Book now or later?

[Monthend]

Saw a good rate and a great itinerary for April 2020 but I'm not ready to book until October. Will I be sorry?

[Clarea]

Unpredictable.

[fredflint]

maybe why not book now

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, Monthend said:

Saw a good rate and a great itinerary for April 2020 but I'm not ready to book until October. Will I be sorry?

Book now to get a cabin before they are limited. Check for price drops weekly, if you see a price drop call your TA and get repriced.  If you are unsure about the cruise book with  a refundable deposit.

[bouhunter]

1 hour ago, Monthend said:

 Will I be sorry?

Quite possibly.  Price drops happen, but more often they go up.

[juanrod]

Book now... Get the refundable rate and put down a deposit. If the rates go up you will be happy, if you decide not to go get your deposit back.

Best of both worlds, just make sure to keep an eye on payment date!

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[Monthend]

Can you choose the refundable deposit.

[juanrod]

Can you choose the refundable deposit.

Yes, that is what we have done in the past. Book at refundable rate to hold, then as it gets closer and we are 'for sure' going look at a price drop with a non-refundable rate closer to final payment.

Juan

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[dswallow]

Why the delay until October?

 

If you're in the US, you always can reprice as long as the cabin category you booked is still available; so if the price goes down, you just call and have it repriced, or if a better category is available that you want, same deal, or for that matter, you can downgrade categories, too. No cost involved.

 

The refundable vs. non-refundable thing refers to the deposit you have to put down. If you go with a refundable booking, you can cancel anytime up until final payment and get all your money back. If you go with the non-refundable option, if you change sail date or ship it'll cost you $100/person. If you want to cancel, it'll cost you $100/person and the remaining portion of your deposit is returned to you as a future cruise credit that you have 12 months to use towards another booking.

 

If you make a refundable booking, you can change to non-refundable anytime, but you're going to be paying the rate of that cabin category at that time. So booking a refundable now and changing later isn't really doing a lot for you, except at least ensuring you can get a cabin at all, I suppose, since you could just make the booking then and you'd be paying the same rate.

 

You just don't know what the rates may do. If they go up, you got a deal; if they go down, you can get the better rate, generally, up through final payment date.

 

But if there's some other reason you prefer to wait till October, that may be a more important factor at play.

[Monthend]

Thanks everyone! Great advice!

[Giorgi-one]

One thing to note about price drops.  If you received amenities when you booked you could lose some or all of them if you rebook at a lower rate!