Price drops as sailing gets closer?

We have booked our airfare to Galveston to attend a wedding and we want to book a cruise leaving June 28th. Our choices are Magic or Royal Navigator.

We would prefer a Cove if on Magic, and any category balcony if on Navigator.

We like both lines and have sailed sister ships.

So, it comes down to price.

We have a $250 credit for a cruise on Royal, so with that applied the price seems to be comparable.

DH is voting for Royal, but he is leaving it up to me.

My question is, traditionally, will the fares drop as it gets closer to sail date? Looks to me as though Magic has several balcony cabins open, while, Navigators inventory is less.

I realize it's an unknown, but I'd still like to know...

What's your personal experience?

Thank you.

It all depends upon how the cruise is selling. Magic doesnt have a lot of coves so run the risk of sellout.

If you want to go would book now

Prices have dropped in the past, but I read a recent article where Arnold Donald said the days of cruise prices dropping close to sail date are coming to a close. I guess we'll find out if that's true or not over the coming months.

Yes they are not always sailing full anymore

Last year 2014, I found prices to drop many times, up to two weeks before sailing.

This year, I have only had one price drop, and that was only for the cabin with three in it (more the merrier sale).

So, from over five months out (early saver), prices have NOT come down at all. They have only gone up a small amount, negligible difference between booking and now, but not consistently dropping as sailing gets nearer.

My sailing is June 7

This is for interior 4D and unobstructed balcony 8A, not cove.

During a summer cruise, I wouldn't count on the rates going down much, if at all. This is prime cruise season.

As our sail date has gotten closer for our November cruise, I have caught 4-5 price drops since September 2014. This last one I received $110 for OBC because of the price drop.

What type cabin do you have? I swear, I never get a price drop. :rolleyes:

We are booked in a 6K (Grand Scenic Ocean View) so I'm actually VERY surprised I even qualified for any of the price drops, but they were always approved. I usually submit later at night, so maybe I'm getting people to approve them that don't really care all that much.

I don't know, but I definitely feel lucky to have gotten them!

The cruise lines seem to be moving the deep discounts and incentives to further out from sail date instead of last minute to fill the ships earlier and then increase the price as the ship fills.

I would plan on summer cruises being sold out, so if you want choices, I would go ahead and decide.

Trying to time cruise prices is similar to trying the time the market. You win some, you lose some.

I agree, I wouldn't count on huge discounts. Especially for a small category. There just aren't many cove balconies and especially since those are the cheapest balcony on board I would suspect them to sell quickly. I would even suspect there not to be many left this close to sailing. If you are dead set on having a cove, I would go ahead now and not wait. If you would be happy with something else, you could wait.

What type cabin do you have? I swear, I never get a price drop. :rolleyes:

I know it's fun to get the price drops, but that means they booked when the prices were high. You must have gotten in at the lowest price if you haven't gotten price drops.

Both of my carnival cruises we had price drops. The 1st was only a couple hundred bucks.. but well take it LOL. The last one was booked at $4600 for a balcony with 4 people. A month before cruising it had dropped so many times we were down to it being $3100. SCORE!

We got at least 5 price drops since booking our August cruise back in November. The last one about 3 weeks ago. Since then, the price has sky rocketed and both cabin categories are currently sold out. So in our case, prices have gone WAY up closer to sailing. The category right below mine is over $350 more than what I paid. People booking at this point definitely aren't benefitting from it.

As our sail date has gotten closer for our November cruise, I have caught 4-5 price drops since September 2014. This last one I received $110 for OBC because of the price drop.

How are you getting price drops on the 6K? I was able to do it last year but it was complicated.;)

Most of our price drops were hurricane season cruises where they needed to lower prices to fill the ship