Negotiationing the cost of a cruise

[notalandlover]

Has anyone ever got a cruise line to lower the cost by just asking. I'm not referring to OBC or extras throw in. I was wondering if cruise lines will do this when a sailing is coming up and they have a lot of unsold rooms.

[PattyG12]

I can only speak for Royal Caribbean. If the sailing isn't selling very well, they often lower the price of the cabins. If you're dilligent at monitoring the prices, you can have the lower price applied to your room with a phone call. We've gotten price drops several times.

[silentbob007]

Most of the times you are dealing with phone agents who have no power to do anything but what their computer says. The price is controled by a system. Sometimes you can get deals by waiting. Sometimes not.

[Krazy Kruizers]

HAL's approach -- first they start to ramdonally call people and ask them if they want to upgrade to another category for a certain amount.

 

And at the same time they also start reducing the price of the lower category cabins.

 

Thus they get the ships filled.

 

Some people I have read have gotten some excellent upsells for reasonable prices.

[jagoffee]

Since you have excluded OBC then I doubt that it would actually be a negotiation directly with the cruise line. You should be able to negotiate with a TA if you are cruising a particular cruise lines. Some cruise lines allow the TA to discounts and others do not. You are limiting your negotiation possibilities by excluding OBC and other "throw ins". I often negotiate with TAs for my business since I do all the research and make the decisions independent of the TA.

[printingchick]

Other than religiously checking for price drops, which is of course AFTER booking, I do one or more of the following to save money.

• Trade in cruise-line credit card points.
  
• Purchase my next cruise while on my current cruise.
  
• Take advantage of stock-holder benefits. (Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean offer $100 on board credit for stock-holders on 7-night cruises.)
  
• Use coupons, savings certificates.
  
• Choose the lowest cost sail date within my desired range of dates. I always cruise during the winter months. I've done best in late January on western Caribbean sailings and best with early March on southern Caribbean sailings.
  
• Avoid school holidays!