When to book

[thehumpies]

What is the best time to book an Holland America cruise? Do they do January offers?

[CruiserBruce]

They do sales at various times, with perks. But there is no "magic time". Generally sales can be about 6 months out from a "season", when they are seeing their sales trends. So, perhaps for Alaska and Europe, you might see a sale in January or February. But no guarantees.

[wyobean]

We book when we decide what cruise is next on our schedule. For longer more involved ones it may be a year out. We watch the prices and can easily take advantage of most sales, etc. We are at least 3-4 months out. We rarely do last minute cruises as the flights are too expensive, 

[DaveOKC]

We usually book when we see a "good" price on a cruise that we have been considering.  Of course "good" price is very subjective, but what we do is watch pricing for awhile on similar cruises and also look at the cost per day per person.

 

We book fairly far out and then keep an eye on pricing as time goes by (you can always rebook for a better deal at anytime prior to final payment).  We avoid the restricted fares that have a non-refundable deposit or fare.  Sometimes the fare never goes lower than what we booked at and this is fine, as we were comfortable with the pricing when booking.  Other times, we have rebooked several times for a better "deal".  Of course, "deal" means the net cost to us after considering all the perks combined with the base fare.

[Randyk47]

1 hour ago, wyobean said:

We book when we decide what cruise is next on our schedule. For longer more involved ones it may be a year out. We watch the prices and can easily take advantage of most sales, etc. We are at least 3-4 months out. We rarely do last minute cruises as the flights are too expensive, 

 

Same with us.  With my wife still working full time we really don’t have the flexibility to take advantage of last minute deals.  And as Wyobean points out last minute airfares can easily outweigh the sales price of the cruise.    Our general planning horizon is as far out as two years and we typically book a year and a half to a year out.   I think twice in 25 years we’ve booked three to four months out.   

[Krazy Kruizers]

We book our cruises as soon as we can -- it may even be 2 years out.  If something goes on sale -- we call our TA and have her get us the lower price.  We are particular about our cabins.  Also, having very few flights to anywhere -- we need to book them as soon as possible.

 

Something you should be aware of -- when HAL does sales and perks -- read the fine print.  Those cruises may offer included gratuities, signature beverage packages, etc. but they may also have non refundable deposits.

[OlsSalt]

We too have become more particular about our cabin selection after a few clinkers on the guaranty options, so we book earlier now to get our cabin selection. Plus when viewing cabins you may see close to a full sell out on some cruises very early in the game like the summer 2019 Maasdam - Ultimate Alasks to Russia and Japan.  

 

So alot depends on the uniqueness of the itinerary, whether you care about a particular cabin and any later ability to work with later price changes. Once we book and budget, we just take what we signed up for and put the whole thing on the back burner in our mind. 

[iancal]

I do not think that there is any right answer for that question. It really depends on your situation and your preferences.

 

We used to book in advance, before the final payment window, and then monitor the pricing.  Now retired, with lots of flexibility  we typically buy cruises inside the final payment window and often they are in the middle of a land travel.  We have booked nine months out, we have booked three days out.  It has all been good.

 

There is no best.  Only a best given your personal circumstances and preferences.

 

Just be careful about so called sales on all the the popular cruises.  Our experience is that they are more often just a juggling of what is bundled in the price or something like no deposit or a minor deposit.  Neither of which represent a saving of any kind.  Understand the pricing so you can discern a good price from a less than good price.

Edited December 3, 2018 by iancal

[DC1979]

I don’t really have the flexibility to book a last minute cruise, so we tend to book about a year in advance.  But as long as you have a refundable deposit, I’ve never had an issue with having the trip repriced when there is a sale, and most cruises I’ve taken ended up costing less than at the time of initial booking.  I’d recommend you periodically check on the website after you book and call in when you see a lower fare. (I will say the cyber sale that just ended was very decent and we saved a significant amount on an upcoming cruise.  So definitely look around that time in the future for pricing!) 

[wyobean]

Another point....when I called our TA I had a list if 4 cabins I was interested in, on the TA’s site they were not available. She called HAL and they were actually available. Maybe some have experienced this..for me it was something new. This was in November for a cruise the end of June. 

Edited December 4, 2018 by wyobean

[Randyk47]

42 minutes ago, wyobean said:

Another point....when I called our TA I had a list if 4 cabins I was interested in, on the TA’s site they were not available. She called HAL and they were actually available. Maybe some have experienced this..for me it was something new. This was in November for a cruise the end of June. 

 

Not uncommon at all.   I’ve seen up to as many as 8 cabins in a category on HAL’s or TA sites but typically it’s 5 or 6.  I’ve oft thought this was to make it look like a limited number of cabins are available.   On the other hand it a complete list of every unbooked could be extensive.