How long did you plan?

[cruiseny4life]

14 hours ago, SongsInMyHead said:

Thanks all! I’m tentatively planning with a TA. It’s between HAL and Virgin right now. It’s going to be in 2025 hopefully depending on budget. I am currently learning all the cruise things and dreaming. 
 

also, for anyone interested, I took 3 wobbly steps yesterday! The first in a year! 

Yay! So glad to hear the update!

[seeonlydaylight]

Congratulations and have fun cruising! 

[broadwaybaby123]

We do a year/year and half out. That way, we lock in the price.

[CDNPolar]

9 hours ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

We do a year/year and half out. That way, we lock in the price.

 

Planning is an interesting concept.  We are booked into 2026.  Some of our friends are amazed that we can book that far in advance... but I don't understand their hesitance?

 

Primarily we book this far out because on Viking we only book the lowest cabin category and those are gone early if we don't book.  If we are booking less than a year we are paying more than we have to for a higher deck, or being able to book a few restaurant reservations that we see no value for.

 

Our friends ask, "how do you know what you will be doing in 2026?" to which our response is "Cruising".  When you have that cruise in your calendar that far ahead - 12-18-24 months - you don't have to ask yourself what you are doing, you just plan around that time.

 

We absolutely love the planning phase of having 2, 3, or 4 cruises booked in advance.  The research, the planning and booking of flights, pre-extensions and post-extensions, hotels, and all the other details.

[PoppyVelvet]

We’ve booked in Jan/Feb 2026 for my husband’s 60th - he’s always wanted to do a Nile cruise and safaris in Southern Africa. We’ve booked the Nile cruise with Viking and invited all our friends and family to join if they can. We wanted to give everyone plenty of time to plan (and save!) The Southern Africa is just us, with Silversea. It’s fun having travel to look forward to so far ahead. 

[CDNPolar]

21 hours ago, PoppyVelvet said:

We’ve booked in Jan/Feb 2026 for my husband’s 60th - he’s always wanted to do a Nile cruise and safaris in Southern Africa. We’ve booked the Nile cruise with Viking and invited all our friends and family to join if they can. We wanted to give everyone plenty of time to plan (and save!) The Southern Africa is just us, with Silversea. It’s fun having travel to look forward to so far ahead. 

 

We have done this, booked early and offered family the option to join us and most of the time we get a "good for you" as a response and then "sorry, too early to know what we are doing".

 

Haha.  Well, it is too early to know what you are doing if you have nothing booked, but the one thing that is for sure is that your calendar is open.

 

I think that those of us that book very early - up to two years out - are a rare breed and this practice is not for everyone.

[PoppyVelvet]

16 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

We have done this, booked early and offered family the option to join us and most of the time we get a "good for you" as a response and then "sorry, too early to know what we are doing".

 

Haha.  Well, it is too early to know what you are doing if you have nothing booked, but the one thing that is for sure is that your calendar is open.

 

I think that those of us that book very early - up to two years out - are a rare breed and this practice is not for everyone.

So far the invitation to join us has resulted in deafening silence, which is pretty much what I expected! Those Viking Nile river cruise boats don’t hold a lot of passengers so I hope no one decides to book later but misses out. 

[ldubs]

16 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

We have done this, booked early and offered family the option to join us and most of the time we get a "good for you" as a response and then "sorry, too early to know what we are doing".

 

Haha.  Well, it is too early to know what you are doing if you have nothing booked, but the one thing that is for sure is that your calendar is open.

 

I think that those of us that book very early - up to two years out - are a rare breed and this practice is not for everyone.

 

We might start to think about potential travel options two years out, but we have never done the actual booking that far out.  I think you are a rare breed in that regard.  

 

Usually when we share a tentative travel plan, a lot of the family sign on.  Most of our travels are with a group of family.     

[CDNPolar]

8 hours ago, PoppyVelvet said:

So far the invitation to join us has resulted in deafening silence, which is pretty much what I expected! Those Viking Nile river cruise boats don’t hold a lot of passengers so I hope no one decides to book later but misses out. 

 

Yeah - I have one brother that is notoriously late for everything and we have offered to join us and they always respond that they will think about it.  Never a commitment.  This would be the brother that one day will say "Oh, that cruise you mentioned, we would like to join you" and I guarantee you that the ship will be sold out, or sold out of cabins that they would choose to afford.

[CDNPolar]

7 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

We might start to think about potential travel options two years out, but we have never done the actual booking that far out.  I think you are a rare breed in that regard.  

 

Usually when we share a tentative travel plan, a lot of the family sign on.  Most of our travels are with a group of family.     

 

For us, happiness is having several cruises booked in the future.  Gives us something to talk about (between us) and plan for which is exciting to us.  We go through waves of talking and planning for the most current upcoming cruise to the third cruise in the line up.

 

Some of this is strategy with Viking to keep the 6 month full payment option alive and much easier to do now with $25 pp deposits.  (The 6 month full payment option for CAD and US)

 

It is not uncommon for us however to decide to move a cruise that is booked now to a different date or even a different itinerary entirely.  We actually see these as placeholders for travel.

[ldubs]

18 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

For us, happiness is having several cruises booked in the future.  Gives us something to talk about (between us) and plan for which is exciting to us.  We go through waves of talking and planning for the most current upcoming cruise to the third cruise in the line up.

 

Some of this is strategy with Viking to keep the 6 month full payment option alive and much easier to do now with $25 pp deposits.  (The 6 month full payment option for CAD and US)

 

It is not uncommon for us however to decide to move a cruise that is booked now to a different date or even a different itinerary entirely.  We actually see these as placeholders for travel.

 

Awesome!  I like your style.  We have trips in the planning hopper going out potentially to Fall 2025.  But actual bookings only out as far as Jan 2025.  

[PoppyVelvet]

On 5/30/2024 at 12:08 PM, ldubs said:

 

We might start to think about potential travel options two years out, but we have never done the actual booking that far out.  I think you are a rare breed in that regard.  

 

Usually when we share a tentative travel plan, a lot of the family sign on.  Most of our travels are with a group of family.     

 

On 5/30/2024 at 7:48 PM, CDNPolar said:

 

For us, happiness is having several cruises booked in the future.  Gives us something to talk about (between us) and plan for which is exciting to us.  We go through waves of talking and planning for the most current upcoming cruise to the third cruise in the line up.

 

Some of this is strategy with Viking to keep the 6 month full payment option alive and much easier to do now with $25 pp deposits.  (The 6 month full payment option for CAD and US)

 

It is not uncommon for us however to decide to move a cruise that is booked now to a different date or even a different itinerary entirely.  We actually see these as placeholders for travel.

For our 2026 cruises, my husband starts planning his big birthdays a LONG way out… like nearly 5 years! I decided to lock him in when we settled in the cruises (having been through a variety of other options)

 

We’ve always said that happiness is having an overseas flight in our Qantas bookings or a cruise booking. Makes finishing the current holiday a bit more bearable!

[ldubs]

2 hours ago, PoppyVelvet said:

 

For our 2026 cruises, my husband starts planning his big birthdays a LONG way out… like nearly 5 years! I decided to lock him in when we settled in the cruises (having been through a variety of other options)

 

We’ve always said that happiness is having an overseas flight in our Qantas bookings or a cruise booking. Makes finishing the current holiday a bit more bearable!

 

Good show, I like that attitude!

[Mary229]

The only time I booked two years out was 2020-2021.  It was clear to me that inflation was going to be an issue so I locked in as many cruises as I could as far out as I could.  Now unless it is a special itinerary which I buy when it is published, I purchase at my convenience or wait until I receive a truly discounted offer 

[CDNPolar]

14 hours ago, Mary229 said:

The only time I booked two years out was 2020-2021.  It was clear to me that inflation was going to be an issue so I locked in as many cruises as I could as far out as I could.  Now unless it is a special itinerary which I buy when it is published, I purchase at my convenience or wait until I receive a truly discounted offer 

 

For us, price increases are part of why we book 18-24 months out.  We watch the cabin prices and see them increase each year from our booked price.

 

We recently booked a pre-excursion 18 months out that was $799pp and now it is $1299pp and that is only 6 months later.  Same dates, same sailing.

[jlawrence01]

My wife and I are budget travelers.  Our goal is to travel away from Arizona 13 weeks a year including trips back to the Midwest to see family.

 

When we cruise, we are looking for good deals on the cruise lines that will provide excellent food and excellent service.  That means that we generally cruise on the "shoulder seasons" and those weeks of the cruising calendar that are less popular.  For example, Alaska in may or September works for us.  Or any cruise that travels in the first two weeks of November, December, and January.

 

We do NOT look more than twelve months in advance.  We are more likely to book trips about 6-8 months out for major trips and maybe six weeks out for fill ins.  We find that you are not going to get good rates once you go too far out.

 

Since getting to the cruise port is a major expense, we may cruise immediately before or after a trip home to see family.  Or we might book two cruises back to back if we see the right bargain available.  Or a cruise followed by a week road trip followed by another cruise.

 

We use our travel agent's website and "90 Day Ticker" to identify great deals.  When you see those super low fares, those are the ones that we are looking for.  in general, we reserve a guaranteed inside cabin and have generally not been disappointed.  Noise issues do not bother us as my DW can't hear them and I sleep soundly.

 

We have three cruises booked in September back to back to back out of Vancouver in Alaska and to Hawaii..  (it is cheaper to fly home from Honolulu than Vancouver or Anchorage.  We have two cruises booked in March out of Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

[verviers2000]

When I booked my cruise, I started looking about 6-8 months ahead, but some folks book even earlier, like a year in advance.

[SbbquilterUT]

At this point in life we are looking for specific itineraries and will book when the cruise is released for best pricing - only once did the price of the cabin decrease but we have watched it climb it almost triple as well.  And we tend to package together more than one cruise and land time.  Our Australia, NZ and South Pacific was booked for 2021 and we will finally be sailing it next spring.  We do have a river cruise booked for 2026 and will book a TA over as soon as they are released - love getting to Europe with no jet lag after a 12-14 night sail for about the price of premium economy plane seats.

[CDNPolar]

14 hours ago, SbbquilterUT said:

At this point in life we are looking for specific itineraries and will book when the cruise is released for best pricing - only once did the price of the cabin decrease but we have watched it climb it almost triple as well.  And we tend to package together more than one cruise and land time.  Our Australia, NZ and South Pacific was booked for 2021 and we will finally be sailing it next spring.  We do have a river cruise booked for 2026 and will book a TA over as soon as they are released - love getting to Europe with no jet lag after a 12-14 night sail for about the price of premium economy plane seats.

 

This has been our experience as well that the cruise line we use and prefer, the prices only go up.

 

We look at the itinerary up to two years out (or as soon as the itineraries are released) and if it meets our needs/desires as to destination and price, we book and pay the deposit.

 

We know that larger ships and lines have promotions closer to sailing if they are not selling out the cabins, but our. preferred line does not.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

18 months out ..