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I did an analysis of Royal Caribbean's Cyber Monday sale

CaptainTito

By CaptainTito,
in Royal Caribbean International

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tugboat

tugboat

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Posted
I don't think it has anything to do with pricing. It's not because of pricing but in spite of pricing, the ships sale full. So the sales cc posters whine about all the time have no bearing on the ships sailing full at all. your thoughts on the capacity are spot on.

 

The better pricing that I have found lately is after final payment.😎🌴

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GoGiantsfan11

GoGiantsfan11

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I booked the Freedom leaving out of Barcelona on Black Friday thru a TA instead of Royal the difference in price for the same cabin for two people was $623 dollars. Plus they gave me an additional $125 on board ship credit and dinner for two at their speciality restaurant that Royal was not giving. Other places were so much better then booking directly thru Royal for Black Friday.

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CaptainTito

CaptainTito

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Posted (edited)
The better pricing that I have found lately is after final payment.

 

Yes - I'm interested in this question, too. On average, am I better off booking early and watching for price drops, or booking after final payment?

 

I wonder if this can be broken down too...book a summer Oasis Class cruise early, but Vision Class late.

 

I booked the Freedom leaving out of Barcelona on Black Friday thru a TA instead of Royal the difference in price for the same cabin for two people was $623 dollars. Plus they gave me an additional $125 on board ship credit and dinner for two at their speciality restaurant that Royal was not giving. Other places were so much better then booking directly thru Royal for Black Friday.

 

I'm planning to remain pretty willfully ignorant of TA's for these analyses.

 

There are absolutely benefits to using one, but ultimately you're either booking into a group at a price which was once available to everyone (very hit or miss to find this), or you're getting a rebate which is tied directly to the fare that comes from Royal.

 

Because of this, I think any analysis I do based on Royal's direct pricing will also apply to the pricing from TAs.

Edited by CaptainTito
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Clarea

Clarea

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Yes - I'm interested in this question, too. On average, am I better off booking early and watching for price drops, or booking after final payment?....

Unfortunately, there is no "on average". Pricing is unpredictable.

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stickyshocker

stickyshocker

Posted
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This is awesome! I am hoping you might be able to preview new sales while they are still available based on your gathered data -- As we wind into the WAVE months, I'll be very interested to see what your opinions are...

 

 

Honest question, are wave months really the best time to book? I was thinking if maybe should hold off. Tnx

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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setsail

setsail

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Posted (edited)
The better pricing that I have found lately is after final payment.����

 

I would not dispute that at all, but, you failed to fill in the blanks. You did not define better pricing. With 80,000 cruising every week one could find 80,000 better prices, stretched out from 2 years out till the ship sails. So, what is a better price, it's an individual thing based on individual needs, if your needs fall inside of FP then that's a good price for you

 

So who has a computer program to fit individual needs, post 33

Edited by setsail
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Clarea

Clarea

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Honest question, are wave months really the best time to book? I was thinking if maybe should hold off. Tnx

As long as you can get price drops, why not book now, and watch for price drops. What to you gain by holding off?

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Clarea

Clarea

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There's this sailing in Feb that is probably way past it's final payment date that im interested in. I only have one shot.

Makes sense. If you are committed to going, you could always book the minumum category you could live with, and then move up if the price drops.

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forkcreek

forkcreek

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They are no websites that list ALL available cabins. The best one that I have found and is most often recommended here is Royal's UK site that lists 50 cabins per category. I have found it to show more cabins that the sites with the blinking lights which I have found to show 35 cabins. At the other extreme is Royals US site that only shows 15 per category.

Thanks. I guess the one I use ( CC rules, I cant give ID) is wrong.

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setsail

setsail

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Want to add more confusion, during the cyber Monday sale I was able to book a fare with a group price from a travel agency and saved money over the sale prices and additional obc.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Why is this confusing, it's done all the time?

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grod19

grod19

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The headache with your first analysis is you don't have a baseline data set. If you had the numbers prior to the sale it would have been a much better comparison. The headache is you don't know what Royal decided to do come Monday night when they crunched their data. Maybe they fell short of expected sales so they extended the sale, maybe they saw a very large number of new booking and thus kept the sale going. Without knowing for a fact that Tuesday's prices were expected to roll back to pre Thanksgiving prices it is hard to determine if the sale was beneficial or not.

 

I do like the idea of charting and looking for patterns in the pricing so keep it up.

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CRUISEFAN0001

CRUISEFAN0001

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Why is this confusing, it's done all the time?

Agree.

 

Travel agencies, especially larger ones, have group booking rates. If you happen to want to book on one of those cruises...the prices anytime/anywhere else are usually tough to beat (even with those "super-sales").

 

Our Harmony cruise was booked at a rate that hasn't even come close to being duplicated for any sale since we got it originally.

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