best ever discount on a cruise ?

[1160451]

Hi Everybody...........we have just booked for 25th Sept on Destiny and paid just over £1000 each, now looking at the internet we could go on the same cruise in a few weeks for around £500 each as its getting near I presume.

We always book our cruises around 6 months in advance as we both work and have to clear the weeks at work.

Now next year we are both taking early retirement:) so we will book our cruises a week or so before and hope to get a good deal.

Now to my point after rambling on........what's the best deals anybody has ever got against the normal rack rate for any cruise by booking late.

We go with Thomson, FO and are considering P&O next year.

Keep smiling :)

[ekco]

Can I add on a question? If you have booked and paid can you upgrade the cabin when the price drops nearer to departure? Thanks. :)

 

Jan

[MrsP1981]

Not quite the point of your post but......I've just had a look to see what the price of the cruise i'm off on in a couple of weeks time is now - wish i hadn't!! We paid around £600 each and it's now £400 each.

 

i think it is good to wait for the last minute, prices do come down, but it's also risky!

[ekco]

Not quite the point of your post but......I've just had a look to see what the price of the cruise i'm off on in a couple of weeks time is now - wish i hadn't!! We paid around £600 each and it's now £400 each.

 

i think it is good to wait for the last minute, prices do come down, but it's also risky!

 

Hi MrsP, I know what you mean. I was messing about checking our cruise and stay dates in June and put in 2 adults and 2 children age 5 and 6 (in real life there are 2 of us). Gobsmacked when the price per person was exactly half of what we are paying. I know there are 4 sharing but that's a big difference.

 

Jan

[Blue Petra]

I do not have too many cruises under my belt ( unfortunately:rolleyes:) but my rule of thumb is about £500 for a 7 day cruise.

Obviously this will depend on in or out of school holidays, and all have been with Thomson.

I did see Island Escape cruises for £350 for 7 days during Feb half term..... but didn't book because of all the bad reviews I read:(

 

I suppose it would depend on how far the flight was etc, and how badly I wanted to go on that itinerary.

 

BUT, if you book early you often seem to get quite substantial discounts apparently ( I have never booked that early) plus can get All Inclusive for FREE or much much cheaper than booking late.

[ekco]

I do not have too many cruises under my belt ( unfortunately:rolleyes:) but my rule of thumb is about £500 for a 7 day cruise.

Obviously this will depend on in or out of school holidays, and all have been with Thomson.

I did see Island Escape cruises for £350 for 7 days during Feb half term..... but didn't book because of all the bad reviews I read:(

 

I suppose it would depend on how far the flight was etc, and how badly I wanted to go on that itinerary.

 

BUT, if you book early you often seem to get quite substantial discounts apparently ( I have never booked that early) plus can get All Inclusive for FREE or much much cheaper than booking late.

 

Forget the bad reviews, we went on IE in March and had a great time. Like you we were very apprehensive but I think the ship had a couple of bad weeks around Xmas and I can understand why passengers were angry. We didn't see worn carpets, peeling wallpaper or rusting walls. Entertainment was great and food was as acceptable as in most hotels particularly in the restaurants and available 24 hours, also the hygiene was strictly controlled with nobody allowed in the restaurants without using the anti-bacterial spray. Out of 1700 passengers only a few are going to write a bad review but it will affect a lot of people in their decision. You can't please everyone but considering the price of flights (I priced them independently for around £200pp return last minute to Funchal), also not forgetting good flight times that you would normally pay a supplement for, full board, entertainment and being transported to 6 different ports of call I'd say it's good value for money even if you only take a small proportion of what's on offer. We booked last minute and paid less than £500 which we thought was good value compared to land based hotel holidays on offer. Obviously you're not going to get Cunard standard for that money but if you want a nice break jump in and try it. In fact for that money grab it quick next time, I've paid more for for 2 weeks camping. Bearing in mind February can be a little mixed, weather-wise, in the Canaries.:)

 

Rant over!!:D:D

 

Sorry, went a bit off-thread there!

 

Jan

[Huddersfieldtourist]

Can I add on a question? If you have booked and paid can you upgrade the cabin when the price drops nearer to departure? Thanks. :)

 

Jan

Yes at the cost they quote subject to availability

[Blue Petra]

Yes at the cost they quote subject to availability

 

On my scouring of the 'net re cruises and deals etc. I have read that if there is spare capacity, people will be upgraded.

Those who booked earliest and paid full price will get upgraded first, to a higher deck or from inside to outside. Those who book last minute are therefore least likely to ever get an upgrade.

 

One of my mottos is "If you don't ask, you won't get.." so perhaps it would be worth contacting your travel agent ( if you booked through them) or Thomson themselves if you booked direct, and mention the huge discrepancy in current prices, and what you have paid...... and ask if you could get a free upgrade.

They can only say no !!:cool:

 

Presumably people hanging out for a last minute bargain are more likely to be interested in the lowest possible price anyway - so the cabins carrying large supplements will be last to fill anyway.

If you ( who paid full price) gets an upgrade, your 'cheaper' cabin will be available to the bargain hunters - so everyone wins.

At least that was the logic quoted to me!:o

 

I always go third class in the bowels of the ship and have never been upgraded, so I would be interested to hear if anyone ever has got an upgrade ?

 

ekco, I understand and agree with you. But I suppose that is the strength/flaw in any "review" of a cruise or a film or anything. One mans luxury is another mans hovel.

I ummed and erred so long, and in some way the mere fact the price was so low made the 'stories' seem even more believable.

In my own defence I was planning to take a child with me, and was more concerned if she became ill due to my selfishness in wanting to go on yet another cruise :o

If it had just been me going, I wouldn't have hesitated.

I won't if I ever get the chance again;)

[merciaman]

Dont just think that last minute is cheapest ,it is down to supply and demand. This year we only booked 6 weeks prior to departure. After a month the price had dropped by £850.00 on a £3000 total.25%!!. But just after that the price went back up again to less than £300 less so you need to very lucky to judge when the best price is.

[steelerannie]

Friends of ours paid £1299 for P&O Cruise in May/June this year. I've just had an offer through for the same cruise for £899!!:eek: Or 2 weeks earlier for £699.

 

Haven't told friends BTW!!!

 

Ann

[1160451]

Wow that has made me think about asking for an upgrade...Thanks for that.

We did get the AI included so that helps.

Interesting replies as always

 

Keep smiling:)

[ekco]

Thanks everyone for your great replies re. upgrading late-on. Certainly something to think about, as Blue Petra said "If you don't ask you don't get" and we can always stick with our basic inside. It's swings and roundabouts with booking though and as we're cruising and staying we booked earlier this year as we wanted a specific hotel in Marmaris that had the best reviews on TripAdvisor. Two weeks after we booked it was full so we're happy with that. I'll definitely keep an eye on the upgrades in the next few weeks and see if we can get something.:)

 

Jan

[oceancreek]

I've noticed the prices are down too. Had thought they might be down as they seem to have very good offers when there is a world cup. However as we are travelling on the Bank holiday monday I didn't want to risk the flight not being available.

I booked earlier in the year and got a discount off the brochure price plus on board credit.

Lat year I booked a couple of months before the cruise date, as we still had to have a specific week. Price was less but had to pay for the all inclusive so probably ended up about the same.

Hope they offer an upgrade as we have an inside on deck 3/4. We met someone last year who had been upgraded but would have preferred his original cabin with a double bed. He found the single beds on the short side for him being tall.

[Tresina]

I've just had a good one booking a Thomson cruise next year. I originally booked for two of us in a delux cabin, and paid for extra leg room on the flight. When I wanted to add a 3rd person we couldn't add her to the existing cabin. The cabin wasn't a problem just no extra leg room on the flight. Now we didn't see that as a problem. Not even bothered about sitting together but 'the booking system' won't allow it. Our choice was either book an extra cabin with a single supplement or cancel the extra leg room. Don't get me wrong if it was the drinks package I can understand that we all have to book that so it's not abused but a plane seat I don't get!

We will suffer the cramped space and save the £300!!

[tart6000]

Hi there,I decided a few years ago not to look at the price of a cruise after I had booked it.More often than not you find as the cruise draws nearer the price drops,presumably when you book you are happy with the price at the time so no point beating yourself up when you find it cheaper later on.

[kruzseeka]

Hi there,I decided a few years ago not to look at the price of a cruise after I had booked it.More often than not you find as the cruise draws nearer the price drops,presumably when you book you are happy with the price at the time so no point beating yourself up when you find it cheaper later on.

 

I share your point of view in that once booked (at a price you were happy to pay at the time) then there's no future in brooding about how the prices are moving and if the price then goes down. You've paid to secure the holiday you wanted on the date, from the airport and with the cabin of your choice. It's a bit like an insurance policy - you've got what you wanted and perhaps have paid a premium (a bit more) to have it 'in the bag' and for peace of mind that you are going! Waiting can bring rewards of better reductions but equally you may end up disappointed.

 

I've never seen such high prices so close to departure as is the case right now on many of the sailings - so waiting would not have been a good move for this September. There must be a lot of demand at the moment - but it will be interesting to see if the trend continues in which case booking early would seem to be a better route!

[brightonrosie]

We booked just over 3 weeks prior to departure having watched the prices vary several times in one day. As the prices went down the cabin upgrade prices went up. A week prior to departure the prices went up significantly probably due to the awful British weather meaning more people were looking to get away. Book on a sunny hot day mid week seems to be the best prices. They go up evidently depending on how many people have requested prices and clicked on the web

[sweby]

Hi Everybody...........we have just booked for 25th Sept on Destiny and paid just over £1000 each, now looking at the internet we could go on the same cruise in a few weeks for around £500 each as its getting near I presume.

We always book our cruises around 6 months in advance as we both work and have to clear the weeks at work.

Now next year we are both taking early retirement:) so we will book our cruises a week or so before and hope to get a good deal.

Now to my point after rambling on........what's the best deals anybody has ever got against the normal rack rate for any cruise by booking late.

We go with Thomson, FO and are considering P&O next year.

Keep smiling :)

Sometimes the price goes up just before the cruise sails. You need to become a price watcher on line. We did that with the red sea, and got it for around £500 each, but a couple of weeks later it went up to £1600, presumably to encourage people to book other cruises that were nowhere near full. You have to know what the cruise is 'worth'. Once you are in a position to go anytime you will certainly be able to take advantage of this.

sweby

[lilys gran]

we got an upgrade from a mini-suite to a penthouse suite on golden princess 2 days before we sailed! It was amazing with lots of perks and a massive balcony

[aujme]

I have just Booked a cruise and stay in November red Sea and Sharm all-inclusive plus drinks package inside cabin for£2200.0 for two and I think Its good deal just hope the troubles don't Kick off again

[irnbru]

We had 8 nights on the celebration in Dec for £395 PLUS we got £50 onboard credit. We would snap that offer up again in a minute.:)