When to Buy a Cruise

In general, we recommend you book as soon as you decide on a particular cruise. Waiting until later may mean the ship fills up, and you miss out.

Booking ASAP is especially important when there is high demand relative to capacity: during the summer and school holidays, for inaugural sailings, and on smaller but popular cruise lines such as Oceania.

Don't worry too much about prices falling, because if demand is less than predicted and the cruise lines lower their prices, people who booked early will usually get refunds of the difference. (This only applies, however, to price changes on your exact cabin type.)

Waiting for bargains: If you are flexible about which cruise and when, you could wait for bargains in the last month before a cruise. Your best bet for late-booking deals are in February, March, October, and November because the lack of school holidays means relatively less demand from families.

Keep in mind that if you wait you may not have much choice of cruise line or cabin type - it's generally the less-attractive cruise lines and cabins that are left.

Also, even on sailings where there are last-month bargains people who booked earlier (and paid more) will not only get the exact cabin they want, but they will frequently be upgraded.

Note: in the past it was possible to go to the pier the day of a cruise and if there were unsold cabins, a flexible traveler could join a cruise for a steal. Security regulations post-9/11 mean that cruise lines finalize the passenger list about a week beforehand so there are no more truly "last-minute" bargains.

Next steps:

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