A bit of a result ?

[barney]

I booked a spontaneous cruise last week via my TA.
I had a flyer from P&O offering an additional 10% if booked by a certain date, so took a look at what was available.

To put it all into context, we intended to take a very late holiday (Canaries) due to things going on at home.

Anyway, I saw this late cruise on Ventura into the Med in mid November that looked ok.
As we all know, the weather that time is hit and miss, but we're happy to take the chance, knowing that whatever, it's still be better than here.

I called Cruise Village and spoke to my regular lady.
She came back with the price that didn't include the additional 10% and claimed that they knew nothing of this offer.
So, she said she would call me back.
When she did, she had the additional discount plus the TA discount.

So we decided to go with the Select Fare lowest grade outside cabin in hope of some kind of upgrade.
All confirmed and the deposit paid.

Two days later I got a call from the TA saying that it appears that it has gone down in price by £118, the call was just to let me know.
Great I thought, go for it !

So I now have all paperwork through and double checked everything and it's true
So, we have 11 nights on Ventura, outside cabin for £590 each.
Then £110 per person on board spend so that kind of brings it down to £490 pp.
Divide by 11 nights brings it to £44.50 per night.

I checked this morning to price check ( I know, I know) and it's now £839 per person
That's lot of difference in a week or so.

I'm happy

[Stephen]

Nice one barney

I love a bargain too.

[david63]

With what you have saved and your ability to get a deal you should have enough for another cruise!!

[towny44]

I recently checked our Aurora cruise in April next year, booked in September on launch of new brochure, and was amazed to see that our grade of balcony cabin would now be 230% higher than we paid.
Now I realise that Aurora is popular but that sort of increase is very high even for Aurora cruises, it looks as though P&O seriously under priced this on launch.

[david63]

it looks as though P&O seriously under priced this on launch.

Which is good news for those of us who book at launch. As has been said many times the cheapest price for a cruise these days is the launch price.

[barney]

With what you have saved and your ability to get a deal you should have enough for another cruise!!

I have got another booked for next year David, but full price at the time unfortunately.
However, that cruise, for our cabin grade has gone up by £1,350 for the two of us.

I'd love to take some credit for being a bit of a wheeler dealer but have to confess that it just fell in our lap.

As towny pointed out, fluid pricing does seem to working well for experienced cruisers at the moment.

Looking back, our upcoming 2019 Med cruise is pretty much the same price I paid for our 2009 Med cruise.

[Stephen]

Once booked I don't normally look at the price again.

It goes up or goes down, you pay the price and take your chance.

[Kenmo1]

Our cruise for this July has now gone up by just under £1000 pp so we are feeling very smug with that one but we were caught out with the one we have booked for next July. On our cruise in February we paid a deposit of £50 pp for an inside cabin on A deck on Oriana next July costing £2009 pp with spending money of £130 pp and got our choice of Freedom Dining. We had transferred it to our then TA who also knocked £60 pp off.

On our cruise in April we spotted the price for next July had dropped to £1645 pp. I wasn't feeling very smug then . We decided the best thing to do was lose our £50 pp deposit having double, double checked with the loyalty manager that it was all we would lose and then we re-booked it again still with only £50 pp deposit and it still had the same spending money and dining and we actually decided to pay £1697 for a cabin on C deck more in the middle of the ship. This was transferred back to the TA with whom we had booked the current cruise (we weren't allowed to pass it back to the previous one). The new TA gave us £50 off pp so I think we have come off better even though we have lost the initial £50 pp deposit each and we have an inside cabin in a slightly better position. I MUST NOT LOOK AT PRICES ANYMORE AND YOU MUSN'T BARNEY!! Maureen

[barney]

I MUST NOT LOOK AT PRICES ANYMORE AND YOU MUSN'T BARNEY!!

It's hard not to Maureen !

I've had results with fluid pricing but have also been a victim of it.

Like many, I've now learnt where possible to book at launch.
That is generally the best price that you'll get.

I think it was Dai B who said book very early or very late, but never in between.
With some of the weird offers going on at the moment, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Our best ever, by a country mile was an early October cruise , Iberia up to Valencia, back in about 2012, I think.
Oriana
Ten nights, outside cabin £349 each.
Them was the days.

[Stephen]

I MUST NOT LOOK AT PRICES ANYMORE AND YOU MUSN'T BARNEY!!

It's hard not to Maureen !

I've had results with fluid pricing but have also been a victim of it.

Like many, I've now learnt where possible to book at launch.
That is generally the best price that you'll get.

I think it was Dai B who said book very early or very late, but never in between.
With some of the weird offers going on at the moment, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Our best ever, by a country mile was an early October cruise , Iberia up to Valencia, back in about 2012, I think.
Oriana
Ten nights, outside cabin £349 each.
Them was the days.