First Day Pricing - How much difference?

[ontheuptick]

I'm looking at a Cruise for my family, which would be our first cruise. I hear people talk all the time (and on the podcast) about how you have to book early to get the best prices. My question is - how much better are those first day prices?

When I price out a 7-day Western Caribbean on the Fantasy in July of 2016, my family of 5 ends up being somewhere between $9,500 - $11,000, depending on whether I do a Deluxe Family Oceanview or 2 connecting Inside rooms.

I priced out Royal Caribbean Allure/Oasis ships and got around $6,000 for a similar cruise. That's a lot of difference.

I'm likely going to wait until 2017 summer to make this cruise. Any idea how much lower this same cruise would have been priced if I had made the reservation on the first day that itineraries came out?

Are we talking 10% better? 20%? 30%?

Thanks!

 

[Mrs Green]

I just checked western July 2016 cruises on cruise fish and the prices haven't gone up since opening day. So the quote you have is still the same as if you had booked opening day. Sorry I couldn't bring you better(aka more affordable) news

 

[ontheuptick]

I guess I am new enough to cruising that I don't know what cruise fish is, but just looked at the website real quick. So basically that site tracks prices, and would show you when they have gone up or down. If those cruises haven't changed their price since opening day why does everyone say that you have to book so early? From listening to podcasts and such I've always been under the impression that the difference was quite dramatic.

$10k for a family seems a little rich, dang.

 

[Mrs Green]

There are many a thread about Disney pricing families out, so you are in good company with those feelings. Regarding opening day, a lot of people can speak to this better then me so I will let them but I will give you an example from my cruise. I am booked for Alaska in August 2016 ( first cruise woohoo!). I booked opening day so I could get the room I wanted at the lowest price (knowing this popular cruise has little chance of being discounted). My cabin category has seen three price increases. My guess is that the July 2016 western fantasy is not selling all that quickly so they haven't raised prices yet. This could bode well for you for booking in 2017 but likely not enough to get the rccl price.

 

[lanejudy]

Fares CAN increase, sometimes even within hours on opening day. But that is generally on special itineraries -- new ports, only one cruise date, etc. Holiday and peak vacation cruises also increase, though maybe not as dramatically. You are looking at a fairly standard itinerary, and while it is peak school vacation time in July, possibly the "usual-ness" of the itinerary may hold the fares from jumping too quickly.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[KristiMc]

Our June 2015 Alaskan cruise went up close to $2000 from when we booked it on opening day. Prices do go up as the rooms sell. Unfortunately DCL has started the opening day prices high to begin with - and keep raising them every year.

 

[KashasMom]

We booked our Nov 2016 cruise in May (first day bookings were open to the "public") and our cruise has gone up almost 60%! (I actually think we got a SUPER price!!) This may be because it is one of the special NYC itineraries because that kind of increase within 2 months is NOT the norm. Special cruises (like the European ones) do increase very quickly because people just book them just to hold them. That drives up the prices (and many of those people will cancel before final payment). Summer on the Fantasy is not going to be cheap!

 

[lbgraves]

I guess I am new enough to cruising that I don't know what cruise fish is, but just looked at the website real quick. So basically that site tracks prices, and would show you when they have gone up or down. If those cruises haven't changed their price since opening day why does everyone say that you have to book so early? From listening to podcasts and such I've always been under the impression that the difference was quite dramatic.

$10k for a family seems a little rich, dang.

This is how things have been in the past. As DCL's pricing gets more and more ridiculous, that seems to go out the window. We always booked opening day and watched the prices go up A LOT before we cruised...sometimes thousands more. That was when we could book a cat 8 for around $4000 for the four of us on a 7-night cruise. Now that the pricing starts out more than it use to top out at, that doesn't happen as much. Prime dates would increase by the hour even opening day and some sold out the first day as well. DCL's strategy seems to be to get the last minute cruiser who books with a "deal". The price is less than opening day, but still much more than what many DCL vets consider reasonable. This *GT rate requires full payment at the time of booking and doesn't allow any changes. DCL then has a definite guest count and doesn't have to worry about people transferring right before the PIF date and having tons of rooms open up on what was an almost sold out cruise before.

 

[dsnydaddy]

First, It varies greatly with cruise. Time of year and popularity of itinerary. We usually sail in October. As a result opening day prices can be had for quite a while. Here's some examples of cruises we have taken:

Eastern Caribbean October 2015 Cat 6a (two people quotes) Opening day: $3044 Now: $3530 16% increase
WBPC Sept 2014 Cat 11B Opening day: $3235 three months before sailing: $3885 20% increase
Two night Cruise to Nowhere Jan 2011 Cat 5A April 2010: $819 one month later before they sold out: $938 14.5% increase

I used to have a couple of other cruises tracked but I can't find the files! Bottom line is this, if you are planning on a Disney Cruise then Opening day is the day to book. That said, I have seen times where the increased price that the former year left off with was the beginning price for the next year. And with that in mind, maybe it's best not to wait either.

 

[dkg711]

I just did the math on our upcoming 5 night Western Caribbean cruise in October 2015 for 2A and 2C in a verandah stateroom. There is a staggering 80% price increase from the time we booked in June 2014. We've been on four cruises (all four on different cruise lines) before our upcoming cruise and this will be our first Disney cruise. We had no idea about DCL cruisers vying for first day pricing, but I guess we got lucky and booked early enough to get a "reasonable" price. There is no way we could afford this cruise if we had to book it using today's pricing. Based on my experience, I would book a Disney cruise as early as you possibly can.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

I'm looking at a Cruise for my family, which would be our first cruise. I hear people talk all the time (and on the podcast) about how you have to book early to get the best prices. My question is - how much better are those first day prices?

When I price out a 7-day Western Caribbean on the Fantasy in July of 2016, my family of 5 ends up being somewhere between $9,500 - $11,000, depending on whether I do a Deluxe Family Oceanview or 2 connecting Inside rooms.

I priced out Royal Caribbean Allure/Oasis ships and got around $6,000 for a similar cruise. That's a lot of difference.

I'm likely going to wait until 2017 summer to make this cruise. Any idea how much lower this same cruise would have been priced if I had made the reservation on the first day that itineraries came out?

Are we talking 10% better? 20%? 30%?

Thanks!

Wow, that is EXPENSIVE! I love the Fantasy and have done that cruise with 4 people, but that is too much$$$ that is more than our Med cruise we have booked in 2016. I know price goes up a LOT with a 5th person, but I can only assume that price is so high because peak of summer ?
Can you travel another month?

 

[Tink34]

Where on cruise fish can you see the opening day pricing? I've looked at all of the tabs and can't seem to find the right spot on the website.
Thanks!

 

[Mrs Green]

Where on cruise fish can you see the opening day pricing? I've looked at all of the tabs and can't seem to find the right spot on the website.
Thanks!

Go to finder tab and select the ship and cruise you want to know about. If the numbers are black it means they haven't changed, if they are red the price went up. To see the price increases hover over the red number and you will see the dates and increases.

 

[GeneMachine]

Probably it depends on the itinerary and the timing (school vacations) and demand, so the price increases could be all over the map. I can tell you our experience: we booked on the first day for a 2016 7-nt northern European cruise out of Copenhagen, and the price for two was $6,673.00 for a cat 5B stateroom (this was with a 10% onboard booking dummy reservation that we moved to this cruise). The same cat today is $9,535.38. Even with the 10% discount, the price increase is staggering.

There is a point where the price does get too high, and we are pretty sensitive to that. We are loyal Disney cruisers, but did cancel our 10-day Iceland/fjords cruise we had booked for this summer because it was just way too expensive.

 

[TravelandLeisure]

My family of 3 will sail on the Magic's 3 night Bahamas cruise on March 31, 2016. I booked a Cat 11C at the beginning of March (2015) for $1,576.00 (which I thought was surprisingly reasonable for Disney compared to some of their other 3-nighters).

Looking on the website, as of today, the total price for my family for the same cruise would be $1,930.00. So it has gone up over $300.00 in about 4 months.

 

[Cheerio]

We booked our Feb 2016 cruise on opening day, paying $7800 for two insides (6 ppl) it's now up over 10k and we're still 7mos away.