DCL Last Minute Cruises?

[John P.]

Apologize in advance if this has been posted but is it possible to get on a DCL cruise out of Port Canaveral and wait till the end to get a much better deal? If so, is it reliable and how much better can you do? Also, how do you do it?

I live in Central Florida so convenience is easy for my wife and I.

Thanks in advance.

 

[undertheradar]

Apologize in advance if this has been posted but is it possible to get on a DCL cruise out of Port Canaveral and wait till the end to get a much better deal? If so, is it reliable and how much better can you do? Also, how do you do it?

I live in Central Florida so convenience is easy for my wife and I.

Thanks in advance.

In a short answer, no. You can check the website for FL resident rates and other specials, but there are no last minute "walk-up" deals.

 

[cvjw]

You can get a relatively last minute Florida resident deal or book a guaranteed rate. We booked a vgt (guaranteed verandah rate) for the fantasy at about 10 weeks out for this past September. I figured that the vgt rate was about 30% discount.

We talked with many other couples on the same cruise who either booked the Florida resident rate or a guaranteed rate at about the same time we did

 

[com_op_2000]

3 different family members just booked three different veranda rooms last weekend for a Feb, 2018 Dream cruise.

Update:
Just last night another room was booked - now have 6 staterooms with a total of 14 people.

 

[cmwade77]

It really boils down to how full a cruise is, sometimes there are deals closer to sail date, but those are getting to be fewer and fewer.

 

[Tootles75]

We booked the 11/25 7-night Fantasy western carib cruise at about 38 days out because the VGT rates were very appealing and we didn't really care what area of the ship we'd get if we could have a balcony, which we wouldn't generally splurge on. The VGT rate in some weird fluke was a few hundred less than IGT rates! We got assigned a 4E and the difference between what we paid and what that category is priced at is about $500 per person. We also saved a couple hundred by booking through a TA instead of Disney.

 

[Chipmunkmaniac]

We booked the 11/25 7-night Fantasy western carib cruise at about 38 days out because the VGT rates were very appealing and we didn't really care what area of the ship we'd get if we could have a balcony, which we wouldn't generally splurge on. The VGT rate in some weird fluke was a few hundred less than IGT rates! We got assigned a 4E and the difference between what we paid and what that category is priced at is about $500 per person. We also saved a couple hundred by booking through a TA instead of Disney.

same for me, I booked the VGT two and a half weeks ago while on the Fantrasy (that cruise I booked in August through a very nice GTY as well)
I also got assigned a 4E stateroom. I'm a solo cruiser and for me the price difference between this actual rate and the rate if I would have booked the actual cat was 1300 USD. Also this veranda room was cheaper than an inside room at the time of booking.
For my October cruise I had an inside since they had offers on all 3 types. For that cruise I saved about 750 USD for going with the GTY. I was assigned a great room as well, cat 11a but completely in forward deck 8, no neighbours and a 'hidden' door so nobody walking by!

 

[Shanti]

Apologize in advance if this has been posted but is it possible to get on a DCL cruise out of Port Canaveral and wait till the end to get a much better deal? If so, is it reliable and how much better can you do? Also, how do you do it?

I live in Central Florida so convenience is easy for my wife and I.

Thanks in advance.

You can get good deals. I just got a GT rate for a Christmas week sailing that is significantly lower than its opening day price. In fact, the price I paid for that guaranteed verandah is hundreds lower than the opening day price was for the cheapest inside stateroom on that cruise!

However, you cannot rely on every cruise being discounted. A fair percentage of them end up getting discount rates, but many of them never get rate discounts. And discounts for some cruises are steeper than others. The Christmas week cruise we're sailing on started out with a very high price, and just didn't seem to book well. So that's probably why it offered steep discounts.