Exciting Deals; Happy Hour Pricing. Should I wait for better price reductions?

[Sail Girl]

I am an experienced X cruiser and have been able to book Excitign Deals, Senior Discounts, Resident Discounts and Military Discounts as many (most?) of us have.

 

I've read on these boards and heard of FL residents getting great last minute deals out of their ports and wonder how "last minute" they were. Wonder if such deals exist for Summit cruises out of NJ.

 

The pricing on the remaining Summit cruises for August don't seem very "Exceptional" to me, even those that are "Exceptional" and "Happy Hour".

 

Any advice from those who have gotten good last minute pricing from NJ would be greatly appreciated!

[tfrcal]

Not an answer but an observation, the reason you may not see "exceptional" rates from the NYC market is that there are fewer cruises than from FL and a far larger market within driving distance to draw from, thus, it is easy for Celebrity to find people to purchase the cruises at the prices they set without offer last minute deals. Not to say it does not happen but this may explain why it happens less often.

 

Good look finding the deal you are looking for.

 

BTW, the Summit is a wonderful ship.

[cyntil8ing]

My thought is that if you're looking for the absolute best deal, you're probably going to miss it. Either you'll forget to look that day, or all the cabins will be gone, or something.

 

If you reframe it to paying a price that you like for a cruise you want to go on, it makes it easier to pull the trigger.

 

We were thrilled to get a $699pp inside with free 3rd/4th for our cruise Sunday. Yes, there are $649pp deals showing now, but no cabins with 3rd/4th availability. Had we not grabbed it when we did, we wouldn't be going.

 

Will there be people on the ship who paid less than me? Certainly. Does it matter? Nope.

[SFCAcruiser]

My thought is that if you're looking for the absolute best deal, you're probably going to miss it. Either you'll forget to look that day, or all the cabins will be gone, or something.

....

Will there be people on the ship who paid less than me? Certainly. Does it matter? Nope.

You make a very good point about missing the lowest price deal. How would someone know it was the lowest price until the price goes back up? Similar to trying to buy a house or a share of stock at the lowest price - we won't know it is the lowest until it no longer exists.

[StartrainDD]

Hi Sail!

 

I have not looked this week, but recently the prices on the September 14 night Canada cruises were dramatically lower than they were a few months ago. We sailed the middle of the three cruises last year, and booked rather late (maybe 70 days before sailing).

 

In our case, prices did drop further after we booked, but not by a whole lot. If you are looking to cruise this season from Bayonne on the Summit, chances are the pricing out there currently won't get a whole lot better.

 

If you are looking at the last of the three Canada cruises that sails in October, that may drop a bit; then only you can decide if your disappointment at possibly "Missing out" on the cruise is worth the potential of a small savings.

 

Good luck and good cruising!

[phoenix_dream]

The best way to see if prices may rise or fall on a particular ship is to see how booked she is. Low bookings? Prices will likely fall. Almost full? Prices will likely rise. Not a 100% rule but standard business practice. How do you know how full a ship is? There are websites where you can find that info but as they are TA sites I cannot name them.

[richsea]

I think that you will find that the "eXceptional deals" are not that exceptional any longer. I check them weekly, & find that the eXceptional prices are now more in line with what the normal prices used to be. IMO, it all goes back to the comments that Michael Baley made some months ago about his goal of increasing the prices of Celebrity cruises. It is what it is, so book accordingly!