Is there any pattern to pricing on Fred?

I know that there are no guarantees re pricing on any cruise line but I would be interested in views about what Fred is like re fluid pricing?

Is it best to book early to secure the cruise or is the price likely to fall like a brick after the "early booking" period as is sometimes does on other lines making the "early booking discount" a joke.

For those who have traveled a lot with the company what has been your experience?

This is an interesting question, and I'm sure you will get differing opinions, but this is our experience.

If we are really interested in a particular itinerary which is likely to be popular, we book early. Cruises to Iceland and Greenland, for example, have increased in price soon after launch.

If we are interested in a fly cruise we consider booking early (depending on the itinerary). For example, we have booked a fly cruise to the Carribbean and Cuba 12 months in advance. The price of our cabin category has already gone up by £400 per person since we booked.

If we want a balcony cabin, we book early (we don't book balconies on Fred any more, they are too expensive).

If we are not bothered about which cabin we get, and can be flexible on dates, we identify several cruises of interest and wait and see if Fred advertises Anchor fares, which usually happens about 3 months prior to departure.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the insight LandC. I don't know how popular the one we are interested in might be. Time will tell.

I think Fred's cruises are expensive when they are first released and they seem to have shot up in price this last year or so, though must admit the £ has gone down. The book three offers are pretty good value, but only if you want three cruises and they are of a similar length. They have done various versions of this over the last few years or so and we have done a book three in Dec '15 and Dec '14 for the following year. Not attracted to going on another 3 Fred's at present though. They were saying that there was not going to be another book 3 last Dec, but then it came out - presumably needs must (I think a lot of the cruises are overpriced and have not sold well).

You can get an extra 5% off if book on board, even with whatever offer(s) are on at the time. There always seems to be some sort of offer coming out early December, which then feeds into the Christmas and January sales time when a lot of holidays get reduced. It is the more unusual ones that book up, though some longer cruises appear to be more difficult to sell. You can check on the website to see how a particular cruise is selling.

I can now answer my own initial question to an extent. No there is not.

Well we booked with the launch offer and what a mistake that has turned out to be . All we got was gratuities paid, they are now offering 200 euros per cabin spending money and £49 worth of photography onboard to people booking 5 months later and the same cabin price.

I know this is just what happns with cruises but it is really annoying. Can't avoid seeing it either as it is on the main web landing page! He ho

We book early. Always seem to get a price that we we are happy with. Doesn't matter which line we cruise with.

One of the main reasons we book early is we get what we want with regards to dining and cabin.

How many times have I heard grumbling about cabins from late deal cruisers.

If your happy with the cost when you book it then it's immaterial what happens later, in my opinion.😄

Normally, but certainly not always, cruises that drop in price are not popular and there is a rush to sell unwanted cabin space, bums on seats and all that. As has been mentioned, if the cruise is popular it may well sell out while you are waiting for the price to drop.

I have to say 90% of the time we have been happy booking early, whatever the cruise line . You get what you want and if it involves having to book air tickets you get the best ticket price so one usually outweighs the other

By booking 2018 WC early we got the £10 per day drinks package which has now gone up to £15 per day....so that was a bonus for booking early!

I can now answer my own initial question to an extent. No there is not.

 

 

 

Well we booked with the launch offer and what a mistake that has turned out to be . All we got was gratuities paid, they are now offering 200 euros per cabin spending money and £49 worth of photography onboard to people booking 5 months later and the same cabin price.

 

 

 

I know this is just what happns with cruises but it is really annoying. Can't avoid seeing it either as it is on the main web landing page! He ho

We've done the same thing. Grrrrrr

Last year when we booked our cruise, an inside cabin, and a week later it was reduced by £400. I complained and they gave us an outside cabin, but we only got the inside cabin onboard credit and not the outside cabins onboard credit. But even if we had booked the outer cabin in the first place it was still cheaper than the one we originally booked.

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Just checked our next cruise with Fred and it as gone up £100pp

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Well I have been keeping a track on my cruise and it's worse again. Fred are now offering a free AI package to people booking today and the price of the cabin is still exactly the same.

Had I not booked early I would now be much better off with the free AI. This cruise is in 13 months time so I wonder why they are pushing sales with this kind of offer this early on.

I can live with a last minute push to fill the ship a few months before but doing it over a year in advance makes a mockery of all their early offers when they are so much worse than what is available now.

Booking a holiday should not be this much of a gamble IMO.

I agree. The same thing happened to us last year when we booked one of Fred's no fly cruises 9 months in advance. A few weeks later it was advertised with free drinks and gratuities. However, we were offered a complementary cabin upgrade after we had paid the balance, which made us feel a bit better!

Which cruise have you booked?

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