Last Minute Cruise?

[piccer18]

If we are in an area cruise ships sail from regularly, is it possible to just "walk up" the day of or the day before a cruise and book it at a highly discounted, last minute rate? We are flexible and can travel almost anytime,and our reasoning is that the ship is going to sail anyway, with or without empty cabins. Why not put someone in the cabin-cheap- and count on the income from drinks, land trips, casinos, tips for its staff, etc?

 

It seems we wouldn't have to go through a cruise "discounter" and the cruise line would not have to pay that discounter whatever they normally would have to, to fill a cabin.

 

Am I out of line?

 

We have gone on 4 cruises previously, but all have been booked well in advance. Now we're looking at "spur of the moment" cruising

 

Thanks,

 

Piccer18

[Roz]

Due to security issues, walk-ups are a thing of the past.

 

Most of the cruises I've taken the last few years have a sign at the entrance to the terminal saying there are no cabins available.

 

Roz

[fishywood]

The ability to simply show up at the dock with your bags looking for a non-sold-out cruise ended many years ago. At most ports you cannot get past the perimeter security checkpoint without showing your boarding pass. And virtually every ship sails full these days, thanks to the massive discounts that are usually found somewhere from two weeks to two months before sailing date.

 

For the small handful of cruises that are not sold out, the only way to book within 48-72 hours (when online booking is closed) is to call the cruise line directly. Unless you know of a brick-and-mortar TA who (1) works evenings and weekends; and (2) is willing to do the work of a manual booking paying miniscule commission for you. Used to be lots of them; back around 1985 or so my parents walked into the travel department of Burdine's on Saturday afternoon and were on a cruise the next day. Good luck finding a web-based agent capable of pulling that off today.

Edited May 6, 2015 by fishywood

[MCC retired]

Bookings can not be done @ the terminal.

In fact you can't enter the Terminal without a reservation.

 

You can, in some cases book via phone with the cruise line or TA day of the cruise but you may have missed the best Last Minute rate which could have

been offered 30-60 days earlier.

[paul929207]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

You can contact the cruise lines or a TA a couple of days before sailing. But you will need to have an idea of what is a good price before doing so. If a ship is selling well, the price for the remaining cabins will be high

[GUT2407]

No walk ups but you can sometimes get a cabin a few days out, sometimes at a discount other times it'll cost a lot more than f you had booked early.

[Essiesmom]

With Carnival,you can call in the morning and sail in the afternoon. Not you have to call, can't do it online. With the other lines, I think you have to do it the day before. EM

[SadieN]

Two days before on Princess

[Cruisin' Chick]

What you can do is let all the cruise lines that sail from your area know that you're available for last minute cruises, giving them your email address. If there's any sailings that still have availabilities a few weeks before the sailing date, you might get an email (along with the others in your same situation) offering you a special fare. Odds are, by the day or day before the cruise, all cabins will be taken.

[Scrapnana]

Just got off HAL and talked to a woman who booked the night before.

[4x4bob]

X 2 what Crusin Chick stated.

 

We have booked several really good last minute cruises by being registered with the cruise lines we like. The shortest time frame was the E-mail came in Friday and we boarded the ship Monday.

 

Since we live within driving distance of both San Francisco and San Pedro we do not have to try and find seats on a airline to go on the cruise.

 

Start watching the Cruise line sites so you will know what prices are and what you see in price drops.

 

Another Hint. Have your pass port with you no matter where you are going, just in case a whoops happens and you have to fly home.

 

Bob

[navybankerteacher]

It can be done - usually at least a day in advance - but the lines are pretty good at monitoring sales, adjusting prices as necessary, so as not to have unsold inventory on sailing date. A dozen years ago I booked several cruises within a week of sailing - never less than four days in advance.

 

I have not heard of anyone actually booking on the day of sailing - and am inclined to think that the lines would prefer to sail with a few unsold cabins rather than encourage bottom feeders: very many people would hold out until the last day or so if there were a real chance of getting a "next to nothing" fare: after all, regardless of the port, there are literally millions of people who live within a few hours' drive of any cruise terminal.

[geoherb]

I receive regular email offers from several different cruise lines. Some of the best offers are several weeks before sailing. The latest I've received an offer is the afternoon before the sailing date. We could not go on that one, but it was a great deal.

[biker@sea]

I have booked a few cruises the night before sailing . :)

 

.

[EGG]

Your reasoning is valid. However there are reasons for cruise lines not to want people to book at the last minute. With the advent of computer models, the cruise lines know how much people have paid for their cabins, when they booked, and how much they spend on board.

 

Royal Caribbean recently announced that it will no longer have last minute discounts and there is speculation on their board at to the reason for this and how far before the cruise is last minute. Personally, I would write RCCL off my list for this year. Despite what sales others have done in the past, RCCL will probably have different last minute pricing this year.

 

The cruise lines have all sorts of data and statistics as to unfilled cabins and the price the cabins should be lowered to attract additional sales. If there is a lot of availability after final payment, the cruise would be discounted several weeks after final payments. Sometimes the sales only last for hours because the cabins sell quickly. Sometimes there are additional discounts. Often the price creeps up. Of course there are the very last minute cancellations and if that is what you are talking about, I would call the cruise lines to find out their current policy.

[iancal]

It also depends on what type of cabin you want. Often there are only insides or obstructed ocean views available.

 

We prefer a balcony. The closest we have booked is six days out. We watch the prices and we usually book inside the final payment window. We have found that the prices are the lowest, for our cabin preference, about 45 days out. And they can go down for 24 or 48 hours and then go back up. You need to establish a buy price, monitor the offerinfpgs, and be prepared to book immediately. This approach has worked well for us in the past.

[cabinboy1945]

I have yet to see a deeply discounted price days before a cruise.i'm 3 weeks from an Alaska cruise and have yet to see any type of price drop. get it while you can or before a sell out I would say. tomorrow is my deadline to buy. north to Alaska!!

[cruznjan]

Due to security issues, walk-ups are a thing of the past.

 

Most of the cruises I've taken the last few years have a sign at the entrance to the terminal saying there are no cabins available.

 

Roz

 

I believe the ships have to send their cruise manifest to Homeland Security either 24 or 48 hours before cruising. I may be mistaken.

[piccer18]

Thanks for all he replies!

 

We live in Tampa so we always hoped we could just "hop on". and we're now heading off for a cross country road trip to Seattle and hoped we could "hop on" an Alaskan cruise because we don't have a definitive date as to when we'll arrive in Washington.

 

So, we're not disappointed, and appreciate the forum to ask questions and receive replies from "those who have gone before."

 

We may call Princess from the road a couple of days before we hit Seattle and see what may be available.

 

Again, THANK YOU ALL!