

(Photo by Dennis Fischer Photography/Getty Images) How far in advance should I book a cruise?Īll this talk of the best time to book a cruise brings up the question of how far in advance you should book. And as I said earlier, great sales and deals can pop up year-round, including on other holidays such as Memorial Day and Fourth of July. If you want to book a solo or family cabin on a Mediterranean cruise in July, you likely want to book much earlier than January for the most availability and the best prices. I can guarantee that your cruise line will offer some promotion during the winter, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best time to book.
#Booku time plus
I could say that winter is the best time of year to book a cruise because that would cover the late-fall Thanksgiving week sales plus the wave season promotions.
#Booku time how to
Related: How to book a cruise with points and miles What is the best time of year to book a cruise? But if Alaska cruise bookings are soft, the wave season specials could be the best of the year as cruise lines pull out all the tricks to fill ships. In a year when Alaska cruises are popular, the wave season promotions in January and February might not be especially good because the lines don’t need to discount to fill cabins. Whether the winter months are the best time to book a cruise depends on which itinerary you’re hoping to book and how popular that sailing is that year. Or, the cruise line may offer its best fares in a one-off sale at another time of year.
#Booku time free
You might find a cheap cruise deal or a fare packed with extras (like complimentary beverage packages, free kids fares or reduced deposits).Īre you guaranteed to find the cheapest, most freebie-laden pricing during these months? Of course not! Sometimes, cruise lines inflate prices before a sale, so when they offer 30% or 50% off, it’s not as good a deal as you think. The best months to book a cruise are January through March, when nearly every cruise line launches some kind of “wave season” promotion, and November through December, when Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales often start well before Thanksgiving and end days or weeks after. While you can find cheap cruises any month you look, I can give you some pointers about which months are most likely to feature cruise sales with value-added promotions. If there’s no best day to book a cruise for the best deal, you might think there’s a best month. Related: The best credit cards for bookings cruises What is the best month to book a cruise? World cruises have sold out within hours, even with price tags of $150,000 per couple. The exception is world cruises (and other highly anticipated and publicized short-season sailings, like this year’s Great Lakes cruises). However, if the line sees a certain cabin category on a specific ship failing to sell as expected, it could drop rates halfway into the sale period. I could tell you that it’s cheaper to book a cruise at the beginning of a sale because availability is greatest. It all depends on how many cabins a cruise line has allocated for a specific fare class and whether those rooms happen to sell out or not. Within a given cruise sale’s promotional period, I’ve seen cabin prices fluctuate daily and I’ve seen them stay the same for a week. These lines still offer the occasional flash sale, but they don’t always fall on the same day of the week. It used to be that lines like Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line would offer midweek sales on select cruises every Tuesday or Wednesday. What is the best day to book a cruise?Įveryone wants to know the cheapest day to book travel - as if fares drop like clockwork on Wednesday morning and rise with the sun on Thursday. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email.

I would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions.
