Booking

[Newe08]

My wife and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary in January 2018 and I'm gonna surprise her with a cruise. It will be my first cruise and her 2nd(which was about 15 years ago). I will be planning on booking this soon so that way she can have plenty of time to be ready for 2018 :) I've narrowed it down as this being a Christmas gift for her or an anniversary gift for January 2017(gives her time to get ready..lol) . Now it'll be hard to book cause she does look at the finances more closely than I do so I'll prob book the day before I tell her. Now I could have sworn I read somewhere that there are sales during the month of January or maybe it was a dream!!! Can anybody confirm this?

 

Chris

[Sixtytwo]

Welcome to Cruise Critic, Newe08! You are correct, January-March is what is called "wave season" in the cruise industry. During this time, most cruise lines will offer deals. However, when the economy is doing good and cruise lines are having no problem filling cabins, the deals are not as good as they are when they need to discount them to fill them. It might be a good time to book "early saver" so if the rates do go down, you can benefit from the reduction.

[boscobeans]

AS far as sales, you can almost always get a reduction in your cruise price, if one pops up, right until you make your final payment (about 60-90 days before the sail date.) It is simple.

 

Remember if you book with the Cruise company you will do everything through the Cruise company.

 

If you book through a Travel Agent or Travel Agency you will have to deal with them exclusively.

 

**Do your research online as far as the cruise line, the itinerary, the ship, the date and the type of stateroom or accommodations you desire. Each cruise line offers something different and make sure to read up (cruise critic is great ) on what sailing on the different lines is like and if you will be happy with your choice.

 

We always use an agent....

 

On almost all our cruises our agent has group or block bookings for the staterooms we choose and this is reflected in an even better price, an added perk or two and/or a healthy OBC ( ON BOARD CREDIT-which you can spend on your cruise.. ).

 

Our agent, since 2006, is always on with the cruise lines and has managed for our last 4 cruises to get our initial staterooms changed, if we didn't get what we wanted at first, to what we really enjoy the most on ships that have them, which are aft facing cabins with the huge verandas and for some reason never seem to be available a year out?

 

**NEVER book anything you aren't going to be happy with, expecting something better or less expensive will come along... It may or may not, so be happy with your first choice.

 

We always check our email, Cruise Critic and the cruise line's websites to see if specials in the way of discounted beverage packages or the like become available and take advantage if we need to

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ONCE YOU ARE BOOKED YOU MIGHT GET ANXIOUS TO GET ON THE SHIP

 

Over the next few months we firm up our vacation schedule and line up our house sitter.

 

When flights ( Jet Blue since they became available to us ) open up we book them immediately and manage always to get non-stop flights at the times we prefer and the seats we want. Over the next months we get emails for ticket sales and almost always wind up with excellent rates.

 

After another month or so we get a little twitchy AGAIN SO WE;

 

Depending on how many days we plan to spend pre-cruise ( always thinking of Upstate New York weather ) and post cruise we begin planning our hotel reservations.

 

About 90 days out we have almost everything firmed up and we make our final payment.

 

Once we are paid in full, to avoid the PIA our 29 inch suitcase is when we fly to the port of departure, we set up our Luggage Forward reservation to have our large bag picked up and delivered to either the hotel or the ship, depending on our pre-cruise schedule.

 

Three weeks from cruise time we call and cash in our RCCL credit card points and confirm they were put on our account.

 

Now we do our cruise check in, get our boarding pass and print up our luggage tags.

 

Once we are 2 weeks out we ask for a final invoice from our agent and a copy of the actual final RCCL invoice and get our large suitcase packed ready for pickup.

 

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THE HOUSE

Get our house ready for our absence, change batteries in smoke detectors, generator and furnace tune up, plenty of food for the animals and our house sitter. Being that we cruise in Winter or early Spring we always make arrangements with someone to snowplow our place if there is a storm.

Stop our mail delivery.

Make reservations at Park and Fly (if we are flying-LOL).

 

A few days before we leave we do what we have to at the bank for cash, notify our credit card companies that we will be travelling and to where so we have no problems if we decide to use them in other countries.

 

Do the final packing and get flight boarding passes the night before, charge cell phones and other gizmos.

 

Make copies of all reservations, paid invoices and OBC's as well as for packages purchased.

 

ALL documents needed like passports, photo id's, parking reservations, flight boarding passes, hotel reservations and cruise boarding pass are arranged in the order of need and placed where they are easily accessible and secure.

 

Prepare our carry-ons and go to SLEEP.

 

In the AM we are off and running, well not running but we are off.

 

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Hope some of this helps you, and HAVE A GREAT CRUISE.

We have been on more than 23 and have never had a bad cruise...

 

bosco

Edited December 13, 2016 by boscobeans

[easyboy]

Yes, there will be promos they will call "sale" this 1st quarter of 2017. But it does not guarantee to be the lowest price till you sail. You should still constantly check prices for any possible drops after you book. At this time, I assume that you have already chosen the itinerary you would both enjoy, and the cruise line ship that covers that itinerary.