7 Night - Need help

[WIcruizer]

We went on the 7 day Eastern in Jan, 2001 and the cost was $2200. We're looking into booking a 7 day Western and everything I've seen it looks like the price has doubled! My question is this. What is the best strategy for booking a DCL cruise at the best rate? Book way in advance or right before? And would either strategy work better at certain times of the year? It seems to me the biggest cost difference between then and now is the price for children. Back then it was $299 per child. Whatever happened to that, and is it ever coming back?

 

[jrabbit]

We were on the eastern in January 2002 then the western in June 2003. The price difference is very big. One of the reasons is one more stop on the western. For us the other reason was that June is one of the family vacation months and DCL raises their rates accordingly. We are sailing on the "CruiseToberFest III" sailing next October. Our price is about 2/3 of what the western was and that is with us moving up one room category (and NOT counting the room credit we recieved).

The factors as I see them
1) Time of year of sailing
2) How early you book (earlier the better)
3) East vs. West
4) Booking on board for the room credits and any special that they are running.

 

[WIcruizer]

Yes, I should have mentioned that. I do realize the Western is more, but again it looks like the big reason for the huge price difference (even on the Eastern) is the price for children.