So, when can I get the best deal on an RC cruise?

[MaleficentRN]

Next year will most likely be my last DCL trip, and I only booked that one because they gave me a percentage off after some incidents on last years cruise. The are just too costly.
With them in the past, I have used OBB discount and rebooked opening day and other things to maximize my discount that DCL have been slowly taking away.
I'm moving on and want to know when I can get a good price. Opening day and if so how will I know when that is? Do they have sales? How far ahead of time? I appreciate any direction.

 

[king kamehameha]

There is no direct answer on how to get the best deal on a Royal Caribbean cruise but I can help a little. In the past, as the embarkation date got closer, you could find discounted rates all over the place. This practice was stopped a few years ago and the rate actually went up as the dates got closer. I would always find the best deals far in advance (A year or so) and that worked out well. Now Royal Caribbean has a few new tricks up their sleeve. The deposit is no longer refundable so making reservations that far in advance could be tricky. Life happens and sometimes there is a need to cancel a cruise. This policy makes me think twice before booking. Just think...the average deposit is $250.00 per person at booking. That’s a lot of money to lose should the need to cancel arise. There is another new trick up their sleeve when booking. In the past, when you booked a cruise at anytime, you could pick your own available cabin location. Now they charge a few hundred dollars extra for this “privilege”. I LOVE cruising with Royal Caribbean and have been on many, but all these new policies added to the “nickel and diming” people to death on the cruise are beginning to make me think again. The one advantage to booking with a travel agent vs. direct through RCI is that travel agents will offer some kind of onboard credit or specialty dining as a perk. Having said all that, I am a huge RCI fan and when we don’t cruise with Disney we are always on RCI but all these new policies that are not in our favor will make me think twice before booking with them again. I hope this helps. Note: This is just one cruisers opinion and others may vary

 

[msjprincess]

There is no direct answer on how to get the best deal on a Royal Caribbean cruise but I can help a little. In the past, as the embarkation date got closer, you could find discounted rates all over the place. This practice was stopped a few years ago and the rate actually went up as the dates got closer. I would always find the best deals far in advance (A year or so) and that worked out well. Now Royal Caribbean has a few new tricks up their sleeve. The deposit is no longer refundable so making reservations that far in advance could be tricky. Life happens and sometimes there is a need to cancel a cruise. This policy makes me think twice before booking. Just think...the average deposit is $250.00 per person at booking. That’s a lot of money to lose should the need to cancel arise. There is another new trick up their sleeve when booking. In the past, when you booked a cruise at anytime, you could pick your own available cabin location. Now they charge a few hundred dollars extra for this “privelage”. I LOVE cruising with Royal Caribbean and have been on many, but all these new policies added to the “nickel and diming” people to death on the cruise are beginning to make me think again. The one advantage to booking with a travel agent vs. direct through RCI is that travel agents will offer some kind of onboard credit or specialty dining as a perk. Having said all that, I am a huge RCI fan and when we don’t cruise with Disney we are always on RCI but all these new policies that are not in our favor will make me think twice before booking with them again. I hope this helps. Note: This is just one cruisers opinion and others may vary

Grand Suites and above are non-refundable.

For other rooms you have the option of refundable or nonrefundable. Nonrefundable is a little cheaper and you get some OBC. If you cancel a nonrefundable cruise before final payment you get a Future Cruise Credit for the amount of the deposit less $100 pp change fee. I think you have to use the credit within 1 year.

 

[richmo]

We're kind of in the same situation as you. I love DCL, but find that I can't justify the price difference. We took a 4 night cruise this past summer on one of RC's older ships (Enchantment - probably similar in size to Magic/Wonder), went for a balcony rather than the interior we'd probably do on Disney and it was still way less expensive and was very satisfying. And CocoCay is very similar in quality to Castaway Cay...RC currently has a tender at CocoCay that is a bit of an annoyance, but they're working on a dock there that is supposed to open next summer.

Anyway, you'll find that Royal is always running some kind of sale and they are almost identical. Sometimes its 50% off second guest, or 25% off overall, or they'll call it a WOW sale. All basically the same thing. There may be some slight differences in on board credits, but the overall impact on the total price is very minimal. As one poster above noted, prices tend to increase rather than decrease as time goes on. That's certainly true for popular cruises. In our case last summer, we booked a cruise in the last 75 days before sailing and got a discounted rate. I think that's more the exception than the rule. We've booked another cruise for next June. I've occasionally gone back and looked and the prices have risen slightly and I can see the number of staterooms available has decreased to the point I think it will sell out soon, so certainly no discount.

 

[ZerasPride]

Adding my experience - this will be me and my DH's first cruise with Royal For our 25th anniversary next year. We booked before the non-refundable suite requirements but a recent sale made our Grand Suite about $500 cheaper and gave us on board credit so I was able to rebook - only catch was I had to make the booking non-refundable so I did.

Then they ran another sale with free gratuities but I was told we didn't qualify for that sale because it is only for new bookings. I keep checking for further price drops but the current sale is the old higher price so we are good for now but I will keep checking. They always seem to have a "sale". YMMV

 

[John VN]

Adding my experience - this will be me and my DH's first cruise with Royal For our 25th anniversary next year. We booked before the non-refundable suite requirements but a recent sale made our Grand Suite about $500 cheaper and gave us on board credit so I was able to rebook - only catch was I had to make the booking non-refundable so I did.

Then they ran another sale with free gratuities but I was told we didn't qualify for that sale because it is only for new bookings. I keep checking for further price drops but the current sale is the old higher price so we are good for now but I will keep checking. They always seem to have a "sale". YMMV

We booked a GS for March 2018 while on Oasis in a Jr. S last Nov. RCL ran a Net. special that reduced the price so I jumped on it. Just had the recent sale that was no better than the previous sale BUT had a nice Crown Loft reduction for a cruise later in the year. TOO GOOD TO PASS UP so we are now in a CL for later next year.