How do you get such great deals?????

[joemarg]

I just returned from a TA on Celebrity Silhouette and have been on Cruise Critic most of the day looking at all kinds of posts. We usually cruise on HAL and decided to try something different but now are going to go back to HAL for various reasons.

I have many questions:

How do you get such great upgrades?:confused:

How do you get such great prices?:confused:

How do you get such great OBC?:confused:

Do you have to book directly with HAL to get price drops and upgrades after booking.

If I book with say *********** at least a year before cruising do you still get the upgrades and price drops.

 

I'm really confused about the whole booking procedure and would love to know how all this works

Thanks to anyone who can help me out with this.:)

[rocsailor]

I just returned from a TA on Celebrity Silhouette and have been on Cruise Critic most of the day looking at all kinds of posts. We usually cruise on HAL and decided to try something different but now are going to go back to HAL for various reasons.

I have many questions:

How do you get such great upgrades?:confused:

How do you get such great prices?:confused:

How do you get such great OBC?:confused:

Do you have to book directly with HAL to get price drops and upgrades after booking.

If I book with say *********** at least a year before cruising do you still get the upgrades and price drops.

 

I'm really confused about the whole booking procedure and would love to know how all this works

Thanks to anyone who can help me out with this.:)

First you get a TA who has worked with the cruise lines as they have inside contacts usually,They will work very hard to ensure that you get the very best prices,upgrades are up to the cruise line and not the TA but if they have worked and have a good repore they canhelp. Usually obc credits come from the TA. some times cruise lines offer obc to longer cruises. booking ahead just means they have your money longer to invest. It's a crap shhot on upgrades and price drops:)

[Mary Ellen]

The two easiest ways I get OBC are: 1) make a future cruise deposit while onboard a cruise and 2) own (at least) 100 shares of CCL stock. Those are combinable. Now, if we get a really good price from our TA (being part of a group), we don't get the OBC for the stock as we got an "unpublished" fare. With the savings on the fare, I don't miss the OBC anyway. We're still far ahead. :D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Onboard credit -- (1) we book future cruise (or at least put down a deposit) while on a cruise -- the amount you get depends on the length of the cruise and the cabin category you book (2) Own 100 shares of stock -- again the amount depends on length of cruise (3) We have AMEX PLat card which gives us another $300 shipboard credit.

Upgrades -- Upsells -- doesn't happen to us. It doesn't seem to matter whether you book directly with HAL or have your own TA -- no one really knows how the upgrade fairy works.

TA checks our prices and stays on top of that. But haven't seen a drop in price for any of the cruises we book.

[DFD1]

We use the website of a very large and reputable agency (with a huge and active website) to find what we want and then we do the booking by phone with a particular employee of that agency. We take advantage of any OBC the cruise line is offering plus the agency almost always contributes an additional OBC. We also take advantage of the stock ownership OBC.

 

This gives us what we believe is a good price plus OBC's from three different sources.

 

So far as price drops are concerned, it is up to us to watch the prices of the cruise we book. We do this by checking the cruise line website from time to time, watching for email alerts of promotions and checking the website of our travel agency every week or so.

 

When we find a price drop of $l00 or more, we call our agent and have the booking repriced to reflect the lower price.

 

Price drops have to be discovered and taken advantage of before final payment date...or at least that's what I understand.

 

We found and took advantage of a siginificant price drop on our January 7 Eurodam cruise.

 

I can't name the agency, but it claims to be the largest cruise booking agency in the United States and is based in Houston. It is a very reputable company with much success.

[Randyk47]

I just returned from a TA on Celebrity Silhouette and have been on Cruise Critic most of the day looking at all kinds of posts. We usually cruise on HAL and decided to try something different but now are going to go back to HAL for various reasons.

I have many questions:

How do you get such great upgrades?:confused:

How do you get such great prices?:confused:

How do you get such great OBC?:confused:

Do you have to book directly with HAL to get price drops and upgrades after booking.

If I book with say *********** at least a year before cruising do you still get the upgrades and price drops.

 

I'm really confused about the whole booking procedure and would love to know how all this works

Thanks to anyone who can help me out with this.:)

 

For us it's been about ten years of trying different combinations of agencies, cabin categories, future bookings, etc. Can't say that any one specific thing is the absolute answer or best answer for every person. We've pretty much settled on one Internet based TA. They have consistently given us the best and lowest fares. They will match/adjust to HAL price reductions but quite frankly we've not seen but one or two of those for our cruises. Over the years we've gotten discounts as high as 26% and as low as 10% off the published price and our recent average has been around 12%. Considering our bookings have been B or SS cabins and above, finally settling on only deluxe (S category cabins) for the past couple of years, our savings have been pretty good. Obviously booking deluxe suites on the smaller ships means that there aren't many opportunities to be upgraded, there's only cabin category above the deluxe suites and it's the one and only penthouse suite. We also don't look for a lot, though there have been a few, OBC's. A Pinnacle Grill dinner or a couple of bottles of wine don't compare to the cost savings we're getting on our discounted fare. It works for us but everybody has to find their own comfort level and I'm not going to suggest ours is the best and only way to book a cruise.

[tangerinebunny]

If the cruise is a popular one, it's less likely to have upsells/upgrades.

 

The economy can also sway prices - we got a great Alaska price once because the economy tanked and ships needed passengers.

 

And keep in mind that some of those 'I got a great upsell' posts are from people who had paid a fairly high initial fee.

[Cruising-along]

I just returned from a TA on Celebrity Silhouette and have been on Cruise Critic most of the day looking at all kinds of posts. We usually cruise on HAL and decided to try something different but now are going to go back to HAL for various reasons.

I have many questions:

How do you get such great upgrades?:confused:

How do you get such great prices?:confused:

How do you get such great OBC?:confused:

Do you have to book directly with HAL to get price drops and upgrades after booking.

If I book with say *********** at least a year before cruising do you still get the upgrades and price drops.

 

I'm really confused about the whole booking procedure and would love to know how all this works

Thanks to anyone who can help me out with this.:)

 

We get great OBC by using a combination of future cruise deposits, owning 100 shares of CCL stock, and having the HAL Visa card. Usually we have around $700 OBC for a 2-week cruise.

 

DH watches faithfully for any price drops -- on one Med cruise we had 3 significant drops and on our last cruise we ended up paying less than half what the original price had been. We've only had one cruise that never dropped in price, and IMHO it was because it was a popular holiday sailing.

 

I'm curious -- we were on the Silhouette for the 12-day cruise just before the TA you were on. It was also our first Celebrity cruise, as we've always sailed on HAL. There are things I like and dislike about both lines, but we plan to sail both in the future because we like both. Could you share your reasons for what I bolded above? Thanks!

[iancal]

All of the above but most important is that you need to know what a good price is (for you), be flexible, and be willing to act immediately. Especially on those 24 hour sales that occur after the cancellation date.

 

We are now booking in the cancellation window unless of course we see something in the future that well priced We have a few preferred cruise lines but the actual ship is often as or more important to us. We keep an eye on one or two itineraries, two or three cruise lines/ships.

 

We require air so we often have to factor that into the equation-especially when there is an air fare difference between embarkation ports.

 

This fall we watched two itineraries and booked both-one for us, one for DS. Princess prices were high, and they kept them high well after final payment. HAL's were OK but they did not drop them very much after final payment. Celebrity prices were the same or higher prior to final payment, but dropped much faster as soon as the final payment date passed and they were subsequently reduced even further for a 24 hour sale. We booked in the AM and our TA was able to hold the cabins until close of business so that we could search for a good airline fare. Each line probably has its own formulae for pricing. We are now watching a few Carib. itineraries/ships.

[Sea42]

If you book one of the special 24 hour sale offerings are you still eligible for the OBC for stock ownership and/or the OBC from a future cruise deposit?

Thanks!

[RuthC]

I don't know that I do get "such great deals". I know that I check the price of a given cruise on HAL's website, then get pricing from my TA. If the cruise is one I really want to take, and the price is acceptable to me, I book the cruise. My TA keeps track, looking for price decreases. Other than that, I don't worry about it.

I am not interested in playing the game of trying to get the lowest possible price. That takes too much energy, and leaves too much room for disappointment if I lear someone else did better. I want a price that I can afford, and am willing to pay, for the cruise I am considering. Then I let it go.

[boards]

We agree with Ruth, when we decide to look for cruise we decide on the time of the year we want to travel the particular area. We check the Hal website for prices and when we find what want, we book it through our TA. Then the TA (and myself too) check back to see if there any change that is good for us until final payment. So far it has worked out good. Our next cruise in a few days our TA got us better rate than I had found.

[jf606]

We're still fairly new to cruising and we will be going on our 2nd HAL cruise on the 13th. When we originally booked our cruise, our agent told us that HAL will give us onboard credit of $25 each. A couple of months later when we paid the balance, there was no mention of it with our paperwork so I wanted her to verify it. After we got home our TA called us and said that HAL said we do not get the OBC because we already got a discounted price on the fare. (it was $50 per person). So I just said something like, "well that's pretty cheap of them, I guess we won't cruise on Holland America again". Well, the TA must've called them back to ask again because she called us back and said they still can't give the OBC, but they can upgrade from our main deck stateroom to an upper veranda SS (midship) for $99 per person. I think that was a pretty good deal.

 

I may be wrong, but I think if when you book, if you're not set on a specific cabin/location, they ask you if you want to be available for an upgrade if one becomes available. Maybe you can get a good deal that way.

[cruz-ing]

*************-dot-com is great for comparing prices...

[Randyk47]

 

I am not interested in playing the game of trying to get the lowest possible price. That takes too much energy, and leaves too much room for disappointment if I lear someone else did better. I want a price that I can afford, and am willing to pay, for the cruise I am considering. Then I let it go.

 

While I "shop", in the sense that I have three Internet TA's I use, I can't say it takes a lot of energy or effort. We usually find a cruise we're interested in and then fire off emails or phone calls to our preferred providers. We lean toward one of them and as long as their offer is consistent with the others then that's the way we go. Past that while I don't obsess over it I watch the sales, etc., myself and if I happen to see a pre-final payment price reduction....which is very rare then I go back and get an adjustment from my provider. Interestingly this happened just last week for our upcoming Med cruise when Silversea added an additional 5% reduction for our cruise. I won't go into the numbers, let's just say it was a healthy change and will pay for our pre and post cruise hotels plus probably food for those days. :)

[jkrislc]

I book early as my DW is picky about cabin location. Sometimes that works for the best price. I also check the HAL website weekly to check rates. Thus far, I've seen two price drops for our May 2012 Canada/New England cruise totally an $800 savings, but mainly resulting from lowering of the third passanger fare. My TA also keeps me informed of travel shows that might offer incentives and checks with HAL ahead of time toe sure I'm eligible for the promotion so I don't end up wasting my time by attending.

[Hlitner]

I post this same answer (to the OPs question) many times a year and often get flamed. So, how do you really get the best deal? Simple. Just shop around. Booking a cruise is no different then buying most products...its a competitive market (although the cruise lines try to enforce price control---price fixing). We book a lot of cruises (about 75 days a year) and use a very simple technique. Once we know the cruise and cabin category(s) we want to purchase, we will check the prices (including any amenities) on 5 or 6 large online TAs...all of whom have instinct pricing on their web sites. In many cases., because of cruise line price controls the prices will be the same but onboard credits, per paid gratuities and other amenities can make a huge difference (for longer cruises our savings can be in the thousands of dollars per cruise). Once we find the best deal from one of our favored TAs we check on the cruise line web site to do a comparison. In more then 60 cruise bookings there has only been one time when the cruise line site had the best deal (this happened because of a military discount on Celebrity). Once we have booked a cruise we continue to monitor the price (usually about once a week on Tuesday or Wed) for any significant changes. When the price does get reduced we immediately contact the TA and have our price adjusted.

 

As to booking early of late...we do both! If we want to go on an exotic cruise (especially on a smaller ship) that we know will be popular (such as Prinsendam cruises) we will book early since it is rare that there will be any last minute specials on this cruise. On typical Caribbean cruises less then 14 days we might wait until inside the final payment period to find a good deal. The best chance of finding a fantastic bargain are usually for cruises during the slow periods such as the week after Thanksgiving or in early January. For Europe the best deals are usually during the spring and fall shoulder seasons when the cruise and airfares are both often on sale.

 

Hank

[joemarg]

We get great OBC by using a combination of future cruise deposits, owning 100 shares of CCL stock, and having the HAL Visa card. Usually we have around $700 OBC for a 2-week cruise.

 

DH watches faithfully for any price drops -- on one Med cruise we had 3 significant drops and on our last cruise we ended up paying less than half what the original price had been. We've only had one cruise that never dropped in price, and IMHO it was because it was a popular holiday sailing.

 

I'm curious -- we were on the Silhouette for the 12-day cruise just before the TA you were on. It was also our first Celebrity cruise, as we've always sailed on HAL. There are things I like and dislike about both lines, but we plan to sail both in the future because we like both. Could you share your reasons for what I bolded above? Thanks!

 

Thank you to everyone who posted information about good deals. I think I now have a better handle on all of it (if that is possible:)) I also think what bugged me the most were the OBC most people seemed to get - I think the most Ihave ever gotten was maybe $100.

 

Thank you to DFD1 for your information on the online TA - I am pretty sure I figured out which one it was. Funny though - I always used that site to check for cruises because I found it a very friendly site but booked with someone else. I am now going to use that company to book my cruises because they match everyone else anyway duh!!

 

To answer your question Cruising-along - The Silhouette was a beautiful ship and we thought the cabins were great with lots of storage but so is HAL. It was actually the food that we thought was better and more variety on HAL - My DH has a shell fish allergy and I`m not fond of fish so there were actually 2 nights that we didn`t go to the dining room because there wasn`t anything on the menu that interested us and a few other nights we ordered off the alternate menu on the left side. That has never happened to us on HAL - there was always something on HAL`s main menu and we always dine in the Main Dining room. We dined in the Tuscan Grille 1 night but found there prices a little high for the upscale dining - mind you the food was excellent but so is the Pinnacle on HAL and the other speciality restaurants were $40 per person and then a bottle of wine around $30 to $40 - we can got out to a really nice restaurant at home for $100 to $120?

 

We were disappointed with the Sky Deck - they were closed a lot for the Elite members. The Crows nest was always open and they often had drinks at 2 for 1 in the evening. We never saw any deals on drinks on Celebrity other than the $5.00 daily drink special.

 

Finally, disembarkation was not very organized even though they told us that they had the best disembarkation of all cruises. We were to disembark at 8:30 and didn't get off until 11:30 - we barely made our flight but lots of people didn't. It wasn't a very smooth crossing and we had to deviate to get away from the bad weather which wasn't their fault and we were happy we did deviate. We were sitting with another couple that got called to disembark 1/2 an hour before we got called and then we met them in the stair case:( not good - people were very upset that they didn't once tell us what was going on - they just kept calling people to get jammed up in the staircase. At one point they wanted us to make room so they could get the crew luggage off the ship - that didn't go over well either. Unfortunatly it left a bad taste for us.

 

We hate to nit pick but at the end of the day why go to Celebrity when we've had 4 cruises on HAL that have been problem free?

 

Sorry this is so long but I hope I answered your question.

Again thank you for all the information on getting good deals on OBC, and booking a cruise.

Margaret

[joemarg]

Thank you to everyone who posted information about good deals. I think I now have a better handle on all of it (if that is possible:)) I also think what bugged me the most were the OBC most people seemed to get - I think the most Ihave ever gotten was maybe $100.

 

Thank you to DFD1 for your information on the online TA - I am pretty sure I figured out which one it was. Funny though - I always used that site to check for cruises because I found it a very friendly site but booked with someone else. I am now going to use that company to book my cruises because they match everyone else anyway duh!!

 

To answer your question Cruising-along - The Silhouette was a beautiful ship and we thought the cabins were great with lots of storage but so is HAL. It was actually the food that we thought was better and more variety on HAL - My DH has a shell fish allergy and I`m not fond of fish so there were actually 2 nights that we didn`t go to the dining room because there wasn`t anything on the menu that interested us and a few other nights we ordered off the alternate menu on the left side. That has never happened to us on HAL - there was always something on HAL`s main menu and we always dine in the Main Dining room. We dined in the Tuscan Grille 1 night but found there prices a little high for the upscale dining - mind you the food was excellent but so is the Pinnacle on HAL and the other speciality restaurants were $40 per person and then a bottle of wine around $30 to $40 - we can got out to a really nice restaurant at home for $100 to $120?

 

We were disappointed with the Sky Deck - they were closed a lot for the Elite members. The Crows nest was always open and they often had drinks at 2 for 1 in the evening. We never saw any deals on drinks on Celebrity other than the $5.00 daily drink special.

 

Finally, disembarkation was not very organized even though they told us that they had the best disembarkation of all cruises. We were to disembark at 8:30 and didn't get off until 11:30 - we barely made our flight but lots of people didn't. It wasn't a very smooth crossing and we had to deviate to get away from the bad weather which wasn't their fault and we were happy we did deviate. We were sitting with another couple that got called to disembark 1/2 an hour before we got called and then we met them in the stair case:( not good - people were very upset that they didn't once tell us what was going on - they just kept calling people to get jammed up in the staircase. At one point they wanted us to make room so they could get the crew luggage off the ship - that didn't go over well either. Unfortunatly it left a bad taste for us.

 

We hate to nit pick but at the end of the day why go to Celebrity when we've had 4 cruises on HAL that have been problem free?

 

Sorry this is so long but I hope I answered your question.

Again thank you for all the information on getting good deals on OBC, and booking a cruise.

Margaret

 

Sorry - I forgot to mention that on HAL you can take as much wine as you want onboard at anytiime. On Celebrity you are only allowed 2 bottles at embarkation. You can also buy a bottle of liquor on board HAL for a reasonable price - on Celebrity it was minimum $80.

[iancal]

On our last cruise we spent about 2-3 hours in the internet all combined-including obtaining quotes and conversing with our on line TA.

 

At the end of the day we saved just under $500. per person from what we expected to pay for this already discounted cruise. Don't know if we got the lowest price or not and do not really care. We got the price that we wanted and used the savings to offset the cost of our 2 week post cruise land trip.

 

We ended up on a different ship than we anticipated (it was still on our short list of 3). Instead of a guarantee verandah we were able to select our cabins (2) from this highest verandah category and save about $1800. total for both cabins. To us, it was well worth the work-for others it might not be.

[Cruising-along]

Joemarg, thank you for answering my question. You pretty much summed up the way we feel about the differences between the lines too. I realized after getting home that there's still more about HAL that I like better than Celebrity. We like HAL's itineraries better, their wine policy, their specialty coffees in the Explorer's Cafe, and yes, even their food. I like how you can watch a movie on a HAL ship in the theater on a sea day -- on Celebrity (on our cruise anyway) they only had movies during the day on port days! :confused:

 

Our biggest complaint was the fiasco of a T-shirt sale they had. On HAL it's organized, and orderly. This was a free-for-all, there were even fist fights and one woman was knocked down on the floor. We overheard an employee say "never again".....don't know why they didn't have more control, it was sad to say the least. One group of pushy people grabbed all the shirts before the sale was even supposed to start, and walked off with stacks of them. No excuse for that IMO.

 

I thought the service on Celebrity was equal to HAL, and did like being able to view our onboard account on our TV at any time, and their stricter smoking policy.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your disembarkation problems. Ours was absolutely flawless. We were off the ship and with our luggage within 15 minutes. I wonder if it was because yours was a transatlantic sailing?

 

Again, thank you for responding to my question. :)

[cruisinjudy]

We had the same disembarkation problems on Celebrity Equinox! We stood in the staircase fora long time with a bunch of people and more kept being added!

[DizzyDallasDi]

I use an *obscure* online agency to book my cruises because I like the perks I receive from them....airline mileage points. Those added points always give me the ability to sit in first class for my r/t flights to/from the port. Depending on the cruise, I may even get double miles based on $$ spent on the cruise price and onboard spending.

 

All of my vacations are very pricey as I travel solo. So, anything that allows me to bump up to a better airline seat makes the beginning and ending so much nicer.

 

I haven't been able to find a smashing deal on any of the cabins I've booked but that's probably due to my *diva* demand of an aft view cabin. :D It's all a tradeoff in my mind. I get the airline seats I want for *free* and pay the going rate for the cabin I want. In the end, I'm a happy camper because I get what I want. :D

[G&G]

You can get great deals on cruises if you have a TA who is willing to go the extra mile for you and has great contacts at the cruise line you wish to sail. We have such a TA and have received great upsells on HAL.

[HoneyGV]

I don't know that I do get "such great deals". I know that I check the price of a given cruise on HAL's website, then get pricing from my TA. If the cruise is one I really want to take, and the price is acceptable to me, I book the cruise. My TA keeps track, looking for price decreases. Other than that, I don't worry about it.

 

I am not interested in playing the game of trying to get the lowest possible price. That takes too much energy, and leaves too much room for disappointment if I lear someone else did better. I want a price that I can afford, and am willing to pay, for the cruise I am considering. Then I let it go.

 

I agree with you Ruth. I always know which cabin I want, and I book it. I use my AMEX Plat and I use their TA. It's worked well so far and I can't be bothered with playing the games either. Too much energy and time.