Promotions for 2024 Sailings - Advice on When to Book?

[CruiseSkellington]

We are considering booking our first cruise with Virgin. As regular Disney cruisers, we are used to booking far in advance to get the best rates, and never expect any promotions. However, we see that there is a promotion going on for 2023 sailings on Virgin, but we are interested in a Jan, 2024 sailing. Any advise on when to book? Do you think there will be promotions for 2024, and, if so, when? Are rates better if you book far in advance, or doesn't it matter? We are considering just waiting for a bit to see if any promotions pop up for 2024, but would appreciate any advise!

 

 

[cantgetin]

The good thing about VV is that if you have not paid in full, you can cancel and rebook at a better promo/lower price.  VV is consistently coming out with "deals," whether lower prices, more loot, free or extra bonuses on drink packages, etc.  I already have a 2024 cruise booked, and paid less for it than the same sailing in 2023...but I think that was just luck.  I was able to cancel and rebook a 2023 cruise (my TA did all the work) and saved something like $130 or $140--not a huge amount, but still a better deal.  VV does not generally make adjustments the way some other lines do; they generally do a cancel and rebook at the new option.  

Unless they change things, you can get 10% off your cruise fare by paying in full more than 6 months before the cruise.  On line it looks like you have to PIF at the time of booking, but so far that is not the case.

 

I'm very familiar with DCL where the prices go up as the ship fills and you always want to book on the first platinum day.  That, so far has not been the case for VV.    Find a deal that you like and let your TA know that you want to book. A good TA will keep an eye on specials and re-price each of their/your cruises so they can get you a better price or discuss a possibly better deal (loot or bar tab) if one comes out.  We do know that the current 2023 deal will end on Feb 28; there are suspicions that the "55% discount will be a little less discount but that the bar tab offer will continue."  No word on 2024 yet.