What is a price observation?
A price observation is a dated fare result for one sailing, cabin class, occupancy, residency market, and currency. When available, we also retain the cabin category, cruise fare, taxes and fees, promotion, refundability, and availability.
What is a comparable series?
The research groups observations only when the sailing, cabin class, guest count, country, and currency match. Category-level analysis requires the same disclosed category. Invalid totals, unavailable inventory, and unchanged duplicates are excluded.
What counts as a decrease?
A series records a decrease when a later valid price is lower than its first valid observation. Statistics about booked cruises are separate: those compare a user’s saved amount with a new fare and apply CruiseGem’s comparability score.
Why median and sample size matter
Large suites and data errors can pull an average far away from a typical result. We show the median where possible and retain both measures. Public breakdowns require at least 100 qualifying series and at least two observations per series.
Known limitations
- CruiseGem observes available prices; it does not see every private, casino, group, loyalty, military, senior, or resident offer.
- Inventory can disappear and return with a different category or promotion.
- A lower observed fare does not prove that a particular reservation can be repriced.
- Historical coverage varies by cruise line, sailing, and date.
- Taxes, fees, gratuities, onboard credit, and packages are only compared when disclosed.
Reproducibility
Each published result includes the dates studied and the number of fares compared. Updates use the same calculation method so results can be compared over time.
Use a lower price as a reason to check, not as a promise.
Take the exact category, guest count, fare, promotion, and benefits to the cruise line or advisor that owns the reservation.
Return to the price-drop tracker →