the best and worst deals so you can see why people who get caught out, particularly those who booked early, get very annoyed by it.

It is nearly two years since we booked and in that time the price we paid went up and down in equal measure so much so that we could have booked another cruise with the price difference and had money left over for spends.

Ironically the only bad cabins we've had in the past we chose ourselves! A very sooty aft cabin on Brittania, two very noisey cabins on Oriana caused by industrial units shown as white space, a cabin again with white space opposite on Oceana which turned out to be two doors which were used all night to deliver room service, and a cabin near the lifts on Arcadia where people chatted until the early hours.

We will take a chance in future and even if we end up with late dining with the money saved we will dine select.

I tracked inside cabin price for 35 day Caribbean January cruise for each of the 2 years before I retired and during the year I retired to get a good feel for how prices fluctuated. During September of each year and November, granted for a week or 2 only; price came down to £1999 each which is very good. Also. same happened in late Dec for the 20217 cruise. Temporary health issues stopped me otherwise I would have booked for Jan this year. Started tracking for next year but have ended up booking a Fly cruise with Marella Explorer. Still fancy 35 days, Might try for 2020.

It's swings and roundabouts. we got an Azura Transatlantic very last minute deal a couple of years back 14 nights £895 in a Super deluxe balcony. others on our table paid £100 more for an inside but we didn't tell anyone what we paid as I didn't want to get thrown overboard.

Conversely I've paid a high price then watched the price drop over the next few months.

Generally they're cheaper when they first go on sale but occasionally if you can go tomorrow you can bag a real bargain.

That’s an interesting website - thanks for posting the link.

 

It’s a shame that it only gives part of the story though.

 

P&O play off increased prices with extra on board credit and lower prices with lower on board credit. We always work out the ‘net’ price I.e. cruise price less OBC. If the website factored that in to their pricing histories then the figures would be far more relevant, and less marked.

 

As several of us who have to book Cruises when they are first released in order to secure specific cabins have regularly testified, the launch prices, with double on board credit, past customer discounts, Captains Choice discounts etc are rarely, if ever, bettered. I have closely followed the pricing / OBC movements on 6 of our cruises and we would have never got a better deal than when we booked.

By and large I'd agree with you, though the OBC on these deals is still pretty good for 7 day cruises (£160pp on suites) and the reductions on the release price quite substantial - with a lot of choice, suites included, too.

These are probably something of an exception to the general rule, and I think the timing is causing sales to be slow.

By and large I'd agree with you, though the OBC on these deals is still pretty good for 7 day cruises (£160pp on suites) and the reductions on the release price quite substantial - with a lot of choice, suites included, too.

 

These are probably something of an exception to the general rule, and I think the timing is causing sales to be slow.

The last few suites we have booked (at launch) have given us £225 per person per week OBC, so £450 for a 7 night cruise and £900 for a 14 night. That’s on top of other launch discounts and low launch prices.

We are fortunate that although we are both still working we can take holidays when we like, so booking 2 years out, whilst not ideal, is possible for us. We are also very particular about which cabins we want so have to book early to snap them up.

 

......When you take all of these factors (and there are many others) into consideration, it’s surprising how few cabins or suites tick every single box. However, they do exist and by booking at launch, we snap them up - as do many seasoned cruisers who, like us, have learned the hard way! Sometimes we have tried to book just a week or so after launch and the very best ones have already gone!

 

So, if price is your sole driver, I don’t doubt that there are bargains to be had, not least with Saver fares. But, for us, price is just one consideration. We wouldn’t consider a saving on the headline price to be of value to us if we couldn’t get a cabin or suite that ticked all the boxes for us.

Absolutely. And for me price isn't the sole driver. There are in fact just four suites on just two P&O ships that tick all the boxes for us (that's about as specific as you can get) and they were all available on these two cruises at much lower prices than at launch, taking every single factor into account. It doesn't happen on every cruise, far from it, but it has on these, and I'm delighted with the outcome. The price could still fall further of course.........:)

Absolutely. And for me price isn't the sole driver. There are in fact just four suites on just two P&O ships that tick all the boxes for us (that's about as specific as you can get) and they were all available on these two cruises at much lower prices than at launch, taking every single factor into account. It doesn't happen on every cruise, far from it, but it has on these, and I'm delighted with the outcome. The price could still fall further of course.........:)

I’m delighted to find someone even fussier than me about choice of cabin ;) The only time a late booking worked for us was when we joined some friends on a 4 day cruise on Ventura to Amsterdam and Bruges. We decided to book a Penthouse Suite and there was a Saver price available. There are only two on the ship and the other was booked, so we knew exactly which one we were getting. We didn’t need shuttles and weren’t bothered about dining allocation (although we did get our first choice of Freedom Dining). We saved £400 against the Select fare, although it may well have been a lot less at launch - we will never know.

I’m grateful to you for posting the link to the price match site. I managed to capture it before the Mods deleted it! When we retire in a couple of years we may well be tempted to book some ‘filler’ cruises at short notice and it will be interesting to see whether we are booking at a good time or a bad time. I will just factor in the extra 5% discount and double OBC at launch that the site omits, which will be fairly easy to do.

I’m grateful to you for posting the link to the price match site. I managed to capture it before the Mods deleted it! When we retire in a couple of years we may well be tempted to book some ‘filler’ cruises at short notice and it will be interesting to see whether we are booking at a good time or a bad time. I will just factor in the extra 5% discount and double OBC at launch that the site omits, which will be fairly easy to do.

Now that's something I do not believe we have ever received, the normal launch OBC for 14 days in a balcony is £70pp, maybe it's suite bookings that receive more. What I have experienced is that after the launch period, prices increase but so does OBC, mostly the nett price is the same, unless demand is high and fluid pricing has already pushed the price higher during the launch period.

Now that's something I do not believe we have ever received, the normal launch OBC for 14 days in a balcony is £70pp, maybe it's suite bookings that receive more. What I have experienced is that after the launch period, prices increase but so does OBC, mostly the nett price is the same, unless demand is high and fluid pricing has already pushed the price higher during the launch period.

Whilst the examples I gave were indeed suites, on the occasions that we have booked a suite we have also booked an adjacent balcony cabin for our daughters at the same time and had the same offer (albeit lower value OBC, of course). That said, whilst we always book early, I can’t say that they were all within the first 14 days, so the offer may have ‘evolved’.

My observations of pricing versus OBC are identical to yours John. Price up, OBC up. Price drops, OBC drops. Net effect - bugger all. ;)