Last minute bookings

[navigator71]

Has anyone waited to book their cruise till last minute---up to a few weeks away from the cruise leaving? I've done a month and a half out but was wondering if there would be a chance of getting a really crazy low cost inside room...say out of Boston or NYC. I know they bump people up to higher categories so they can fill the inside cabins last minute. I get email alerts too of low fares on dates 2-3 weeks ahead.

 

your thoughts or experiences please....thanks!

[Colorado Kat]

I booked 3 weeks out once. No great deal on the price.

[eh2zed]

It all depends on how the cruise is selling.

[firefly333]

Iv booked 8, 5, 4 days from a cruise leaving and once the day the cruise was leaving.

 

Sometimes I got a great deal, some times not. The 4 days out my Dad was in the hospital and the ship only had 2 more sailings until it left Galveston for the winter, so I jumped on it when they released my Dad.

 

some great deals, but mostly because of hurricanes, once the swine flu, so if there is a big reason for people cancelling last minute you might get a good deal.

[elbodans]

I booked last Friday for a sailing this Sunday--NYC to Bermuda. And yes, I got a really (REALLY) good deal. However, this is possible because I can drive (or take public transport, which is even cheaper and what I'm doing) to the port. If you wait until the last minute to book and you have to purchase airfare, the savings you might see on the cruise will be negated by the amount you'll have to spend on airfare. In my experience, airfare consistently increases in price as the date approaches.

[firefly333]

Not to state the obvious, but if people could regularly get last minute deals really cheap, people like me would quit booking ahead of time. Im unpicky about my cabin, just want a cheap deal and Im within 5 hours drive of Galveston.

[geoherb]

We booked one of our Christmas cruises the week after Thanksgiving. That's the closest we've come to sailing date. I have frequently booked cruises after the final payment date. Sometimes I've seen good prices the two to three weeks after it. But of course there's always the chance that prices will also go up after the final payment date, as they have on our upcoming cruise (Crown Princess, Dec. 17).

[Hlitner]

We book a lot of cruises (cruise about 75 days a year) and there is really no simple answer to your question. Sometimes, you can get a terrific deal if you wait until just after the final payment period (this varies but can be 45 - 90 days before a cruise). If a cruise is not selling well, the cruise lines will often offer good deals once inside that final payment period because previously booked cruisers can no longer get a price reduction (there are exceptions). Assuming you are flexible as to the cruise line and itinerary you might benefit from waiting. But, if you want to go on a specific ship on a specific week you are really gambling.

 

Hank

[marco]

As a lot of posters have eluded to "it's a crap shoot" depending how popular a particular cruise is and how well it's selling. Friends of ours wanted to come along with us on a cruise this past May. In March they were told it was sold out and they were wait listed....never got on at any price. Sometimes, too, you might not get a price that is, say, half price of the minimum rate, but you might pay the minimum rate and get a really, really (and I mean REALLY nice cabin).....that has happened to us when booking just a couple of weeks before sailing.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We would never be able to book that close to a cruise date.

 

We don't live near a cruise port and trying to get a flight at the last mnute -- impossible.

[queenL]

I agree with what most have said it depends. We cruise in 2 weeks and we booked about a month ago. We got a really good deal. That said, we watched prices for weeks, on many different ships. lines and dates. We don't care if we sail in an inside nor are we particular about our cabin location. We pounced on the cheaper offer. We looked primarily at piers we could drive to, to avoid the last minute plane ticket. As it turns out we found a super cheap plane ticket and rushed to book that too. Sometimes however, waiting backfires and the price goes up. Since it is supply and demand you can never really know for sure. The more flexible you are though, the greater your chance of finding a good deal.

[navigator71]

Thanks everyone! I would be leaving from Boston or NYC. My brother got off Dawn a month ago and said he heard from a few people that they got really low fares. So I was just curious about everyone's experience. I know if it happened all the time everyone would do it. Just wanted to ask.

[firefly333]

Thanks everyone! I would be leaving from Boston or NYC. My brother got off Dawn a month ago and said he heard from a few people that they got really low fares. So I was just curious about everyone's experience. I know if it happened all the time everyone would do it. Just wanted to ask.

 

Most of the time when someone tells me they got a really low fare either I couldnt have qualified for it (they were a TA and it was a TA fare for a hotel I paid more for, or it turned out they were a pilot and got interline rate) ... as a for instance. If someone tells me they got the hotel for $89 or the cruise for $199 for a balcony, my next question is how, or what rate .. there usually is a reason I could not have gotten the same rate.

 

That time the hurricane delayed Ecstasy, I got $129 and talked to people who lived closed than I did. By the afternoon of the cruise leaving, people who actually lived in Galveston only had to pay $99. I almost missed the ship, so I could not have waited any longer.

 

Hearing someone got a "low rate" to me is pretty meaningless without the details as I know I come close to nailing down a lot of super deals that others cant beat, but I work at it. Many in my signature are group rates, that you would have had to book way out to get, but almost no one is going to beat those rate, as they are lower than the cruises have ever been advertised at, but I didnt get the choice of dates, I picked what was offered.

 

My upcoming Triumph, if you count all the OBC I now have, cost me less than $300 total, solo, paying the 200% Carnival solo supplement. If someone would hear that.. they would think, oh see it works to book late, but then I could explain I had a 20% off from missing 2 ports on another cruise, and added FCC and stock OBC and 2 price drops. If you book really really last minute you dont have time to get all the OBC added sometimes and that has to be taken into consideration. Carnival finally went online with their FCCs, but they still dont process them overnight, so you have to book far enough ahead to take advantage of OBCs you might be due imo... not just a low fare... unless its really really good.

 

Dont be jealous hearing someone got a "really low fare" unless you know all the details. Start watching last minute deals, like the tuesday deals on RCL and Celebrity, and pack n gos come out on Wednesday for Carnival etc. Be flexible is my next piece of advice when looking for those special last minute deals. Florida has the most deals, fact. .. and Im in TX, so have to be more inventive and pay a little more usually. Consider the port you need to leave from and dont compare it to FL or expect to get FL prices that a ship going to the Bahamas is charging that doesnt use much fuel.

 

My last piece of advice .. there will always be someone who got the cruise or deal cheaper than you. Dont be jealous, find out what they did and try to learn from it. No one hits the bottom price for every cruise.

[Hlitner]

I should have added (in my previous post) that sometimes (emphasis on "sometimes") that late booker does get a terrific deal. It happened to us last year when we booked a 12 night Celebrity Mercury cruise (out of Baltimore) about 5 weeks before the cruise. This particular cruise (right after Thanksgiving) had a lot of empty cabins (we knew this so had delayed booking) and suddenly Celebrity began offering terific deals on outside (not balcony) cabins. They also sweetened the pot with an even lower rate for veterans (Celebrity allows most honorably discharged veterans to get a "military rate"). In the end, our total cost per passenger day for that cruise was $63 and we had a very good cabin. Since we are Elite with Celebrity we get some decent amenities including free cocktail hours every day. DW and I figure we drank about $30 (each) per day of free drinks so one could argue that our cost was actually $33 per day! And it was a great cruise. We met some other "Elites" who did even better by booking an inside cabin. Now this is somewhat rare, and usually happens in the slowest cruise seasons (right after Thanksgiving, early January, and hurricane season).

 

Hank

[firefly333]

There are some pack n goes on carnival out of NOLA for $199 which almost never get that low.

 

Baltimore is one of the ports I think the OP was interested in $349 for a 7 day is unheard of. If I could get to Baltimore I would so jump on that one. Thats the price for a 4/5 day, except you get 7 days.

 

https://www.goccl.com/content/specials/documents/PKGO.pdf