Booking early vs booking late (past final payment date)

[Cruise2End]

We have been cruising for the past 20 years, mostly with Princess. The last few years we have taken advantage of the 3 for Free promotion. However since we are now retired, we can and have booked longer cruises. It also appears that these cruises can go down in price substantially after last payment date. We are in a position to do last minute bookings.

 

Do we book with a promotion, following the prices and then if it goes down substantially just cancel and rebook? The cruise line generally will not honor lower price unless you cancel and rebook, which eliminates the perks of any promotion you signed up with. Or do we just wait and take our chances on cabin availability and book last minute? At one time, we felt like we were in a better position booking early, But now upgrades are pretty much a thing of the past, replaced by upsells, which if you take advantage of an upsell, you pay more not only for your cruise, but your travel insurance as well.

 

Does anyone have a rule of thumb as to how bookings or when bookings are best made early or late? Any thoughts appreciated!

[satxdiver]

We book early almost as soon as it is announced. Then I wait and keep checking the prices and sales maybe as much as every week. If I find a better deal, I call Princess and discuss the change with most times moving to it. If you have a booking with certain perks like 3 for free or S'n'S, then changing the booking will cause you to lose the perks of course. So I have to weigh if the change is better than what we have booked. Some sales require a non-refundable deposit which is a consideration. Other sales are for new booking only which is easy to get around if final payment has not been made. It is my experience though that the new booking offers are after final payment so there is monetary loss. Since I am retired I have time to check the prices regularly and the flexibility to change cruises if something better is offered.

[JF - retired RRT]

We've been retired for 6 years. We book early, love the 3 for free promos and grab them when we can.

We currently have 4 cruises booked. Two are next month. Booked a year ago. The after final payment price drops are not even close to what we paid last year.

One is a 5 day Cabo overnight, we paid $375pp before port fees for an interior. Today's starting price for interior is $579. The other cruise is a 15 day Hawaii with 3 for free. We paid $1699, today's price is $1819 with no promo. Our OBC on this cruise is almost $1000 and no gratuities to pay.

In addition, as you know, the closer you get to sail away, the fewer cabin choices.

We also have a 2019 cruise booked on the Royal when it gets to the west coast. Booked an obstructed balcony for $50pp more than an inside. Recently got a promo added with the Sip N' Sail. Got our cabin moved to midship with a BIG balcony, OBC instead of SNS and NO price increase. I'm willing to bet those prices are only going up as we get closer to sail date.

One thing you can do is sign up for one of the price tracker apps that give you a historical look at prices and let you know when there's a drop. We used one for a couple of years, but eventually found that just checking in with Princess once in a while (or every day sometimes :D) worked just as good.

[thinfool]

Princess has a Drop n Go section on their website for good prices on near date sailings. You can also sign up for email notifications of these sailings.

 

Currently there are some very compelling rates for sailings before the xmas holidays.

 

IMO, the 'sales' and perks are mostly smoke and mirrors, the real price of the cruise is reflected when you strip all of that away.

 

Booking a cruise after final payment is often very cost effective even if you have to pay per drink prices and don't have "free" gratuities.

[easyboy]

We always book early to secure our preferred cabin. We then check prices regularly for price drops.

 

 

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[Go-Bucks!]

We always book early to secure our preferred cabin. We then check prices regularly for price drops.

 

We also book early to get (usually) the best price and cabin of our choice. Had a nice surprise when checking prices one day recently and found a $300pp price drop for our Vista suite! That was a 23% price drop. But even better, we switched to an Owners suite and still paid $165pp less than for the original Vista suite!! Suites rarely have decent price drops so we were really happy.

[iancal]

We typically book inside the final payment window. Usually about 45 days out, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. Latest has been 3 days from sailing, earliest a week into the final payment window. We will book in advance if we see the right opportunity.

 

We select the itinerary and then shop for the ship and the price. We do not care if it is Princess or one of the other cruise lines that we enjoy.

[Woobstr112G]

Back in the day many booked at the last minute to get the great deal. Nowadays, you must book early, especially if you want a particular cabin class/location.....:):):)

 

Bob

[iancal]

We are not that particular about where our balcony cabin is located.

 

Our experience is that last minute pricing varies by itinerary, economic,political factors, etc. And of course supply/demand. Several years ago we had fabulous last minute pricing on Med and Adriatic cruises. Last minute pricing for Alaska cruises has been incredibly low for the past three years (we live near the ports). We are looking at some very attractive Caribbean late booking offers at the moment.

[cruiseintoheaven]

I used to think that waiting until final pay was the way to get the best fare, and when we are retired we may lean towards that option, but for now, with having to schedule flights and time off work for DH - booking early is the better option. I do check for price drops but in the last few years have not had any significant luck with that. One thing I have started doing for cruises booked at least a year out is to watch what happens to fares for that particular cruise (if offered) THIS year just to get a sense of how well it's selling, cabin availability etc....the obvious assumption on my part being there might be some compelling evidence that we could likely do better to wait until after final pay. We've even considered booking flights and waiting until after final pay to book cruise but thus far haven't gambled on that!

 

 

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[jb008]

Back in the day many booked at the last minute to get the great deal. Nowadays, you must book early, especially if you want a particular cabin class/location.....:):):)

 

I think that is an overly broad generalization. I'm not saying every sailing will have prices drop after final payment... but my humble opinion is that you can get a pretty clear picture of how cabins are selling if you do some legwork (or find a good TA, or a good fare watching site).

 

At the end of the day, it's all supply and demand (where an important factor of demand is price). I've booked my last two Princess cruises after final payment (so <75 days out) and gotten better fares than what was offered prior to final payment deadline (Alaska, 2017; S. Carib. 2017) and exactly the cabins I was looking for. My most recent booking, I saved >40% plus got free gratuities as a bonus for waiting until after final payment, but I made a calculated wager and it paid off.

 

Note that you can tell what approximate inventory is by just clicking through to see what rooms are available for dummy bookings, and if it's pre-final payment you can assume some cancellation rate above and beyond available rooms. There's third-party sites out there that will give you a decent overview of inventory for a sailing across the categories, it may not be right up to the minute inventory but it's timely enough imho. You can use the available room data to at least get an educated guess as to what fares will do... lots of empty rooms means a discount is likely in the cards. If you want to take deal shopping one further, look at inventory for "competitive" sailings, for example I knew X cruises out of the same home port +/- 1 day (different itineraries) had tons of availability there too, so I could theorize that bookings were running low in general and that would further depress Princess pricing. Last, it helps if you have an idea what a reasonable rate for that season and region should be... once you see rates get lower than that you know you're getting a decent deal at least.

 

Bonus tip: If you're open to sailing a competitor's line, Celebrity final payment is 90 days out... so they already are into their discounting phase before Princess' final payments are due. You can lock in a refundable deposit on P while shopping the discount fares on X to help get a better deal. It also serves as another data point on guess what P rates might do after final payment.

[geoherb]

I book our cruises after the final payment date. The last time I booked one before the final payment date was 2003. Before DH retired from teaching at a community college, we had to go during his school breaks. I tracked prices of the cruises that fit his schedule. Sometimes the prices kept going up after the final payment date, and we did not go on a cruise. Most of the time, though, the price of at least one of the cruises went down considerably.

 

We've taken two cruises since I retired early this year and have another booked for December. We've saved considerably more by booking late than any promotions would be worth.

 

The good thing is that we don't care where our cabin is. On our British isles cruise in August, we even had an inside cabin--our first time doing that in many years. It was fine. Since prices came down so much for our upcoming cruise on the Royal, we booked a balcony. It was $400 less per person than inside cabins were before the final payment date.

[iancal]

geoherb...exactly our experience.

 

Now that we are retired we travel more frequently and for longer periods of time. We take advantage of late booking travel offers -not just on cruises ether. If we are on an independent land trip and close to a port we will also look to see what last minute booking specials are available. We have done this is in Florida (very easy), Europe, and Australia with good success.

 

We also price the cruise outside of he country. Our late booking Aus/NZ cruise was priced at 30 percent less in Australia than it was on the North American web site so we booked with RCI Australia directly instead of our on line TA. We do the same on other travel products. Once in a while we score a very nice discount or a great upgrade.

[monakayk]

We are also retired and have booked early and last minute. We travel sometimes by air but now want to do more RV road trips with cruises also. So this year even though we have booked more than a year out for our CCL cruise to Panama...I watch the prices daily, but while we will be in TX for our cruise & road trip we will be looking for last minute cruises to take too. WE have done this before while in FL and CA. Took 4 extra cruises while in those states after taking 2 planned in advance cruises. Either way works...if you are able to leave at the last minute or be near ports at anytime.

[Wishing on a star]

Sometimes those Drop-and-Go fares are really great!

My husband mentions being able to do these once he retires.

 

The thing is, if those perks add a lot of value to your cruise, then the big early booking promotions mentioned are the way to go.

 

In the future, we might wait to see about the last minute fares. But for now, we wanted to take advantage of the Beverage Package, so we booked our next cruise really early!

 

No harm in booking early... then it comes down to calculating how much better you might really come out after losing the perks.

[rdsqrl]

The last four cruises (3 Princess; 1 Cunard) I've booked have been post-final payment, and I've gotten outstandingly good deals. Plus a great deal on the upcoming one (or two -- still mulling over the back-to-back option) this December. I can't see for myself a reason to book early unless there's only one cabin on the entire ship you'd be happy with. Especially sailing solo: for many of the non-Caribbean itineraries, the early prices are simply way too high and the only way I can sail in Europe or other "exotic" itineraries is jumping on last-minute sale rates. And I'm completely cool with that.

[geoherb]

The thing that amazed me this summer about our British isles cruise was how affordable the airfare through Princess was. We got a great price on the cruise, but I thought airfare was going to be more than the price of the cruise. Princess somehow was able to offer air for half the price.

 

For cruises that leave from Florida, we're within two-day driving distance--just under 800 miles to Fort Lauderdale. We've only driven it once, stopping for a night each direction. That year, airfares were outrageously priced.

[cardiffman]

I think the time scale in the cruise business is a little warped. We have cruise trips lined up out to 2019 and that's after only one past cruise. We did get a good deal on a drop'n'go email offer in late September for a November cruise, but in the 21st Century 2 months ahead is NOT "dropping" and going, it is planning in advance.

[iancal]

We have given up trying to figure out late booking air. Over the past few years we have found that air purchased 30-45 days out to be the same price as air 3-6 months out. And lately, air prices seem to be extremely low.

 

This winter will be our fourth in the past five years spent in SE Asia. The absolute lowest.best air fares? The first (five years ago) booked

10 days prior to departure and this years booked 5 months out. We have found exactly the same for European flights.

 

We always check the cruise air prices. So far, only two have been advantageous. A one way home from Europe (good savings) and a one way from Miami -Costa Rica (very minor saving).

 

If we snag a last minute cruise that needs air we check with the cruise line. If no, then our TA holds our reservation for 8 hours while we sort out air. We typically shop for late bookng air (when required) and cruise at the same time so we a good idea that we will get air.

[FawnRiver]

Princess has a Drop n Go section on their website for good prices on near date sailings. You can also sign up for email notifications of these sailings.

 

 

 

Currently there are some very compelling rates for sailings before the xmas holidays.

 

 

 

IMO, the 'sales' and perks are mostly smoke and mirrors, the real price of the cruise is reflected when you strip all of that away.

 

 

 

Booking a cruise after final payment is often very cost effective even if you have to pay per drink prices and don't have "free" gratuities.

 

 

 

We just booked for the Dec. 30 sailing on the Royal, it was a really good price, but we missed it by a day. We booked anyway, because the price we paid ended up being the same as the new price included gratuities. They just upped the better price by the amount of the gratuities and relabeled the sale.

 

 

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