2017 River Cruises?

[Damaris1900]

My DH and I are booked with friends on a Tauck trip in the fall of 2016, and are beginning to look at possibilities for a 2017 trip with my sister. I was wondering if anyone had any information on when the river cruise companies usually begin to put out their itineraries and rates for upcoming years. We were guessing it probably wouldn't be until next spring, but would appreciate any information (or even wild guesses!)

[ural guy]

We booked a October 2016 sailing in mid January of 2015 with Vantage. I think the itineraries came out a month or so earlier. So maybe late November? I would think the other lines would be in the same date range.

 

We were able to 'lock in 2015 prices', and did save a bit when the 2016 prices did increase. We've also had date changes along the way due to Constanta being dropped from route. We did buy insurance (3rd party) since the cruise date was so far distant, for piece of mind.

[Damaris1900]

We booked a October 2016 sailing in mid January of 2015 with Vantage. I think the itineraries came out a month or so earlier. So maybe late November? I would think the other lines would be in the same date range.

 

We were able to 'lock in 2015 prices', and did save a bit when the 2016 prices did increase. We've also had date changes along the way due to Constanta being dropped from route. We did buy insurance (3rd party) since the cruise date was so far distant, for piece of mind.

 

Wow, that is a lot earlier than I was guessing. I'll start keeping an eye on the websites in late November, early December, then. Third party travel insurance sounds like an excellent idea in those circumstances, too. Are you arranging your own air, or are you planning to do that through the cruise company?

[ural guy]

It was funny, after we booked the trip, our cruise homepage showed us as 640 days out. It seemed like close to forever. We're now @ 384 days, getting closer!

 

We are arranging our own air. Vantage charges $1300 for the airfare, NYC to Budapest, Bucharest to NYC, plus $100 for 'deviation' since we are adding days on both ends of the trip to travel on our own. This also means we couldn't use the included airport transfers, so the value isn't with the Vantage airfare, at least in our case.

 

Probably will start looking @ airfare around January. Have fun.

[Damaris1900]

Ural Guy, I really appreciate you taking the time to share the information on when to start watching for the new fares and itineraries, I'll definitely be monitoring that.

 

With our upcoming Tauck trip we got a quote from them for airfare which actually sounded pretty good, but we're keeping our options open at this point. We'd hate to lose the transfers, though, so that's a consideration.

 

Thanks for your help!