Cruise prices fluctuate with demand and supply. Sometimes price differences can add up to more than 80% of the price. And with summer approaching, so is cruise price drop season – as our historical data shows.
Top 5 price drops per month, 2016. (c) cruisewatch.com
According to our historical data, June is the month with most price drops of the year. Last year June brought 45.762 price drops, far more than the follow up month February that had 38.284 price drops last year.
“Volatility is pretty high in June, and customers that closely monitor the price movements can benefit if they are reacting fast”, says Nina Stumpe, co founder of cruisewatch.com.
That volatility is both good news and bad news: Good news because it does produce a lot of price drops. Some of which are really significant discounts with more than 25%. But there are also a lot of price hikes. Sometimes there are only days, if not even hours, between a drop and a hike. “Trading seems to get pretty hectic as the last remaining spaces on board are filled”, explains Nina. “You are best of by preparing yourself for a quick booking and then reacting fast when the price drops. Don’t waste your time after a price drop – it might be too late.”
2016 looks to be better booked that last year
Summer vacations in July 2016 are currently discounted by only 2,7% versus their initial price. Same time last year, these discounts reached 10% on average. Good news for vacationers though: The addition of many new ships has helped keep the average price per day at the same level as last year. While you have to pay $153,81 per day this year for an interior cabin, that price was $157,67 last year. The only exception is pricing for ocean view cabins which increased 10% in price vs. year.
Setting up a cruise price drop alert
With a volatile price season coming up, customers can sign up for our free cruise price alert service. Our intelligent monitoring mechanism sends out emails when interesting price drops are happening. Add some big data, machine learning and recommendations for tailor made updates. You can sign up anytime on our page.