Last hour booking

I normally book a year out in advance so for me this is a first. The stars aligned with money and time and I just booked a cruise, the Carnival Pride for April 2. I am excited to have such a close date.

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Happy cruising! Last minute bookings can be addicting. :) We did a last minute booking two years ago-- one month out. Last minute decision. It was amazing because the wait was so short! :P it is nice to have a cruise on the horizon also. This is our first time to have two booked at once!

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Very attractive price? Happy sailing!

I just got back from my first last minute cruise. Booked 10 days before we left! It was a short 4 night do nothing get away that didn't require excursion planning etc and it was so fun to have basically no wait!

Have a great cruise.

I leave Tuesday for a cruise booked 18 days out. It is such a different feeling than booking way on advance. :)

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Back when I worked for the airlines and had pretty flexible schedule options (shift trades!), we would typically book cruises a month or less out. We flew for free, got discounted interline cruise deals and had cruddy days off (which made the Monday-Friday 4 day cruise an easy option). It was great! We also were young and didn't care what kind of cabin we had or where on the ship it was located. We'd usually just roll the dice and book a guarantee inside cabin and hope for the best.

Now that I'm married and have a child and usually cruise with a larger group of family and friends, we are booking further and further out! We only book balconies and now that we have a toddler, we prefer to be on Lido near food and the pool and activities. We don't want to risk getting stuck under the nightclub or dining rooms where it could be noisy. We booked our November, 2017 Vista cruise back in April of 2015! I think that is definitely the furthest out I've ever booked. It would be nice to do a last minute cruise again sometime...if for no other reason than to feel spontaneous again! LOL ;p

I always have 1 or 2 cruises in the pipeline. Last year we did a last minute cruise in between cruises, and it was only 3 days but we had the time of our lives! Loved the last minute feeling and it satisfied the craving while waiting for the longer cruise!:ship:

Loved the last minute feeling and it satisfied the craving while waiting for the longer cruise!:ship:

I have a week long one booked for December and I am getting ansy .... I have a 2 day cruise that i have not selected a day for yet booked on a low end cruise line but will give me a little satisfaction but thinking i need to book something else for september

I always have 1 or 2 cruises in the pipeline. Last year we did a last minute cruise in between cruises, and it was only 3 days but we had the time of our lives! Loved the last minute feeling and it satisfied the craving while waiting for the longer cruise!:ship:

#vacationgoals ;)

I so wish Galveston cruises were as inexpensive as some of the Florida cruises. I'm also a teacher which means gone are the days when my husband and I cruised during hurricane season for half the price. /sigh

Our record was 48 hours prior to sailing including purchasing airfare. It was a crazy personal alignment of the stars. On Friday we booked everything. On Saturday we got on a plane to San Juan. On Sunday we sailed.

Our record was 48 hours prior to sailing including purchasing airfare. It was a crazy personal alignment of the stars. On Friday we booked everything. On Saturday we got on a plane to San Juan. On Sunday we sailed.

Impressive! Others can do last hour bookng while living near the port. Did you also get last-minute deals on flights?

Impressive! Others can do last hour bookng while living near the port. Did you also get last-minute deals on flights?

Yes. There was this perfect RT on SWA that made it all possible. Seriously, something like $250pp RT from Chicago. Southbound it was via BWI, northbound via TPA. And we Hotwired a nice San Juan hotel for Saturday night. That was maybe $80. Real nice property too. So with roughly 24 hours notice we went from winter to the tropics.

One interesting aspect to the story. Our son needed to come home from college for the night on Saturday for some reason. We had weather forecasts of literally 20 below zero so I wanted the water turned off at the main as he left on Sunday. Having never done it, I coached him by cellphone from San Juan. Sometimes life smiles.

I've booked 3 months out twice and 4 months out once. Those were really nice.

10 Months and 20 months out is not so nice.

Last year, we booked 30 hours out! Living in central Florida, we don't have to worry about airfare since the furtherst port is just a 4 hour drive. My only regret on that that cruise is that we didin't research the ship (IotS) and were lost the first two days, but it was a blast!

Back when I worked for the airlines and had pretty flexible schedule options (shift trades!), we would typically book cruises a month or less out. We flew for free, got discounted

Hopefully you still have the nonrev benefits for your family? They are GOLD. :)

I pretty much always late book. the discount advantages are significant. :)

My latest was in November, I booked the afternoon- trying all day for the low priced cabin advertised but only higher levels coming up. Kept checking and a hold was released (1/2 hour holds available), and I snagged it.

I left the next morning for Santiago Chili. :) This was an add on to a 20 day round trip Buenos Aries following that was booked about a month prior.

I've picked up several during the week prior. Depends when the price looks good. :)

Congrats!! We were concentrating on just taking this cruise, since its our major vacation, and family and friends cruise, but things worked out to get a weekender in the end of June. We were trying to get another 5 day cruise in, so we'd make Platinum for the F&F cruise, but looks like we'll miss the mark for that one. Hopefully we'll get to do a cruise over the holidays and make it then.

I normally book a year out in advance so for me this is a first. The stars aligned with money and time and I just booked a cruise, the Carnival Pride for April 2. I am excited to have such a close date.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yes. There was this perfect RT on SWA that made it all possible. Seriously, something like $250pp RT from Chicago. Southbound it was via BWI, northbound via TPA. And we Hotwired a nice San Juan hotel for Saturday night. That was maybe $80. Real nice property too. So with roughly 24 hours notice we went from winter to the tropics.

 

One interesting aspect to the story. Our son needed to come home from college for the night on Saturday for some reason. We had weather forecasts of literally 20 below zero so I wanted the water turned off at the main as he left on Sunday. Having never done it, I coached him by cellphone from San Juan. Sometimes life smiles.

Wow! Hope I can replicate that. Still have Travel Funds on SWA and also use Hotwire.