Wave season??

[royal65]

I've heard the term "wave season", but am not exactly sure what it is. I'm generally under the impression it occurs early in the year (like now) and the cruise lines offer an abundance of promotional prices. But I'm not seeing any out of the ordinary pricing. Am I missing something? Or perhaps the cruises I'm interested in just won't be discounted. Please enlighten me. Thank you.

[RuthC]

Often, the prices you see advertised by travel agents are the same as the cruiselines publish. But, if you contact the TA, they may offer a discount price, on-board credits, or other "sweeteners" that make for a good deal.

You have to scratch the surface, though, to see what's underneath the listed prices.

[E-500]

I've heard the term "wave season", but am not exactly sure what it is. I'm generally under the impression it occurs early in the year (like now) and the cruise lines offer an abundance of promotional prices. But I'm not seeing any out of the ordinary pricing. Am I missing something? Or perhaps the cruises I'm interested in just won't be discounted. Please enlighten me. Thank you.

 

Your impression is right on. The lines try to get a jump on bookings for the year by offering "deals". Depends on itinerary and which company you are looking at. Mass market lines doing the Caribbean and western Europe are the best places to start. Suggest Carnival, Costa, MSC, and RCL. Alaska has been soft the last couple of years, but changing as some ships pull out. New inventory will cause discounting on older ships. HAL, Princess and Celebrity will be slower to discount. Up-scale lines, Regent, Seaborne have guests not as price concerned so they do value added vs. discounting.

 

Others will chime in with more insight, but here's a start.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Wave season actually started many years ago when cruise lines realized that in the months of January and February when potential clients were snow bound and tired of winter they would like to dream of taking a summer warm vacation. Wave Season is basically January and February and is a predictor of how sales will be for the up coming year. Many cruise lines have always started their big push for cruise promotions in these two months but just like the Holiday Season it keeps getting bumped up and starting earlier each year such as HAL's Above and Beyond Promotion ;) ALL of the Cruise Lines have something special they are offering right now but you will find most of the promotion are for late spring into summer and fall.

Also remember if your cruise is not dropping in price it means that the cruise lines does not need to offer anything special to sell that sailing ;)

[Thebes]

Wave season actually started many years ago when cruise lines realized that in the months of January and February when potential clients were snow bound and tired of winter they would like to dream of taking a summer warm vacation. Wave Season is basically January and February and is a predictor of how sales will be for the up coming year. Many cruise lines have always started their big push for cruise promotions in these two months but just like the Holiday Season it keeps getting bumped up and starting earlier each year such as HAL's Above and Beyond Promotion ;) ALL of the Cruise Lines have something special they are offering right now but you will find most of the promotion are for late spring into summer and fall.

Also remember if your cruise is not dropping in price it means that the cruise lines does not need to offer anything special to sell that sailing ;)

 

Thanks for explaining this Lisa :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

We used to start getting brochures from various cruise lines starting in March.

The last couple of weeks we have been getting brochures from Cunard, Costa, Princess, Silversea, etc. Also have been getting e-mails from those various cruise lines.

Nothing from HAL.

Yup -- wave season has started.