Price drop closer to sail date?

[Jembeccatoo]

Newbie here with Royal Caribbean.

I know NCL’s fares drop the closer you get to sail dates I would like to try Royal Caribbean for my next cruise and was wondering if the same thing applies. Thanks for any info you can share.

[Clarea]

Price changes are unpredictable.

[APDMOM]

Typically, longer cruises do not drop in price (7 days and up), so booking early and checking frequently is best.  Shorter cruises can drop in price if they are not at peak season and there are only 2 of you.  Cabins for 3 people (what we usually book) can sell out faster, and therefore leave you stranded.  I will post  a few screen shots of RCL cruise price changes from cruises we have taken, coming up soon in the next post.

[APDMOM]

My advice is that you book when the price looks good to you, making sure you book “refundable deposit” if you may need to make changes.  Then, keep checking for price drops until final payment.

 

Here are some charts that show price changes we have been tracking.  Green dots represent the price we paid.  Blue dots represent the price changes at given dates.  I check a few times a week, but only document if a price changed...  As you can see, booking well in advance is key.  However, in the off season you can occasionally get a great deal, like we did on Allure in mid May one year.

 

7-9 day cruises:

 

 

 

4 and 5 day on Brilliance (4-day Brilliance dropped below our paid price - the only one in many years of cruising Royal):

 

[Jembeccatoo]

APDMOM, you sure do your homework! Thanks for the charts and advice.

[Coralc]

Wow! ADPMOM, I wish I knew how to make incredible charts and graphs like that! Very Impressive. 

[GTO-Girl]

Even if you book a non-refundable deposit you can still get price drops up until final payment date...

[APDMOM]

33 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Wow! ADPMOM, I wish I knew how to make incredible charts and graphs like that! Very Impressive. 

 

Technology makes it so easy!  And I enjoy doing it... it is all part of planning for the cruise and killing time during the countdown 😁

[Johnamac123]

1 hour ago, Coralc said:

Wow! ADPMOM, I wish I knew how to make incredible charts and graphs like that! Very Impressive. 

It's Excel 101 actually. You could prolly find a YT video, actually. 

[Johnamac123]

1 hour ago, APDMOM said:

 

Technology makes it so easy!  And I enjoy doing it... it is all part of planning for the cruise and killing time during the countdown 😁

Great idea!! I'm going to start tonight. Do you make a separate worksheet for each cruise? 

[Coralc]

6 minutes ago, Johnamac123 said:

It's Excel 101 actually. You could prolly find a YT video, actually. 

 

Thank you John. I'm not very good at Excel, and Excel hates me, but I will look.  I can wreck a spreadsheet faster than most. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Coralc

[APDMOM]

4 minutes ago, Johnamac123 said:

Great idea!! I'm going to start tonight. Do you make a separate worksheet for each cruise? 

Yes, one document with separate spreadsheets.

 

[Johnamac123]

4 minutes ago, Coralc said:

 

Thank you John. I'm not very good at Excel, and Excel hates me, but I will look.  I can wreck a spreadsheet faster than most. Thanks for the suggestion. 

When I get mine setup, I'll put together some steps for u to follow....

[Coralc]

Thank you John, that is very kind of you. 

[Cyn874]

I experienced a price drop on a different cruise line of over $1000 per person on a mini suite, as we got closer to the sailing date. I was able to refare 3 times before I hit final payment and it still went down a little bit after that. My first cruise with RCI will be late summer, so I can't comment specifically on Royal Caribbean. However, I think pretty soon I'm going to do something similar to APDMOM and create a google spreadsheet to track certain cruise lines/itineraries. I'm going to keep track of a high/low price point for each cruise so I have something to reference back to if I'm looking to book another. I have a flexible work schedule and can 'drop and go' more easily if I see a great deal sometime. 

[atonal1]

Two cruises that I'm currently booked on: Freedom 7/12/20 (booked Feb 2019) my price: $3731 current price: $4400

Serenade 12/20/19 (booked Jul 2018) my price $4487 current price $9493. Better to book early and check prices often. I still can't believe how expensive the Christmas cruise has become.  There's no way I could afford that room today.

[Johnamac123]

1 hour ago, Coralc said:

Thank you John, that is very kind of you. 

Open Excel spreadsheet and set up three columns as shown below:

Spreadsheet Name Row 1 Date RCI Price My Price 1/28/19 $1,435 $1,435 4/1/19 $2,000 $1,435

 

2. Highlight the Columns A-C and Rows 2-4.

 

3. Hold ALT and F1 at same time. Move the chart as needed.

 

4. Click on chart. Click on date axis (horizontal).

 

5. Upper left click on Format Selection.

 

6. Format Axis will appear on right side. Change from Automatically Select to text Axis.

 

7. Click back on chart. Across top click on Design. Click on Change chart type on top right.

 

8. On All Charts tab click on Line.

 

9. Double Click on Line. Click on Paint bucket under Series options. Click on Marker. Choose option for Solid point at data change if desired. Repeat for other line.

 

10. That’s where my knowledge ends I’m afraid. Maybe ADPMOM can advise of how to add datapoints without redoing the chart. At least this will get you started.  

[Coralc]

Thank you John! It would've taken me weeks to figure that out! I have saved it in a Word document for reference. Thank you so much! 

[Johnamac123]

12 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Thank you John! It would've taken me weeks to figure that out! I have saved it in a Word document for reference. Thank you so much! 

If you highlight all of your datapoints after you've added new ones (rows) in Excel, click on the chart. Then you can drag down the bottom border line and it will add the new data to your chart. I hope!! lolol. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Johnamac123

[Coralc]

Baby steps John. Baby steps. 

[tinkr2]

My husband is an excel master. I need to get him on checking cruises and making charts. It will never happen, guess I will have to figure it out.

[Johnamac123]

1 hour ago, tinkr2 said:

My husband is an excel master. I need to get him on checking cruises and making charts. It will never happen, guess I will have to figure it out.

Very doable, especially with YT help. Or find something to "motivate" DH. This is very easy stuff. ☺️

[DISFANS3]

Good info..

[KimA75]

11 hours ago, Johnamac123 said:

When I get mine setup, I'll put together some steps for u to follow....

John- thank you so much for following through on this!!

 

ADPMom, what a great idea. 

 

The first cruise we booked ourselves, which was in 2017, was on Freedom.  At the 90 day mark it had enough of a drop to go from a panoramic ocean view for a family of four, to two connecting balcony rooms.  So, it sometimes does happen.  However, our last cruise, on Adventure, did not see such a drop and I am not seeing anything for our upcoming Ovation. 

 

As the others have said, book as far ahead as you can handle, and when you see a price you like.  Then, just watch the prices and call for an adjustment if there is a drop.

[er345]

For what it’s worth, I know many, many people here report being able to get the price lowered after booking.  The one time I tried it was fall of 2018 for a 2019 cruise.  I was told the new “sale” was for new bookings only.  I would have had to cancel my first one, lose the deposit on a non refundable booking, and I would lose the onboard credit. So that didn’t happen. I don’t cruise very often, and we must always have popular ships, because other than that one time I tried, fares have only ever gone up on our cruises.