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What is the latest you have ever booked a cruise?

Bigbluegal

By Bigbluegal,
in Royal Caribbean International

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iahawkfan21

iahawkfan21

Posted
Posted

We live 30 minutes south of Port Canaveral and have cruised out of there on 3 days notice and an 8 night cruise from Port Everglades on about 4-5 days notice. Managed to find prices we were happy with and I was able to get the time off work last minute. Were we located anywhere really outside of Florida it probably wouldn't be nearly as feasible for us.

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Sandtrap328

Sandtrap328

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What are the chances of snagging a room on a ship the week it is set to sail?

 

Booked a HAL cruise on same day it left. Rooms became available due to massive snow storms causing last minute cancellations. Booked a Celebrity Summit cruise this past January three days prior to sailing. Think this availability was also due to last minute cancellations. Currently sailing on Celebrity Equinox in a suite that was booked about 30 days ago. Know this was available only due to someone cancelling. If you really want a certain cruise date and cabin, book it early. But, if you just want to cruise NOW, watch the cruises that you are interested in on a daily basis and grab that empty cabin when someone cancels.

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bearette

bearette

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In 2016 my family found a great price on an Alaska cruise out of Seattle. Booked Wednesday and sailed Saturday. We live in driving distance of LAX and the airfare was not bad at $200 piece. I have looked at last minute cruises several times and book many inside final payment, even a few Europe 30 days out, but check air before you book as the $299 Stockholm cruise I found did me no good when the air to get there was $2500.

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jamesboat

jamesboat

Posted
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Just an FYI RCCL started a "price integrity" policy a few years ago, not sure about anyone else but they will not deeply discount their rooms prior to sailing. The cheapest price that you will find is the day that it becomes available and it just goes up in price from there. For this reason we typically book as far in advance as we are able. I would say for us the shortest time was about one year. Here is a link to what I am talking about......

http://www.travelweekly.com/cruise-travel/royal-hews-to-price-integrity-plan-and-sees-a-rise-in-close-in-pricing

 

As others mentioned, that is clearly not true.

 

 

Some fantastic deals open up within 90 days of sailing.

 

I think they get around it by selling via TA rather than direct.

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nivek82

nivek82

Posted
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Add another one to the list of people that have booked the day prior. Did this once years ago on Majesty. As others that have we live close enough to drive. I haven't seen this thing recently but I was starting to wonder how cheap the December cruises going to be this year with many eastern routes changed to western.

 

This is also someone that's wondering how cheap will the 12/3 on LB get with it's new 3 nights in Nassau cruise.

 

If you do book late keep in mind you don't do any type of on-line check in. It's not a big deal but does cause an out of the normal occurrence at the port as you don't have a set sail (they will most likely have to look you up), no signed contracts (have to do the old paper ones), probably no assigned dining (can be done on-board.) Again none of that is an issue just causes some of the staff to ask extra questions cause it's not the normal they are used to either. :)

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emdia43

emdia43

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Booked on Monday night, 9 nights in the Med for $399 - flew to Barcelona on Thursday night. Got a round trip fare on Air France from PHL via Paris for $360 each. My stars really aligned....

When we got to the pier we had been upgraded to a Promenade room!

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as400guy

as400guy

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I agree, especially your thoughts on TAs.

 

Since you mentioned TAs....

 

We have done about 14 cruises with one TA affiliated with a HUGE travel company. She is nice, efficient and has smoothed out a couple of issues for us over the years. BUT, we are dedicated bargain travelers and I just don't feel we're getting maximum benefit from her services.

 

We have and are willing to travel on short notice. We've done so a lot. Tons of airline miles. Retired. Love cruising. Frugal to a fault.

 

Would anyone discuss techniques you have profited from by using TAs... big agency / one-person shop / local group / etc. How did you find them?

 

Feel free to PM me.

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copper6606

copper6606

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TWO DAYS! :)

We were visiting the Tampa area and called on a Thurs. to Pammy [TA] and asked her if she could put us on a cancellation list for any of the 3 ships that were leaving in 2 days. They were all booked up but she said it wouldn't hurt to try[ but she wasn't too hopeful].

We were 7th on the cancellation list and due to people cancelling last min- we got on!!! We got on a 5 day cruise on RC for $229.!!!

The morning of... we were upgraded to an outside cabin... we were thrilled!

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frank808

frank808

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On our first cruise, went down to the next cruise desk 3 days after departure. Family and I fell in love with cruising and wanted another 7 days instead of disneyworld. Next cruise on freedom was sold out but they had a 4 day cruise on enchantment so booked that.

 

I would say 5 days before sail away would have been our latest.

 

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk

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