price drop on my booking (uk)

[leono1]

booked my cruise in january through the uk website and paid £592 with a £25 deposit for an interior room.

just seen on the website my cruise is now £516 for an interior room or £580 for a central park window room or £612 for a central park balcony room. these last 2 rooms come with a $50/$100 obc i think??.

 

looking for advice on if someones had this sort of thing before and rang them up and what the outcome was? or is it a wasted call and its just tough luck for booking early?

 

i was thinking maybe i could ask them to upgrade me to the window room for nothing, the balcony and pay the difference or moan about the price decrease on my interior room? maybe cancel my booking, loose my £50 deposit and then book again at £516? saving me and my GF £76 quid each minus my lost deposit, or booking one of the other rooms and not really losing out because of the $50 obc, maybe $100 on the balcony one?)

Edited March 26, 2017 by leono1

[Biker19]

You can upgrade or cancel (losing the deposit, which is lower than usual) and rebook at the lower rate.

[cloud_nine]

Personally, if it's only £20 more, I would upgrade to the CP balcony - any balcony is better than an inside, in my opinion. But that's just me.

[Bucket29]

Just keep in mind that if you originally booked and recieved an onboard credit you may loose the onboard credit when rebooking at the lower rate, make sure you ask if that is your circumstance.

[leono1]

Have give them a ring and see what they say. Thanks

[lydnsyd]

I noticed our cruise had also dropped in price so I thought I would call RCI to see if they could do something..... had no luck! To get the price difference I would have to have cancelled - lose my deposit & other offers so I wouldn't have gained much for all the extra hassle.

[leono1]

Thanks lydnsd.

At the minute though I can get a balcony room for £40 more and OBC of $100 and just losing my £50 deposit if I have to cancel

[sandancer]

Make sure you will only lose £25 each. I thought I read somewhere that if you only pay a promotional discount and then cancel they require the full deposit. Just don't take my word for it though. Check with RCCL UK. We have lost out many times when there has been a price drop and all the folk on our rollcall are giving a heads up to everyone about price drops and we can't get it. Grrrrr.

[leono1]

thanks sandancer.

i read last night that a cancellation over 60 days will only mean a lost deposit, but yeah i did only have to pay £25 each with the january low deposit promotion.

 

i booked quickly in jan because id already seen my price go up £40 each and assumed like most holidays the price would only creep up as the year went on :(

[leono1]

just incase anyones searches the forum for posts like this..

 

rang up and i cant get a discount or an upgrade, this is a new offer and i cant just switch over.

 

i can cancel my booking and then make a totally new booking getting the new prices\offer\OBC but will lose my deposit. i booked when it was only a £25 deposit, so i am in a position to cancel lose my deposit, make a new booking in a boardwalk balcony room and with the obc probably break even.

thanks for the replies.

[colville2002]

just incase anyones searches the forum for posts like this..

 

rang up and i cant get a discount or an upgrade, this is a new offer and i cant just switch over.

 

i can cancel my booking and then make a totally new booking getting the new prices\offer\OBC but will lose my deposit. i booked when it was only a

[Shelley61]

Make sure you will only lose £25 each. I thought I read somewhere that if you only pay a promotional discount and then cancel they require the full deposit. Just don't take my word for it though. Check with RCCL UK. We have lost out many times when there has been a price drop and all the folk on our rollcall are giving a heads up to everyone about price drops and we can't get it. Grrrrr.

 

This is often the case. On our booking we only paid £50 deposit but on the payments part of our cruise planner it says the following. Note the first stage is a significantly higher amount than the deposit we paid.

 

If you cancel your reservation after a specific date, you may be subject to cancellation charges. Please take a moment to read the details of the cancellation schedule.

 

Cancellation and Penalty Timetable

Cancel Before* Penalty per person

16-Sep-2015 to 20-Jul-2017 £150.00 GBP

21-Jul-2017 to 17-Aug-2017 50% of total price (taxes and fees excluded)

18-Aug-2017 to 31-Aug-2017 75% of total price (taxes and fees excluded)

01-Sep-2017 to 09-Sep-2017 90% of total price (taxes and fees excluded)

On or After 10-Sep-2017 No refund except for taxes and fees

 

If you booked through a Travel Agent it could be different though.

[colville2002]

Thanks Shelley, tried to post to say the same thing but it keeps messing up the reply when I hit post

[saw777]

Hi,

 

We had a different outcome on a recent price drop. Whilst on the Anthem last may we booked for the Serenade of the seas for this coming September. The booking was then transferred to our TA like what normally happens.

I noticed at the start of the year that the price of our GS had fallen by £340 so I contacted our TA who then contacted RCCL who then applied the price reduction to the booking, no questions asked, and no need to rebook etc.

 

Steven

[cloud_nine]

If you cancel your reservation after a specific date, you may be subject to cancellation charges.

 

But this just mentions cancelling, if you are just upgrading to another cabin and paying the extra £40 surely, they'd allow that? Even if it means not getting the new promos (the onboard credit). I would call again and speak to someone else. Often I find some of the call center people say one thing and when you speak to someone else they tell you another. Can't hurt to try.

[robbies-tackle]

In January 2013 i booked an ocean view cabin for a med cruise in June 2013. At the beginning of March there was a promotion for balcony guarantees for £20pp more. I phoned my travel agent (RBS Royalties Gold) and I got the cabin moved. I didn't have to cancel and all I paid was the £60. Got a lovely deck 7 D3 balcony.

I knew from the t&c's that I shouldn't be able to upgrade as we're from the UK but I got it. I think it depends who you get on the end of the phone and I hit the jackpot in the first try.

My advice would to keep phoning!

[leono1]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will ring again and see if anything different is said, but the lady this morning did say I've got cancel my original booking (and lose my deposit (£50)) and then do a totally new booking for the balcony cabin which will also get me the $100 obc, and she said she would happily do this for me while I was on the phone. If she'd of said to me keep my original booking but pay the extra to upgrade the room but no obc I'd of done that there and then over the phone as like I've said its works out not much difference to me how it's done I'll just be getting a better room for my money

[kevinyork]

In January 2013 i booked an ocean view cabin for a med cruise in June 2013. At the beginning of March there was a promotion for balcony guarantees for £20pp more. I phoned my travel agent (RBS Royalties Gold) and I got the cabin moved. I didn't have to cancel and all I paid was the £60. Got a lovely deck 7 D3 balcony.

I knew from the t&c's that I shouldn't be able to upgrade as we're from the UK but I got it. I think it depends who you get on the end of the phone and I hit the jackpot in the first try.

My advice would to keep phoning!

 

 

 

I think a few years ago Royal call centres treated all Royal guests as the same so you could switch as you preferred. Things have become tighter since then.

 

 

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[kevinyork]

booked my cruise in january through the uk website and paid £592 with a £25 deposit for an interior room.

just seen on the website my cruise is now £516 for an interior room or £580 for a central park window room or £612 for a central park balcony room. these last 2 rooms come with a $50/$100 obc i think??.

 

looking for advice on if someones had this sort of thing before and rang them up and what the outcome was? or is it a wasted call and its just tough luck for booking early?

 

i was thinking maybe i could ask them to upgrade me to the window room for nothing, the balcony and pay the difference or moan about the price decrease on my interior room? maybe cancel my booking, loose my £50 deposit and then book again at £516? saving me and my GF £76 quid each minus my lost deposit, or booking one of the other rooms and not really losing out because of the $50 obc, maybe $100 on the balcony one?)

 

 

 

Just a heads up for the OP. Last spring we monitored prices for Oasis. At the end of Jan they stopped offering the drinks package to U.K. bookers. Then, at the start of May they re-introduced it with no increase in cruise fare overnight. So we booked at that point.

 

Currently the U.K. bookings don't get a drinks package but if you follow last years pattern when the current offers finish on May 2nd the drinks package could very well be reintroduced for U.K bookers.

 

So if a drinks package is of importance then you may want to wait.

 

 

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[leono1]

Just a heads up for the OP. Last spring we monitored prices for Oasis. At the end of Jan they stopped offering the drinks package to U.K. bookers. Then, at the start of May they re-introduced it with no increase in cruise fare overnight. So we booked at that point.

 

Currently the U.K. bookings don't get a drinks package but if you follow last years pattern when the current offers finish on May 2nd the drinks package could very well be reintroduced for U.K bookers.

 

So if a drinks package is of importance then you may want to wait.

 

 

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I will be definitely buying the drinks package so thanks for the heads up. the drinks package was included in the offers in Jan but not on Caribbean sailings so I only got buy one get one half price. So now your saying stay as I am and hope of an included drinks package offer in may and use the fact I can cancel only losing £50 quid then to book again with that offer?

[TravelMadBrits]

Hi

I have a guarantee balcony booking (booked direct with RCI UK) and I rang them to see if I could switch my room but in the same category that had been allocated. Yes I could but I had to pay the difference between the g'tee price and choosing a room, which for me wasn't worth it a few weeks ago. On my previous cruise I booked an OV and rang to upgrade to a balcony when the prices dropped. It took a week of phoning at different hours to finally get someone that would do it - persistence was the key! I definitely think it depends on who you get on the phone so don't give up.

[kevinyork]

I will be definitely buying the drinks package so thanks for the heads up. the drinks package was included in the offers in Jan but not on Caribbean sailings so I only got buy one get one half price. So now your saying stay as I am and hope of an included drinks package offer in may and use the fact I can cancel only losing £50 quid then to book again with that offer?

 

 

 

There are no guarantees of course but it worked for me last year. When the winter offer was on in Jan 16 it included the drinks package on Caribbean cruises but only up to Dec 16. That offer ended and I monitored prices. I took a screenshot on the day before their current offer ended and the next morning checked and they reintroduced the drinks package and it covered cruises up to Apr 17 which covered our preferred ship and dates and on comparing the price with the drinks package with the screenshot from the day before the price was the same.

 

I believe Royals current U.K. offers end on May 2 so I will be checking this time round too. Good luck.

 

 

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[leono1]

right, so the day after i spoke to them on the phone i checked the website again and the prices had rose again so it meant i would be paying £50 more for my balcony cabin and losing my deposit so i left it. ive just checked the website just and even though it says from £616 for an interior, when i click book now and go through i can get a interior cabin for £884!, or now a boardwalk balcony for £1112! (40% off Cruise Fare + Onboard Spend) anyone else think £884 is really good?!!

[crosby99]

The just isn't any rules on this and I guess it all depends on demand. I got quoted an outrageous price by RCCl on our upcoming cruise BUT contacted Crown & Anchor and had success after several emails and now have a Junior Suite :D

I think the answer is to keep trying and email rather than ring BUT don't expect anything

[leono1]

The just isn't any rules on this and I guess it all depends on demand. I got quoted an outrageous price by RCCl on our upcoming cruise BUT contacted Crown & Anchor and had success after several emails and now have a Junior Suite :D

I think the answer is to keep trying and email rather than ring BUT don't expect anything

 

i was just surprised as i dont think ive ever seen a price like 884 after months of checking before and after id booked! yes agree on demand, will it be an empty ship then? :')