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What website(s) do you use to check for price reductions?


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We have a travel agent that we are booked through, and they are somewhat diligent about checking for lower prices between when we've booked and sail date, but not anywhere near how diligent I am (daily checks in most cases).  What website(s) do you use to try and find reduced cruise rates?

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I periodically check Royal Caribbean's site and price compare against my spreadsheet with current price and possible upgrade options. In addition to that, I've used the Cruise Shipmate app, I'd sign up for price alerts for the cruise I want to monitor then uninstall the app (I hate clutter / apps sitting on phone I don't use), they send emails so no need to keep the app. 

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3 minutes ago, sk8erguy1978 said:

I periodically check Royal Caribbean's site and price compare against my spreadsheet with current price and possible upgrade options. In addition to that, I've used the Cruise Shipmate app, I'd sign up for price alerts for the cruise I want to monitor then uninstall the app (I hate clutter / apps sitting on phone I don't use), they send emails so no need to keep the app. 

I also use the RC site as @sk8erguy1978 said. What better place than the source. Also, as in my case, if you have a good TA, they will notify you about price reductions and do the work for you before you know there is a price reduction. 

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I have used  Cruiseline.com (aka Shipmate) but never once in a 18 months monitoring 6 sailings was it ever remotely accurate.  I check what I paid against current prices on Royal Caribbean's site.  Since I book through Royal it's the only price that is relevant to me.

 

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I check the RC site about once a week or so.

Pretty sure I already know the answer, but if a room type is sold out, the price will never drop, and even if it did, there's no real way to check as it will never show as an available room type...correct?  In my case, it's the Apr 4th, 2021 sailing of the Oasis in a Jr Suite.

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11 minutes ago, fgarvin said:

I check the RC site about once a week or so.

Pretty sure I already know the answer, but if a room type is sold out, the price will never drop, and even if it did, there's no real way to check as it will never show as an available room type...correct?  In my case, it's the Apr 4th, 2021 sailing of the Oasis in a Jr Suite.

Nope! This is where your TA will be able to work their voodoo magic! They have ways.............

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11 minutes ago, fgarvin said:

Pretty sure I already know the answer, but if a room type is sold out, the price will never drop, and even if it did, there's no real way to check as it will never show as an available room type...correct? 

Nope.  If a cabin is sold out the the other cabin categories around it drop, more than likely, yours dropped too.  I have gotten many price adjustments over the years this way.  You just have to track it.

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I use cruiseline.com.  You can select any cruise for a price alert.  You'll get an email if the price drops from the date you set up the alert.  I've saved $$$ with this automatic feature but getting the updated rates and working through my TA or when I don't use a TA, the cruise line directly.  Works as long as we have not made the final payment.

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Even though I am an old phart I firmly believe "bots" will end up doing most of the heavy lifting for us in this arena. The mothership for our franchise already has this yet I still enjoy "the hunt" as I wind down my franchise. 

 

My all time favorite (have told before but still kewl) was finding "GS" for a customer that was less $ than their aft balcony on a Radiance class ship. No drop in their category and no drop in the junior suites, yet the "GS" was less than both of them (for around 36 hours anyway yet it wasn't a glitch, just none had sold until then). A "bot" wouldn't have know to even look for that.....yet ;>)

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18 hours ago, cruisellama said:

I use cruiseline.com.  You can select any cruise for a price alert.  You'll get an email if the price drops from the date you set up the alert.  I've saved $$$ with this automatic feature but getting the updated rates and working through my TA or when I don't use a TA, the cruise line directly.  Works as long as we have not made the final payment.

The alerts I get only tell me if the price has dropped or raised since the last time they sent an alert. Never once, when they have sent a "price drop" alert, has the price dropped below what I've paid.  Part of the problem may be that you can't set what you paid.  You only choose a category type.  Well there's several different categories of oceanview balconies - you can't choose "2D", just "oceanview balcony".  Glad it's worked for you, but I've found it completely useless.

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21 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

The alerts I get only tell me if the price has dropped or raised since the last time they sent an alert. Never once, when they have sent a "price drop" alert, has the price dropped below what I've paid.  Part of the problem may be that you can't set what you paid.  You only choose a category type.  Well there's several different categories of oceanview balconies - you can't choose "2D", just "oceanview balcony".  Glad it's worked for you, but I've found it completely useless.

Its really a 2 step process, because as you observed, you have to see the discount on the right category.  I get an alert, then I go to the cruise line website and go the the mock booking process for the same room type I currently have.  If I see a reduced price, I call the TA or the line and execute the discount (or in another case, was able to get an upgraded room).  So the CL alert just gives you a generic ping so then you need to dig down to see if its real.  I only will use the cruise line website after that because its verifiable with the agent.

 

Its easier to use it as a filter/alert so you're not logging into the website and doing mock bookings every day.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

I have a spreadsheet that I use to check for price drops so that I don't  have to do an actual mock booking every time I check.  

Sounds more straight forward.  How do you get the daily pricing info loaded into the spreadsheet?   Is there an app that can pull it?  Or it software that only a TA would have?

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As with others I simply do a mock booking on Royal's site for our date and stateroom category.  I also keep a spreadsheet where I manually enter the price.  I not only keep track of our stateroom category but others as well. It helps know the going rate and if we want to upgrade at some point.  Plus if our category sells out, I can keep track if the category below and above it. It's interesting watching Royal's pricing. A lot of times it bounces between two amounts (for a specific category)

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That's essentially what I end up doing.  I just use the cruise line website for the alert.  You can set it, then forget it.   If I get an email I'll then check the cruise line website and do a mock booking to ensure I see a reduction in my cabin category or one above.     If I see a 10% change, I'll call.   We have a B2B med cruises planned I've seen and benefitted from 2 drops - saved about $1500/cruise.   Also on our next cruise (Edge) our TA was able to upgrade us from an S3 to S1 after we provide him with the info.

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