Book or Wait

[Cruzinram]

Considering the August 2020 New York, Norwegian Fjords and back to New York 21 night in total. This is three segments so never doing a three segment Cruise before should I book now or wait for the price to drop. I don't know how popular this particular trip is and how fast it may sell out. Also what are the chances of getting the same stateroom for the entire voyage. Are cabins set aside for passengers booking the entire trip?

[bluemarble]

I'll assume you are from the US since you mentioned doing a round trip from New York.

 

I just took a look at the US fares for this particular voyage and it looks you will be better off booking this as the single 21-day voyage (M026A) rather than booking it as three separate voyages (M026, M027, and M028). I'm currently seeing fares that are about 14%-23% lower when booking the entire trip as a single voyage rather than three separate segments. The added bonus of booking it as a single voyage is that yes, you absolutely will be able to book the same cabin for that entire voyage. When booking as three separate segments, there could be a lot of playing around checking cabin availability on each individual segment if you wanted to make sure you were in the same cabin for the entire trip.

 

Concerning when to book, I think now might actually be a pretty good time. We currently have the "Three for All" promotion going on in the US which includes pre-paid gratuities and a reduced deposit. Also, your final westbound segment happens to be the "Anthony Inglis and the National Symphony Orchestra" crossing for 2020. That crossing tends to sell quite well. The Cunard US website is currently showing all the upper-tier cabin categories (Britannia Club and Grills) are sold out for that westbound crossing, but there is still availability in those upper-tier categories for the full 21-day voyage.

Edited September 25, 2019 by bluemarble

[princeton123211]

8 minutes ago, bluemarble said:

The Cunard US website is currently showing all the upper-tier cabin categories (Britannia Club and Grills) are sold out for that westbound crossing, but there is still availability in those upper-tier categories for the full 21-day voyage.

Most likely because they are being held aside for those who might book the longer trip. Cunard doesn't want to sell a QG suite for a 7 day crossing and box out someone who wants to buy it for a 21 day trip. They will most likely be released for the crossing a few months before if they don't sell for the longer trip. 

[bluemarble]

1 hour ago, princeton123211 said:

Most likely because they are being held aside for those who might book the longer trip. Cunard doesn't want to sell a QG suite for a 7 day crossing and box out someone who wants to buy it for a 21 day trip. They will most likely be released for the crossing a few months before if they don't sell for the longer trip. 

 

Quite possibly. There is pretty good availability though in those upper-tier categories on the first eastbound segment (M026) and the second Norway segment (M027). For example, I'm currently seeing eight Queens Suites (Q5/Q6) available for M026 and twenty-four Queen Suites available for M027, yet none available for M028.

 

I'm seeing eight Queens Suites available on the full 21-day voyage M026A. So yes indeed, those could be reallocated to the shorter voyages if they don't sell.

 

There are also subsequent voyages that come into the picture such as the New England/Canada voyages and the return eastbound crossing in late September for which M028 is the first segment. I agree that it is difficult to reach any conclusions on what the future availability may be for any given voyage considering how many other longer voyages it may be a part of.

Edited September 25, 2019 by bluemarble

[Cruzinram]

How do you see availability? Yes I am in the USA. What does M028 etc mean.

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Cruzinram

[bluemarble]

Every voyage has a voyage number assigned by Cunard. For Queen Mary 2, all the voyage numbers start with an "M" prefix. "M028" is the voyage number for the 7-night westbound crossing from Southampton back to New York departing Sep 4, 2020. Here are the various voyage numbers for the 21-day QM2 voyage we are discussing.

 

Voyage M026 = 7-night Eastbound Crossing, Aug 21-Aug 28, 2020

Voyage M027 = 7-night Norwegian Fjords, Aug 28-Sep 4, 2020

Voyage M028 = 7-night Anthony Inglis and the National Symphony Orchestra Westbound Crossing, Sep 4-Sep 11, 2020

Voyage M026A = 21-night Grand Norwegian Explorer, Aug 21-Sep 11, 2020

 

As I mentioned above, I think you'll find that you'll come out ahead booking the entire 21-night voyage M026A (as a single voyage) rather than booking the three individual 7-night voyages M026, M027, and M028 separately.

 

I'll follow up with an additional post discussing how to see availability.

[Underwatr]

If you can book with a refundable deposit (likely, with a US booking) you have some price protection although you might lose the perks of your original booking if you rebook to chase a lower fare.

[bluemarble]

Here's a primer on how to see cabin availability using the Cunard website. Other cruise booking websites show cabin availability, but we can't discuss those sites on this forum. So, I'll attempt to describe the process using the Cunard website.

 

1) Find the voyage you are interested in using the "Find a voyage" search function. For example, you could start by searching for voyages departing Aug 2020 and then refine the search by ship to just Queen Mary 2. However you do the search, you should see your voyage in the search results.

 

2) Click "See voyage details". That should lead you to a page with an "Accommodation" section for the various grades of cabins. I usually book sheltered balconies, so I'll use that type of cabin as an example. To look for sheltered balconies, start by expanding the "Britannia Balcony" category in the "Accommodation" section and then select "Balcony (sheltered)".

 

3) Now you actually need to start a dummy booking by clicking "Book now". Then select the number of passengers and click "Continue".

 

4) Now you should see a "Your voyage summary" screen. Near the lower left you should see that a cabin has been selected for you automatically. That's shown beneath the heading "Recommended for you". Note there is also a "Change your room" link.

 

5) Click "Change your room" to get to a "Room Selector" screen. Here is where you can choose various decks and sections of the ship to see cabin availability in that specific area of the ship. Let's suppose you want to see what sheltered balcony cabins are available in the "Mid-Forward" section of "Deck 5". By making those selections, you should see a page like this.

 

 

Here you can see the diagram is showing a total of 5 sheltered balcony cabins available in the mid-forward section of deck 5. Repeat the process of editing the "Ship section" or "Deck" to see availability in other sections of the ship and other decks. Note that you can also edit the "Room type" if you want to check availability for types of cabins other than "Balcony (sheltered)".

 

There is a maximum of 10 cabins that will be shown on any one of these room selector diagrams for a specific type of cabin, section of ship, and deck. If the diagram shows 10 available cabins, there may in fact be more than just those 10 cabins available. You can check to see if other cabins are available by typing specific cabin numbers into the "Search for a specific room by number" box.

Edited September 25, 2019 by bluemarble

[Cruzinram]

Thanks to everyone for such valuable information. It is less to purchase the entire voyage as opposed to individual segments. We were ready to pull the trigger until I researched Travel Insurance. 900-1500 USD. Which would have been ok, except if for some reason we had to cancel, we would lose the entire amount paid for the Travel Ins premium. This happened once before and we decided it was to much risk. So back to looking at something different. Thanks again!

[Underwatr]

There are a few (emphasis on few) travel insurance policies that will cover pre-existing conditions if bought at or before final payment. The premium is higher for these, though.

[cpc3639]

3 hours ago, bluemarble said:

Here's a primer on how to see cabin availability using the Cunard website. Other cruise booking websites show cabin availability, but we can't discuss those sites on this forum. So, I'll attempt to describe the process using the Cunard website.

 

1) Find the voyage you are interested in using the "Find a voyage" search function. For example, you could start by searching for voyages departing Aug 2020 and then refine the search by ship to just Queen Mary 2. However you do the search, you should see your voyage in the search results.

 

2) Click "See voyage details". That should lead you to a page with an "Accommodation" section for the various grades of cabins. I usually book sheltered balconies, so I'll use that type of cabin as an example. To look for sheltered balconies, start by expanding the "Britannia Balcony" category in the "Accommodation" section and then select "Balcony (sheltered)".

 

3) Now you actually need to start a dummy booking by clicking "Book now". Then select the number of passengers and click "Continue".

 

4) Now you should see a "Your voyage summary" screen. Near the lower left you should see that a cabin has been selected for you automatically. That's shown beneath the heading "Recommended for you". Note there is also a "Change your room" link.

 

5) Click "Change your room" to get to a "Room Selector" screen. Here is where you can choose various decks and sections of the ship to see cabin availability in that specific area of the ship. Let's suppose you want to see what sheltered balcony cabins are available in the "Mid-Forward" section of "Deck 5". By making those selections, you should see a page like this.

 

 

Here you can see the diagram is showing a total of 5 sheltered balcony cabins available in the mid-forward section of deck 5. Repeat the process of editing the "Ship section" or "Deck" to see availability in other sections of the ship and other decks. Note that you can also edit the "Room type" if you want to check availability for types of cabins other than "Balcony (sheltered)".

 

There is a maximum of 10 cabins that will be shown on any one of these room selector diagrams for a specific type of cabin, section of ship, and deck. If the diagram shows 10 available cabins, there may in fact be more than just those 10 cabins available. You can check to see if other cabins are available by typing specific cabin numbers into the "Search for a specific room by number" box.

Thank you. I think this would be a really useful pin to refer to. 

[bluemarble]

12 minutes ago, cpc3639 said:

Thank you. I think this would be a really useful pin to refer to. 

 

You're welcome. Maybe I can put together another version of this post in a stand-alone thread with more detail that would be more useful to pin.

[navybankerteacher]

13 hours ago, Cruzinram said:

Considering the August 2020 New York, Norwegian Fjords and back to New York 21 night in total. This is three segments so never doing a three segment Cruise before should I book now or wait for the price to drop. I don't know how popular this particular trip is and how fast it may sell out. Also what are the chances of getting the same stateroom for the entire voyage. Are cabins set aside for passengers booking the entire trip?

I am not sure I understand the “...wait for the price to drop.” bit.  It’s sort of like wondering whether to buy some shares of Apple now or wait a few months when the share price will be lower.  Some limited commodities sell out quickly, some do not.  I am happy to have booked our QM2 Dec. 22 sheltered balcony sailing several months ago - I now see it quoted at about $800 more per person.  Of course, a cruise might not sell well and later bookings can be cheaper.  As far as the several segments are concerned, it would seem fairly obvious that the later you book the more likely it will be that the same cabin might not be available for all three.

 

The only time I will elect to wait is if we are going to be flexible about what to do with a certain block of time - and then monitor prices (for a number of itineraries) being happy to just stay home if prices run away from us.  Most of the time, being able to choose the accommodations and being satisfied with the price at the time is worth giving up th opportunity to enjoy price cuts (which may or may not surpass increases in related costs such as air fare, etc.).

[Aspidestra99]

I would book the cruise and accommodation I want and then (try) not to look at the price going forward but be happy that I've got the holiday I want at a price I felt reasonable at the time of booking. 

[T5LHR]

I would book it. 

 

My friends who want to come on either the full back to back crossing next year for my birthday, or part of it, have found no availability for the grades they want. I booked a while ago and got the exact accommodation and room number I want. 

 

You just never know when things will sell out, and I would not want to be disappointed by not being able to travel how I wish to, just for the sake of possibly saving a couple of hundred dollars. 

 

Book it and don't look at the prices again. Just be content with your choice! 🙂

 

 

[canoncruiser]

Just a related note on availability -‘now or wait’. I saw a QE Tokyo to Sydney cruise in October 2021 that had me salivating when one of you kind folks found it on another website before Cunard released the later 2021 list. As a previous passenger I jumped on it this week (the 25th) through my TA- even though he was on the phone early AM, my desired category had already sold out and I was booked me in a more expensive category-which had only two staterooms left (by late that morning!😲) and got me on the Waitlist for what I wanted. Wow! He is super good but desirable things can move like lightening. BOOK NOW AND SECURE WHAT YOU WANT. As my late mother used to say-think long and you think wrong.😉

[cpc3639]

23 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

You're welcome. Maybe I can put together another version of this post in a stand-alone thread with more detail that would be more useful to pin.

I would certainly appreciate that to refer to. 

[BlueRiband]

Depends on your priority: getting the best stateroom selection or getting the best price.  In the past we have had some posts where a passenger bemoaned early booking because OBC was offered closer to sailing date.

 

Book early to secure the stateroom that you want.  Book late if you want to gamble on a lower price vs. risk of the ship selling out or prices going up.

[Neuhoftraveler]

On 9/27/2019 at 9:28 AM, BlueRiband said:

Book early to secure the stateroom that you want.  Book late if you want to gamble on a lower price vs. risk of the ship selling out or prices going up.

A third alternative is to book early, and then periodically monitor your voyage on the Cunard website for price reductions in your desired category.  As long as your deposit is refundable, you can re-book anytime the fare goes down (anytime up to final payment, of course).  Of course, you may lose perks like OBC that were included in your original booking.  But the price reduction may substantially exceed the value of the perks, so you come out ahead by re-booking.  In fact, even if you had a small non-refundable deposit, you might come out ahead by forfeiting it in order to get the reduced fare.  And as to OBC specifically, you might deem even a "wash" transaction advantageous, if you think you might not use up the entire OBC amount on things you actually want (as opposed to shop purchases made solely to exhaust unused OBC).