Newbie to Royal Caribbean - help please!

[Essexlass2]

Hi

We have never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before and wonder whether there are any late availability offers nearer to the date of sailing as with other shipping lines. We are looking at a possible Baltic cruise from Harwich UK next year, but the price for a 13 night cruise is presently £2,242 for a balcony cabin on a 13 night cruise, which is way above what we would expect to pay with, say, P&O. Are these prices likely to drop, are there any special offers?

 

Any advice you lovely people can offer us would be much appreciated. :)

[uksimonusa]

Hi

We have never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before and wonder whether there are any late availability offers nearer to the date of sailing as with other shipping lines. We are looking at a possible Baltic cruise from Harwich UK next year, but the price for a 13 night cruise is presently £2,242 for a balcony cabin on a 13 night cruise, which is way above what we would expect to pay with, say, P&O. Are these prices likely to drop, are there any special offers?

 

Any advice you lovely people can offer us would be much appreciated. :)

 

Is that price per person, or total for the cabin?

Edited November 29, 2013 by uksimonusa

[Trekker954]

We did a 12 night Med cruise in October and yes, the prices dropped considerably closer to the sail date. I believe for the most part on longer cruises this is the case. The Baltic cruises however, I believe are in the summer when school is out, so hopefully others will chime in.

 

Overall, if you aren't fussy about your room, or what category, if you wait, you can probably get a decent price in one of the categories.

 

For example I just looked at the Brilliance in July 2013. 13 night Scandinavia sailing. AT some point there was an inside gty for £899 and an OV for £949. I couldn't see what dates, but as of a month before sailing, there was an inside for £1099.

[reedprincess]

Hi

We have never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before and wonder whether there are any late availability offers nearer to the date of sailing as with other shipping lines. We are looking at a possible Baltic cruise from Harwich UK next year, but the price for a 13 night cruise is presently £2,242 for a balcony cabin on a 13 night cruise, which is way above what we would expect to pay with, say, P&O. Are these prices likely to drop, are there any special offers?

 

Any advice you lovely people can offer us would be much appreciated. :)

Yes. Sometimes prices do go down closer to sailing in a effort to fill cabins, however there is no guarantee this will be the case on any particular cruise, and you would have less selection of cabins. If you are willing to roll the dice on a particular sailing and wait it out - it can work out with a great deal, or it can backfire with no discounts , higher prices or no cabins available.

If you find a sailing you want to go on and a cabin that fits your budget, usually best to snag it and make payments along the way. If the price goes down before final payment, the cruise line will lower your fare, or match the difference with on-board credit.

[Essexlass2]

Is that price per person, or total for the cabin?

 

Its per person! :eek:

[Essexlass2]

As long as there's hope that the prices might go down, I think we'll wait it out until a couple of months before the sailaway.

 

Thanks for your comments everyone. :)

[star cruiser 1]

I booked Brilliance last year for August to the Baltics and paid £1,550 per person for a balcony cabin with $600 on board spend and free coach transfer. I booked it just after Christmas with cruise.co.uk. the price you have seen should come down just keep watching. I would register your email address with as many cruise company's as you can so that you get regular updates on any deals that are on. Good luck.

[Cookiecookie]

We don't get the discount/lower prices deals in the uk like you do in the States.:(

[Essexlass2]

I booked Brilliance last year for August to the Baltics and paid £1,550 per person for a balcony cabin with $600 on board spend and free coach transfer. I booked it just after Christmas with cruise.co.uk. the price you have seen should come down just keep watching. I would register your email address with as many cruise company's as you can so that you get regular updates on any deals that are on. Good luck.

 

Thanks for that tip. We'll do that! :)

[Essexlass2]

We don't get the discount/lower prices deals in the uk like you do in the States.:(

 

I think maybe we can if we book through an American TA but its finding one is the problem ............ unless someone on here can suggest some details???

[PORT ROYAL]

Hi

We have never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise before and wonder whether there are any late availability offers nearer to the date of sailing as with other shipping lines. We are looking at a possible Baltic cruise from Harwich UK next year, but the price for a 13 night cruise is presently £2,242 for a balcony cabin on a 13 night cruise, which is way above what we would expect to pay with, say, P&O. Are these prices likely to drop, are there any special offers?

 

Any advice you lovely people can offer us would be much appreciated. :)

 

Others have posted to sign up with T/A's in the UK - I would suggest you include USA T/A's in the sign up [also view now], as the benefits are far superior. You can start with CC's own list of USA T/A's, then "Google"

[champagnebarfly]

We are on the Brilliance Baltic cruise in June next year. We booked in April almost as soon as the fares were produced. There is a promotion on at the moment for on board credit of up to $600 if you book before the 8th December.

The cabin category we chose has sold out, and the price has gone up by £725pp. If we had waited till now to book we would not be going!!

You have to decide what is the price for the cabin you are willing to pay, but it appears to me that unlike cruises that sail from US ports prices from Uk or Europe are likely to rise.

[champagnebarfly]

Just to add to my previous post, of the 4 previous cruises we have done 3 of them increased in price quite considerably after we had booked, but then had some form of incentive for new bookings. The 2nd Brilliance cruise we did actually came down in price by £1000 and fortunately we were able to get the price drop. I think that has now stopped. We had booked with a TA but for our next sailing we are with RC. If you don't have any preferences for cabin location, which we do, waiting to see if some on-line TA's discount the price could work, but then again who know's.