Last minute discounts still happening

Despite Royals insistence that they are holding firm to the not discounting in the last 40,30,20 or 10 days prior to sailing I just noticed some price drops on the Allure sailing this Sunday. That's 3 days away.

The price of an XN balcony guarantee dropped almost 20% and an Oceanview guarantee cat Y dropped almost 10%.

I guess filling the ships (at least to a certain capacity) does take priority over their vow to not do last minute discounting.

I do recognize that for the most part the last minute discounting is not as prevalent as it was but that's easy to do in the busier seasons. It will be interesting to see how the rest of November and early December plays out when they maybe faced with sailings with more than a few empty cabins.

They said they would not discount after those times if they had already discounted, so if they have not its open to be discounted. In other words any cat that has not been discounted by 10 days is still subject to be discounted

Despite Royals insistence that they are holding firm to the not discounting in the last 40,30,20 or 10 days prior to sailing I just noticed some price drops on the Allure sailing this Sunday. That's 3 days away.

 

The price of an XN balcony guarantee dropped almost 20% and an Oceanview guarantee cat Y dropped almost 10%.

 

I guess filling the ships (at least to a certain capacity) does take priority over their vow to not do last minute discounting.

 

I do recognize that for the most part the last minute discounting is not as prevalent as it was but that's easy to do in the busier seasons. It will be interesting to see how the rest of November and early December plays out when they maybe faced with sailings with more than a few empty cabins.

I looked up price history for this cruise. Both categories were the same price on Oct 1st.

Doesn't look like a discount to me

They said they would not discount after those times if they had already discounted, so if they have not its open to be discounted. In other words any cat that has not been discounted by 10 days is still subject to be discounted

So you're saying that they can basically get around their statement by not discounting one category, realize that they have a lot of empty rooms, upgrade everyone out of that category they did not discount and then offer those rooms at a discounted rate last minute and they would be staying true to their word?

Sounds like they should be politicians.:D

I guess they will say whatever it takes to make a good impression for the boys on Wall Street.

So you're saying that they can basically get around their statement by not discounting one category, realize that they have a lot of empty rooms, upgrade everyone out of that category they did not discount and then offer those rooms at a discounted rate last minute and they would be staying true to their word?

 

Sounds like they should be politicians.:D

 

I guess they will say whatever it takes to make a good impression for the boys on Wall Street.

Yes, I would agree with that, even though that's an extreme example. But, the program is designed to protect last minute booking. If a cat price drops at 30 days out and you book, you can be assured the price will not drop anymore, which in the past it has.

Just like airlines, cruise prices rise and fall all the time.

I looked up price history for this cruise. Both categories were the same price on Oct 1st.

Doesn't look like a discount to me

How do you find the price history for a cruise?

Yes, I would agree with that, even though that's an extreme example. But, the program is designed to protect last minute booking. If a cat price drops at 30 days out and you book, you can be assured the price will not drop anymore, which in the past it has.

So basically the only ones that they are protecting are the ones that booked after final payment. Those that booked before final payment can at best hope to take advantage of an upgrade.

I thought I had read that one of the reasons for this policy was that they were reacting to travel agents concerns that their clients felt like they were overpaying by booking early only to have prices drop after final payment.

How do you find the price history for a cruise?

Not allowed to mention the site on here but google your question.

So basically the only ones that they are protecting are the ones that booked after final payment. Those that booked before final payment can at best hope to take advantage of an upgrade.

 

I thought I had read that one of the reasons for this policy was that they were reacting to travel agents concerns that their clients felt like they were overpaying by booking early only to have prices drop after final payment.

Yes,I would agree. I don't remember about the TA's but I know they said they had gotten a lot of negative feedback from cruisers booking last minute. Its confusing at the least

I can give you an example before this policy started. 3 years ago we had a D1 on an 11day. We always watch for price drops in order to upgrade. Well, inside of FP the price dropped on JS's so we decided to wait 1 week and if the price was still there we would upgrade. Why did we wait, because we knew the price could drop more. The price was still there and we upgraded.Within 8hours they lowered the price again 250pp,we called and whined but I knew it was no use. This is not supposed to happen now with this policy

This thread has been very helpful. Thanks!!

I always book a suite, but wait until after FP to see if we can upgrade to a better suite for a minimal upcharge. This has been very successful for us. We book the lowest level room we would want at a price we feel good about...and if we can upgrade for significantly less than what was being offered at the time we originally booked, awesome!! If not, we are still in a room we wanted at a price we thought was fair.

I was afraid we would no longer see prices drop on open suite categories going forward, but based on what I have read here we may still luck out!!!