cheaper to book longer in advance?

[disney_dreamin]

Been thinking about booking a SWDAS cruise in January, and I read somewhere that the policies have changed and that it's cheaper to book a cruise (at least with DCL) further in advance instead of closer to the sail date. Does anyone know anything about this or seen the cruise prices go up closer to sail dates?

Just wondering if it's would be cheaper to book now or wait a bit longer.

 

[lorimay]

I like to book opening day, I feel thats usually the best price.
We are Florida residents and sometimes get a good price that way too.
I think the SWADAS are usually more expensive for the most part.

 

[lklgoodman]

We booked the SWDAS Jan 12, 2019 cruise on opening day. The price has increased about $400 from when we booked. We also did a SWDAS cruise in 2017, I never saw the price decrease for that cruise either, just increased.

 

[lanejudy]

I don’t think there’s been any policy change. DCL uses “tiered” pricing. The lowest fares are typically offered on opening day. After a certain % of rooms have been booked, the fares increase. That continues at least until the PIF date. Sometimes DCL will offer a special restricted fare closer to
The sail date, but there is no guarantee one will be offered for any given cruise. And these offers may or may not be less than the opening day fares.

Unless you can be flexible, it’s best to book once you have your dates set.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[KVH]

95 times out of 100, pricing will always go up after opening day. I've seen some cases, very dependent on the time and cruise, where pricing has been static for a long period. Simple supply and demand. Next years fall EBPC has already had 3 price increases in 30 days and we're still 500+ days out. So the sooner the better is definitely the rule of thumb.

 

[disney_dreamin]

Hopefully we're going to be booking soon.

I think the SWADAS are usually more expensive for the most part.

I wrote down the prices for all of the Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises and other than Halloween and some of the Christmas cruises, the SWDAS cruises are the cheapest. I have to say I was surprised...

 

[TestingH2O]

Hopefully we're going to be booking soon.



I wrote down the prices for all of the Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises and other than Halloween and some of the Christmas cruises, the SWDAS cruises are the cheapest. I have to say I was surprised...

This doesn't surprise me. They've really cut back on the special sailings this year. They are only being offered in very off season times in late winter. Not even presidents day weekend and certainly not spring break!

 

[MSPeeler]

Been thinking about booking a SWDAS cruise in January, and I read somewhere that the policies have changed and that it's cheaper to book a cruise (at least with DCL) further in advance instead of closer to the sail date. Does anyone know anything about this or seen the cruise prices go up closer to sail dates?

Just wondering if it's would be cheaper to book now or wait a bit longer.

Something to keep in mind is room availability, our cruise actually is sold out of oceanview rooms now (for 5) which is the one that we booked on opening day back in May 2017. It is in November this year, but I remember it being sold out even earlier this year. Not sure how many your are cruising with. The next room available to fit us is $1,500 more right now (w/ verandah)

 

[mmmears]

I think it's always been this way. Every cruise we've sailed with DCL has gone up in price the closer we get to the sail date. Sadly life does not let me book super early, so we're always in the group that's paying more for the same cruise, but I've always noticed that it continues to rise (esp. on our upcoming cruise) quite a bit even after our "late" booking (which isn't really all that late except in the DIS universe).

 

[lklgoodman]

This doesn't surprise me. They've really cut back on the special sailings this year. They are only being offered in very off season times in late winter. Not even presidents day weekend and certainly not spring break!

Didn't they previously do SWDAS until either the beginning or end of April? I think this year they end the first part of March. We did one in Jan 2017 and are going on another Jan 2019. We aren't even SW fans. My dd and I did nothing related to SW on our first cruise, my dh went to the movie and I think that is all. We only book them because they are cheaper, we always cruise Jan-March. I really want to go on the Magic in 2020, which will probably be a Marvel cruise. I know absolutely nothing about any of those characters, I just want to see Tangle and eat at the Tangle restaurant,lol!!

 

[disney_dreamin]

Didn't they previously do SWDAS until either the beginning or end of April? I think this year they end the first part of March. We did one in Jan 2017 and are going on another Jan 2019. We aren't even SW fans. My dd and I did nothing related to SW on our first cruise, my dh went to the movie and I think that is all. We only book them because they are cheaper, we always cruise Jan-March.

We're looking at the Jan 26th sailing right now for the Eastern caribbean

 

[lklgoodman]

We're looking at the Jan 26th sailing right now for the Eastern caribbean

We doing the Jan 12 Eastern one. If you end up booking the Jan 26 one, I can let you know how ours was since we'll be going to the same places. We've been to St Thomas before but it was in 2001, haven't been to Tortola.