Opening day pricing cheaper?

[charminnie]

Is the pricing on opening day usually cheaper? I've never booked on opening day so I wasn't sure.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Supposed to be if by cheap you mean crazy expensive but will only go up. ;-)

 

[plethera1]

Funny you should ask this question as I was just checking on pricing to see if it had changed. I booked my cruise on June 1st, close to opening day, for my October 3rd, 2016 cruise. This cruise is for 2 adults/2 kids in a "Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah" room. It has gone up a little over $100 at this point so far. Not a crazy amount but you have to figure that it will start going up quicker as we get closer. We are still a little less than a year out.

 

[ChicosWife]

When will the 2017 pricing be available for viewing on the website?

 

[clten]

When will the 2017 pricing be available for viewing on the website?

As soon as they open booking up to the general public tomorrow (usually around 8 am)

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Is the pricing on opening day usually cheaper? I've never booked on opening day so I wasn't sure.

No. But opening day prices are generally the lowest that will be offered. As space onboard fills, prices only go up. Even those last minute *GT rates that are offered on cruises that aren't selling well, while lower than the prevailing rate, are usually higher than opening day prices.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

It's quite possible the Magic Southern cruises will go up by tomorrow as well even though the pricing is NUTS lol. This happened rapidly with the 11 night Norway/Iceland/Scotland 2015 cruise this past summer and my 5 night Magic NYC/Canada cruise went up by the next day a decent amount. Some cruises don't go up for awhile or barely at all but most seem to.

I always suggest booking on opening day if it's something you really want, a cabin you'd really like, and you are good with the $$. It's not likely to go *GT at this point as DCL seems to be reducing those too and as mentioned, in my experience they are rarely cheaper with *GT compared to opening day.

Heather

 

[lbgraves]

Years ago it was definitely cheaper to book opening day, especially if you had an OBB to transfer. Over the past couple years DCL's pricing scale has blown up so people don't tend to book "maybes" as much as they used to do. This results in most cruises not selling as fast, so the pricing tiers don't go up as quickly as they did. The price increases have resulted in more *GT rates being offered, which sometimes are less than opening day pricing....but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good deal for the DCL veterans since it is still a lot higher than we are willing to pay.

 

[Ofinn]

Sometimes Yes and sometimes No. There are certain cruises on certain weeks of the year that for whatever reason just don't sell. Our Feb 21 cruise on the Magic dropped about 1,500 below opening day with the GT rate and the cruise I just booked out Galveston Dec 4 had a significant price drop below opening day prices. Great GT rates were common in 2014 and early 2015, but they haven't been great the last 6 months.

If you're set on a certain week I would book opening day. We homeschool, and can pretty much sail anytime. I stalk the website daily for discounts. I won't sail unless a get a rate I'm happy with. I have been doing this for 4 years so I have a pretty good idea which cruises are going to be discounted, and I'm not fussy about which port I sail out of. If I didn't homeschool and I was locked into school breaks I would book opening day......actually that's not true I would sail another cruise line because I could never afford DCL's peak prices.

 

[jahber]

Sometimes Yes and sometimes No. There are certain cruises on certain weeks of the year that for whatever reason just don't sell. Our Feb 21 cruise on the Magic dropped about 1,500 below opening day with the GT rate and the cruise I just booked out Galveston Dec 4 had a significant price drop below opening day prices. Great GT rates were common in 2014 and early 2015, but they haven't been great the last 6 months.

If you're set on a certain week I would book opening day. We homeschool, and can pretty much sail anytime. I stalk the website daily for discounts. I won't sail unless a get a rate I'm happy with. I have been doing this for 4 years so I have a pretty good idea which cruises are going to be discounted, and I'm not fussy about which port I sail out of. If I didn't homeschool and I was locked into school breaks I would book opening day......actually that's not true I would sail another cruise line because I could never afford DCL's peak prices.

We are in the exact same situation as you. A few years ago we discovered DCL and fell in love. The *GT and FLR rates we got matched what Royal would cost (and beat opening day prices), and so we always chose DCL. And fell in love, dang it! But even though we homeschool and can vacation any week of the year, it's been impossible to find a good deal this year. So we are moving on to other lines. Oh well. Don't mind me. I'm just sitting over here going through DCL withdrawal

Edited to add: when I say good deals, I mean GOOD deals. We sailed on the Dream 4-night on a FL resident rate in two adjoining cat 4s (upgraded to 4B) for $1500 for 2A2C. That was 2012. I expected some increase each year, but not like what we've seen. Once we've paid that for a cruise and considered it worth it, it's hard to pay double and not feel like we are getting fleeced.

 

[Ofinn]

We are in the exact same situation as you. A few years ago we discovered DCL and fell in love. The *GT and FLR rates we got matched what Royal would cost (and beat opening day prices), and so we always chose DCL. And fell in love, dang it! But even though we homeschool and can vacation any week of the year, it's been impossible to find a good deal this year. So we are moving on to other lines. Oh well. Don't mind me. I'm just sitting over here going through DCL withdrawal

Edited to add: when I say good deals, I mean GOOD deals. We sailed on the Dream 4-night on a FL resident rate in two adjoining cat 4s (upgraded to 4B) for $1500 for 2A2C. That was 2012. I expected some increase each year, but not like what we've seen. Once we've paid that for a cruise and considered it worth it, it's hard to pay double and not feel like we are getting fleeced.

I agree. We are eligible for interline rates, but they are few and far between with DCL. We did sail on the Dream Sept 2012 for around 900 dollars cat 5c 2a2k. That's probably very similar to the FLR rate you got. I'm paying 3200 for an OGT out of Galveston. It's probably the best GT rate I will see for a while. I'm sure we will be forced to try another line in the not so distant future. I wish I didn't have to rely on GT rates and interline rates to be able to justify DCL, but that's what it's come down to. When I compare full price on DCL to RCI I can't in good conscience book DCL, but if can get a GT rate than puts the price somewhere in the ballpark of other cruise lines I can justify the cost.

 

[dugthetalkingdog]

My New England/Canada cruise out of NYC Oct 2, 2016 went way up and is almost sold out. If I had waited to book, would not be going.

 

[mom4fun]

I booked on Wednesday. Today my cruise has gone up $600 for my family of 3!