Never-ending Cruise Sale

[cottoncandysunsets25]

Does anyone have any idea how long the cruise sales usually last? Every time the sale is supposed to end, it gets extended and this has been going on for about 3 weeks or so. I rushed to book a cruise because I thought it was ending and it got extended several more times after. Of course I'm happy I got it booked but I'm curious if this is normal for Royal or are they just trying to fill up their itineraries post-pandemic. I noticed they finally took away the countdown ticker but the sale is essentially still on. 

[jbrinkm]

I wondered this also! I've been waiting for a sale that doesn't include free kids, hoping maybe it would have some other types of perks, but no, just this same, neverending 30% off + free kids.

[Seannie]

17 minutes ago, cottoncandysunsets25 said:

Does anyone have any idea how long the cruise sales usually last? Every time the sale is supposed to end, it gets extended and this has been going on for about 3 weeks or so. I rushed to book a cruise because I thought it was ending and it got extended several more times after. Of course I'm happy I got it booked but I'm curious if this is normal for Royal or are they just trying to fill up their itineraries post-pandemic. I noticed they finally took away the countdown ticker but the sale is essentially still on. 

Not never ending but they run it end it it run it end it repeat ad nauseam.  
 

It’s really annoying…but it works.  It certainly got you and me, cottoncandy.

[Moby Dick]

My observation is that there is virtually always some type of cruise fare sale going on.  I believe that there are 3 or 4 different iterations of sales that they rotate through.  However, no matter what they call them, in the end, they give about the same deal/savings.  YMMV

[ChessE4]

The main point is whether you think the price is fair for the type of room and time of year you are sailing.  On our first few cruises, we really didn't know what a "fair" fare really was, and we paid a premium for sailing in the summer when our son was out of school.  Now we know we can book 1-2 years in advance and get a lower price.

As for sale prices, we once panicked when our agent was on vacation and booked a "sale price" with another agent only to learn that our agent could have obtained the same price when she returned on Monday.  

So it's back to your decision about what you are willing to pay for your stateroom selection, port, ship, and time of year.

[DMLM]

7 hours ago, Moby Dick said:

My observation is that there is virtually always some type of cruise fare sale going on.  I believe that there are 3 or 4 different iterations of sales that they rotate through.  However, no matter what they call them, in the end, they give about the same deal/savings.  YMMV

Fully agree on this.  Royal has been famous (for years) for creative ways to spin the sales, create excitement, and end up with around the same deal.  It is amazing how they can increase a base fare and then increase the discount to end up the same.  They also lower the base fare and decrease the discounts.  They will reduce discounts and offer OBC.  In the end all of these things equal about the same.  When it first started I was so surprised they could actually get away with the old increase price and discount with heavy marketing on "Sale".      Always worth checking though

 

Still love cruising and especially cruising Royal!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Anecdotally, it seems as if they either have the cruise itself OR the Cruise Planner items on "sale" (not really) at any given time but almost never both of them at the same time.  I guess they think that people who book a cruise (at some presumed discount) will automatically purchase CP items at the same time....but we're too smart for them, right ?  

[TravisMA81]

I think that the never ending sale price is the actual price.  They slap a sale percentage on it so people think they're getting a deal.  Most of the time my drink packages have been 20% or 25% off.  I've noticed that there'll be a 35% or 45% off once or twice a year.  That could be the real sale.  Menards has had the same 11% off sale all year, and they have an end date but it renews the very next day.  It's all marketing.   

[twangster]

The price of a cruise is not a fixed amount.  Each category of cabin can vary in price daily or sometimes the rate stays the same for a while.  It all depends on booking trends. 

The actual sale promos can induce price changes but that is often specific to a party and qualifiers like age, state, service history, etc.  In many cases a new sales promo doesn't change anything for everyone but that doesn't mean that someone else didn't benefit.  

Bottom line book when the price works for you and then monitor for price drops or better yet use a travel agency that does that for you like MEI Travel.    

[jticarruthers]

Royal has been "on sale" for years now, the sale goes away the price doesn't change, its all marketing ploys and every now and then someone screws up their math and some people actually do get some savings from a "new sale".

Buy it when the price works for you and then price check from time to time to see if it has gotten cheaper.

[Moby Dick]

59 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Anecdotally, it seems as if they either have the cruise itself OR the Cruise Planner items on "sale" (not really) at any given time but almost never both of them at the same time.  I guess they think that people who book a cruise (at some presumed discount) will automatically purchase CP items at the same time....but we're too smart for the, right ?  

You stole my thunder.  I was going to say, us old timers, at least me, don't fall for the fare sales, we know its like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it will change.  If you miss a good, so called sale today, it will be back tomorrow.  It's the newbs that fall for the, "Hurry up and buy now", "Sales ends in 6 hours" sales.  But, I must say, it works for them.    

[dwp10mm]

Agree with all here.  That actual "sale" hasn't changed in months.  I've been tracking a 4 day for about 2 weeks now and was waiting to see if any new sale was going to start. Instead, I noticed I haven't received a promotional email from Royal in a week now.  Normally these are daily mailings.  So either their email is being blocked or they stopped the marketing frequency in the past week.  At this point no sales is going to make a material pricing difference in the cruise I'm tracking.  So I'll just log in and price it several times a day.  For cruise planner purchases, I'm holding out for Black Friday.  Only concern is if that is too close to my Dec. 11th Oasis cruise to secure a larger than normal discount on the Deluxe Beverage Package.  

[SpeedNoodles]

The best prices on Cruise Planner things that I have found have rarely been on Black Friday. I'd personally never hold out for it.  The best prices I've found on Shore Excursions haven't even been during published sales, but rather just randomly.  I always buy what I want, and reprice it as the opportunity arises.

[WAAAYTOOO]

9 minutes ago, dwp10mm said:

Agree with all here.  That actual "sale" hasn't changed in months years. 

 

[Matt]

8 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

The best prices on Cruise Planner things that I have found have rarely been on Black Friday. I'd personally never hold out for it

This.

 

[Moby Dick]

The best sale finding strategy is to have a shopaholic like my wife.  She spends about the first hour or two of every day going through Royal's site, Amazon, Best Buy, JCP, et al.  I don't think we ever paid the original booking price for a cruise yet, because of her.  So, I don't mind making my mind up, spontaneously, and purchasing a cruise, sale or not (it's really just the deposit anyway).  I know she will eventually find at least one lower price for that cruise, usually several times.  Both my daughters and their husbands work hard and don't really have time for that kind of shopping so my wife does it for them.  

[Ampurp85]

I too am one of those people who will spend an hour or two browsing my top places to see if deals are to be had. I have found that RCG just changes the wording and always extends some sort of "sale." But I always book at a price I am comfortable with and usually early. I have seen a "sale" change midday on RCG websites.  

[Cakemeister]

I track the price of selected cruises on a spreadsheet. Sometimes the price is indeed lower, by a small amount, but not 30%, more like 10% max. 

Cruise prices are probably more dependent on the amount of bookings made, the spot price of fuel, the number of COVID cases, the time of year, the amount of time before sailing, and more factors than an actual sale price. Supply and demand and all that.

[cottoncandysunsets25]

So much great insight!! Funny to hear the "sale" goes on for months/years haha, somehow it's the first I'm noticing! My husband also suggested there was no way the "sale" price wasn't the actual price because then the actual rate would just be ridiculous! I feel like we got a good deal on our 7-day oasis cruise in January but I will definitely continue to monitor the prices for any potential discount! 

[Moby Dick]

11 minutes ago, cottoncandysunsets25 said:

So much great insight!! Funny to hear the "sale" goes on for months/years haha, somehow it's the first I'm noticing! My husband also suggested there was no way the "sale" price wasn't the actual price because then the actual rate would just be ridiculous! 

Exactly, If you pay "FULL PRICE" for a cruise you ether have too much money, booking too late, or you're just not trying hard enough.  

[Jolly Ogre]

1 hour ago, dwp10mm said:

Agree with all here.  That actual "sale" hasn't changed in months.  I've been tracking a 4 day for about 2 weeks now and was waiting to see if any new sale was going to start. Instead, I noticed I haven't received a promotional email from Royal in a week now.  Normally these are daily mailings.  So either their email is being blocked or they stopped the marketing frequency in the past week.  At this point no sales is going to make a material pricing difference in the cruise I'm tracking.  So I'll just log in and price it several times a day.  For cruise planner purchases, I'm holding out for Black Friday.  Only concern is if that is too close to my Dec. 11th Oasis cruise to secure a larger than normal discount on the Deluxe Beverage Package.  

Hey we will be on the same sailing. I booked my drink pkg 11/23/21. You got to book them early.

[Jolly Ogre]

15 minutes ago, Moby Dick said:

Exactly, If you pay "FULL PRICE" for a cruise you ether have too much money, booking too late, or you're just not trying hard enough.  

No, you just don't have the right TA.

[Moby Dick]

41 minutes ago, Jolly Ogre said:

No, you just don't have the right TA.

That too.  However, I'm leaning towards self booking (no TA) in the future.  But, I haven't fully made up my mind on that, yet.  I'm just not comfortable working with a middle man/woman anymore.  I'm retired, I don't mind sitting on my recliner, on hold as I'm watching reruns of Murder She Wrote LOL.  I just don't get a warm fuzzy when I get some answers from a TA.  Far too often, they seem to be guessing or confused because of the many cruise lines, airlines, hotel chains, ............ they deal with.  Not that the "phone answerers" at Royal are much better but they are exclusive and hopefully fully trained  to the Royal brand.  Just my opinion, of course.  

I'm sure that there are some very good TAs out there and at least one that has the software that checks for lower prices.  But, again I think I'll go to the horses mouth. MAYBE!  

[Sharla]

15 minutes ago, Moby Dick said:

at least one that has the software that checks for lower prices

Yes, but it's not a perfect software. It's still manual checking a lot. 

You're paying for a TA whether you use one or not, it is built in to your cruise fare. 

[Moby Dick]

9 minutes ago, Sharla said:

Yes, but it's not a perfect software. It's still manual checking a lot. 

You're paying for a TA whether you use one or not, it is built in to your cruise fare. 

That should be obvious.  If it doesn't cost extra to use a TA, the commission is built in somewhere, even if you don't us one.  Fur sur!

[Done]

12 hours ago, cottoncandysunsets25 said:

Does anyone have any idea how long the cruise sales usually last? Every time the sale is supposed to end, it gets extended and this has been going on for about 3 weeks or so. I rushed to book a cruise because I thought it was ending and it got extended several more times after. Of course I'm happy I got it booked but I'm curious if this is normal for Royal or are they just trying to fill up their itineraries post-pandemic. I noticed they finally took away the countdown ticker but the sale is essentially still on. 

Has anyone ever found that the base price of the cabin has increased during the new extended sale period?  I have not but that is always a possibility.

 

[Jolly Ogre]

44 minutes ago, Sharla said:

Yes, but it's not a perfect software. It's still manual checking a lot. 

You're paying for a TA whether you use one or not, it is built in to your cruise fare. 

Yeppers...Michelle from MEI is my TA. Could not be more satisfied.

[Moby Dick]

Just curious, how/why can the big box TAs give up to $2,000.00 of OBCs while others don't give any or maybe up to $100.00.  I assume they all get the same commission from the Cruise Lines.  I talked to Danny at Harr Travel once, a few years ago and all he said was that the big box TAs deal in quantity.  That really doesn't fully satisfy my curiosity, however.  Inquiring minds want to know!

[Sharla]

9 minutes ago, Moby Dick said:

Just curious, how/why can the big box TAs give up to $2,000.00 of OBCs while others don't give any or maybe up to $100.00.  I assume they all get the same commission from the Cruise Lines.  I talked to Danny at Harr Travel once, a few years ago and all he said was that the big box TAs deal in quantity.  That really doesn't fully satisfy my curiosity, however.  Inquiring minds want to know!

When an agency offers an automatic onboard credit for booking a cruise, this is known as “rebating.” The amount of the onboard credit comes out of the agent’s side of the commission. (Not the agency’s side.) With large Online Travel Agencies or Warehouse Agencies such as Costco who do a huge volume of business, their agents make a salary plus small commission so this does not affect their paycheck much, if at all. But for self-employed agents like myself, that onboard credit comes directly out of my pocket.

 

[Moby Dick]

17 minutes ago, Sharla said:

 for self-employed agents like myself, that onboard credit comes directly out of my pocket.

Well, that sucks!

Thanks for the info though!  

[dmattinson]

One of my cruises I was able to get 3 pricing adjustments in a 4 day period this week. A sale, a meh “sale”, and another sale. Promos are different but base rate dropped the last two times. 
 

Another cruise I have w/ MEI changed on Thursday and I got over $200 off and my agent just got back to me for another $100 off.