Cruise Planner Sales?

[Sydnie]

Next cruise is over a year out. I've noticed through other posts that the most current (or at least from a few weeks ago) cruise planner sales only affected ships sailing out through December 2023 (I think this is what I read at least). So my question I was wondering is, how far in advance do cruise planner sales typically affect a sailing? I know it can and will vary from case to case, and I assume they open large "chunks" of months at a time, but wondering around when we can typically start to expect to see the sales hitting our sailing. Thanks so much for any insight!

EDIT: Since I think my original question wasn't clear - My current sailing is NOT getting any of the pre-cruise planner sales (yet). We have everything full price for the past month or so, while other cruises have been offered these pre-cruise planner sales. My question is "WHEN will we start to see ANY of the pre-cruise planner sales applying to our sail date?" Not asking when the best prices typically are offered, just how far out we will see ANY sales, since we currently see none (even while sales are active for other cruise sailings; the current offer only applies to sailings through Dec 2023). Thanks again.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Sydnie
Clarification of question

[Ryan79]

These “sales” are every couple of weeks and are rarely great deals. Sometimes one item will be a decent deal, while the rest won’t be. The only one you really want to be on the lookout for is the Black Friday one.

[ChessE4]

When it comes to excursions, I suggest doing some research in advance so you are ready to pull the trigger when you see a reasonable price.  Sometimes the best excursions aren't the most popular ones. It's important to decide what you really want to do, and sometimes just getting ground transportation to the city or tourist site is enough.  If you want adventure stuff, that will take an excursion, and you can compare Royal to 3rd party sites for cost to see what is reasonable.  Now for dining/beverages, you can track the going rate but don't expect super deals, just a fair one.

[Cactus527]

I've been tracking prices for a while now for cruises since January this year out as far as January 2025. The best prices I have seen have been during their Black Friday sale. It's kind of a misnomer because the actual sale takes place starting around November 15th. By the time Black Friday rolls around, it's on to another sale, so don't miss the earlier one to actually have the really awesome deals! What I'm saying is that since you have time, watch for that one for sure.

[Jill]

I have found that CP sales generally populate a year out. I’m expecting to see a sale for our April 2024 Icon this next sale or the one after. 
 

Sales happen about every 2-3 weeks or so

[twangster]

There is no single answer that is right or wrong.  It depends.

I recently booked a cruise under 30 days out.  Ten days later they advertised a CP sale.  Two excursions dropped $12 each.  One excursion went up. 

Sometimes excursions drop without an announced sale going on.  When I sailed to New Zealand before the pandemic I watch and checked my excursions frequently.  Over the course of months I saved hundreds by finding price drops.  Most of those had nothing to do with "sales", they just dropped the rate apparently to stimulate purchases or as a test to see if one price was more likely to create a purchase.     Whatever the reason it wasn't a defined promotion or sales event.  Sometimes it was just one excursion that dropped.  Many times excursions increased slightly.  The thing is there isn't a fixed price with Royal.  They monitor trends and adjust prices all the time.  If something is selling well they won't ever drop the price of that one excursion while another excursion gets a price drop.  

[Ampurp85]

Sometimes Royal will release things in the planner for cruises over a year away and for others, 9 months beforehand could be the average. For example, I have Mariner booked for Jan 15th, 2024, and Wonder for Jan 21st, 2024. Pretty much everything is available for purchase on my Wonder sailing and only internet and PDCC excursions are available for Mariner. 

Sales will be hit or miss and often you might catch a deal when there is no sale per se. I check the CP probably once a day on average, just to make sure I am not missing out on something. 

[She Sails Away]

This may be obvious, but I just want to point out that sometimes shore excursions don't go on sale, they actually go up in price. Example… My Greenland cruise. They offered a shore excursion for a certain price that seems kind of high, but literally eight hours later they had bumped up the price $50 and then the next day they bumped it up even further. They continued bumping until it sold out.

 

so sometimes the initial offering price (even if it's not on sale) will turn out to be the best deal.