Very Last Minute

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure this topic has been covered many times, but I can't find it. We live in Florida and are retired. Therefore we can leave literally at the last minute for a Caribbean cruise, even with 24 hour notice deals. So, are there special deals available perhaps directly from the cruise lines themselves to fill ships? Where do I start? Thanks so much for any assistance provided.

go to the cruise lines website & sign up for their specials

Some offer Florida residents deals

Look for "pack and go" specials which are usually sold very close to cruise date. Good luck!

Find an itinerary you like and call the cruise line. :)

Look on Cruise Critic under find a Cruise!:eek:

Hello Everyone!

I'm sure this topic has been covered many times, but I can't find it. We live in Florida and are retired. Therefore we can leave literally at the last minute for a Caribbean cruise, even with 24 hour notice deals. So, are there special deals available perhaps directly from the cruise lines themselves to fill ships? Where do I start? Thanks so much for any assistance provided.

There might be some good deals a bit before the "last minute".

We are starting to think about this a bit, but we have to fly to most ports, so it couldn't quite be truly last minute. You have the best opportunity for very late availability.

However, last spring, we needed to cancel another trip (not a cruise) on rather short notice (a tour operator turned out NOT to have booked the hotel in one city for the group - oops!), and we got our money back.

So I looked at a few cruises, and there it was: a very special suite for an Alaskan cruise, at a really great rate. So... we pounced :)

And we had one of the best trips ever. It was amazing!

Also, for our first "pre-retirement" cruise a couple of years ago, in Hawaii, DH had a medical emergency with less than 2 weeks before we had to leave home. We had to cancel everything, including the land-based part. (Yes, we had insurance, thank goodness.)

Anyway, someone probably got a good rate on a Penthouse Suite on short notice. It was 'off season', so there was probably still time to get reasonable flights to Hawaii.

Another thing to do is if you have an agent at any of the cruise lines, ask them to keep an eye out for you.

We've had calls from reps from two different cruise lines, letting us know there was a special fare on short notice. Thus far we haven't been able to make any of them, but at some point, something will click.

(We told them we could fly to almost any port in the USA on short notice if it worked out. Your situation is even better.)

Hope you get lots of good deals and have a lot of nice cruises!

We booked one from Miami on Wednesday and boarded on Saturday. We simply kept checking a well know vacations....site. Plus we checked the web sites of the cruise lines that we were interested in. We were in Daytona beach at the end of a longer trip and decided to go if the price was right. And it certainly was. We are not Florida or US residents.

We have also done the same for an Alaska cruise from Vancouver. In both instances it was not unusual to see 7 days selling from $299-$599 depending on whether it was inside or balcony.