F1guynz Posted July 4, 2019 Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 The latest RCI for the Pacific region has started today and has some good deals on at the moment The price of the cruise we were looking at for 2021 on Serenade came down $1000 from yesterday so we have booked. I am not sure if U.S citizens can book through the Australian website but the pricing is far cheaper than the U.S website for the same sailing, especially when you consider Australia/NZ cruises include gratuities in the cruise fare. Example for our cruise: US website price for Junior Suite: $4605USD + $232USD gratuities Price for the same cabin on the Australian/NZ website: $5304NZD converted to USD = $3557. Deposits are lower as well. The only gotcha is you lose your deposit on a NRDB as FCC is not offered on suite bookings (unless you book in NZD but that is a whole other story) JLMoran, KWofPerth, mworkman and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattymay Posted July 4, 2019 Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 I knew that NRD would come back to bite me! You can book from the different websites but if you need to call them for any reason then Australia/NZ team can't help with US made bookings and vice-versa! They have to transfer you to the correct call centre to help. F1guynz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted July 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 1 hour ago, mattymay said: I knew that NRD would come back to bite me! Thats why I have been waiting for a proper sale. If you book in NZD you can get $200 back as an FCC but it took quite a bit of effort last time. With our Diamond discount taking another $310 off the price I don’t think it will get cheaper than it is now so I pulled the trigger on booking. Booking a cruise is like buying shares, you never know when you have reached the bottom of the price cycle. It used to be so much easier when you could just cancel and rebook online without penalty if your cruise got cheaper. I miss those days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfrattner Posted July 4, 2019 Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 Yep, just convinced the wife to a 11 night south pacific in 2021! Price dropped based on what we wanted by 350ish. Good stuff! ChessE4 and JLMoran 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanessa77 Posted July 4, 2019 Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 Oh dang. First of all, my December cruise is now cheaper than when we booked it September last year. Second of all, now I really wanna book another cruise! But I haven't been on my first cruise yet! Great rates for cruises to NZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted July 4, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2019 24 minutes ago, Vanessa77 said: First of all, my December cruise is now cheaper than when we booked it September last year. Did you book it is non refundable? If not just ring RCI to cancel and rebook to take advantage of the better pricing. It is always hard to know the best time to book. Often the rack rate is best when a cruise first comes out but the discount isn't as deep. The the cruise we just booked the rack rate has gone up $500 but the discount is deeper so it actually works out cheaper than booking early. We can also take advantage of our loyalty discount which trims another $310 off the price. I frequently make mock bookings for cruises we want to take and take screenshots of the pricing so I can see what has changed, and what the RCI maths equation is. As RCI uses the magic word up to before any discount promotion I quite often find the price does not vary even when the switch between up to 50% off each guest and up to 30% off each guest. Sometimes OBC can make a difference to the equation but generally only when you are in a GS or above. My advice is to book another cruise now, You'll love it. ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted July 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2019 The price of our cruise has gone up $800 today but now includes up to $200 USD OBC. Glad we purchased yesterday. Skid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfrattner Posted July 6, 2019 Report Share Posted July 6, 2019 On 7/5/2019 at 9:20 AM, F1guynz said: Did you book it is non refundable? If not just ring RCI to cancel and rebook to take advantage of the better pricing. It is always hard to know the best time to book. Often the rack rate is best when a cruise first comes out but the discount isn't as deep. The the cruise we just booked the rack rate has gone up $500 but the discount is deeper so it actually works out cheaper than booking early. We can also take advantage of our loyalty discount which trims another $310 off the price. I frequently make mock bookings for cruises we want to take and take screenshots of the pricing so I can see what has changed, and what the RCI maths equation is. As RCI uses the magic word up to before any discount promotion I quite often find the price does not vary even when the switch between up to 50% off each guest and up to 30% off each guest. Sometimes OBC can make a difference to the equation but generally only when you are in a GS or above. My advice is to book another cruise now, You'll love it. I booked at the 40% off each guest on the thursday then Friday it changed as we know to 40% off each guess + OBC. So I called them today and I asked "hey my booking was so close to the change of deal, can I get the $100 OBC deal still?" They just rebooked the reservation under the new deal, same room, same price as before even tho it was NRD..... Pretty good considering, so yes don't ask don't get I guess. F1guynz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted July 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2019 6 hours ago, Avfrattner said: I booked at the 40% off each guest on the thursday Happy you were able to rebook and get the OBC. we didn’t get that because we used our Crown and Anchor discount which was $310 NZD. This was better than the $100 USD OBC once the exchange rate is factored in. it was good to see you were unable to modify your NRP as they don’t normally allow that, maybe they have changed their policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12thman Posted July 8, 2019 Report Share Posted July 8, 2019 Thanks @F1guynz do you know what the downside for a US resident booking through Australia website is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1guynz Posted July 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2019 15 minutes ago, 12thman said: Thanks @F1guynz do you know what the downside for a US resident booking through Australia website is? The main thing I am aware of is when cancelling or rebooking a NRD they keep the whole deposit (generally $400AUD) . They won't reprice at a cheaper rate without cancelling so you lose the deposit if it gets cheaper. I am not sure whether it is possible for U.S citizens to book via the Australian website but it certainly looks like there are savings to be had if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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