Help on last minute cruises

What is the time frame on when to get the best deals on a getaway type of trip. Unplanned spurt of the moment type of trips. And how late is too late

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I believe you must book at least 24 hours in advance.

I once booked a cruise the day before, couple years ago, on Celebrity. The agent said it had to be wrapped up, to be safe, by noon or shortly there after.

As for last minute deals? It's a crap shoot mainly, as Royal's ships generally sail full.

It's just dumb luck. I got an ocean view on Celebrity Summit for 7 nights for about 700 bucks all in, including tips, taxes and port charges, as a solo cruiser. It was really lucky. Wound up staying on the ship and did a b2b2b.

So, if you have an idea of when you want to go, keep checking. If you're close to a port that's even better. I was able to book the cruise and air while I was on a train from Florida, using wifi and my cell phone....got off the train in Richmond, flew to San Juan and away I went...

What is the time frame on when to get the best deals on a getaway type of trip. Unplanned spurt of the moment type of trips. And how late is too late

 

 

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We are lucky to have the flexibility most of the time to be able to book last minute. Most of our best cruises are booked that way. I just always check the sales ... an email comes in, if it's the right price and time, we book and go. The earliest out we've booked is 10 days. We've done both gty and picked our cabin that way and always been happy. Let me preface by saying, we usually like a JR and if it's worth it to us, we're gone. Good luck and happy sailing! :)

We are lucky to have the flexibility most of the time to be able to book last minute. Most of our best cruises are booked that way. I just always check the sales ... an email comes in, if it's the right price and time, we book and go. The earliest out we've booked is 10 days. We've done both gty and picked our cabin that way and always been happy. Let me preface by saying, we usually like a JR and if it's worth it to us, we're gone. Good luck and happy sailing! :)

What ships have you sailed on this way?

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We almost always book our cruises after the final payment date and tend to find our best deals 30 to 60 days out. We also have to check if reasonable price air is available to the cruise and we find this time frame generally works for that also.

We typically book what category we feel offers the best value and watch for upgrade possibilities if we want to do so. Sometimes we get the best value in the category we want to be in, a balcony and once in a while go even get a stateroom above that. In late February we booked an inside Z gty at a decent price, $429US, for our Serenade TA that leaves next week. This was done onboard a X ship to get the Next Cruise OBC. We then arranged our flights and just over a week after booking with were assigned a deck 3 inside. About a month ago I saw and booked an upgrade for $140 more each to select a forward deck 7 extra balcony E1 cabin .

If I had booked an E1 initially it would have been over a $1000 total more than what we got the Z gty for so we're quite pleased with this upgrade since it's a 16 night cruise thus our balcony is costing us only $17.50 extra per night.

Our friend even upgraded their inside they got with the same guarantee to a cat. G OV when a special came up that offered this at the same price as what they had paid for their inside gty. Then they were able to apply a higher value C&A certificate so their actual total cost went down $110.

We did the same for our Ruby Princess cruise we did in February that was just before or B2B with our X Century cruise. Started in an obstructed OV, upgraded to a balcony when we saw an offer for that category and then four days prior we upgraded again to a large suite that was sure sweet. :)

The cost to upgrade to the suite from the Obstructed OV was only $170 each extra for this five night western Caribbean itinerary and we went from this cabin

to this suite.

I tried to edit my post above to add the following but my router kicked out before I was able to submit the addition.

It's a guessing game and sometimes you lose out by waiting too long to book. It's very important that you watch cabin availability in the category you're interested in on the cruise you want to do. If this becomes very limited pricing is unlikely to go down. I do this on a site that shows more of the actual cabin available than the cruise lines web site do.

The above suite we had on the Ruby Princess cruise we did in February was the last one available and that category was no longer offered after we booked that cabin.;)

Watch the sale sheet each week to get an idea of what cabins are being discounted. Make a decision of how much you want to pay AND how you are going to get to port ... many times for me, cost of flights just don't match up with the low-priced cruise and what's the point of saving $200 on a last-minute cruise with left-over cabins if you are paying an extra $200 r/t to get there?

I typically book no more than 45 days in advance. I have a very hectic work schedule, and I usually don't know when I can take a vacation until a month and a 1/2 before. I have a bad habit of constantly checking prices, even after I've booked, and I've been pretty lucky because prices seem to rise after I've booked. If for some reason prices go down, I just call and see if I can get a better cabin since they don't refund.

Don't know why but have recently noticed that prices seem to drop on RCL late Fri. evening and tend to reset higher Sat night or Sun.

Anyone else notice that??

I was on the phone with RCI a couple of years back and was trying to snag a last minute cruise. It was 2PM on the day before a 4:30 sailing and they told me the manifest had closed. I asked just how late I could book and they told me "24 hours." So then went navy yard lawyer mode and reminded them I was 26 hours out!! They then told me that about the latest you can count on is Noon on the day before. After that you just have to hope they have not closed out the manifest.

Watch the sale sheet each week to get an idea of what cabins are being discounted. Make a decision of how much you want to pay AND how you are going to get to port ... many times for me, cost of flights just don't match up with the low-priced cruise and what's the point of saving $200 on a last-minute cruise with left-over cabins if you are paying an extra $200 r/t to get there?

What exactly is the sale sheet?

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What exactly is the sale sheet?

 

 

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I think he is referring to this;

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

They usually have a new one up Thursday PM or so...

I think he is referring to this;

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Multi_Dest/Special_Offers/rci_sales_event.pdf

 

They usually have a new one up Thursday PM or so...

Where exactly do I go to check for the new one?

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That link will have the new one whenever they update it. Sometimes it won't be out until Friday, but it is usually up by Thrusday PM.

There are no absolute rules...I booked a cruise 3 days prior to sailing date a couple years ago with the best price possible, and we booked our next cruise 2 +- months ago and we are glad we did it because it's full since 2 months ago;)

What is the time frame on when to get the best deals on a getaway type of trip. Unplanned spurt of the moment type of trips. And how late is too late

 

 

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Just keep on checking and if you see something that interests you go for it. We have booked 48 hours before to sail.

Just keep on checking and if you see something that interests you go for it. We have booked 48 hours before to sail.

Are their certain months that the chances of booking late are less likely?

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Main reason I am concerned is I plan on proposing to my girlfriend in June/July and I want to take her on a surprise cruise right after. I couldn't plan this earlier because I didn't know that she liked cruises until a month ago!

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I am confused as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the sales. I was looking for something out of PC or Baltimore in late May as I can drive to those ports. I have only sailed twice and all arrangements were previously made by someone else. This would be my first cruise planned on my own. Thanks to this board I found an excellent sale on the May 30th Grandeur sailing about 60 days out. It was so good that even I could see it was a great price. This sale seemed to come out of the blue and was gone after 48 hours (Sat & Sun). My question, was this really out of the blue and how often do these type of sales occur?

Main reason I am concerned is I plan on proposing to my girlfriend in June/July and I want to take her on a surprise cruise right after. I couldn't plan this earlier because I didn't know that she liked cruises until a month ago!

 

 

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Cruises tend to book up in the summer when schools are closed. When you see the price you like for June/July, just book it.

These tend to have low prices and last minute openings:

first 2 weeks in December

first 2 weeks in January

end of April

September-Oct

transatlantic/repositioning

Are their certain months that the chances of booking late are less likely?

 

 

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That I really couldn't say for certain. I would expect their peak would be Dec-April. Just keep looking at the listings, tuesday seems to be a good day as RCCL put up their last minute/ and general sales that day.

I am confused as there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the sales. I was looking for something out of PC or Baltimore in late May as I can drive to those ports. I have only sailed twice and all arrangements were previously made by someone else. This would be my first cruise planned on my own. Thanks to this board I found an excellent sale on the May 30th Grandeur sailing about 60 days out. It was so good that even I could see it was a great price. This sale seemed to come out of the blue and was gone after 48 hours (Sat & Sun). My question, was this really out of the blue and how often do these type of sales occur?

We saw the same for our Serenade TA cruise we are going on at the end of next week. We upgraded to our E1 balcony when there was a weekend, Sat & Sun, promotion and this happened several weekends in a row. Our friends upgraded from their inside to an OV the weekend after we did our upgrade. Promotions and price drops can happen pretty well at any time especially if a sailing isn't selling well.

IMO. it's all a factor of supply and demand. I've seen similar or the same itinerary back to back cruises selling at vastly different prices with no obvious difference like one is in a holiday period. The one with little or almost no cabin availability will be selling at a much higher price than the cruise with a very large number of cabins available. Even within classes or category of cabins on the same cruise, I've seen higher categories or class of cabins being offered for a lowest cost than a lower category or class. When I've checked this situation out the better cabin has much more availability as most times it's the cheaper cabins that sell out first.

Are their certain months that the chances of booking late are less likely?

 

 

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Main reason I am concerned is I plan on proposing to my girlfriend in June/July and I want to take her on a surprise cruise right after. I couldn't plan this earlier because I didn't know that she liked cruises until a month ago!

 

 

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It very dependent on location. A summer cruise in the Caribbean is typically cheap as this isn't a popular time to cruise there and it's the same for the early Fall period when it's hurracane season. For an Alaska, Baltic or Mediterranean cruise that is the high season and you'll likely get lower prices in the late Spring or early Fall when these are just starting or the season is ending.