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Best way to check if booking price went down


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Hi there!  I am new to this forum.  My husband and I are on the Anthem of the Seas in February 2020.  We are currently booked in Royal Grand Suite.  How do I go about checking if the price has dropped since our original booking.  There are no rooms in category left, so I am unable to do a "mock"  booking.   How would you suggest I "keep an eye" on the price? 

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2 hours ago, Kim66 said:

Hi there!  I am new to this forum.  My husband and I are on the Anthem of the Seas in February 2020.  We are currently booked in Royal Grand Suite.  How do I go about checking if the price has dropped since our original booking.  There are no rooms in category left, so I am unable to do a "mock"  booking.   How would you suggest I "keep an eye" on the price? 

See this thread: 

 

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I login each day and capture the different room types (the general per guest cost not including taxes and fees as those don’t change often) and load it into a spreadsheet. That way even when a particular room type isn’t available you can track the trends with the thought that if the room above and the room below went down so did mine. 

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@Andrew72681 and @TheHobbys  so, I need you both to be my new best friends or low cost advisers ??. I cannot lie, I have been hoping that @Lovetocruise2002 would take me up on that offer for some time now (after all, there are no 2 friends more compatible than a Scorpio and a Cancer ???

Come on, I can make you laugh (just don’t require circus tricks, I am just past the age those are workable!)

Lynn ??‍♀️

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2 hours ago, Andrew72681 said:

I login each day and capture the different room types (the general per guest cost not including taxes and fees as those don’t change often) and load it into a spreadsheet. That way even when a particular room type isn’t available you can track the trends with the thought that if the room above and the room below went down so did mine. 

EA4F95A0-1CF7-4F8D-8EF5-DB20CDFC5F60.jpeg

Lol...glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this.  I have these crazy spreadsheets that tracks prices often of all rooms (and I currently have 5 cruises booked ?)

But if room is sold out as in OP not sure you can get a price drop.

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30 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Lol...glad to hear I'm not the only one who does this.  I have these crazy spreadsheets that tracks prices often of all rooms (and I currently have 5 cruises booked ?)

But if room is sold out as in OP not sure you can get a price drop.

You can. @Lovetocruise2002 is a pro at it. 

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Ok, those spreadsheets are crazy!  I have a file with a bunch of screenshots that I title and date.  I'm not a spreadsheet girl.  That's Hubby's department.

I hate excel but learned to live with it. My wife is the accountant so she should be keeping the spreadsheets. But she hasn’t planned a vacation in the 17 years we’ve been together. 

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1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Ok, those spreadsheets are crazy!  I have a file with a bunch of screenshots that I title and date.  I'm not a spreadsheet girl.  That's Hubby's department.

If I had screenshots how would I be able to show a graph to my wife that proves booking ~600 days out was the smart move ?

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6 minutes ago, Andrew72681 said:

But she hasn’t planned a vacation in the 17 years we’ve been together. 

Lol. Hubby has not planned a vacation in the 21 years that we have been together. I am the mastermind behind it all. #homegenie

4 minutes ago, Andrew72681 said:

If I had screenshots how would I be able to show a graph to my wife that proves booking ~600 days out was the smart move ?

I just show hubby the price we got it for and then mention it to him when the price jumps sky high. Over time I have his complete trust in vacation planning...?

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I wonder if (hope!) someone can explain this to me: A balcony stateroom on my cruise is listed on the RC website as costing "from $500." I select the cruise, the place on the ship (amidships), the deck (8), and the cabin (class 2D) and lo and behold, the price before the subtraction of BOGO and the addition of taxes and fees comes out to $1650! Then the BOGO is subtracted and the taxes added and the cost is $1215 for 2 people.

So how can I monitor the prices if "$500" really means $1215? Do I need to go through the whole selection every time I want to check the price? Or just look at the $500 to see if it goes up or down? And what pushes the price from $500 pp to $1650?

Thank you in advance, I hope someone will respond. I'm totally new at this.

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4 minutes ago, tiny blonde said:

I wonder if (hope!) someone can explain this to me: A balcony stateroom on my cruise is listed on the RC website as costing "from $500." I select the cruise, the place on the ship (amidships), the deck (8), and the cabin (class 2D) and lo and behold, the price before the subtraction of BOGO and the addition of taxes and fees comes out to $1650! Then the BOGO is subtracted and the taxes added and the cost is $1215 for 2 people.

So how can I monitor the prices if "$500" really means $1215? Do I need to go through the whole selection every time I want to check the price? Or just look at the $500 to see if it goes up or down? And what pushes the price from $500 pp to $1650?

Thank you in advance, I hope someone will respond. I'm totally new at this.

You should always compare the same method , the 500 $ is per person after the BOGO  considering you are booking at leas two people (they calculate already the discount in the price they show you) minus Taxes and fees .

So in your case I guess its (500*2) + 215 taxes and fees (which really depends on the ports , some ports will take more taxes than other) , so looking on 500 price is Ok to check for changes.

If you have more than two people in the room and if you adding children under 12 you might want to compare the final number as sometimes you have discounts for third and fourth person in the room (most of the times 30%) and kids sells free.

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4 hours ago, tiny blonde said:

I wonder if (hope!) someone can explain this to me: A balcony stateroom on my cruise is listed on the RC website as costing "from $500." I select the cruise, the place on the ship (amidships), the deck (8), and the cabin (class 2D) and lo and behold, the price before the subtraction of BOGO and the addition of taxes and fees comes out to $1650! Then the BOGO is subtracted and the taxes added and the cost is $1215 for 2 people.

So how can I monitor the prices if "$500" really means $1215? Do I need to go through the whole selection every time I want to check the price? Or just look at the $500 to see if it goes up or down? And what pushes the price from $500 pp to $1650?

Thank you in advance, I hope someone will respond. I'm totally new at this.

The "from $500" is likely for the lowest category of balcony - a 2D (mid ship) is going to be the most expensive balcony usually (I've been booking 2Ds so I get where you're coming from).

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I too do the daily price check, but I have this google doc to help speed up the process. I took the URL from right after you select the ship and sail date, you you go to pick cabin and people numbers and threw them all in the same document along with the original price I booked at/any new adjustments since. Though I do recommend checking in incognito mode to avoid the emails from Royal of “HEY DID YOU WANT TO COMPLETE THAT BOOKING?! :D”

 

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1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

The problem I've seen with Cruise Fish, is that it is not always update to the day.

But you can find something on the page and then go look at the pricing on Royal.

 

True - and they don’t necessarily send you emails either ☹️ I emailed about that, got silence in return.

I haven’t spent a ton of time with their charts, but the two time that it seemed to go down by their numbers RCL (via an independent agent) said otherwise (in one case no change and in the other actually an increase). If anyone has more experience with their data, how do you “translate” it when comparing it to numbers at RCL?

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Your responses are very helpful, thank you. From what I can see, the prices for my April 2020 cruise are going UP, and I scored a good deal booking when I did (a year in advance). 

This question is more tricky, and it's actually three questions: How far does the price have to drop before I might wangle an upgrade to a junior suite, and do I want a junior suite, and how do I go about requesting one?

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28 minutes ago, tiny blonde said:

Your responses are very helpful, thank you. From what I can see, the prices for my April 2020 cruise are going UP, and I scored a good deal booking when I did (a year in advance). 

This question is more tricky, and it's actually three questions: How far does the price have to drop before I might wangle an upgrade to a junior suite, and do I want a junior suite, and how do I go about requesting one?

Price changes are generally applied within a category of cabins based on availability.  If there are surplus interior cabins while the suites are booking well, it's conceivable that interior cabins will drop in price while suites continue to increase in price.  If the opposite was true, suites are not booking up while interior cabins are, it's conceivable that interior cabins will increase in price while suites decrease in price.  This varies on a cruise by cruise basis so here is no single answer to your question - it depends.

If you want to upgrade call the same organization who you booked with and ask them the cost to upgrade.   If you booked direct, call Royal.  If you booked through a travel agent call them.  

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3 hours ago, twangster said:

Price changes are generally applied within a category of cabins based on availability.  If there are surplus interior cabins while the suites are booking well, it's conceivable that interior cabins will drop in price while suites continue to increase in price.  If the opposite was true, suites are not booking up while interior cabins are, it's conceivable that interior cabins will increase in price while suites decrease in price.  This varies on a cruise by cruise basis so here is no single answer to your question - it depends.

If you want to upgrade call the same organization who you booked with and ask them the cost to upgrade.   If you booked direct, call Royal.  If you booked through a travel agent call them.  

Oh, wow, it's so complicated! I think I'll just be grateful that I managed to get a good (quiet, midships, w. visibility) cabin at a good price, and enjoy the cruise. Thanks for that info.

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I have noticed they play games with pricing when their cookies recognize the computer I'm on. To get around it, I have a little counter action to that game. I have gone to using a "clean" laptop to make that final booking. This time I decided to try next cruise.

I along with my GF are very math minded and analytic> Shes even an accountant. To this day I have never been able to cypher how the hell the posted sale prices relate to what actually is. Booked OV plain jane state room for next year. Two of us and her kids stuffed in a sardine can.  My next cruise  booking statement shows "me" at 1095, Gf at same 1095 but discounted to 584, kids at 599 discounted to 450 Ea. Went on line and it show(ed) 561 pp when I logged in. Did a mock booking apples to apples and it came up about about 400 less than my invoice so I called. I read the numbers in front of me to the agent. That can't be? Start over with a new mock booking. In that short time that "561" changed to 613 as we clicked the same buttons over the phone. New total came up 50 under what I was ultimately charged. She was going to reduce my total to that new number, came back and tried to tell me that was number was for a different cabin subcategory per her "support team" that wouldn't work ??? Right on the screens we both looked at it listed my category and the other as it being valid for. She saw the same thing but couldn't / wouldn't adjust? 

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3 minutes ago, twangster said:

I've observed Next cruise seemingly adjust rates then making it up with OBC.  Dealing with Next is like going to a car dealership.  I walk away feeling icky and slimy.   

We walked away from first three that started playing us. Absurd numbers for class cabins we had no interest in. Telling me there  was no such class as what we were looking for didn't play well.  Fourth rep was the charm. Could tell I had no interest in playing BS games...  Answered questions rather than divert to upsell. 

 

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