RCC

Hi I was wondering when is the best time to book a cruise..... way ahead of time or wait and watch for specials...... I booked a carnival in Feb last year and went in Sept and got a great price...... Am looking now to book on Royal Carribean for sept but to no avail.. Much higher prices........ Where would you suggest for me to look to book also..... Thanks

[carol]

The rates on RCI are generally higher than Carnival, especially on the Explorer and Voyager class ships!

[Kathie]

We are planning to book our 2nd cruise on Explorer for next Jan. AAA is having a cruise sale the 1st week in Oct. Also my step-sis, a TA who arranged last Jan. cruise for us, is checking her sale sources. In her preliminary info sent last week, she said it might be wise to wait. I was glad to see that the cruise itself--ocean view room--was under $1000. Last year we decided in early Nov. to book our first cruise( for Jan.) and got a pretty good deal for RCCL--under $900 including insurance. RCCL is more expensive especially for Voyager class, but we fell in love with Explorer and will probably stick with that class ship in spite of the higher price. With the cruise business picking up so much in the last few months, the super deals are probably a thing of the past.

[Donna]

Hi Ruggy35,
You may want to try posting on the "bargain finder" here and see what kinds of prices yo can get for a RCCL cruise. Do you have a specific ship in mind and time that you want to cruise? Just be sure to list that in the post, then travel agents will e-mail you with their price. I've had some good success with this feature and it does save time, good luck:


http://www.cruisemates.com/findcruise/index.cfm

[Thomas]

We've found last minute bookings are cheaper as they discount the remaining cabins to sell out the ship. You have to be flexible though to cruise this way. The air fare may also cost more if you must fly to the port (we don't).

I'm contemplating a Carnival cruise for next summer for a family reunion and the price is double what we just paid for the same cruise on RCI. Pricing is a marketing strategy that is dependant on how popular a specific cruise is and not solely dependent on the cruise line. Search for a cruise you want, then compare like ships and cabins from different cruise lines and you'll find the price to be within a few dollars of each other. This applies to the mass market lines attracting the same customers and not to the smaller lines attracting a different market.

Regards,
Thomas