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Friendly reminder to check for those price drops!


KLA

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Booked Enchantment a week or so ago over Labor Day (5 nights to Yucatan and Cozumel) as a surprise for husband because I've done too much work travel and having something relaxing on the horizon helps. We've accidentally become suite people, and realized a JS on this sailing would carry us in to Diamond. 

Checked the booking again - saved $160! It was already a pretty good price for 5 nights in a JS, so that price drop was super nice! Also thanks to work travel help, I got our flights and hotel already covered! Looking forward to flying in to Houston and grabbing some Torchy's Tacos before the rest of the trip down to Galveston. 

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Just checked again - price for the Enchantment sailing went down another $75!! I've NEVER had such good luck with price drops. The only other one I can compare to was also on Enchantment, moving from an interior to an OV for $7 - and then having them give us $50 obc... paid to upgrade!

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I booked a 5 day Explorer sailing in Jan. 2020 the last day of the previous sale. MEI re-priced with the new offer and the pricing was exactly the same but I got the $50 savings on top of my C & A balcony discount!  Anytime I can cruise for less than $125/day pp with gratuities and refundable deposit included, I'm in!

 

 

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I called yesterday about my May Alaska cruise on Ovation and saved $205 but lost $100 onboard credit.  This is the 5th time I have called and saved in the last few months.  Thanks to all of you letting us know when prices may have dropped.  I have saved over $1800 by doing this.  I also followed the advice to switch to non-refundable when it gets close to final payment time.  That helped tremendously!  Y'all are great!

 

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On 12/27/2018 at 11:40 AM, KLA said:

Just checked again - price for the Enchantment sailing went down another $75!! I've NEVER had such good luck with price drops. The only other one I can compare to was also on Enchantment, moving from an interior to an OV for $7 - and then having them give us $50 obc... paid to upgrade!

So... we have put down a deposit for a Thanksgiving cruise, we booked while onboard last week (NextCruise). How do price drops work?

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1 minute ago, HtownHolly said:

So... we have put down a deposit for a Thanksgiving cruise, we booked while onboard last week (NextCruise). How do price drops work?

If you have booked it yourself and are not transferring the booking to a travel agent, you'll want to check the price of your sailing every time a new promotion comes out. @Matt posts to the main blog whenever a new promo starts, so you'll always know. The more zealous among us check the prices daily, because sometimes a random drop happens. To check the price, go to the site using a private browsing window, so that your login isn't picked up by the site, and do a mock booking -- select the same cruise, same number of cabins / passengers, and as close to the same cabin selection as you can (e.g., if you booked a 4D balcony, pick another one close to what you have). At that point, see what the final price is (including port taxes and fees); if it's lower than your current booking price, call Royal and ask them to rebook new at the new rate.

If you have transferred your booking to a travel agent, he or she should do all of that for you with every new promotion, and will handle calling Royal to rebook for you. Several of us here regularly get emails from our TAs with savings they've gotten us every so often. But keep in mind that a travel agent typically just looks for the lowest overall price, which will include any on-board credit in the promo. If you prefer to simply have the lowest possible booking price, regardless of OBC offered, be sure to let them know so they take that into account whenever they do a price check.

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36 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

If you have booked it yourself and are not transferring the booking to a travel agent, you'll want to check the price of your sailing every time a new promotion comes out. @Matt posts to the main blog whenever a new promo starts, so you'll always know. The more zealous among us check the prices daily, because sometimes a random drop happens. To check the price, go to the site using a private browsing window, so that your login isn't picked up by the site, and do a mock booking -- select the same cruise, same number of cabins / passengers, and as close to the same cabin selection as you can (e.g., if you booked a 4D balcony, pick another one close to what you have). At that point, see what the final price is (including port taxes and fees); if it's lower than your current booking price, call Royal and ask them to rebook new at the new rate.

If you have transferred your booking to a travel agent, he or she should do all of that for you with every new promotion, and will handle calling Royal to rebook for you. Several of us here regularly get emails from our TAs with savings they've gotten us every so often. But keep in mind that a travel agent typically just looks for the lowest overall price, which will include any on-board credit in the promo. If you prefer to simply have the lowest possible booking price, regardless of OBC offered, be sure to let them know so they take that into account whenever they do a price check.

Awesome, thanks! Yeah we had them set the booking up "through" MEI, so I'll let them know that we are only interested in lowest booking price rather than any total including OBC (I'll rabidly track excursion package prices on my own... rather than look for OBC to apply towards them). Thanks :)

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Stupid questions about this, but I just want to clarify because in past cruises I didn't even know it was possible to get a better price when/if there's a price drop.  It has to be done before final payment, I assume?  And can you do it on both refundable and non-refundable bookings? Do you keep your same room number?  I am working through travel agents - my most recent booking is through MEI, so I know that'll get done right, but I booked my June Alaskan cruise through another agency (before I discovered this site) and I really don't trust her - despite being listed on Royal's recommended travel agents, I have very little confidence in her - and I KNOW she won't check prices. Lesson learned!

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7 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Stupid questions about this, but I just want to clarify because in past cruises I didn't even know it was possible to get a better price when/if there's a price drop.  It has to be done before final payment, I assume?  And can you do it on both refundable and non-refundable bookings? Do you keep your same room number?  I am working through travel agents - my most recent booking is through MEI, so I know that'll get done right, but I booked my June Alaskan cruise through another agency (before I discovered this site) and I really don't trust her - despite being listed on Royal's recommended travel agents, I have very little confidence in her - and I KNOW she won't check prices. Lesson learned!

Yes, it has to be done before final payment.  It can be done with both ref & non-ref bookings, and everything stays the same.  Room doesn't change.  

I have three TAs I work with; two check automatically and one doesn't.   The latter will check if I e-mail and ask them to.  I usually just check myself on those and e-mail if there is a drop.  

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