When should you book your cruise?

Picture the scene – you’re finally on your cruise ship of choice and settling down to dinner with your fellow cruise guests. Then someone utters that awkward question; how much did you pay for your cruise?

It’s often debated when is the best time to book to get the best deal, so we’ve given you some pros and cons of both, to help you decide when is best for you…

Booking Early

When booking early you will get early booking discounts and often added value offers, such as free drinks, port parking, gratuities etc. For some destinations, such as Alaska – which is hugely popular but has limited passenger capacity – booking early is essential in order to ensure you get the cruise and dates you want. The same applies if you are bound by travelling on specific dates, such as school holidays and this also can go hand in hand with needing a cabin which can accommodate 3/4 passengers. These all get booked up well in advance and you can be left disappointed if you leave it to the last minute. Remember also if you book at this stage you only need to pay a deposit, and when booking early you can often find that you can book on a reduced deposit basis too – so you can secure your perfect cruise but still not have to worry about paying the full balance until around 3 months before travel.

Booking Last Minute

As mentioned earlier, the full balance of a cruise doesn’t need to be paid until around 3 months before sailing. You will find that around this time, a lot of cruises may be heavily discounted if there is still a lot of inventory left. This is more likely in regions where there are a lot of ships, such as the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. A lot of these discounted cabins are offered on a ‘Guarantee’ basis – the cruise line will guarantee you a cabin in the grade you book (inside, oceanview, balcony etc) but they won’t actually allocate your cabin until a few days before sailing, when they know what cabins they have left and sometimes this can work in your favour. If you are flexible on dates and what routes you want to travel, leaving it to the last minute means a bargain can usually be found.

The downsides to both? Well, if you leave it to the last minute, chances are you might save on your cruise but could struggle to get cheap flights, or your guarantee cabin might be somewhere noisy, like near stairs or elevators. However if you book early and end up sat next to someone at dinner who booked a few weeks ago and paid half the cost you did and still got a great cabin allocated, it’s hard not to feel cheated! But then if you add up the costs on board, for drinks, gratuities etc – which you might have got for free as part of your cruise fare by booking early – you will probably find that someone who books last minute will probably end up paying the same as you, so don’t feel too disheartened if some is bragging about their fantastic ‘deal’. The bottom line is for some, the perfect cruise deal means being in a fantastic cabin, with some great added extras, but for others, it’s all about the price and bagging it for cheap. If you see a cruise and are happy with the price, we recommend you book it, you don’t want to miss out because you hold out too long, as prices can change quickly.

So tell us, when do you usually like to book your cruise?