December Allure Pricing is Ridiculous!!!

[Dawniepoo]

I'm concerned over the recent prices too. We haven't book anything yet for 2015 because we like to take more than one cruise a year, and with the prices the way they are, we can't do that. This may make us jump ship to Carnival in the future. :eek:

[Wilda]

The D8 is only $1299. It looks like this really is just supply and demand. most of the D1 must already be sold with just a handful left.

Honestly, for me, I dont think the location of a D1 is worth spending all the extra money.

$1299 for a balcony seems much more reasonable not not crazy expensive for that ship

 

That's my point- the past 3 years on this class of ship I have been in a D1 for anywhere from $999-1,100. The pricing is through the roof.

[slk230red]

That's my point- the past 3 years on this class of ship I have been in a D1 for anywhere from $999-1,100. The pricing is through the roof.

 

We will be on the Allure 12/14/14 sailing too and we booked early in January to grab the low cruise fare. Now I see the prices have risen.

 

On our 12/1/13 Allure sailing I was happy with the $999pp B1 balcony, then I received a credit on my Visa card. My TA re-priced it for $613 pp before final payment was due when there was a price drop. She checks all of our future cruises for price drops, so you might want to keep checking.

Edited April 23, 2014 by slk230red

[waterbug123]

I meant that they raise the prices for awhile so people get scared into thinking they missed an opportunity and then when the price drops any amount, people will jump on it.

 

Hmmm... so they intentionally raise prices to a level at which they think people won't book, just so they can suddenly lower them and hope people jump on it? Because how silly would it be to say "let's not entice anyone to book TODAY. No, let's play around with the prices and raise them for a while and try to get them to book NEXT WEEK!" :rolleyes:

[gordiej]

If it really was a simple case of supply and demand the prices should steadily increase between opening day and as final payment approaches. Those last few cabins would be the priciest.

No, that's not how it works at all. The closer you get to departure, the less time there is to sell a cabin. That reduces its value. The cruise lines strategy is generally to sell every cabin - so they can get the onboard spend and so the staff can get their gratuities. (This is notably different from an airline or a hotel, both of which also have perishable inventory they're trying to sell). Two weeks before departure, even if there are only a handful of cabins left, the potential demand for those cabins drops because airfares increase significantly (with less than 14 day advance purchase, though this also happens at 21- and 7- days before). So at that point they really can only market to locals/drive-in.

But then to layer on some more complexity, the # of cabins left X days before departure doesn't, in and of itself, determine what the price will be. They look at that # relative to past sailings, and if the bookings are running below what they normally do, then they know they need to drop the prices.

Edited April 23, 2014 by gordiej

[Cindy]

Always keep an eye out for residency deals and the like though. I snagged an excellent deal on Friday for a May '15 Oasis cruise that is otherwise priced very aggressively (read: expensive).

 

OP, I agree with you that that is surprisingly high. Have you Googled the sailing to make sure there aren't any large groups sailing that week that have decimated the supply? (Probably not, but worth checking). Seems that prices went up in general this morning.

 

I agree with that advice! We were lucky enough to catch a really good Texas residency deal on the Oasis for mid-November. Sometime today the residency discount was greatly reduced, which changed the rate of our GS $1,020 per person!:eek: If we hadn't grabbed that when it was out there, we never could have afforded the suite.

 

Just keep checking...you never know what might show up!

[waterbug123]

If it really was a simple case of supply and demand the prices should steadily increase between opening day and as final payment approaches. Those last few cabins would be the priciest.

 

No, that's not how it works at all. The closer you get to departure, the less time there is to sell a cabin. That reduces its value. ....Two weeks before departure, even if there are only a handful of cabins left, the potential demand for those cabins drops because airfares increase significantly (with less than 14 day advance purchase, though this also happens at 21- and 7- days before). So at that point they really can only market to locals/drive-in.

But then to layer on some more complexity, the # of cabins left X days before departure doesn't, in and of itself, determine what the price will be. They look at that # relative to past sailings, and if the bookings are running below what they normally do, then they know they need to drop the prices.

 

 

Furthermore, it's not just a matter of "as each cabin sells, inventory is reduced so price goes up slightly." It also has to do with the RATE at which cabins are selling. That deposit you pay when you book? That is valuable operating cash to the cruise line. If sales have been sluggish and aren't on par with either past cruises or whatever financial goal the line has set, they'll adjust prices because they need to get cash flow back up.