Prices fluctuating while you're browsing cruises

[Daghis]

I'm giving some thought to adding a quick 3-night cruise before an upcoming business trip. While browsing upcoming sailings, I saw a very nice price pop up for one of the potential dates. By the time I came back to the page to click on that particular sailing, the price went back up again!

 

I know that pricing is subject to change, but I have to say that I've never seen it change while going from one page to another. That was fast! (And, yes, even if I were set on going then, it had changed before I would have even had a chance even to put a reservation on hold.)

 

So, now instead I'm going to play the game of watching the prices to see whether waiting a few weeks to book a bit closer to the sailing date would lead to better pricing. I've won that game once before, but it can be a bit nerve-racking.

[sept10dsm]

Who knows they could have been updating just as you were checking. Or possibly you had a resident or sr. or other discount on one page and not the other. I have seen cruise prices change from one hr. to the next! Our sr. discount discount disappeared quickly!

[ggo85]

One thing I've noticed when searching is that, if there are multiple sailings for a cruise, the search engine "defaults" to a particular date, which isn't the one I want. When I've done a lot of searching and gone back to a prior cruise/search -- and not been very careful and diligent -- I'll get a price that looks better or worse. Often, when I double check, I realize that the system defaulted to a different date than the one I wanted.

 

Not at all sure that's what happened to you . . . but it could explain things.

[teajak]

Prices have been bouncing up and down more than usual in the last 2 or 3 weeks.I got lucky last week and found a great deal on the Oasis for 6/23,it had a senior and resident discount + a lower rate for an ocean view balcony. I grabbed it and it went up $400 each person on the next day with no discounts. No way to figure it out.

[repeater]

Not positive it does this on cruise sites, but I know if I look for hotel and or car rentals, as I move from page to page, comparing, the price often jumps...usually UP. Try disabling your 'cookies" or even moving to another computer. Most of the time, I find the original, lower, price there when I'm actually ready to book. Ain't technology grand?

[Daghis]

It is certainly possible that there was a glitch in my search parameters that caused me to inadvertently look at the wrong week or wrong ship and get different rates. I was doing a lot of browsing last night. :)

 

Now that we've pretty much narrowed down the date and ship that we're considering, it's a matter of playing the pricing game. Right now, the inside guarantee rate is $299/person, but I note that for the sailing coming up this next weekend, it's dropped to as low as $169/person. It may very well pay to wait to book for a while and grab a last minute deal.

[terpfan101]

One thing I've noticed when searching is that, if there are multiple sailings for a cruise, the search engine "defaults" to a particular date, which isn't the one I want. When I've done a lot of searching and gone back to a prior cruise/search -- and not been very careful and diligent -- I'll get a price that looks better or worse. Often, when I double check, I realize that the system defaulted to a different date than the one I wanted.

 

Not at all sure that's what happened to you . . . but it could explain things.

 

This! I did the same thing once and was like WOW the upcoming Allure price dropped so much...then realized it was a September date instead of June.

[loubetti]

It's called "yield management", software similar to what the airlines use, and there are usually using actual human beings behind it too, who make pricing decisions. They look at supply vs demand vs historical data for that cruise / room, and try to get every dollar they can. It can be very dynamic in nature.

 

I saw this a couple months ago when pricing Jet Blue to Florida, and within a page click the fare jumped up. I went back to "Continented", which is what I always fly anyway- just wanted to see if Jet Blue could better them; they didn't. Of course, with a cruise, it is different. One is a vacation, the other is transportation.

[purduemom1]

We booked a Canada New England cruise on Brilliance and the TA could not get a senior rate to come up. We took the higher price and when we got home, I checked again and sure enough, there it was, the senior rate for the same class and actually the stateroom next to ours! Took a screen shot and emailed it to the TA who took care of getting us the lower price. It was the last day of the WOW sale so maybe that caused some computer glitches.

[bbbearden]

One thing I've noticed when searching is that, if there are multiple sailings for a cruise, the search engine "defaults" to a particular date, which isn't the one I want. When I've done a lot of searching and gone back to a prior cruise/search -- and not been very careful and diligent -- I'll get a price that looks better or worse. Often, when I double check, I realize that the system defaulted to a different date than the one I wanted.

 

Not at all sure that's what happened to you . . . but it could explain things.

 

I had this exact same thing happen to me on a popular travel web site last week while comparing rental car prices, you do have to watch it close.