Book now or after final payment date in 9 days??

[Craving A Cruise]

Help! Should we book now or wait? We are looking for 2 connecting cabins. There is not much available to choose from at this late date, so should we wait until after the final payment date on the 29th and hope that more cabins will open up or should we grab what we can right now? Also, does the cost usually increase or decrease after final payment?

 

How difficult is it to switch cabins later if we do book something now? I thought booking asap was best, but since we are only 9 days out I thought there might be some advantage to waiting.

 

What say ye?:D Please let me know what you would do in this situation.

[mikaula]

I would say that if you have to have connecting cabins I would book now. If it's not that important to have them connecting then wait. The price going down after final payment is possible if the ship isn't sellin well or people cancel. So it's a gamble. You know the connecting rooms are available now and they might not be later.

[alcpa1]

Depending on how and with whom you book if the rate drops and YOU find the lower rate you may be entitled to the decrease. If you must have connecting cabins please do so now. RCI will move you if there are cabins available prior to your cruise.

[msmayor]

We specifically wanted connecting cabins on our Freedom cruise and I never saw two together on-line; I thought they were all booked. Turns out all I needed to do was call as they had inventory available; just not listed on the website.

 

Give them a call as you may find exactly what you want NOW.

[Craving A Cruise]

I will phone RCI today. We hesitated in booking earlier because dh was not sure he could take that particular week off work.

 

We don't "need" connecting cabins, it would just be nice to have easy access to 2 bathrooms since we are paying for 2 cabins anyway!!! There are very limited options for quad cabins. (GS and up) With hardly any adjoining cabins either. We have 2 responsible teens, so it is not a problem having them across the hallway in an inside cabin or promenade cabin. The problem is.... there is nothing like that available! :( so we are going to have to pay for two D1 balconies, which really eats into the budget.

 

That is why we were hoping to wait and have something better open up. But based on all the advice I've received so far, I think I need to book something now!!

 

Thanks for all of your help and advice!:)

[Rancher Dave]

You could book one as a gty inside, if available, and book one adult in each cabin and one teen in each cabin. Where you sleep is possibly a different story...if the kids get out of hand it could cause problems such as really having to sleep one adult per cabin. If they really behave well, you can probably get away with them being elsewhere on the ship so you can spend the savings on-board instead.

[SusieV]

I'd wait. So many cruisers have been complaining about drops right after final payment. Also, more inventory is likely to open up.

 

You are so close to final payment that I don't really see the benefit in booking now.

[ChriSusan]

I'd wait. So many cruisers have been complaining about drops right after final payment. Also, more inventory is likely to open up.

 

Book now. Check back after the final payment date and if the price drops then they should give you that lower price by just calling RCI or your TA.

 

I also just found out that the RCI web site doesn't show all of the rooms, and they may not have the best prices either. Check out other web sites or TA's to get better room option and deals (or at least to see what is available prior to calling RCI). Even if the price isn't better, many of the TAs give you lots of extra little perks. I've only ever used a TA once before, but am getting very close to always doing it since I've really gotten quite frustrated with the RCI web site. We're Diamond members and would have thought that they'd offer us the best they have.

 

ChriSusan