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If you have kids, it can be difficult to take them out of school at the last minute when homework, tests, and activities are happening throughout the week. Travel agents can be a fantastic resource when trying to book a last-minute cruise. Now in our 41styear, Vacations To Go is the largest cruise-selling company in the world.
Book early
Travel agents are available to answer any questions you may have about your Royal Caribbean cruise, and they provide service in the case of any problems you encounter leading up to your sailing. View award-winning vacations sailing from your backyard and discover deals you won't have to go great distances for with our collection of cruises near you. Stateroom choices will be limited in the weeks leading up to a cruise, and you may need to look for sail dates that are during odd times (such as a departure on a Monday). If you’re cruising on a budget and need to book an interior stateroom, you might be disappointed if interior rooms have sold out close to the sail date.
Less time to figure out logistics
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When Royal Caribbean gets past the point of final payment, they get a good sense of how booked (or unbooked) a sailing is and responds accordingly to fill up the rest of the ship. If you’re a flexible traveler, there’s no real harm in booking a last-minute cruise, especially if you need a vacation! While there are cons to last-minute deals, such as more expensive flights and fewer cabin options, you’ll still end up with an amazing cruise experience.
Book with special rates for military, senior, and residency deals
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of booking your cruise late and early to help determine which option works best for you. Also consider flying to or from your cruise a day or two earlier/later to see if prices change. Expect very few cabin category choices, and even fewer choices of where it's located. Even if you do spot a great price, it's not uncommon for travel agents to be able to find a better discount on top of it and sweeten the deal. You may be tempted to start your search for a last minute cruise deal on the Royal Caribbean website, but there are a few resources you can leverage that may get you results faster.
I figured if I had to pay to fly down to the cruise port, I may as well book for at least 7 nights to make the travel time worth it. Travel agents do so much fare searches, that they could already be aware of a good price for a certain sailing. If there's one type of cruise that almost always has cheap fares close to sailing, it's a cruise where the ship begins in one port and ends in another. If you're looking to book a cheap cruise with just weeks to go before you get onboard, you're going to need some good internet searching skills, flexibility, and a little bit of luck. The term “last-minute cruise” can make some cruisers think they are getting the best deal out there, but this is not always the case. Just because a cruise is departing in a few weeks does not always mean the price will be cheaper than what you could have reserved several months in advance.
If you’re flexible during the cruise planning process, you can find cheap deals that will save you hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on a Royal Caribbean cruise. Sometimes cruise lines offer special discounts to Vacations To Go customers who are 55 or older on the day of departure. Only one passenger per cabin must be at least 55 in order to gain the discount for everyone in the room. Around 60 days before the cruise departs, you can look to see what availability and pricing is present. Around this time, cruisers whose plans have changed have already canceled, cruise lines have a good read on passenger load, and last-minute deals begin to emerge.
Age 55+ Discounts
Unfortunately, older ships tend to have (an incorrect) stereotype that they're rundown and boring. The reality is these ships still offer plenty to do, just not as much as the newer ships. Royal Caribbean's marketing is so effective that most cruisers tend to gravitate towards the newest ships so they can enjoy all the bells and whistles these ships offer. If you take a cruise in September, January, or early December, you're going to likely find far less families onboard since kids are in school.
While some cruisers may not care where their cabin is located on the ship, others may prefer having complete control over cabin location. Additionally, you won’t have much control over itinerary options if you’re looking for the best last-minute deal. Travel agents cost nothing extra and are extremely helpful during the cruise booking process, especially when booking a cruise so soon in the future.
Departure port
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If you’re hoping for a blend of a cheap deal and "new" ship, look at cruising on an amplified cruise ship. As part of Royal Caribbean’s Royal Amplified program, the cruise line made significant refurbishments on select older vessels. During the process, they added features such as waterslides, new dining venues, and revamped pool decks.
Whether unpredictable school and extracurricular activities with kids, time off work, or family obligations, planning vacations years in advance can be challenging. After another port day in Nassau, most of the ship gathered to watch the International Belly Flop competition, Battle of the Sexes and Love & Marriage. This crowd was eager to participate in these games, with multiple people ready to audition or sign up. We spent most of our day at Coco Beach Club, but on our way back to the ship I started to realize that the crowd on this short cruise was leaning towards a younger age, with more of a party vibe. Looking forward throughout the weekend’s schedule, it seemed that a majority of the popular activities were saved for nights 2 and 3. If you're headed down the "cheapest vacation as possible" road, then now is a good time to cash out those credit card points.
Just like repricing a cruise, you can reprice any excursions or add-ons like dining, beverage, and internet packages. If you notice the price has dropped on something you purchased, simply cancel the add-on on the Cruise Planner website and rebook it at the lower price. The same can be said for Alaska cruises, where popular excursions like whale watching and kayaking are in high demand. With the costs of these cruises typically being lower, the ease of getting to the port and having to take less PTO, I am already looking ahead to see when I can book another 3-nighter. The shortest cruise I had been on before this was a 5-night cruise, so I was worried that this trip would be over before I knew it. Royal Caribbean has so many fun activities and experiences onboard, that I wasn’t sure how I would fit in all of my favorite things in just 3 nights.
If you know you want to dine at a specific specialty restaurant on a certain day or book a dining package, having a cruise booked early will ensure you have the chance to purchase these add-ons. We also started noticing that there were a lot of bachelorette parties, groups of young friends celebrating birthdays, and large multi-generational families cruising with us. This made sense as it is less of a time commitment than a longer cruise, making it easier for people’s schedules to align, and get away together for a weekend. You could use your credit card points for a free flight or hotel stay prior to your cruise. Instead of booking a cruise line shore excursion, walk around the port on your own and see what's around.
Cruise deals are due to a combination of factors—time of year, demand, and departure port—which means a good deal doesn’t equate a bad cruise. The best cruise deals can often be found as soon as Royal Caribbean releases new itineraries, but it’s not unheard of to find fantastic last-minute cruise deals. Both options offer their own pros and cons, whether saving money by booking far in advance or coming across a last-minute cruise deal. Vacations to Go has a "90-day ticker" with a list of sailings of cruises departing within the next 90 days . When you look for a last minute deal, you're probably looking at cruises that are past final payment date, which is 90 days prior to sailing.
Because these tools are free, they provide an easy way to find cheap deals, but it’s up to you how you would like to book the cheap sailing you find. Not only is this tool helpful for finding cheap last-minute cruises, but it’s a fantastic way to find cheap cruises several months and years into the future as well. Although you can find the same deals on the Find a Cruise page as you can on Royal Caribbean’s website, the search and filter tools are a little more intuitive. Booking a last-minute cruise means you are late to the game when it comes to booking cruise addons like shore excursions and dining packages. By the time you book your cruise, you may find much less availability on excursions and dining packages may be sold out. The biggest benefit is the lower price available, meaning you can save more of your cruise budget for things like drinks, shore excursions, and specialty dining.
Booking at the last minute comes with far fewer stateroom categories than booking in advance, which could leave you disappointed. One of the biggest cons of a last-minute cruise is that fewer stateroom choices are available. How much this matters to you depends on your cruising style, as some passengers spend a lot of time in their cabin and others view the cabin as just a place to shower and sleep. Booking in advance can actually offer a cheaper (and more flexible) cruising experience due to Royal Caribbean's repricing policy. That being said, it's still possible to find last-minute deals, but you should not expect to always see cheap fares close to departure. Likewise, if you live anywhere on the west coast you’re better off searching for last-minute deals from the ports of Los Angeles, Seattle, or Vancouver.
Several websites provide detailed lists of cheap cruises you can book, and little effort is required in order to find the best and most affordable cruises. Because last-minute cruises are booked so close to departure, there is not as much cancellation flexibility compared to booking a cruise months or years in advance. Depending on when you book a last-minute cruise, you may have to pay a cancellation charge if you decide to cancel the sailing. No matter how far in advance you book a cruise, you're able to reprice your cruise an unlimited amount of times prior to final payment.
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