ES Price drops - Fact or Urban legend?

[CrusinCyndi]

I don't expect a rate decrease. I am happy with what I booked. The price has gone UP $140.00 per person since June and the rate I got was WAY lower thru my TA than the Carnival website showed at the time. So I don't expect anything to happen, but of course it would be nice. I'm just happy I booked when I did and got the cabin I wanted. The VS suites on the spirit class ships go real fast.

[allisons]

Fact! We saved $100 per person from the price when we booked. We got 5 price drops of $20 each. Then the price went up $120 per person. So it's now $20 more than when we booked. Woo hoo! I love saving money! I love Early Saver!

[Edmund DeWinter]

We're about 100 days out from the cruise and I just got $20.00 from a price drop I just noticed, so they're definitely out there.

 

I just went online to look and see on the off chance and there it was.

 

Odds are better there will be more the closer we get, but I'm still saying the opportunities are out there.:)

[bobbyleduck]

Must be an urban legend, because we booked Early Saver nearly 9-months out, for three different types of cabins, on B2B cruises and never saw a price drop for any of them. Either that, or we just got such a good deal from our TA, that nothing could ever match it. I prefer to believe the "good deal from our TA" idea, rather than get into conspiracy theories.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

[TortieGal]

The rate to base your discount off of is as compared to the same category by going through the Fun Select rate, am I correct?

 

My understanding is that it's any rate type - past guest, resident, etc - that you check for pricing of your category. Basically, any rate you would be eligible for, you check your category against that pricing structure.

[bobbyleduck]

Must be an urban legend, because we booked Early Saver nearly 9-months out, for three different types of cabins, on B2B cruises and never saw a price drop for any of them. Either that, or we just got such a good deal from our TA, that nothing could ever match it. I prefer to believe the "good deal from our TA" idea, rather than get into conspiracy theories.

 

In fact, current prices are more than $500 per person, per cruise higher (average, across the three different categories). That's more than $8,000, and our cruises are 28 and 42 days out. I think we must have done OK.

 

Happy cruising to all!

 

Bob

[mia15]

 

My federal fees and taxes will have increased almost $40 dollars since our first booking and they've only increased when I've asked about the ES thing. My ES rate was originally $749/pp Balcony (Dream sailing 9/4) and currently today has dropped to $679/pp. My "fees and taxes" have gone from $120 and some change to $151 and some change. Kinda takes the fun out of adding up my OBC. I'm still excited about it mind you, but confused! I did use a TA who happens to be out of town at the moment...could I still call Carnival and ask about this or should I just hush and be happy I'm cruising soon!?!?!

 

Ooops...the pricing is all from Carnival.com and my cruise docs, which I've printed out each time to keep track of pricing, adjustments, etc.

 

My fees/taxes also changed on each of the two early saver adjustments-once up and once down I believe. The TA said it is very common for them to change slightly. Have no idea why:confused:

[llist]

We lucked out on our 2/21 Splendor cruise. We booked a 1A for $379 pp and a few weeks later, I found a $309 pp military rate.

 

Can I ask where you were able to see a military rate... Since carnival doesnt list them on the website (not that i've ever seen) did you see it on another website or just from calling? I know not all sailings/cabins are offered this but we would be eligible and I've been watching prices since we booked a few days ago... would hate to miss out on it if it were offered at some point :)

[GaNavy]

I wish we would get price drops ES on suites. We have never gotten a price drop on suites. Bummer.

 

I bet price drops on 1A's are even rarer - since they never seem to be available any closer than 8 or 10 months out....

 

No problem, though - I think I got a great deal on my 1A.

[Ken076]

Can I ask where you were able to see a military rate... Since carnival doesnt list them on the website (not that i've ever seen) did you see it on another website or just from calling? I know not all sailings/cabins are offered this but we would be eligible and I've been watching prices since we booked a few days ago... would hate to miss out on it if it were offered at some point :)

 

You can GOOGLE terms like "Carnival Military Rate" or Carnival Military Discount" and you should stumble across any of several on-line sites that display Carnival Military ratres, where offered. On those sites, the option to display Military rate may occur several steps past the initial cruise search. ken

[vacation_junkie]

Can I ask where you were able to see a military rate... Since carnival doesnt list them on the website (not that i've ever seen) did you see it on another website or just from calling? I know not all sailings/cabins are offered this but we would be eligible and I've been watching prices since we booked a few days ago... would hate to miss out on it if it were offered at some point :)

 

Right on the Carnival Website when you are searching for a cruise it asks you if you are Military or Past Guest!

[mrpayroll]

BigRed has it exactly right. In our case, we received a couple of hundred from price drops for our last cruise, and all came within the 30 days prior to our sail date. But, if you don't see a price drop, then you can rest assured that you got the best price there is, which is what ES is all about. As for us, we would never book ES with the expectation that we'd get OBC or other money back. What we want to ensure is that we have the best price available for a cabin that we choose. Getting money back or avoiding a price increase... we win either way!

 

This is how we look at it also. IF a price drop happens, we consider it icing on the cake..

[Newtocruise2011]

This has been a great thread! Thanks to the OP. We will be first-time cruisers in May of 2011 and have learned so much from this posting. We have a suite. We are not expecting any OBC but will continue to look. My question is : Has anyone noticed the rates decreasing on certain cruises more than others? For example: Do the Caribbean cruises discount more than the Alaska cruises etc. Thanks for any input.

[vacation_junkie]

Just curious if LACK of price drops when booking ES is more the norm. Was searching through the ES posts and noticed there are a lot of posts from people who have had price drops but all our cruise has done is go up up and up.

 

So, makes me wonder. Are price drops really that common? From all the posts about price drops - and I realize we still have 2 months to go - I surely thought we would end up with a good thousand dollars in OBC.

;):rolleyes::D

 

I booked yesterday and there was a price drop this morning! $20 per person! Gonna check every day! I still have a way to go so I'm hoping for a few drops along the way!

[Ken076]

Right on the Carnival Website when you are searching for a cruise it asks you if you are Military or Past Guest!

 

Actually it asks you if you're Past Guest or 55+... ken

[Vettebuf]

[quote name='llist']Can I ask where you were able to see a military rate... Since carnival doesnt list them on the website (not that i've ever seen) did you see it on another website or just from calling? I know not all sailings/cabins are offered this but we would be eligible and I've been watching prices since we booked a few days ago... would hate to miss out on it if it were offered at some point :)[/QUOTE]

As another poster said, you can google. However, I check vacations to go dot com. You'll see it on the left hand side.

I have to add though, we have since booked Alaska, Bermuda, and the Med and none of these have had price drops. Before selling out, our Alaska cabin went up about $600. We booked the Bermuda cabin about 2 months ago and it has gone up $400 since then. The Med cabin has remained the same. But I'm watchin'!

[newcruiser08820]

[quote name='MamaParrotHead']I have no idea where you got THAT number for for OBC, that's insane. I got about $300-$400 when all was said and done last time. For [B]two[/B] 6C's.[/quote]
I read before that someone had $ 2K OBC. That's actually very unlikely unless they booked a suite which became very discounted. But we had $ 840 OBC on Miracle for 4K ( between 4 people). After all the tips being paid, tons of pictures purchased along with few gift shop items, we still had $ 200 left and received check at the end of the cruise.

[llist]

thanks everyone for the answers to my where to look question... and yeah, i've never seen it on the carnival website... just the 55+ years old and past guest... i'll check out the other options others have listed :)

[PhxRain]

Fact ~ My Spa cabin on my Med cruise next year went down $50pp, had my online TA submit the form & they took $100 bucks off the final price. :D

[MrFunInTheSun]

I've gotten $340 total OBC on my last cruise on the Legend. As one other poster posted, even if it doesn't go down then you got the lowest pricing available. Many cases as long as you know you won't be changing the cruise, your better off with ES over past guest.

[GatorMomInNC]

[quote name='PhxRain']Fact ~ My Spa cabin on my Med cruise next year went down $50pp, had my online TA submit the form & they took $100 bucks off the final price. :D[/QUOTE]

Do you have to call in while the price is still down? I'm afraid I'm finally going to see a price drop and it will be on a Saturday, and I can't get my TA on the phone until Monday...

[bumbleklutz]

It's not an urban legend; but you do have to keep checking the rates for your room category almost daily. :) I just got $40 ES OBC on the Inspiration, for a January 29th sailing. This was for a category 6B. It's not much, but it amounts to a couple of buckets of beer; so I'm happy to take it. :D

[newcruiser08820]

[quote name='Newtocruise2011']This has been a great thread! Thanks to the OP. We will be first-time cruisers in May of 2011 and have learned so much from this posting. We have a suite. We are not expecting any OBC but will continue to look. My question is : Has anyone noticed the rates decreasing on certain cruises more than others? For example: Do the Caribbean cruises discount more than the Alaska cruises etc. Thanks for any input.[/quote]Of course Caribbean cruises are discounted more than Alaska cruises. Alaska season is very short, just few months. So demand are much higher and gets booked quickly. No reason to discount.

[PhxRain]

[quote name='GatorMomInNC']Do you have to call in while the price is still down? I'm afraid I'm finally going to see a price drop and it will be on a Saturday, and I can't get my TA on the phone until Monday...[/quote]

I believe so, or you could take a screen shot of it for your TA to send in with the form. Others with more experience with ES could give you a better answer I'll bet.
I booked through an online TA and they have 24/7 service so I was able to call on a Saturday and she called me back Sunday AM with the news it was approved. Also, my price drop wasn't a "dip" that comes right back up if you don't catch it in time. Carnival still has the lower price on their site and it's been over a week.

[Quampapetet]

My last cruise I did ES and only got $20 off (non-OBC since it was before final payment). I do know that it had been higher before I booked it, since I kept watching the price for it, and then it did go up at least a couple other times. So, I booked it at the second-lowest price it was at. Fine with me! I sure saved a lot over the Fun Saver price!

This upcoming cruise I am also ES and so far I've gotten $100 off total between two or three different price drops (also non-OBC since we're before final payment). I love it! :)