january discounts

[akamaleficent]

i am getting married in october and since DF is in school we won't be able to go on a honeymoon until christmas break. i have heard that sometimes DCL runs specials in January since it's somewhat of an odd time for cruising. does anyone know if or when these specials are announced?

 

[albiats]

I benefiited from price discounts this past January, but they were very much non typical.

I had booked a 7 day cruise for January 2002 in early June of 2001, with the Early Booking Savings discount.

In August, DCL announced the Fall Fantasy rates because the economy was very slow and people were not able to book cruises as much as before.

In late September, DCL announced the Sunshine Sailaway rates. The economy was worse than it was in early summer and many people cancelled or post poned their cruise plans because of the September 11th Terrorist Attacks.

In October or early November (don't remember the exact time frame) they had further price decreases that did not have a promotion name and they also announced that anyone that had a 4 or 7 day cruise that started in January of 2002 would be entitled to a voucher for a $99 per person cruise for 3 days in the fall of 2002.

The last price break was a heroic attempt on their part to stimulate cruising again and I believe it has worked well.

With each price break, I was able to get my cruise re-priced to the lower amount, which was great.

They have announced and demonstrated that they will be concentrating on using the Early Booking Savings as the primary method to get savings to the guests now, so it looks like your best bet would be to book your cruise as soon as you can determine the dates and itineraries. If you know of a promotion code that comes up after you booked, youcan ask to have it repriced. A better alternative would be to use a Travel Agent such as Dreams Unlimited that will monitor the rates for you and will automatically have your cruise repriced.

I would definitely say that 2001 was extremely unusual for price promotions and I would not count on that many decreases again. We are usually fortunate to see one promotion during a cruise 'season'.

hope that helps