​❔​How often do you check price drops​❔​

[livingonthebeach]

Daily?  Weekly?  Monthly?  Not at all?  I just bit the bullet and booked my first B2B for April of 2023.  Like everyone else, I like a good deal so my question is what is the best way and how often should I check price drops?  I know there are sites that monitor price drops but I don't which ones are good.  Is it better to check manually or leave it up to the automatic alerts?  TIA

[moonltnite]

I booked our March 6th Oasis sailing back on 10/6.  I checked nearly every day.  On 10/15 - it dropped $70 from what we paid 10/6 (this is an OV Large Balcony).  I called for repricing - and got it. It went up $100 for a couple weeks, then on 10/29 it dropped another $115 from the price on 10/15.  I called for repricing again.  I still check periodically. It went up and down (never below the price I got on 10/29) since then.  

[firefly333]

Today I'm back to not being able to check. It comes up to pick north America and there is no line to input senior, state, number like before .. I'm looking to change cabins not price match right now luckily. I dont expect my prices to drop. .. but I cant see real price today.

[Ptroxx]

I setup price alerts to watch prices.    
but I still check from time to time.   

[livingonthebeach]

12 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

I setup price alerts to watch prices.    
but I still check from time to time.   

 

Good idea -- I guess with both ways you are covered.  Can we mention the automatic alert sites here or are they against CC TOS?

[shipgeeks]

We have never done so, and don't ever plan to.

If we are satisfied when we book, we leave it at that.  

[Ptroxx]

11 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

We have never done so, and don't ever plan to.

If we are satisfied when we book, we leave it at that.  

Lolol some people have money to burn. And some like to save money. 
I saved 800.00 on my cruise in 13 days.   Enough for another cruise.  

[Ptroxx]

20 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

 

Good idea -- I guess with both ways you are covered.  Can we mention the automatic alert sites here or are they against CC TOS?

I’m not sure. But I don’t want to get banned with 13 days till my next cruise. 
I may need some info here.  Lol. 
and my private message doesn’t work 

[Biker19]

23 minutes ago, livingonthebeach said:

Can we mention the automatic alert sites here or are they against CC TOS?

If they are affiliated with a travel agency, no.

[Husky1987]

1 minute ago, Ptroxx said:

Lolol some people have money to burn. And some like to save money. 
I saved 800.00 on my cruise in 13 days.   Enough for another cruise.  

That's a great savings.  And well worth someone's time.

 

And then at the other end of the spectrum there are people who spend a lot of time on hold every time their cruise price goes down $15.  Is that worth someone's time?  Not mine, but that's a personal call...

[Ptroxx]

4 minutes ago, Husky1987 said:

That's a great savings.  And well worth someone's time.

 

And then at the other end of the spectrum there are people who spend a lot of time on hold every time their cruise price goes down $15.  Is that worth someone's time?  Not mine, but that's a personal call...

For me.   I’m retired so I have the time.  But not for 15.00.   I’d wait till it was a little more significant of a price difference.  
 

speaker phone and judge Judy FTW

Edited January 18, 2022 by Ptroxx

[binro01]

I check daily usually. It only takes me about 5-10 min to do for all of my cruises. If I see a price drop, I send an email over to my TA and they handle everything for me. I usually get a new invoice with the reprice within 4 hours from them.

 

Recently, I had a very interesting "drop" because it also incorporated a upgrade from a forward facing OV Balcony to a guarantee suite on our April 4th Navigator OTS cruise. I was able to get the upgraded cabin and save 130 off the cost of the cabin. Big score! I was also able to reprice the second cabin where my BIL and our twin 18 year olds will be, from a chosen OV balcony to a GTY OV balcony and save almost 400.00 there. Just by checking.

Edited January 18, 2022 by binro01

[taglovestocruise]

Once or twice a week. We usually book a year out and have had as many as 6 price drops. Currently  Royal will honor  a price drop as OBC after final payment. 

[Jkaczanowski]

Depends on the sailing. I check my February and May sailings daily (saved $400 on my suite last week), but don’t even bother looking at my March star class Wonder unless it’s to laugh at sky suites are going for now.  My September Allure, March 2023 Anthem, and May 2023 Odyssey, I look at with each new “sale” or if I notice a price drop on my close in sailings. 

[neverbeenhere]

We check once a month(also use a cruise price alert site(not always correct))and then after final payment we check a couple times. Price reductions are a balance between saving on the cruise price and losing Travel Agent perks/cash.

[cruiseguy1016]

I don't check every day, more like 3 or 4 times a week. I've found price drops as low as $1.40. I won't bother my TA for that amount but I will bother her for $15.

Edited January 18, 2022 by cruiseguy1016

[ReneeFLL]

51 minutes ago, shipgeeks said:

We have never done so, and don't ever plan to.

If we are satisfied when we book, we leave it at that.  

I also book at a price we are happy with but for us we have had savings to make it worth my time. To each their own. 🥂

 

37 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

I’m not sure. But I don’t want to get banned with 13 days till my next cruise. 
I may need some info here.  Lol. 
and my private message doesn’t work 

The private messages has never worked as far as I know so it isn't just yours.

 

24 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Once or twice a week. We usually book a year out and have had as many as 6 price drops. Currently  Royal will honor  a price drop as OBC after final payment. 

The 6 day cruise I'm on now I got an obc of 253.00. That will cover our gratuities and then some. Will need to go to the liquor store to use the rest. 😁 I really like the fact they are giving obc for price drops after final payment.

 

8 minutes ago, Jkaczanowski said:

Depends on the sailing. I check my February and May sailings daily (saved $400 on my suite last week), but don’t even bother looking at my March star class Wonder unless it’s to laugh at sky suites are going for now.  My September Allure, March 2023 Anthem, and May 2023 Odyssey, I look at with each new “sale” or if I notice a price drop on my close in sailings. 

I checked our March Wonder cruises and probably won't bother again. They are a lot more expensive than what we paid so I don't think the prices will come down. Being a new ship I'm guessing it's probably booked and many people won't be canceling.

[ginadcnj]

I check a couple of times a week, and email our TA to make the change if I find anything significant. Doesn't take much time at all. Just last week I saved almost $1k on our upcoming April Oasis cruise, which pays a good chunk of our August 4-nighter out of Cape Liberty! 😄

[LuCruise]

I manually check at least 2x a week.  Often a new "sale" occurs on Wednesdays and will also check Fridays. That is the minimum often will just check daily.  It doesn't take long to do so why not.

[pcur]

I will only price the cruises I am now beginning to book directly with RCCL.  When I check check bookings made through my (soon to be former) TA, they say I have the lowest price, the new (lower) price is only for new bookings, yada yada.  I gave up on those bookings.

 

BUT, what I find equally important is to check all my booked airfare.  Example:  I checked all my Southwest fares last weekend, and had over 6,000 points redeposited in my Rapid Rewards account.  I got credits, also, from Alaska and Delta airlines,  deposited in my "wallet" for both airlines. 

[fabric_fabric]

Even if satisfied with the price I randomly check prices for significant reductions - usually every couple weeks once we are three or months away. For our family cruise of six rooms next month we saved over $8,000 on all of the rooms. The rooms have all gone up since then so I was lucky to hit at the bottom. It’s worth my time but I wouldn’t call for a small reduction.

[jalves]

I let my TA do that for me.  

[Ptroxx]

7 minutes ago, jalves said:

I let my TA do that for me.  

They don’t always get the best prices.  

and they have hundreds of other clients they are trying to work with. So they may not see or get to checking when the deal is available.   
That’s why it’s good to check yourself.  
 

[DCPIV]

I check online occasionally and most often when a new promotion begins.  There have been other times when it just happened to cross my mind, so I give it a quick look.  I usually set up a bookmark that will take me straight to the room class selection, so it's a fairly quick process.

 

I don't typically call unless I see a significant difference online.  However, I might call if it's been a while since I last did so or if we are getting close to sailing.

 

I don't have a precise total at hand, but we've clawed back something around $5,000.00 in the last several months.  Much of that went to OBC because it was after final payment, but we had no problem finding things to do with that OBC!

[Kathscof]

First time cruiser here, booked a birthday celebration cruise for May last July.  We booked an interior at a "sale" price (we didn't realize there are sales all the time haha) and then found out about repricing.  From July until probably October something or other, we got the technical "cruise fare" ALMOST down to 50% of our original booking price by checking every day (I have had sale prices change on me, and show up differently for the phone folks a lot) and then scored an amazing deal for 50% off original price the day before Thanksgiving.  Black Friday rolls around, and we had been talking about doing RoyalUp for a balcony, but not at 3x our interior price that the site was showing, and on a whim, I checked a balcony price.  For a balcony guarantee, SOMEHOW we only ended up paying $80 more per person!  Meaning, we booked an interior in July, and then secured a balcony at 45% off that price.  SO EXCITED!

 

And there is a sold out excursion that we barely missed out on, so I have been checking that every day to see if it has opened up.....I'm at the site already, only takes a few more clicks to check prices, and nowadays we are in awe of how the balcony prices are 2x our price 🙂 

 

The longest we have been on the phone (my friend and I take turns calling haha) has been 30 min (over Thanksgiving weekend), its usually within 3-5 min at the most.  One of the first price drops we got was for $12 a piece....that's a fun snack or souvenir!