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How risky is waiting until the last minute?


momto2js
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My DH is deployed somewhere in the middle eastern sandbox, and is set to return in late October/ early November. There are about 8 trips that could work, but until the plane is in the air I honestly don' t know when he will be home. Do I book now and make an insurance claim if he doesn't make it or wait until the last minute and hope there is something available that is at a price we are willing to pay?

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If you book now and make a claim just be sure the policy covers your specific issue

 

However...do you live within driving distance of a port? If so perhaps you can wait and fingers crossed they can book you...be it 2 pax or 4 pax

 

Alternately can you just drive to a beach/lake vacay?

 

 

Personally I'm becoming of the mindset that late booking is better if no airfare is involved as it's becoming increasingly difficult to plan around my family schedule

 

Im also of the mindset that most cruises sail out of good beach ports so a weeklong land vacay there is fine too....especially if you can drive to those ports. You can alway find a good hotel and you can always just insure your airfare at booking via the airline if need be

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Wait. If you are planning on a Caribbean cruise there are often plenty of last minute deals 3-5 days out. Most especially if you are not someone who will only cruise on one line. Last time we were in Florida we decided to check on last minutes. We purchased a great cruise three days out. We were about to move on from our rented condo on Daytona Beach. The cruise price for our balcony was far less than we would have paid for another seven nights lodgings, let alone our food and rental car charges. Drove down to Miami in the AM, dropped the car, and boarded the ship.

 

Start looking at prices and ships now. Sign up with some TA's and cruise lines to get last minute specials. Apparently you can call some cruise lines very close to embarkation day and get an offer that is not advertised.

 

 

You can do this!. We are doddering old fools. If we can do it anyone can. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

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What we do when we are booking late is to understand the general pricing. Then see what ships are sailing. We do not care about the cruise line so much as the differences can be minor. Each has it's own pluses and minuses.

 

We will watch the pricing on three of our preferred. When our target price hits we book. In you case you can keep doing this until you know when DH will actually arrive stateside. At that time you should be in a good position to commit to a cruise.

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Since there are so many possible cruises, you should wait. I frequently kept spreadsheets of cruise prices for the ones that used to fit DH's school break schedule when he taught at a community college. Some prices went up, but some almost always went down. There was only one spring break when we ended up not being able to take a cruise. We spent a week at the beach instead that year.

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The Ecstasy is the Carnival ship based in Charleston. The majority of their cruises are to Nassau & Freeport, 5 days, but they usually do have s 7 day every month or so. ( the Ecstasy is Carnivals 2nd oldest ship after the Fantasy.) It holds about 2100 passengers so is not big at all.

But other Carnival umbrella ships (Holland America, etc.) do use Charleston sometimes and ships that have been up north in the summer come back to FL in early Nov. Charleston can be a stop on their repositioning cruise back to their home port.

Check to see what other ships will be stopping there.

Next year, in May, 2019, the Sunshine (3200 passengers) is moving to Charleston as it's new home port!

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