Anyone have success waiting to the last minute to book cruise?

[klbabs]

I'm thinking about a late Oct./early Nov (2002) cruise for five adults, unfortunately not all of us can afford to pay for the cruise by Aug. 30 (deadline for full payment thru DU), so we were thinking about waiting until September/October to book the cruise and pay in full at that time. Has anyone else waited until the last minute to book a cruise, was it any cheaper because DCL was trying to fill the ship? What are my chances that the ship will be full? I appreciate any advice.

 

[llachance]

From all the posts I have ever seen Disney doesn't normally discount, even at the last minute. That said I have been on two cruises and both times have had table mates who booked within the last couple of weeks before sailing, limited room availability and no break on the cost.

 

[CarolAnnC]

In fact, since DCL reserves their rooms with Early Booking Savings in tiers, you will most likely pay more money to sail with them last minute than you would have, had you booked early on.

Generally, the earlier you book, the better the price. Plus they usually sail full ships. I just sailed July 25 and it was a full ship! There were 2,700 aboard!!

 

[mcnuss]

I know people who have booked thru icruise.com and seasavers.com fairly short notice and did quite well. Cannot remember the price but it was discounted. Both of these have email notification services so if you are interested in keeping an eye on the deals, go sign up. I get them both and have definitely seen Disney come up, usually short notice and off-peak. Good luck.

 

[pagemaker]

I will add those emails to my list!

See you on thanksgiving!

Deb

 

[cass'mom]

hi

We just booked our 3 day Wonder cruise for the Aug 15th on July 18th. Definitely no break on the price (it didn't seem marked up or anything though) and cabins are pretty limited. We all just decided to do this at the last minute. One advantage is not having to wait so long before you have to go!

Hopefully it will all work out...

 

[aseafish]

I've noticed that the "discount" cruises are usually shown with a % of the fare. That seems to be based on the MOST that DCL charges for those cruises. Not really much of a deal. Have you considered booking some of you now and adding the others later?

 

[hunny bunny]

We {DH and I} made our reservation on the Wednesday before sailing on Sunday. We would not have been able to do this though without the help of DS {Disney Sister} who had been planning her trip since January {and reading this board daily}. I don't think we received any discount but were able to get a great cabin and had a wonderful trip.

 

[albiats]

We had two cruises on DCL with bookings made within 3 and 5 weeks of the sail date.

No price breaks or booking advantages and we had to pay in full at the time of booking, but it could be done, in non peak times.

hope that helps

 

[Mic]

My SIL has "talked" of joining us on a trip to WDW for the past 2 years, but has never come up with the money for the tickets. This Oct., instead of spending the whole week at BWV, we opted for 4 nights at OKW and a 3-day Wonder cruise. She asked me to price this for her in early Feb.(when we booked our cruise), but she did not think it was important enough to part with $600 right then. She brought it up again last week, so I did a 50-point add-on at VB to cover her room for 4 nights, but the cruise has gone up by $600! I suggested she wait until next year to do the cruise(we will probably reverse our resort and ship nights, spending only 3 at WDW and 4 on the ship, since the Magic will be dry-docked), especially since this will be her kids' first time at WDW. By booking 11 months ahead, she will probably qualify for Early Booking Savings and have a while to pay it off. We, of course, plan to book while on the Wonder this Oct.