The best how to?

[30thteam]

My wife and I want to take my Daughter and Son (both in college) on the Norwegian Dawn during winter break in 2010.

 

How do I get the best prices and what is the timing? Do I book as close to the date as possible?

 

Our first cruise we booked through Norwegian and paid full price. We did not know about discount sites.

 

We would fly into Miami .

 

We need advice from Professional Cruise travelers. We need to squeeze the money. Please provide info on who to go through, when to book.

 

We have learned our lessons with excursions.

 

We need the wheeling and dealing part of getting the best deal.

[Grandpaul]

Why not cruise out of New York City and save the airfare?

[Don Haynes]

That is a problem, attempting to get good rates on a very busy cruise week and one of the most expensive. To get the best rates, I wait until a month or so before the cruise to book. Unfortunately, sometimes the cruise I want is already booked out. I am also a bit more flexible, willing to cruise when others don't, such as the times when school is in, not out. The cruise lines don't do much dealing until just before a cruise, and then at their discretion in their bid to sell out the ship at the last moment. We call you, don't call us.

[Hockey19]

If there was one easy answer we would all have more money for cruises. There are many factors that affect cruise pricing. In theis case, the laws of supply and demand apply and they do not work in your favor. You are going during Winter Break- so is everyone else. This includes air fare. Miami is not the ideal location to fly into. Ft. Lauderdale invariably is cheaper. You may save some money by cruising from there. You did not say where you were coming from but if you are a Southwest city, remember that they do not use the major travel websites, you have to go directly to them. Subscribe to fare predictors (I use Farecast).

I have used both on line sites and TA for cruise bookings. Travelocity, Expedia, etc. all seem to have within a few dollars of what the ship has. If you want the security of that kind of booking, skip the online and establish a relationship with a professional cruise TA. They will be your advocate if you need help. Consolidators like Vacations to Go may have some hidden bargains. Subscribe to NCL's e-mail list. Check the specials every day. Set a budget and if the price hits, take advantage. On Board credits (OBC) count as dollars saved-NCL is making heavy use of OBC's. See which may apply.

[garycarla]

You did not mention the exact dates, but if over the Christmas New Years holidays, the rates will be high.

 

You can look at this year and 2009 to get an idea of which weeks are high. Booking early gives you lots of options. Booking late might get a better rate if rooms are open. Or higher rates if they sell fast.

 

Who knows?

 

And 2010 is a real crapshoot. Heck, 2009 is a big crapshoot as well. Economy is moving rates all over the place.

 

And, somebody will have merged or be out of business by 2010 in my guess.