What is a good sale?

[Courtney]

Hey I was wondering if anyone could let me know what is a good sale? And how often does a good sale occur?

[SpeedNoodles]

Welcome to the forums!

Royal Caribbean runs a sale every few weeks.  The best strategy is to buy things that you want as soon as you know that you want them. If they drop in price, you can cancel and repurchase at the lower price (however, if the price goes up, you've price-protected yourself). Also, things can sell out (like dining packages and shore excursions - so don't wait if you want these things).

Never pay attention to the "percent off" on a sale, just look at the bottom line price. The percentages mean absolutely nothing.  

[twangster]

Are you asking about cruise fare sales or sales for items in the cruise planner like drink packages and shore excursions?

What both have in common on Royal is that they don't offer and sales or promotions that are straight across the board for every ship and every sail date.   If sales are slow for one particular ship and sail date that cruise might go on sale.    Sometimes deals are found outside of "sale" events.  In most cases if you purchase and the price drops you can get the lower price but there are caveats to that.

Buy at a price you are happy with in case it is never offered lower.  Keep checking for lower prices and if you find one try for a price reduction.  

[HeWhoWaits]

A "good sale" is any price you are comfortable paying for a particular cruise or onboard purchases.

Then as noted by @SpeedNoodlesand @twangsterany price drops you see later are an "even better sale."

[wordell1]

Usually the best price is the day the cruise is released for sale.

Use MEI as a travel agent and you will get repriced for any price changes. You can also do this yourself if you book directly but you will have to watch the prices and call Royal to do this.

 

[GKMCruising]

As everyone else has said, sales vary wildly and aren't always consistent between sailings.

For instance, I booked the inaugural on Wonder, as well as a 7-night on Harmony in September, both less than a week apart. The price for the inaugural stayed fairly consistent across sales, while I've had multiple price drops on the Harmony sailing.

[WAAAYTOOO]

The one thing you can be fairly certain about is that anything you can purchase through the Cruise Planner will be MORE expensive if you wait and purchase it onboard.  There are some exceptions related, primarily, to loyalty status, but for the most part, purchasing before you board is a winner.

Your job will be to keep checking prices and refund and rebuy if something is cheaper than what you paid for it.

[Shane D]

I’ve seen many posts that refer to “sales” or %off, where are these?  When I look at my booking options they always appear to be the same??  I’ve certainly never seen a mention of a sale anywhere  Happy to save some me money if I can!

[SpeedNoodles]

5 hours ago, Shane D said:

I’ve seen many posts that refer to “sales” or %off, where are these?  When I look at my booking options they always appear to be the same??  I’ve certainly never seen a mention of a sale anywhere  Happy to save some me money if I can!

They're on the Cruise Planner.  Matt will post sales on the home page of this blog any time they are starting.  They aren't always for every sailing, so if your sailing is still a ways out, you may not be seeing them yet.

 

[Pattycruise]

5 hours ago, Shane D said:

I’ve seen many posts that refer to “sales” or %off, where are these?  When I look at my booking options they always appear to be the same??  I’ve certainly never seen a mention of a sale anywhere  Happy to save some me money if I can!

It is good that you are checking your booking options.
If comfortable, make the cruise planner purchases for the items you want and keep checking their prices.  If they drop you can do a return (via the cruise planner, order history) and do a repurchase at the lower price.
As mentioned above, do NOT pay attention to their % off sign....look at the base price of the item.  Even jot it down.  Royal has some "fuzzy math" that a higher % off does not seem to make the base price go down.

As for cruise itself......I do mock bookings all the way through to almost putting it in my cart. (I do not enter name/home address-it's not needed) Sometimes the base price of the cruise seems the same as previous sales BUT there are specials we do not know about until we "mock book" to the shopping cart.  I've seen my price drop when I enter my Crown and Anchor #, my 55+, my resident state....but if I only looked at the "front page" of the sale I would not know this.   I've also seen % off sales of a cruise somehow have a different price on my booking (sometimes better, sometimes worse) so even if it appears to be "the same old sale" I recommend taking the few minutes to do that mock booking to see where the price is at.   If I find a better deal I contact my TA immediately to get me the price drop, not all travel agents check for this.  If your booking is with Royal you can contact them to get you that better price (while the sale is on)

[rjac]

17 hours ago, Courtney said:

Hey I was wondering if anyone could let me know what is a good sale? And how often does a good sale occur?

Reminds me of my neighbor who became bald. He came home one day with a hair piece and said he got a good deal, it was only $20.00. I told him it was a low price to pay. Sorry for high jacking you post, couldn't him myself.