Has Early Saver worked well for you with price drops?

[kelkel2]

Just booked one for a February cruise. Any good tips on how to not miss the price drops? I think I have CF set up... But any other tips are appreciated.

Thanks

 

Like others have said, when you book early saver you need to check the Fare viewer to look for price drops. It's also helpful to join a roll call or any other cruise group to have people on the same sailing as you, as there's generally someone who will post something about "hey check your prices, mine dropped today!" or something like that. That's how my cruise group has been this year.

That being said, Early Saver works best when you book a category that doesn't sell out quickly. If you book a rare category, it will likely not help you. For us, we booked an aft extended balcony, so although we got a few price drops early on, we are long since sold out in our category and will no longer see any.

[mommytotwins]

Our last cruise..yes. We had over $400 in OBC due to price drops. This cruise, we haven't been so lucky. But I keep checking anyway even though the price was great to begin with!

[HollandAvery]

I booked Sept 2014 for our Nov 2015 cruise and used the Early Saver rate. From Sept. 2014 to now I caught about 3 price drops that allowed me to save roughly $500 on our cruise. I'd say it worked pretty well for me.

 

I'd check the price every single day. One in the morning and then once in the early evening.

I was also part of a Facebook group for my cruise date and occasionally where the price would drop members would post about it, so that also helped me catch them.

 

Early Saver worked really well for us.

I stopped checking the price after July though, because at that point I had already saved so much money I couldn't imagine that the price would drop any further...of course I do still check our Facebook group to see if anyone posts.

Edited November 2, 2015 by HollandAvery

[KatPem]

Yesterday we upgraded to a specific cabin for a B2B cabin so we would be able to stay in the same cabin... The Carnival representative told us we were Early Saver on both legs so we would be able to get price drops up until 2 days prior to sailing. Ok great:)! So I repeated it back to her to be sure we were Early Saver on both legs and would be able to get the price drops... Yes...

 

 

 

Then had another question later in the evening and called back. That representative told me we were not Early Saver... What??? I was just told that an hour ago... by*******. I suggested they go back and listen to the recording because it will all be on the recording. So, they said they will pull the recording and get back to me in 48 hours.

 

 

 

We are before final payment. So this morning I checked

 

http://www.carnival.com/bookingengine/fareviewer and put in my details to check.

 

 

 

Now they are showing a "No Snow" rate where you have free upgrades and can select your cabin cheaper than what we are paying. So I called and tried to get it applied. I was now told the "no snow" rate only applies to a 1A type.

 

 

 

So, I read her what the "no Snow" rate said... Free upgrades and select your own cabin. So that is incorrect??:/

 

 

Be sure you continue thru on the fare viewer until you see it broken down by category types 1a,4a, etc

[SadieN]

I am very disappointed in ES. I booked a cove and the price has gone up and up then all of a sudden, the cabins are gone. I think that the guarantees were assigned and that a casino offer was made and cleared out the rest of the available cabins. I think that Carnival has this all figured out. I love to hear other peoples success stories but ours won't be on the list. :(

 

 

Looking at it all wrong.

Should be happy that you booked the lowest possible fare.

[Bunkie103]

In my experience it depends on the category you book and the time of year. We are on the Sunshine the week of President's day and had minimal decreases and then all the cabins in our category were sold out. I continue to watch for higher categories in case I can bump up but the ship appears to be fairly well sold out. Other cruises we have taken I have usually had several hundreds of dollars of reductions. Definitely worth it to check prices in my book.;)

[virginiab]

On last year's cruise, we got several price drops fairly early on and then a couple more at the very end. At the end, it may have been senior rates, as they often offer those to fill some last cabins. While this is good for me, it may be less useful to younger folks.

 

Even if my category has sold out and I really want to keep my cabin, I keep checking, because all it takes is a single cabin to become available in your category and they have to attach a price to it.

 

The cabins they seem to be pushing at the end most of the time are Interior and Suites. I've had my best price drops on 1A cabins.

 

Just my experience. Your mileage will certainly vary!

[kayhold]

So if I book with the VIFP casino package, I'm not eligible for price drops, correct?

 

What if I book 6 months in advance with the casino package?

 

our vacation is in June and from my recollection of our last cruise, theres not many price drops on the busy season, right?

[jdcml]

I booked Sept 2014 for our Nov 2015 cruise and used the Early Saver rate. From Sept. 2014 to now I caught about 3 price drops that allowed me to save roughly $500 on our cruise. I'd say it worked pretty well for me.

 

I'd check the price every single day. One in the morning and then once in the early evening.

I was also part of a Facebook group for my cruise date and occasionally where the price would drop members would post about it, so that also helped me catch them.

 

Early Saver worked really well for us.

I stopped checking the price after July though, because at that point I had already saved so much money I couldn't imagine that the price would drop any further...of course I do still check our Facebook group to see if anyone posts.

If I'm reading this right, this seems to be kind of the norm for those of us that book under the more restrictive ES. What I'm seeing though, is that the breaks you got were all prior to final payment, and you could have gotten those breaks with our without ES. Right?

 

Trying to look back extremely unscientifically at the previous posts as well, there seem to be a number of people that "saved money" but were still prior to final payment so it wasn't through Early Saver that they saved anything. Maybe I'm not thinking this through straight...

 

I'm not arguing in favor of ES, PG or any other rate, I've really just been wondering lately if locking in to the more restrictive rate really pays off as well as they'd like us to think it does. I mean come on, they aren't going to give away money if they can help it, and I appreciate that because it keeps fares low!

[cruising maniac]

Looking at it all wrong.

Should be happy that you booked the lowest possible fare.

 

We seriously did not get a good deal but did manage to lock in at the lowest price. But cruising over Thanksgiving is more expensive and this year we paid about $1000 more than last year on the brand new Celebrity Reflection. I mistakenly expected the price of the cruise to come down as it always has in the past and it did not. It went up, a lot. Actually, a ridiculous amount. Every reduction was for guaranteed cabin only and it wasn't but a few dollars. Absolutely not worth the risk. I'm excited because we cruise in 19 days but I wish I had been happy with the price. I actually told my husband not to worry about the price because it would come down. Whoops. :eek:

[GottaLuvCruising]

It used to work for us, before Carnival split the staterooms up into more categories. For one Hawaii sailing we got $780 OBC. There were other cruises where we got quite a bit. Stopped booking ES.

[AprilJ]

Our June cruise has gone up $70.

[virginiab]

I have definitely gotten good price drops both before and after final payment, some in the last week before sailing. At the moment, it seems the cruise market is strong, which is good for the cruise lines but not so good for those of us looking for lower prices. Is this ability to sell out the ship at higher prices a trend that will continue on for a while? No one really knows the answer to that.

 

When I book ES I am taking a chance that the possible penalties involved will (over the course of time and some number of cruises) not be too inconvenient and that I will get lower fares more often than not.

 

In the past 5 years I have cancelled two cruises and paid the $50 per person penalty. One was for medical reasons. For the other, I saw a cruise I liked better and that had better pricing that more than made up for the $50 that Carnival kept.

 

ES is not for everyone. The people who do best with it seem to be those who diligently check prices and are comfortable with what they paid in the first place. Taking an ES fare is not a substitute for finding a good price when you book and does not guarantee you a better price. It only promises that if you can catch them offering a better price, you can get it. Some of us enjoy this game. If you think you might enjoy it, book ES next time. If it will make you crazy (especially when you hear about others getting great price drops while you are not finding any), then consider another fare category.

 

Last year I heard about lots of folks on our roll call getting great price drops for months before I saw a drop. This is because I had gotten a better price when I booked. If you hear about others on your sailing getting drops, celebrate with them and keep checking prices as this means prices are dropping for at least some cabins, and maybe they will keep dropping until they are so low that you will get a drop, too.

 

There are some categories of cabin that have so few that the chances of a drop are small. Porthole PT cabins are a good example. If you would be happy with an upgrade, ES might still be good for you as it is more likely that you can get a 6A for a good price (less than you paid for the PT) than it is to get a drop on the PT.