Price jump for 27 Dec Voyager of the Seas

[beesquared]

Hi All

We have been looking at the VOS new year’s eve cruise to New Zealand on 27th Dec. We got a price a week ago for about $8250 interior, for the four of us including all taxes and gratuities (Best Cruises, RCI was $8450). Today I have gone online again and found the price is now up at $10,200 for RCI plus a few other sites.

Is this a normal fluctuation and there is potential for the price to come down again. I did not expect the prices to get heavily discounted but I did not expect them to jump by $2000.

[cassamanda]

Question of supply and demand. There is a huge demand for NYE cruises on all ships. Tried to book Radiance of the Seas for NYE cruise of NZ and prices doubled over the space of one weekend putting it out of our reach. But all cabins sold out like they were lined with gold - go figure. I had expected a 10-20% increase but not 100% so we have stayed with the same itinerary for a later cruise. BTW we can cruise to Hawaii for less than the NYE cruise.

[bazzaw]

AS we get older and our family circumstances change, last year I started to think about the possibility of doing a Xmas/New Year cruise -- just the two of us :D. We didn't for various reasons - but I also came to realise that the cost of these cruises was way over what we had been paying for cruises at other times of the year.

 

I am now happy that we did not do one, after hearing about the situation re LOTS of kiddies on Spirit and VOS this past Xmas. I have now totally dismissed the thought for the future.

 

Barry

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Prices do fluctuate, and its not till you start following them that you realise by just how much.:eek:

 

When we first looked at the Round Australia fare with Princess , the balcony price was around 7,000 each. We watched it jump up to 10,000 and thought long and hard , wanted to do the cruise so rang up to book , but the price had jumped to 12,000.each .

We declined.

By sailing time they were quoting 14,000.each

 

We waited a season or two and ended up booking the self same cruise , same balcony grade , for 4,750 each.

 

Work that one out.

 

Supply and demand:confused:

The prices we followed , were available to everyone on the Princess web site.

 

 

 

[barnsey1802]

I booked this cruise on the 5th Feb. Ii have noticed that some of the categorys have gone up. When I rang RCL to get their price, I was told that the prices may rise at the end of Feb. the current prices are "early bird" prices.

 

Deidre.

[Hot Chilli]

I booked VOS for next year about a month ago.

 

Looking at the prices now, they have jumped up $1,000 for the same cabin.

 

Very happy I booked when I did. But it's always a risk with cruising. Prices fluctuate all the time. You just have to be happy with the price you pay at the time of booking & not keep worrying about.

 

On a side note, due to the heavily inflated prices for an Xmas or NYE cruise, we will never take one. As previous poster said, could do Sydney to Hawaii for less than a 10 day NYE cruise. I know which one I prefer!!!!

[tillydog]

I'm glad we booked this cruise when we did!! (We booked it when we were still on our last cruise) - PR cabin for $5000 (so $2500 each inc gratuities)

 

Will have a sticky-beak at the RCI site and see what the prices are now for a PR cabin, got my curiousity!

 

Now up to $4710.78 each

[rugbypopsie]

It's the same as buying anything...do your research...you have to know what a cruise is worth to know if its a good deal or not....if you see a good deal..jump!

 

Sue

 

[The_Big_M]

I think I see the issue. It doesn't seem like there's been much change with the base pricing, and cabin availability is still good.

 

However, there's quite limited availability on the 3/4 cabins, and it seems they've removed much of the discount for those.

 

Given it's a holiday season and from prior experience 3/4s will go sooner at that time, I don't believe prices for 3/4s are likely to come back down. I'd suggest if you really want this cruise, you may want to 'splurge' and get two cabins for not much difference in price. The base price itself may come down so if you prefer that approach you could risk waiting for them, but NY cruises are popular so it's unlikely to come down much.

 

Otherwise the following year's bookings will be available in a couple of months so you could wait for them and the price will be a bit lower for the 3/4.

[Cassicruiser]

We just did the NYE cruise on the Radiance (the one that had to anchor in Sydney harbour for 2 days due to a cyclone , and we had prime view for the Sydney Harbour fireworks, which was awesome). We absolutely loved it and had a wonderful time, but saying that we have teenage kids and Dec/Jan is when we take them on a family holiday.

 

If I didn't have the kids, or could easily take time off at another time of year, I would never do a New Year cruise again for a few reasons:

1. The high price for a holiday cruise

2. The percentage of kids on board, although they were well behaved I wouldn't choose a cruise where there are at least 800 kids if I was cruising child free

3. A large contingent of 18 - 25 year olds that specifically booked the cruise for a New year party and completely hogged the pool deck, (including the choice of music played at the pool deck - think Queen, ACDC, you get the picture.) But maybe that was just bad luck, but we had to avoid the blaring noise at the pool deck most afternoons, and we are not oldies.

4. Dec/Jan is Cyclone season in the South Pacific - which is luck of the draw, but any other time of year is safer. Once we did finally leave Sydney 2 days late, we had spectacular weather though.

 

But if none of the above reasons worry you, being on a cruise is a really lovely way to spend New Years.

[beesquared]

thanks for the replies.

 

I have checked a few places now and the quad cabin is about $600 pp more than a similar twin. I presume as stated here there is a large demand for the 3/4 cabins, so I doubt prices will come down.

 

At the moment I can get the 2 promenade cabin at about $2400 pp, I have read reviews where people have been rather happy with these, anyone stayed in them on VOS? The budget option is still on for 2 twin rooms for $1800 ish pp. Just tossing up what way to go now.

 

We have 2 teenage kids and our work prefers us to take holidays over the xmas period rather than other times of the year. So often the travel window is rather small.

thanks again

[Aussieflyer]

I site I sometimes look at that plots movements in cabin prices is showing an increase in most of the inside, outside and balcony cabins on this trip. The prices are in $US and when converted to the $AU are the same as the RCCL site is showing.

Interestingly it is not showing movement in the suites as yet.

[foxyboxee]

I booked a JS for this cruise on 31st Jan - paid $3300 each - thankfully we had a future cruise letter so it meant we got some OBC plus only $100 deposit each.

 

I had trouble finding a decent JS, they were mostly sold out glad we didn't leave it any longer.

[tassie cruiser]

I booked a JS for this cruise on 31st Jan - paid $3300 each - thankfully we had a future cruise letter so it meant we got some OBC plus only $100 deposit each.

 

I had trouble finding a decent JS, they were mostly sold out glad we didn't leave it any longer.

 

We, same as you. RCI strict as in not allowing 2 people in a cabin that sleeps 3. We ended up in a JS on the hump. Deck 9. Fiona

[foxyboxee]

We, same as you. RCI strict as in not allowing 2 people in a cabin that sleeps 3. We ended up in a JS on the hump. Deck 9. Fiona

 

Yeah we got Deck 10 - starboard aft, tried for the hump but alas no such luck.

[need_a_holiday]

All Voyager cruises in Australia are priced between $92 to $117 per night except the NYE cruise which is $157 a night. With balcony or Oceanview Voyager NYE is $250 a night compared to $150 on all other cruises. So that looks like the only Voyager cruise with a big price hike.