Never book early!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

6 hours ago, Panhandle Couple said:

You should go to the Princess board and review the comments on the Medallion program.

It is a different approach.

I have been reading that.  Not sure I’m into being tracked .

[debenson0723]

35 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I have been reading that.  Not sure I’m into being tracked .

You are tracked on every cruise line you are on.  Every time you tap, swipe or go into your cabin with your card, it is notated.  There is even a channel on your stateroom TV (I think it is called Activity) that you can check and see where you were every day on the ship. May not be as extensive as the Princess Medallian but it is there.

[insidecabin]

1 hour ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I have been reading that.  Not sure I’m into being tracked .

Handy when in a group/family.

 

You can find each other.

[D_And_K_gocruising]

1 hour ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I have been reading that.  Not sure I’m into being tracked .

dont get a cell phone....

[MagnoliaBlossom]

4 hours ago, D_And_K_gocruising said:

dont get a cell phone....

On a cruise, it stays in my safe.  I’d I wanted to talk on a cell phone I ’d stay home

Edited August 7, 2023 by MagnoliaBlossom

[D_And_K_gocruising]

5 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

On a cruise, it stays in my safe.  I’d I wanted to talk on a cell phone I ’d stay home

you said you didnt want to be tracked.. so.. doesnt matter if it's a cruise of not.. 

[amygutman]

14 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

The COVID restart prices were reminiscent of post 911 when everyone was afraid to fly and being on an e posed target made cruise occupancy very low.   Well, the prices seem to have recovered but we did book a lot of cruises while they were down..  we are driving distance to Galveston and Royal and Princess have been having some excellent rates.  Booked a large balcony cabin on Princess Friday for $500 pp with some OBC thrown in.  We’ve not sailed PC in a fifteen or so years so I’m looking forward to a change of pace.  We’ll see. 

@MagnoliaBlossom Have never sailed Princess but had been looking at them for Alaska prior to choosing NCL. Apparently they caused quite the kerfuffle this week when they changed a lot of the previously free dining options on the ship and radically changed the drinks and wifi packages. Quite a lot of the cruise vloggers are commenting on this negative change and how it could cost hundreds if not thousands of unexpected charged for those with current bookings. 

Just a heads-up, because it sounds like you got a heck of a deal and I hope it works out well for you. 

Warmest Amy

[MoCruiseFan]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:21 PM, Bandit2301 said:

I'm just a little frustrated that I get penalized because I wanted to book early. 

 

You did not get panalized.  You got the exact cabin you wnated at a price and terms you agreed to.  It is a well known fact that after final payment , cruise lines will often fire sale the left over cabins in order to fil the ship.  You knew what you were buying and the terms when youi booked.

[luv2kroooz]

6 minutes ago, MoCruiseFan said:

You did not get panalized.  You got the exact cabin you wnated at a price and terms you agreed to.  It is a well known fact that after final payment , cruise lines will often fire sale the left over cabins in order to fil the ship.  You knew what you were buying and the terms when youi booked.

They post certainly were penalized. They incurred a monetary penalty by paying too much for their cruise. Never book early. Be flexible, be indifferent about cabin location. Get a better shot at sailing the published itinerary.  Sail 3x more often.

 

Then they can laugh all the way to the bank knowing they got the absolute rock bottom pricing. Cheers!!

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, MoCruiseFan said:

You did not get panalized.  You got the exact cabin you wnated at a price and terms you agreed to.  It is a well known fact that after final payment , cruise lines will often fire sale the left over cabins in order to fil the ship.  You knew what you were buying and the terms when youi booked.

Exactly. Same as someone who absolutely HAD to have the latest Lexus SUV in a specific color with specific options, on the day the car was released, then gets mad when he sees someone in the same car a year later that was bought cheaper because the newer models were on the lot. Same principle: book early, pay more.

[cruiseny4life]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

They post certainly were penalized. They incurred a monetary penalty by paying too much for their cruise. Never book early. Be flexible, be indifferent about cabin location. Get a better shot at sailing the published itinerary.  Sail 3x more often.

 

Then they can laugh all the way to the bank knowing they got the absolute rock bottom pricing. Cheers!!

Exactly! We booked our November sale last week, a few days after final payment. We're paying about $1,000 less than those who booked before final payment. Maybe the rooms were less when the cruise was announced, but I kind of doubt it looking at current "new" cruises for 2024 and 2025. 

 

And, of course the fare dropped more on Saturday, after we booked. Since it's after final payment we can't reprice or cancel and rebook. Well, we could, but that'd be financially silly. Since we have the NCL BOGO Airfare we are unable to receive FCC or OBC or whatever NCL sometimes offers, when they feel like it. So, we lost out on that fare drop by booking too early. 

 

We're definitely in the "never book early" camp and sometimes, even a week after final payment is too early. 

[laudergayle]

4 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

So, we lost out on that fare drop by booking too early. 

Maybe not…the BOGO airfare may not be available. When I did a mock booking it didn’t offer air promo…but that was through the NCL website.

[cruiseny4life]

1 minute ago, laudergayle said:

Maybe not…the BOGO airfare may not be available. When I did a mock booking it didn’t offer air promo…but that was through the NCL website.

That's why we can't rebook. Part of the price reduction was the BOGO Airfare going away, but we still would have saved money. Basically, the new fare would have paid for us to purchase one-way airline tickets for both of us with a little extra cash on top of that. Since the perks are different, we can't rebook, per my understanding of the terms and conditions and the NCL agent we spoke with. I am going to have my husband talk with his PCC to see if she can do anything for us, but I have very low expectations on that call. 

 

BUT, thank you for looking into it!

[Agent999]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

They post certainly were penalized. They incurred a monetary penalty by paying too much for their cruise. Never book early. Be flexible, be indifferent about cabin location. Get a better shot at sailing the published itinerary.  Sail 3x more often.

 

Then they can laugh all the way to the bank knowing they got the absolute rock bottom pricing. Cheers!!

 

But they were not penalized, and had you read the thread you would understand that. The OP saw what they thought was a price drop, however they were mistaken. While the price was lower, it had been lowered because they passed the airfare inclusion date. One price included BOGO airfare, the other did not. This was not a price drop, but a change in the offer. Apples to oranges.

[luv2kroooz]

4 minutes ago, Agent999 said:

 

But they were not penalized, and had you read the thread you would understand that. The OP saw what they thought was a price drop, however they were mistaken. While the price was lower, it had been lowered because they passed the airfare inclusion date. One price included BOGO airfare, the other did not. This was not a price drop, but a change in the offer. Apples to oranges.

They paid more than they thought they should. End of story.

[hallux]

30 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

They paid more than they thought they should. End of story.

If they thought they should have paid less then why did they book the cruise at the fare they paid? 

 

Don't book for what you HOPE to happen price-wise.  If you're happy with the price when you book then you're not being penalized if the fare goes lower at a later date.

 

A few weeks ago I booked a cruise for January because the price was acceptable to me.  It's a bit of a 'bucket list' cruise (Panama Canal) and the price had gone up $100 since I'd started watching.  I'm before final payment, I can always re-price it until the end of September, and after that I can request the FCC if the price goes down (I didn't take the airfare offer) OR ask for an upgrade to a higher cabin category.  If I don't get that, I won't be SUPER upset, the price at the time I booked was still acceptable to me at that time.  But I also don't expect NCL to come crawling to me asking for more money if the price skyrockets and they feel I under-paid for the cruise.  

[reeinaz]

57 minutes ago, laudergayle said:

Maybe not…the BOGO airfare may not be available. When I did a mock booking it didn’t offer air promo…but that was through the NCL website.

BOGO airfare is back. I kinda think it was a glitch that it was missing. On Thursday, I looked at the same cruise on my phone and on my laptop. The one on my phone didn't offer air but the one on my laptop did.

[luv2kroooz]

11 minutes ago, hallux said:

If they thought they should have paid less then why did they book the cruise at the fare they paid? 

 

I have no idea. That is a question for them.

 

Maybe they saw posts on this forum recommending to book early. 🤷

 

Hopefully, the economic risks of booking early are now clear to them.

[luv2kroooz]

2 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Exactly. Same as someone who absolutely HAD to have the latest Lexus SUV in a specific color with specific options, on the day the car was released, then gets mad when he sees someone in the same car a year later that was bought cheaper because the newer models were on the lot. Same principle: book early, pay more.

But how is it different from the local retail store price match guarantee that says find a lower advertised from us or any other competitor within 90 days and we will price match? Maybe not common in the car industry in your example. I am not saying NCL should do this. I am just pointing out that price match guarantees do exist and could cause an uninformed cruiser to rightly or wrongly expect a cruise line to do the same.

 

Some people come on here and start blasting the poster... You booked this, you were happy, you didn't read the print, yada yada, no kidding!!! Just amazes me.

[DCGuy64]

14 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

But how is it different from the local retail store price match guarantee that says find a lower advertised from us or any other competitor within 90 days and we will price match? Maybe not common in the car industry in your example. I am not saying NCL should do this. I am just pointing out that price match guarantees do exist and could cause an uninformed cruiser to rightly or wrongly expect a cruise line to do the same.

 

Some people come on here and start blasting the poster... You booked this, you were happy, you didn't read the print, yada yada, no kidding!!! Just amazes me.

Absolutely right. I wonder: does NCL (or any other line) offer something like that? It would be a good marketing strategy, I think. Something like "book now and we'll lock in your fare - if it goes up, you pay nothing extra. If it goes down, we'll refund you the difference!" Maybe they couple that with a non-refundable deposit or price the cabin a bit higher than the ones without the "best price guarantee." I think the retail store example is a good one, BTW!

[Agent999]

1 hour ago, luv2kroooz said:

They paid more than they thought they should. End of story.

 

Not really. Their "thoughts" were based on "price = cruise + airfare" vs "price = cruise" without them realizing that the lower price left them stranded without airfare. You can't compare different things and justify expecting the same pricing. That IS the story.

 

56 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

I have no idea. That is a question for them.

 

Given what you said, isn't it better to ask them the question rather than to make posts when you admittedly "have no idea"?

[luv2kroooz]

2 hours ago, Agent999 said:

Given what you said, isn't it better to ask them the question rather than to make posts when you admittedly "have no idea"?

I don't think so. My intention is to provide accurate information and education about economic risks of booking early to the general population. I don't get lost in the weeds with the situation at hand. As suggested, you can ask the OP directly. I'm moving on to the next topic again with the intention of education.

[Agent999]

2 minutes ago, luv2kroooz said:

I don't think so. My intention is to provide accurate information and education about economic risks of booking early to the general population. I don't get lost in the weeds with the situation at hand. As suggested, you can ask the OP directly. I'm moving on to the next topic again with the intention of education.

 

Providing accurate information and education is a worthy intention, no doubt. However, I don't see how you can do so when you, by your own admission, "have no idea".

 

FWIW...I really don't need to ask the OP as I was in the conversation with the OP earlier in the thread when the OP realized their error what they thought was a price drop. You, on the other hand, seem to be more interested in argument than in simply admitting (even to yourself) that you got it wrong.

[laudergayle]

4 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

That's why we can't rebook. Part of the price reduction was the BOGO Airfare going away, but we still would have saved money. Basically, the new fare would have paid for us to purchase one-way airline tickets for both of us with a little extra cash on top of that. Since the perks are different, we can't rebook, per my understanding of the terms and conditions and the NCL agent we spoke with. I am going to have my husband talk with his PCC to see if she can do anything for us, but I have very low expectations on that call. 

 

BUT, thank you for looking into it!

Dang that must have been a pretty big drop to cover airfare +.  Good luck…hope you can get a FCC.  Always nice to look forward to another cruise.

[DKSJDA]

On 7/22/2023 at 6:21 PM, Bandit2301 said:

This is the first time I am cruising with NCL and I don't think I will ever be booking again with them.

I booked my cruise about 8 months in advanced as sometimes cabins sell out. I just looked at the exact same cruise. There is a price drop of over $600 and since you're within the 110-day window you get nothing for this price drop. I spoke with customer service and that's the line they gave me is it is NCL's policy within 110 days they won't do anything for you.

Wondering if anybody's had this happened to them? 

I'm just a little frustrated that I get penalized because I wanted to book early. 

 

There was a fare reduction on my cruise after final payment (ie - in the 110 day window).  Called, explained, and they offered to either bump my cabin WAYYYY up or work with me on a refund (to OBC).  I took the cabin upgrade.     YMMV based on how full the ship is, etc.   I ALWAYS book early - especially with NCL - as they are consistently the most flexible cruise line out there.   Sorry you didn't have this experience.