Free double upgrade to balcony by Royal

What a load of codswallop we are on Voyager in October in a inside cabin and have been keeping an eye on prices in case we can upgrade to outside before final payment, are inside cost us $ 854 and yesterday was $1009 lo and behold today its shot up to $1600 , so supposedly its now the same price as a balcony if that makes sense Royal sales are really miss leading :confused: we always always look at lots of different prices before we book with the price we feel comfortable with

I noticed a similar thing on Celebrity just after we booked our cruise. I was considering an inside cabin but at the time they had a Pick Your Perk deal running and an inside cabin plus paying for a drinks package worked out dearer than booking a balcony cabin with drinks package as a perk.

Shortly after that they announced a free upgrade deal, combinable with PYP. I was :mad: until I looked at the prices. The price for the inside cabins had jumped to almost the same price as the cheapest balconies, and with the free upgrade you didn't get to pick your cabin. It was, in effect, a guarantee.

Princess are running some sort similar promo too. Doesn't look that great either.

I think they finding is people are booking insides first and looking to see if prices drop and they upgrade to balcony cabins. So they going to make insides more expensive in these promos and get people into buying balconies.

I agree Sarah, Voyager has a lot of balconies to fill but to do it that way is deceitful , I just wish they would not put sale in front of these promotions when its obvious its not,

I know that at the end of the day people will pay what they are comfortable with

I agree Sarah, Voyager has a lot of balconies to fill but to do it that way is deceitful , I just wish they would not put sale in front of these promotions when its obvious its not,

I know that at the end of the day people will pay what they are comfortable with

Well technically its not deceitful. They "for" sale, rather than "on" sale. :D

Its like anything, buyer has to do their homework.

They are targetting newcomers to cruising, knowing that those people probably haven't been monitoring prices and who therefore will think they have got a great deal. :rolleyes:

Its like anything, buyer has to do their homework.

For a newbie it's not all that easy to do the homework, sadly. Prices jump all over the place that it's even hard for seasoned cruisers to pick the right time to book. Some brick-and-mortar travel agents push the more expensive options or cruise lines rather than what fits the needs and budget of the buyer. And there are so many online TAs that it's hard to know which ones are good and which aren't.

Luckily there is a wealth of information available here but, sadly, not many newbies find their way here before they book their cruise.

For a newbie it's not all that easy to do the homework, sadly. Prices jump all over the place that it's even hard for seasoned cruisers to pick the right time to book. Some brick-and-mortar travel agents push the more expensive options or cruise lines rather than what fits the needs and budget of the buyer. And there are so many online TAs that it's hard to know which ones are good and which aren't.

 

Luckily there is a wealth of information available here but, sadly, not many newbies find their way here before they book their cruise.

Its like when your purchasing you shop around, you ask the questions, you research. They might not get it right on their first cruise, but if they continue to cruise they will get better at asking the right questions.

Its like when your purchasing you shop around, you ask the questions, you research. They might not get it right on their first cruise, but if they continue to cruise they will get better at asking the right questions.

Some people will - especially people who are spreadsheet addicts like me ;) :D

But many people don't ever shop around, it's quite surprising. They buy from their favourite stores, even if they are the most expensive, and don't even realise they aren't getting the best deals.

Like all "Specials" you need t0o look at them closely, I've found this a few times, that things like "free upgrade" are closer to "we've raised the price of an inside to the balcony price"

Some people will - especially people who are spreadsheet addicts like me ;) :D

 

But many people don't ever shop around, it's quite surprising. They buy from their favourite stores, even if they are the most expensive, and don't even realise they aren't getting the best deals.

And they are probably very happy to do so. No stress, no worries ..Happy Happy Happy. Isn't that the whole point of going on a cruise.

luckily we are now retired so research is the order of the day for us, like I said we set a limit we want to spend on a cruise then keep looking till we can get the nearest cost to it,

I agree about some agents not really trying we met a couple on Solstice who thought they'd bought a aqua cabin as the agent said it was the best available for their needs they booked and then noticed that they could get a drinks package on other sites , agent said no doesn't apply to you I think next time they will take a bit more time before booking as this was there first cruise

And they are probably very happy to do so. No stress, no worries ..Happy Happy Happy. Isn't that the whole point of going on a cruise.

 

Oddly enough some of them are the types that are always complaining about how expensive everything is these days. :rolleyes: :eek:

luckily we are now retired so research is the order of the day for us, like I said we set a limit we want to spend on a cruise then keep looking till we can get the nearest cost to it,

Yes, and it's important to take all the costs into consideration, especially if you drink alcohol. Royal Caribbean comes out with some great fares but sometimes people don't realise about the extra gratuities which adds a little to the cost, and then get totally shocked by the drinks prices, especially after converting them to AUD.

I agree about some agents not really trying we met a couple on Solstice who thought they'd bought a aqua cabin as the agent said it was the best available for their needs they booked and then noticed that they could get a drinks package on other sites , agent said no doesn't apply to you I think next time they will take a bit more time before booking as this was there first cruise

:eek::eek::eek:

:eek::eek:

The price of the few remaining inside cabins (ID category) on the August Dawn Princess cruise I'm going on just jumped from $2249 last night to $2980.91. Presumably because of the new balcony upgrade or $400 OBC offer. Yet all the balconies have been sold out for quite some time on that cruise. Interesting! :confused:

I'm glad I booked when I did. Phew! They were actually $200 cheaper then with $300 OBC, and I booked a higher category guarantee for that price.

With a couple of price variations in the past few months I have managed to upgrade our next Princess booking from an inside to a reasonable OV obstructed with no price increase to us and more OBC, which is very nice. Just by being diligent and checking each day.

As we are getting closer to final payment time I have been checking on the offchance there is another price drop and just cannot believe the variations in prices from day to day. One day OV cabins are the same as a balcony, other days they have dropped. Other times there is OBC, other days there is none. This morning when I checked it was on sale - at the same price as yesterday when not on sale - just crazy!

With a couple of price variations in the past few months I have managed to upgrade our next Princess booking from an inside to a reasonable OV obstructed with no price increase to us and more OBC, which is very nice. Just by being diligent and checking each day.

 

As we are getting closer to final payment time I have been checking on the offchance there is another price drop and just cannot believe the variations in prices from day to day. One day OV cabins are the same as a balcony, other days they have dropped. Other times there is OBC, other days there is none. This morning when I checked it was on sale - at the same price as yesterday when not on sale - just crazy!

I presume you had to cancel your original booking and book new? At least you can do that on Princess. Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean (I think) actually block you from doing that - there was some chat about a Celebrity sale recently that actually specified that current bookings could not be cancelled and rebooked under the new prices.

It's quite amazing how much the prices fluctuate.

- When we started looking at the Princess cruise, about a month ago, inside cabins were starting at $1809. Unfortunately we couldn't book then as hubby needed confirmation of some dates for a project.

- By the time he found that out, less that a week later, the prices had jumped to $2209. I waited a couple more days because I couldn't make up my mind over an IB guarantee or picking an ID cabin. Then an IA guarantee popped up for around $2280 so I put a hold on it through an online TA.

- Overnight the price dropped by $200 and with an extra $300 OBC instead of the 1-2-3 perks. The TA refared it for me to $2080.

- A week later the lowest category insides were sold out and the price jumped back to $2249 for the IDs.

-Today, less than a week later again, they jumped again to $2980. The IB guarantees are now $1000pp more than I paid for my IA guarantee. :eek:

I just had a look at our voyager cruise to Fiji in 2017... We booked yesterday with the 50% off second fare deal and now our balcony has gone up $581pp... The inside went up $395. Glad I didn't wait until today like I was going too :eek:

Shop around, sale or not there are cheap cruise sand then there are not so cheap cruises. Sales grab the attention and in the rush people fork out extra money thinking it is a sale price.:(

Hi Everyone ,

I wasn't happy with the new sale pricing on Royal Caribbean ,but decided to bite the bullet and book anyway (for my birthday and the itinerary stops at my son's home port- yes get to see my grandson),booked a Balcony guarantee at the price of an inside cabin(which was cheaper last week) going thru the booking was happy to find that I had been given an additional $252 discount as a Crown and Anchor ,which made the total cost of my cabin $1487 ,felt the price for a single was ok.That is cheaper than what my quote was last week for a inside cabin ,so happy with that .A balcony is a added bonus for me.

So if you have Crown and Anchor it might be worth checking the price.

Cheers Deb

Hi Everyone ,

 

I wasn't happy with the new sale pricing on Royal Caribbean ,but decided to bite the bullet and book anyway (for my birthday and the itinerary stops at my son's home port- yes get to see my grandson),booked a Balcony guarantee at the price of an inside cabin(which was cheaper last week) going thru the booking was happy to find that I had been given an additional $252 discount as a Crown and Anchor ,which made the total cost of my cabin $1487 ,felt the price for a single was ok.That is cheaper than what my quote was last week for a inside cabin ,so happy with that .A balcony is a added bonus for me.

 

So if you have Crown and Anchor it might be worth checking the price.

Cheers Deb

Glad it worked out for you and Happy Birthday in advance.:D

....was happy to find that I had been given an additional $252 discount as a Crown and Anchor

 

So if you have Crown and Anchor it might be worth checking the price.

Cheers Deb

Yes Deb. I did a mock booking yesterday and had a balcony G/tee at Inside price (inflated ;)) and then the C&A discount was applied. Haven't confirmed my booking yet, but I didn't expect the discount to apply :)

Yes Deb. I did a mock booking yesterday and had a balcony G/tee at Inside price (inflated ;)) and then the C&A discount was applied. Haven't confirmed my booking yet, but I didn't expect the discount to apply :)

Yes same here! Still I'm not going to cancel then try re-booking as we don't tend to spend much time on a balcony as there's so much to do on-board! Also some balcony cabin spaces are smaller than a large ocean-view which we prefer.

BUT...... There could be a teeny-weeny chance that a balcony guarantee would result in an upgrade to a SUITE!!!! :)

Yes same here! Still I'm not going to cancel then try re-booking as we don't tend to spend much time on a balcony as there's so much to do on-board! Also some balcony cabin spaces are smaller than a large ocean-view which we prefer.

BUT...... There could be a teeny-weeny chance that a balcony guarantee would result in an upgrade to a SUITE!!!! :)

Personally, I think it is worth the risk.:D

I just cancelled an OV to a guaranteed balcony for $100 more. I lost the $100 OBC as well but I'm happy because I didn't really like the cabin I was assigned anyway. It's a Tassie cruise in Jan 2017 on Radiance for $1932 for two.