Labor Day Upgrade Sale

[jonthomas]

I tried to see if there is a way to book one more...nope...we are all booked up...every two months...

 

best sale of the year and all I have is one cruise, waiting for the agent to get back to me...

 

it is the one that we are waitlisted for a regular cabin instead of the handicap cabin...

 

does B5 qualify for cabin upgrade?

[Sthrngary]

I am confused.  The Cruise Brands Oceania or anyone else use algorithms to set prices.  Those prices as time goes on can go up or down.  All controlled by a computer program.  Some agents or agencies my have booked a block of staterooms for a sailing and have some special perks.  Others have some sort of agreement due to volume I guess to offer gratuities. Third party online agencies play with things like, "Non-Refundable Security Deposits", "Cruise Only Prices", and some take away some perks to reduce the price.  This taught me a long time ago to BE careful when a fare is so much different from an online vender.  Just check and ask questions. Now add sales/promotions like the "Four Category Upgrade Sale".  

 

The way I check prices is I go to those online Cruise Sales Companies. I cross check prices to see if what Oceania shows is the same as the On-line Cruise Sales Company.  On the "Extraordinary Sale" it was dead on.  This is NOT a perfect science but it gives me somewhat of a track to run on.  If is looks interesting to me, or if I am booked and want to consider rebooking for the upgrade, I call my travel agent and make the request.  That is when it is confirmed or not.

 

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not.  Worth a bit of research and nothing lost either way.  Example, today I went to the Oceania Website and had to looked under specials.  There was the "four category upgrade sale".  FYI, I booked my current cruise during this same labor day sale four years ago and last year so seeing it again was not a surprise to me.  The promotion was not on the home page, you had to look for it.  This brings me to an important point.  This topic on CruiseCritic.com stimulated the research, yet again.  If I did not know about the promotions through a brochure or email from Oceania, I do now know from this topic.  Where I take it from here is up to me but glad I have the information.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment.

 

 

 

[MEFIowa]

Prices for this sale ain't what they used to be. Either in regard to the ESS earlier this year or past cabin-upgrade sales. Inflation and more.

 

Looked at a 10-night Miami to Miami, 1/25-2/4/2024. On Sirena. The A3 promotional fare without air is $3899. Paid $2099 cruise only for almost an identical cruise on Riviera in 12/2021 in an A4 from the 2021 Presidents' Day sale. (They dropped the private island in the Bahamas for an overnight at Cozumel, but all the other ports the same. We couldn't tender there anyway due to rough seas.)

[Vineyard View]

48 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

You  do not  need to upgrade to the new sale  price unless you want to of course

I do realize this. It was  a statement of observation in context to the dialogue that the summer sale was not published pricing on the website….and therefore, the current published pricing may also not be the pricing available that requires a call to TA or O.  

Edited September 1, 2023 by Vineyard View

[EJL2023]

10 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Prices for this sale ain't what they used to be. Either in regard to the ESS earlier this year or past cabin-upgrade sales. Inflation and more.

 

Looked at a 10-night Miami to Miami, 1/25-2/4/2024. On Sirena. The A3 promotional fare without air is $3899. Paid $2099 cruise only for almost an identical cruise on Riviera in 12/2021 in an A4 from the 2021 Presidents' Day sale. (They dropped the private island in the Bahamas for an overnight at Cozumel, but all the other ports the same. We couldn't tender there anyway due to rough seas.)

Agree.  Actually that cruise on Sirena you mention was also under the Summer Sale. PH prices were same as the A3 now. 

[LHT28]

59 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

does B5 qualify for cabin upgrade?

Is your cruise in the new  upgrade sale?

I would  think if it is  an OV would qualify

[AMHuntFerry]

52 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I do realize this. It was  a statement of observation in context to the dialogue that the summer sale was not published pricing on the website….and therefore, the current published pricing may also not be the pricing available that requires a call to TA or O.  

I just checked a cruise that I have the O website prices from a few days ago (the current "regular" price). The upgraded prices are now showing. An easy way to tell is that the lowest categories (inside and Oceanview) will all be the same price. An example on an R ship (C2 to G are all $3299):

I checked my Summer Sale notes for comparison. The Inside and Oceanview categories are more expensive with the Upgrade Sale, but the regular Veranda (B) categories are cheaper by at least $600 per person, maybe $1000 (I didn't dig into all levels). PHx is not on sale on this cruise.

Lesson: Even if you booked a deeply discounted fare, your category may be cheaper now so it's worth checking.

Edited September 1, 2023 by AMHuntFerry

[jonthomas]

Our only applicable sailing booked at opening prices for a b5 cat, can only get us to a b4, with additional 600pp.

Nope not good.

So that's all for this sale for us.

[LHT28]

35 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

. PHx is not on sale on this cruise.

Lesson: Even if you booked a deeply discounted fare, your category may be cheaper now so it's worth checking.

Looking  at  a TA site  only the lower  Cat seemed to be in the sale

nothing above  A in the promo  but maybe just not listed  🤔

 

[AMHuntFerry]

7 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Looking  at  a TA site  only the lower  Cat seemed to be in the sale

nothing above  A in the promo  but maybe just not listed  🤔

 

This has happened in the past where it appeared not to include PH but then it did...not an issue for me so I'll let someone else do the digging. (Spouse keeps trying to get me to try a capsule hotel but I have standards!)

[EJL2023]

12 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

This has happened in the past where it appeared not to include PH but then it did...not an issue for me so I'll let someone else do the digging. (Spouse keeps trying to get me to try a capsule hotel but I have standards!)

Are you saying that they specifically did not include the sale price online on a PH for a sale, but a call to a TA then found that they were on sale? Or are you saying initially when the sale began they were not included in the sale, but for some reason after a week or so they added them to the sales event and updated the website to reflect the change?

[AMHuntFerry]

2 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

Are you saying that they specifically did not include the sale price online on a PH for a sale, but a call to a TA then found that they were on sale? Or are you saying initially when the sale began they were not included in the sale, but for some reason after a week or so they added them to the sales event and updated the website to reflect the change?

No, sorry I wasn't clearer...sometimes the pdf or online TA website won't have PHs listed, but when the sale shows up on O's site there will be PH sales on a very few sailings (usually just the PH3 for the A1 price which can be very tempting even for the small-shower lovers like us).

[EJL2023]

22 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

No, sorry I wasn't clearer...sometimes the pdf or online TA website won't have PHs listed, but when the sale shows up on O's site there will be PH sales on a very few sailings (usually just the PH3 for the A1 price which can be very tempting even for the small-shower lovers like us).

Ok, thanks for the clarification.  

[Vineyard View]

Just heard from TA. If we want to pay $3,200 additional, we can bump up from an extended balcony B3 to a B1 with this sale. No thank you. I would not consider this a great sale at all. Our itinerary was one included. Really glad we booked when we did! 

[EJL2023]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

Just heard from TA. If we want to pay $3,200 additional, we can bump up from an extended balcony B3 to a B1 with this sale. No thank you. I would not consider this a great sale at all. Our itinerary was one included. Really glad we booked when we did! 

We had one cruise on the Labor Day sale and for us it was also best to stay with original. I expected that to be the case because we had originally booked under the Summer Sale and our category was not even included with the Labor Day sale.  The Upgrade sales are very hit and miss since they do not include all categories.