Change our 2018 cruise date based on 2017 flight prices?

[bcwife76]

I have posted this question on my local/Canada Disboard but it doesn't get as much action as other boards so I thought I would pose the same question here.

I don't know what to do!!

This past January we flew from Vancouver to Orlando (one stop each direction) for $1800 CDN total for 4 of us.

We have a Merrytime cruise booked for Nov 2018 and based on Nov 2017 flight prices, I'm having a hard time justifying it. $2269 (CDN) for the 4 of us to fly from Seattle or $2870 (CDN) for us to fly from Vancouver

If we move to Oct flight prices and move to a Halloween cruise the prices would be (based on 2017 prices)
$1982 from Seattle or $2376 from Vancouver for mid Oct
$1587 from Seattle or $2144 from Vancouver for end of Oct (sailing over Halloween).

While I love the idea of a merrytime cruise I'm also not sure I want to 'celebrate' Christmas the second week of November. Halloween would be cool but I'm not sure my kids would be thrilled with missing trick or treating at home (though it IS a Disney cruise so really....come on....they'll have a blast).

So should I change our cruise based on THIS years prices or wait it out til beginning of the new year when the 2018 flight prices are released?

All 3 cruises by the way? Pretty much same exact price for the same room so that is not a factor, except of course we all know cruise prices go up (not down) so locking in (if we choose a different date) sooner rather than later is a good idea. While the October cruises haven't gone up (at least in our room category) the price of our November cruise for our room has jumped up $500 since booking it in May (so I'm glad I did book something at least!)

 

[DnA2010]

Holy I just realized you have 3 cruises booked :hail:
Those flight prices are crazy, yikes! It is a long way I guess though... I've never actually paid for flights for going to florida as we use aeroplan (it is a bit of a pain as isn't always the easiest flights but oh well)
I agree with you though, Nov seems early to be celebrating Christmas, I'm guessing you don't want to go in Dec sometime?
I think Halloween would be awesome, my DD would have given up Halloween in a milla-second for a cruise She's never cared much for candy though...I'm sure they do some on the ship??

 

[bcwife76]

From what I understand, yes there is trick or treating (or some version) on the ship during a HOTHS cruise. We asked both our girls "hypothetically" if we were to take a cruise over Halloween one year and not be at home for trick or treating would they like that and they both gave an emphatic yes! lol

I would love to cruise in December but it will never happen because my husband can't vacation then. No one in the company can vacation between the last week of November and the last week of December.

 

[kuhltiffany]

Our plan (when we were still living in BC) was to try a cruise out of Galveston. Getting to FL and considering the time change, we wondered if staying on the same coast with more direct flights might be beneficial...

 

[bcwife76]

Our plan (when we were still living in BC) was to try a cruise out of Galveston. Getting to FL and considering the time change, we wondered if staying on the same coast with more direct flights might be beneficial...

Well we were supposed to take a cruise out of Galveston this past January but we changed it to PC because (a)we hadn't been on the Fantasy and we had been on the Wonder, (b) flight prices from Vancouver to Houston were pretty much the same as Vancouver to Orlando (at the time anyway) and (c) it seemed like a huge hassle to get from Houston to Galveston and back again. And I don't consider Galveston to be on the west coast really.

 

[DnA2010]

From what I understand, yes there is trick or treating (or some version) on the ship during a HOTHS cruise. We asked both our girls "hypothetically" if we were to take a cruise over Halloween one year and not be at home for trick or treating would they like that and they both gave an emphatic yes! lol

I would love to cruise in December but it will never happen because my husband can't vacation then. No one in the company can vacation between the last week of November and the last week of December.

Given all that, I would totally change!

 

[bcwife76]

Given all that, I would totally change!

I think we are going to. It seems that Remembrance Day/Veterans day is pushing the prices WAY up - I have searched weeks all around our November dates - two weeks before, the week of our November cruise, the weeks after our November cruise including the week of US Thanksgiving and they are ALL cheaper than the actual week in November that we require! So I really don't see this being a 2017 flight price issue, I think we will run into the same problem when the 2018 dates are released. I was the only real hold out for doing a merrytime vs HOTHS so I think I gotta switch