NCL sales - how often?!?

[Jenbo57]

Hello!

 

My husband and I are pondering a Hawaiian cruise (after several land trips to Hawaii) next May. Does anyone have a feel for how often NCL has sales where you can get free cabin upgrades? And when they do have these sales, do they apply to the Hawaii itinerary also?

 

We booked Alaska (have since moved that booking to another line -- long story) with NCL last year; got a great three category upgrade when we booked. Sure would be nice to get the same for Hawaii; just don't know how long to hold out / if we should.

 

Any thoughts?

[travelingla]

I would love to know the answer to the 'POA and sale' question as well...... I asked NCL once about that and was told the POA never has specials like the other ships.

 

Not sure that is really true - -but she did tell me that. For instance, The NOW promo running applies to most ships -- not the POA or the new EPIC. Guess the POA fills up without promos.

 

If anyone knows differently - please post!

 

Thanks

[Addictedtwo]

Hello!

 

My husband and I are pondering a Hawaiian cruise (after several land trips to Hawaii) next May. Does anyone have a feel for how often NCL has sales where you can get free cabin upgrades? And when they do have these sales, do they apply to the Hawaii itinerary also?

 

We booked Alaska (have since moved that booking to another line -- long story) with NCL last year; got a great three category upgrade when we booked. Sure would be nice to get the same for Hawaii; just don't know how long to hold out / if we should.

 

Any thoughts?

 

We have booked POA for 10/2010 and have been booked since October.

I can tell you that I have been watching the pricing on a regular basis (almost daily) and have not seen any promo's since, but at least we have the cabin we want.

We went to Hawaii in 2008 on POH now the Jade and I know there were lots of promo's back then as they were trying to fill 3 ships. So I guess since they are filling only one now they are probably not having any problems filling it.

I also know that the last 1/4 that NCLA posted was a profitable one.

It's also the only cruise line with that particular itinerary.

 

In any case I will continue to monitor pricing up till final payment which is not due till later part of July.

We have used this same process for most of our cruises as cabin selection is important to us and I have never been refused price reductions when I have found them and called our PCC which is another reason why we like to deal direct with NCL rather than through a TA.

[big green]

There is only one cruise ship home ported in hawaii-- NCl has it--do not look for many bargains on the POA.

 

BG

[mylesf]

Because NCL now is down to one ship sailing the island, in most cases, the price points increase vs decreases, over time. Balconies are the first to go on this ship. With that in mind, because the ship is selling NCL is not going to offer deep discounts or OBC, unless they really get into a pinch. No need to when the price points for all their other destinations are so low.

[JessLCH]

I have no idea what the rhyme or reasoning is behind NCL pricing. We booked our Aug 09 PoA sailing back in Feb 08. At that time I booked an AE suite for over $6000 and a BA for over $3000. In August 08 the price on the AE dropped to under $4000. We got our price adjusted and booked two more AEs for family. Eventually, the BA dropped several times and I got price adjustements each time. We got the BA for around $2300 in the end. NONE of these price drops were associated with an advertised "sale." I think it pays to keep checking prices regularly, even at different times of day. (I mentioned in another post that i notice prices tend to drop in late afternoon/evening.) On the other hand, the price on our A3 villa on Pearl last year, never had any real bargains.

[Jenbo57]

Thanks for your input, everyone! I think I'll go ahead and book now; I can get an aft balcony cabin for what we paid for the Alaska cruise we're leaving on on Sunday, and I'm ok with that! And, it seems to me the the prices on the POA are lower than they were when I was looking into doing this one a year or more ago. The economy, maybe?

 

Happy cruising!!! :)

[mac66]

We started looking at the POA last year, through the fall and into the winter for a spring cruise. The longer we waited the cheaper it got. We finally booked about the middle of April for a end of May cruise. We also got two upgrades and paid less than was previously noted. It kind of depends on the time of year I would guess. BTW, it was a very nice cruise and a great way to see the islands.

[Jenbo57]

We started looking at the POA last year, through the fall and into the winter for a spring cruise. The longer we waited the cheaper it got. We finally booked about the middle of April for a end of May cruise. We also got two upgrades and paid less than was previously noted. It kind of depends on the time of year I would guess. BTW, it was a very nice cruise and a great way to see the islands.

 

 

Really?!? Hhhhhmmmm...now I'm thinking maybe I should wait!

 

We love Hawaii, but we always go to Oahu (we fell in love with Kailua, on the windward coast, and keep going back). I'm thinking taking this cruise in May would be a great way to see more of Hawaii, and help us decide where we want to spend a week when we return in November.

[BopRN]

JenBo...Where do you stay in Kailua? We would like to take the cruise then stay for a week in Oahu. Kailua caught my eye because many people seem to rave about it.

[chapichapo]

I've seen 2 "day-sales" ever since we booked our cruise and they weren't really interesting - lots of people here on the forums tried to figure them out and you couldn't even understand what was on sale at which days, it seemed almost like a joke. People kind of figured out it's just a sales thing: they try to get more attention from the word "day-sale" and the fact that it's a time limited thing but nothing really was with a different price. :cool: