Big Jump in Cruise Price = Bad Sign?

[LuCruise]

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

[Ourusualbeach]

14 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

It could definitely be a sign of changes to come.  Raise the price to deter people from booking while they figure out new itineraries. It’s definitely not because the6 are close to capacity. 
 

the Black Friday sale only offers an extra $100 to $200 off depending on the category.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Ourusualbeach

[LuCruise]

Thanks.  Doesn't sound too good.  Will just need to wait and see then.  

[Russ Lomas]

56 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

Just a guess here, but you must be booked on the Enchantment or the Freedom.  The Enchantment has missing sailings for bookings, so those sailings must have been longer than 7 days, which RCCL has removed for sale.  They may have to rejig the Enchantment sailings to accommodate this CDC requirement (we are in the same situation with our August cruise on the Indy).

 

If you are booked on the Freedom, it looks like she does 4 day sailings to Canada.  RCCL may be worried that Canada will have their borders closed to US ships and may need to rejig the 4/5 day sailings the Freedom is scheduled to do in August.

 

This is just a guess on my part however.  When RCCL is unsure of what is going to happen with its ships, it seems to jack up the prices to insane amounts or it removes them for further sale until they officially announce changes.

[LuCruise]

40 minutes ago, Russ Lomas said:

Just a guess here, but you must be booked on the Enchantment or the Freedom.  The Enchantment has missing sailings for bookings, so those sailings must have been longer than 7 days, which RCCL has removed for sale.  They may have to rejig the Enchantment sailings to accommodate this CDC requirement (we are in the same situation with our August cruise on the Indy).

 

If you are booked on the Freedom, it looks like she does 4 day sailings to Canada.  RCCL may be worried that Canada will have their borders closed to US ships and may need to rejig the 4/5 day sailings the Freedom is scheduled to do in August.

 

This is just a guess on my part however.  When RCCL is unsure of what is going to happen with its ships, it seems to jack up the prices to insane amounts or it removes them for further sale until they officially announce changes.

Thanks.  We are on the 5 night Bermuda cruise on Freedom.  Good point as it rotates with the 4 night Canada cruises.  Wonder how they would even modify these as I don't think you can get to Bermuda in 4 nights.  So maybe a complete shift of the dates?  We booked this cruise for Bermuda, but won't be against an itinerary change as long as the dates still fit between the end of camp for our kids (as our son is a counsellor so he can't skip out early) and start of school.

[rockmom]

10 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks.  We are on the 5 night Bermuda cruise on Freedom.  Good point as it rotates with the 4 night Canada cruises.  Wonder how they would even modify these as I don't think you can get to Bermuda in 4 nights.  So maybe a complete shift of the dates?  We booked this cruise for Bermuda, but won't be against an itinerary change as long as the dates still fit between the end of camp for our kids (as our son is a counsellor so he can't skip out early) and start of school.

Starting in the fall, Freedom rotates the 5 night Bermuda cruises with the 9 night longer Canada cruises. Of course the 9 night ones are gone from the website.  I'm on one of the 5 night ones in October. Prices are higher for sure, although for my sailing they aren't as much of a difference as you're seeing.  I will say that there are a TON of staterooms open. I'm in a JS and I see there are still 72 jr. suites available.  😱

[ipeeinthepool]

2 hours ago, LuCruise said:

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

 

Sounds like a BOGO 50% off sale

[Ourusualbeach]

2 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Sounds like a BOGO 50% off sale

The sale for BF/CM is the exact same sale that they are running now just with little bit more of an instant discount.  $50 to $200 depending on cabin type and length of cruise.

[deweytrader]

I was looking to book the 5 day Freedom to Bermuda on 8/19 and the price has gone up almost $1000 is less than a week.  Hoping it will come back down again...

 

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, deweytrader said:

I was looking to book the 5 day Freedom to Bermuda on 8/19 and the price has gone up almost $1000 is less than a week.  Hoping it will come back down again...

 

They raised cruise planner items too, ... so they could put them on sale

[LuCruise]

10 minutes ago, deweytrader said:

I was looking to book the 5 day Freedom to Bermuda on 8/19 and the price has gone up almost $1000 is less than a week.  Hoping it will come back down again...

 

So same as us.  We are on 8/28 so a not much after you.

[SG65CB]

Maybe they raised the price so that all the people with 125%  FCCs will have somewhere to spend their money?

 

Lots of people have to use their FCCs before they expire. A cynic would say that's a great time to raise prices. 

[Iamcruzin]

4 minutes ago, SG65CB said:

Maybe they raised the price so that all the people with 125%  FCCs will have somewhere to spend their money?

 

Lots of people have to use their FCCs before they expire. A cynic would say that's a great time to raise prices. 

Helen Keller could have seen that coming from the first day they offered the extra 25%. 

[Ashland]

14 hours ago, rockmom said:

Starting in the fall, Freedom rotates the 5 night Bermuda cruises with the 9 night longer Canada cruises. Of course the 9 night ones are gone from the website.  I'm on one of the 5 night ones in October. Prices are higher for sure, although for my sailing they aren't as much of a difference as you're seeing.  I will say that there are a TON of staterooms open. I'm in a JS and I see there are still 72 jr. suites available.  😱

I'm booked for the 9 nighter in October and just before it was removed from the website I noticed not many cabins were still available in the suite category.

[sfaaa]

Hawaii cruises have also mysteriously disappeared and no longer showing.

[bigrednole]

The massive price increases are due to more FCCs. We booked OTS for March 28th. We paid $2100 for it. After they canceled through Dec 31 (within 2-3 days), that cruise and same room category went from $2,100 to $5,600 (same price today). I think it has a lot more to do with FCC's and an attempt to get as much cash as they can. If they keep this up, they will price us out of cruising pretty quickly as well. 

[Crazy planning mom]

I wondered about this as well. We have a sailing booked on the Radiance out of Alaska and those cruise prices went up as well.

[ipeeinthepool]

20 hours ago, LuCruise said:

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

 

You might want to think about this:  

 

Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We're expecting you.
And Love, life's sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.

 

Unless people start reacting to the huge price differences, the prices will stay inflated.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/theloveboatlyrics.html

[FionaMG]

I've seen a big jump this week too for my Harmony sailing next September, but even so the price is still not as high as it was when I L+S'd from Allure.

[Ourusualbeach]

5 hours ago, SG65CB said:

Maybe they raised the price so that all the people with 125%  FCCs will have somewhere to spend their money?

 

Lots of people have to use their FCCs before they expire. A cynic would say that's a great time to raise prices. 

 

4 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

Helen Keller could have seen that coming from the first day they offered the extra 25%. 

You could maybe buy into that theory if it was an across the board increase but when those huge prices are only fir specific ships and stop abruptly at a certain date it just does not make sense. 

[ipeeinthepool]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

 

You could maybe buy into that theory if it was an across the board increase but when those huge prices are only fir specific ships and stop abruptly at a certain date it just does not make sense. 

 

So which ships or times have good prices?  I haven't seen them and would appreciate the help.

 

[A&L_Ont]

2 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

So which ships or times have good prices?  I haven't seen them and would appreciate the help.

 

Sounds like you need the right TA.😉

[ipeeinthepool]

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Sounds like you need the right TA.😉

 

I'm not proud, I'll take help wherever I can find it.  

[Ourusualbeach]

12 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

So which ships or times have good prices?  I haven't seen them and would appreciate the help.

 

Good is a relative term and I wasn’t referring to good prices.  This conversation was referring to the massive price increases for some ships.

 

take a look at this pricing for Oasis.  Up until the end of March it’s almost $3000 pp then starting in April it drops.  Many ships are like this now.  Most likely the high priced sailings will not sail.

 

As far as great deals, those are few and far between but there are still reasonably priced sailings out there.  Maybe not for the ship or itinerary and time you want but there are some.  Lots if you have a TA with group rates (balconies and below)
 

tale a look at Explorer in 2022 doing the 8 night southern, much better prices than the 8 day on Mariner out of PC.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Ourusualbeach

[Milwaukee Eight]

21 hours ago, LuCruise said:

We have a 5 night Bermuda cruise booked end of August.  Since booking, I have noticed that price for this cruise changes regularly...usually for the better.  

Today however, there is a huge increase in price and our room is almost $1500 more than we booked.

 

Is this a bad sign? 

 

Maybe they want to prevent more bookings as the cruise is unlikely to sale?  It's a 5 night but not sure if Bermuda is unlikely to open for cruise ships.

 

Or maybe it's just getting close to the maximum capacity to allow for social distancing?

 

Or maybe they are getting ready for Black Friday "sales" so they can put it on sale and have it be close to current price?

 

I understand it going up and down by small amounts, but $1500 is a huge change (and it's not just our stateroom category...it has increased across the board)

Or maybe (fill in the blank) .....