2009 Baltic Cruise

[coronadogal]

I have been doing some research for a cruise next summer in the Baltics. I am starting to get the feeling I may be late in booking, choices of cabins etc. Any thoughts on whether I should book now or wait closer to the 60-90 day cutoff? There are 4 of us (ages 49,44,14,13) and we need 2 cabins or one balcony/suite. Also, anyone have an idea what airfares might look like? I prefer not to do the cruise air since we probably want to spend extra time in Europe. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I haven't been to Europe in over 25 years and the rest of the family has never been. It's an expensive trip and hate to go wrong.

[6rugrats]

No trip will ever be perfect, so don't worry about something going wrong!

 

Before I booked, I would start looking at airfare because often, that's going to be the most expensive part of your vacation. You may want to go to the cruise air section of this webpage because there are a lot of helpful people there who can help you with your airfare search. If you start a thread, please provide the departure and arrival dates and where you will be traveling to and from; also include number of tickets you are looking for. The more information, the better people can help you. No one can predict what airfares will do!

 

As to cabins, can't predict that either. You certainly don't want to lock in non-refundable air and then not be able to book the cruise because it's sold out.

 

I would start by deciding how much I wanted/could spend on this trip. Then book the cabin now, while there is probably a greater choice of cabins. If you book through a travel agent, make sure they will not charge you a penalty if the cruise price goes down and you are eligible to take advantage of the savings. Then, don't ever trust anyone to check the price for you; check it every few days to see if you can get the new price if your cruise goes on sale. You can always cancel the cruise before your final payment if you have to, so you aren't locked in there.

 

If you wait until 60-90 days before your cruise, the prices may have gone down, but they also may have gone up. You will probably have to pay in full, or at least close to it, and if you have to cancel, it will then be too close to sail date and you will have to pay a substantial penalty. Cabin choice will be limited.

 

Please, please don't forget to purchase travel insurance!! Good luck!

[paul929207]

I would first chack air. Depending on the dates you want to travel, the airlines may have already opened your dates for booking 2009. Assuming yuo find acceptable air, I would then book the cruise and the air. The airlines are unlikely to drop prices significantly, and may very well raise them.

[coronadogal]

Thanks for some things to think about. We may decide to push back Europe until 2010 in order to give us more time for planning and saving money. Don't want to be hindered by lack of funds. Plus I'll be able to book as soon as the schedules come out and get what ship and cabins we want. I didn't know about cruise critic air so I'll check that out.