advantage or disadvantage to paying early

[AlaTex]

When booking a cruise (and after paying the required deposit) six months before departure and 3+ months before final payment is due, is there any advantage or disadvantage to paying early when booked online directly with cruise line, other than who earns interest on money??

[cal2632]

No advantage to you to pay early.

[Arwenmark]

disadvantage, once they have full payment they are less likely to give you a discount should the price drop, I mean if you are still outside the penalty window you can still cancel and rebook BUT if they have your money they will be very slow to return it and you would still have to come up with all the money again to rebook. Never pay final payment till the last minute.

[cherylandtk]

I don't exactly agree with McCall--I suppose that depends on the cruiseline. We had to cancel a prepaid cruise, outside of the penalty window, and got a full refund very promptly. No problems, on Princess.

[Happy ks]

No one ever gets my money until I absolutely have to give it to them.

[caprcorn28]

I agree with you Happy ks ;)

 

I pay my final payment about a week before it is due...just in case there is any kind of computer problem...some glitch somewhere...My PVP is off that day (I know that I can pay with anyone there, but I like my guy!) I want to have a couple of days to play with in case of problems! (No problems so far though!! Carnival sent me my final pymt receipt about 3 days later!!)

 

I guess the advantage of paying early...you don't have to worry about later. Disadvantage...they are sitting on your money earning interest and you aren't. That's about it.

[suzeyQ]

It also depends on where you're from. We're Canadian and our cruise price was in US dollars. With the change in the US vs. CDN dollar, it could have made a big difference whether we paid earlier or later.

[gizmo]

A couple of times I saw brochures that had a pay now and you receive a discount. I think most of these may have been for those river cruises in Europe.

[Krazy Kruizers]

They don't get our final payment until the actual time it is due.

[Coolmama_1]

No one ever gets my money until I absolutely have to give it to them.

 

I totally agree!

[cruisecache&squash]

I got a 5% discount for paying in full. That's more than I would have gotten in interest! :D

[prairie_fox]

Only fall back is if you’re a guarantee cabin then they put a number on you within a week of the payment when it’s paid in full. This can work both ways as being good or bad, depends on if you’re with a cruise line that upgrades or not.

[Thamsey]

I paid in full for a Alaska tour in November and I got an upgrade confirmed 2 weeks ago and I am quite pleased with where I am on the boat. Also being Canadian I did not want to take the chance of the dollar lowering but it actually has increased chance I took.

[molly361]

I pay ahead only to get it over with- -usually the money is not enoughoto make any big difference with todays interest rates- and I have several times had price adjustments with no problem from different lines- they have always issued credit right back to my credit card- not only that but sometimes I even get "shipboard credit" for myself as to lessen the blow when the final bill arrives once onboard and having fun, fun fun

[CruisesOnMyMind]

OOPs read that wrong! I never pay in full untill the last minute but book as early as I can.

I find the biggest advantage of booking early is the choice of cabin. I like to check out the deck plans. If I leave it until later chances are the cabin I want is not available.