Early booking

With P & O 2018 cruises now on sale is it really worth booking at this stage for a 10% reduction? If better incentives are released later would I get them if I had already booked?:confused:

No you will not get any price reductions where a future, nearer sailing date price drop is concerned. You have to look at the deal you are considering. Typically there will be an equivalent sailing for 2017 and if you compare the 2017 and 2018 sailing prices you will get a rough, and I repeat rough, idea of what the deal might be nearer sailing date.

If it is only a couple of hundred pounds cheaper you need to look at the minute detailed differences of booking to see what you are getting on that fare structure. "select Fare" and "Early Saver" fare where offered and the advantage to you of selecting an exact cabin in the best location on the ship for you. Early/late sitting, tenders, port shuttle costs, premium seats on Caribbean fights availability early, airport choice etc. Then you need to look at Travel Agents deals, direct deals OBC offers, pre-cruise hotel stay, parking etc. What is actually important to you?

All the sellers try to disguise the exact price you will pay and this will go up and down until the ship sails. As an aside different cruise line price their headline basic fare a lot cheaper as they add a lot of hidden service charges to make up the shortfall. P&O for example have something like British pub prices on drinks whereas some US lines have dearer prices and add a service charge. They then add confusion with all charges in US Dollars compounded by giving you the choice of either cruise line or your bank to do the conversion rate.

Hope this helps.

John