Whilst flicking through teletext just spotted a deal on Thomson Destiny that may interest someone, although personally do not fancy 6 days in a row at sea on any ship. It is the transatlantic repositioning cruise to the Caribbean on 7th December for 14 nights. The price, including flights from Glasgow, is £929 and this price is also available to singles. Also there is £100pp OBC if booked by 28 July, so effectively the price is £829. Flights are also available at a supplement from Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff.

It is on digital teletext at P228, page 5 of 27, website is cruisedeals.co.uk and telephone number is 08082016731

Flight to Lisbon in Portugal, and cruise sets off from Lisbon, then a day at sea, Madeira, then 6 days at sea, Bridgetown in Barbados, Roseau in Dominica, St John's in Antigua, road Town in Tortola, Catalina Island in Dominican Republic, then return flight from La Romana in Dominican Republic.

Thank you for the info Sue.May I ask which company first gave you the reduction? I haven't had a reply from Cruise kings but I have been told before that Princess office is closed on Sat so I will phone on Monday.

Hi Maureen

I first got price reductions using Scotland's Cruise Centre. It was Ali the Asst. Manager who told me and I just kept an eye on the prices. I have had price drops over the past 2 i/2 years.
2 Cruises booked at the moment Celebrity Summit 27th August. I have had 2 price drops on this cruise one a category upgrade refund £24 Then a few weeks later an over 55's price drop and I had thought they might say this was only applied to new bookings but no I think if I recall correctly it was around £220? or thereabouts. See that I am paying £237 less that the original price. Each time there is a drop they send a new invoice but I have had a good look.
My friend who is travelling with me was booked in a 2C balcony but Ali took an executive decision to upgrade her to the 2B as the offer was on this but not on the 2C.
It is always wise to look at all the prices when doing a booking as strange things happen and I found myself a couple of years ago where there were no insides. An Ocean view on a low deck was more expensive than a 2B balcony. Because I got 4 price drops on this one I upgraded to a CC room and still saved over £400.
I see several TA advertising your cruise in the press today. It is a fantastic price and were I not going off at the same time I would be sorely tempted. Again for me I need to add the single supplement!!

I also have a booking for Millennium to NZ/OZ for November. I have had 2 price drops here again I would have to get the paperwork out but somewhere in the region of £120 and later again over 55's discount and I think this time it was £219 I think.
About 2 weeks ago they brought another over 55's offer and I noted that a 2A balcony would only be £201 I think more than the grade 9 inside I was holding. I made the decision to upgrade as this will be new territory for me. As I had benefited from the price drops it it means that it is not costing me any more to upgrade. These over 55's deals are now gone and the price has gone up.
Looking for the final invoice for it but whilst it is all on the web site.
What you need to do is keep an eye on the prices on line and then if there is a drop ask your agent to get this for you. Even with SCC sometimes I have had to say the drop IS there and then had it sorted. I think this is X in the UK bookings who get it wrong. For me if I want to do something now I book as I know that in the event of a drop then I can get it applied.
When the price drop is applied the TA gets less commission so that has to be adjusted.

Must run. Good luck for Monday.

Sue

Just back from Destiny. See my thread from earlier. Rang Tompsons to enquire about cruises on the Destiny for Aug 2009. I paid 2.5 k this year for 2 adults and 1 child, and for next year they are looking for 3.2 k. Anyone know of any deals. ????

Thanks in Advance.

Colin B Northern Ireland

You can save a few hundred pounds if you book it through Portland Holidays, their direct sales arm.

Colin why restrict yourself to Thomson's as you could find something better for the same or less money I am absolutely sure of.
This year I have seen more deals than ever in the past 11 years since I have been cruising frequently. If I were you I would look at RCI as you have a daughter and this company would be fantastic for her. I am sure that you could find a great deal with them. Also Princess and the other thing to remember is that if the price drops for RCI Celebrity and others then you can have that price drop applied to your booking.
If you look at the W/J posts re Maureen who is now looking to see if she can get a price drop to her cruise. She is on the 30th August cruise and paid £890 now that cruise is selling for £660-680.
Also a cruise I am booked on 27th August on Celebrity is selling for £880 I have posted on there about the price drops I have had on that and another cruise I have booked for November.
Don't worry that you may miss out. There are so many Ships out there and they are all trying to put bottoms on beds so it is definitely a buyers market.
See you are in NI (My Son is living in Lisnaskea) so Belfast will be your nearest Airport but that should make just a little difference.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise and like we all say you have been bitten by the BUG.
I am just mad that I can't do 2 cruises at once as my 27th August clashes with the 30th August.
Just get yourself on some Cruise TA email lists and then you will get info also I look at teletext 262 228 or 227 . As we see offers most of us will post here.

Sue

Further to an earlier post I made on another thread (copied below) just noticed that there is a December date for the NCL Jade Morocco/Gran Canaria/Madeira 9 night cruise at £469 including flights and 1 night pre-cruise stay. Some of the dates noted below have been selling fast!

Super deals for NCL Jade in January/February 2009 with Check-in Cruise Club at http://www.cruise365.com a company we have used a couple of times and would certainly use again.

The price includes return flights to Barcelona and a 1 night pre-cruise central hotel stay. Tips are "free" i.e. paid up front by Check-in Cruise Club, and they also give $50 on board credit. There are 2 routes, sailing alternately and they can be combined to give a 21 night cruise. Outline details and prices as follows:

1 night hotel plus 9 night cruise to Morocco, Gran Canaria & Madeira on various Jan/Feb dates, total inclusive price is £549 for inside

1 night hotel plus 12 night cruise to Egypt, Greece & Turkey on various other Jan/Feb dates, total inclusive price is £669 for inside

Combine both for 1 night hotel plus 21 night cruise on various Jan/Feb dates, total inclusive price is £1089 or £1099 for inside, except for 26 Feb sailing which is £1199 (covers Easter weekend, I think).

There are also outside/balcony/suite cabins offered at higher prices.

As we now have 2 topics on cruise offers I shall merge this one with the original Windjammer does deals to keep the info in one place.

luci

That makes perfect sense Luci, no point in having two! May I make a suggestion....have always thought the heading "Windjammer does deals" to be quite mis-leading as it could suggest that the named person is in the travel industry or somehow has access to deals alone. The reality of course is that we have a healthy number of contributors giving details of good deals. Can you call it something more neutral e.g. whatever the name of the one that appeared during the last couple of days was, or similar?

Consider it done.

luci

Well the Cuise Kings replied that Princess are not prepared to give us a price drop or any on board credit. I can write to passenger relations if I want to. Will talk to hubby tonight and the other two couples. Can I really threaten to cancel and not lose out? Next time I will book last minute. Lots of deals around at the moment.

I would not cancel as you will lose a lot of money at this stage. Even if cancelling early on you would lose your deposit.
The only time to cancel is if the price reduction is fantastic and it is better to lose the £100 each which most Cruise Lines or 10%. ie deposit, Now you will in all probability have paid the cruise in full.
Why don't you try contacting Princess cruise yourself. Ask to speak to Customer Services Manager and ask him. I say this because Cruise Kings may not be keen to drop the price as it would reduce their commission.

I assume that you have only spoken to Cruise Kings. As to waiting I assume that you booked this fairly recently. It is swings and roundabout and whilst there are a lot of offers the price you paid is still excellent.
I have never seen a price like £660-664. for this standard of ship. The market is funny this year. I have booked for 27th August but the other dates including early Sept. were a lot more expensive.

Sorry I can't be more positive in my reply. Princess may say you need to go through your TA. But just ask the question will you drop prices if they fall. Could be that because you have paid in full they won't . NO harm done in saying you would be very happy to accept OBC.

Sue

I did consider trimming back this topic and deleting out of date posts at the beginning, but then I thought it would be better to leave them so people can look back historically next year at what the prices were this year.

Any thoughts?

luci

History is quite important for pricing it's why I kept TXT adds once a week for 2+ years
(not so much these days since they are mostly UK budget brands)

The thread is paged so not a lot of loading time if you pick the last page No. off the list.

What would be usefull would be a "go to first unread" on the Cruises summary page rather than having to go into the thread first.

see http://www.cruisetraveltalk.com/recent.html for how it work there(a little arrow at the end of the page No's)

Might want to consider it a sticky so new reader see it.

WHile I am talking stickies.
I think stickies should be sorted the other way round since that would put the most recent sticky next to the most recent non sticky, my eyes go to the non stickies so miss that shuffle at the top when a sticky gets a new post.

windjammer wrote:

What would be usefull would be a "go to first unread" on the Cruises summary page rather than having to go into the thread first.

see http://www.cruisetraveltalk.com/recent.html for how it work there(a little arrow at the end of the page No's)

quote]
Not quite sure what you mean? I can't see the arrows on that site, but I think it may be similar to the little orange "page" we have just to the left of the topic title. If you click on that it will take you to the new posts since your last visit.

Is that what you mean?

luci

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