When is the "Shoulder week"

[Dutchman]

I am in the early planning stages for our barbershop cruisers group and need to get some information on when is the Shoulder week for the Alaskan cuise in 2006? Any Ideas of where I can get this information? We want to go as late in the spring as possible but right before they "Jump the prices for summer?

[Esme]

:confused: What is shoulder week?

[jhannah]

You're familiar with "peak" and "off-peak" seasons for a number of different things like resorts, convention hotels, etc. Shoulder season is the time between high and low. Not the highest prices, but not the lowest, either. Many venues will offer this tier of pricing.

[Krazy Kruizers]

The first 2 or 3 cruises in May after the ships arrive in either Seattle or Vancouver are the cheapest rates. Then you will see the prices soar as summer goes into full swing.

[grannynurse]

Is a time frame before and after the peak price times for a specific itinerary.
On some cruises it coincides with repositioning of ships. Since Alaska is a short season, Early to mid May and Mid September to Oct 1 is considered off-peak or "shoulder season".

In the Caribbean it is just considered hurricane season, Hawaii would be late spring, not sure about the fall except first week of December maybe, between holidays. Europe has repos, South America, I think is early fall and late spring.
Hope this helps,
GN

[obriendan]

I have a quite old HAL Alaska brochure (from 1998) that actually defined there different pricing categories as follows:

Low: May 8 and Sept 18

Budget: May 15 and Sept 11

Economy: May 22 and Sept 4

Value: May 29 and Aug 28

Standard: June 5 and Aug 21

Peak: June 12 through Aug 14

At that time, the brochure price difference between these different periods
was about $125. These categories do show that the less expensive times pretty much end between the end of May and the beginning of September.