Price jumps for Med cruises and timing

[sadiecatie]

I’m curious about others past observations - how much does price jump in initial booking dates for the Med cruises (like, from first bookings - I guess now that would be Pearl? - to Silver or open booking)? Do prices jump in those early days (assuming more seasoned cruisers on those sailings?), or more after open booking?

We’re planning to book for summer 2025 but are only silver, so I kind of expect prices to already go up by the time we could book. We will also be sailing first week of May this year and will plan to book a placeholder then - does it just make sense to wait and book it with that?

 

[Mommb]

It doesn’t look as if prices for European cruise rose much (if at all) between Platinum and Silver booking over the past few years. The jump may be more for the unique itineraries.

The cost of the British Isles cruise I booked last September for next September is about $100 more than when I booked it.

That said, if you know the cruise you want, it’s better to book as soon as you can, also book a placeholder, and then determine whether the fare has gone up more than 10% since you booked. If so, you can keep your original booking and use the placeholder for something else (or cancel it). If not, you can cancel the booking and rebook using the placeholder.

 

[Flossbolna]

It depends on the type of cruise and when in the summer. The short cruises from Southampton in August rose quickly. Our May Med cruise in 2023 didn’t start having higher prices until the end of 2022. Well after first booking date.

 

[o&smom]

It varies so much. I have not seen huge jumps in the past few years with DCL regularly going to Europe. I saw it go up $1000 from platinum to silver for the 12 night Med with Greece and Turkey cruise in 2013. It was crazy! They offered a lot of discounted rates on Europe cruises last summer. Lots of cancellations due to crazy airfare. I would book ASAP and then reshop after your May cruise to see if it makes sense to cancel and use your placeholder.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

I find this website to be very informative and allows me to use data to draw conclusions. While not perfect, it's very good in using historical pricing to forecast (rough) expected rate hikes

https://c.touringplans.com/disney-cruise-line/tools/fare-tracker

 

[sadiecatie]

It varies so much. I have not seen huge jumps in the past few years with DCL regularly going to Europe. I saw it go up $1000 from platinum to silver for the 12 night Med with Greece and Turkey cruise in 2013. It was crazy! They offered a lot of discounted rates on Europe cruises last summer. Lots of cancellations due to crazy airfare. I would book ASAP and then reshop after your May cruise to see if it makes sense to cancel and use your placeholder.

I think I have a skewed view of discounts after last summer we grabbed a great discounted rate for Alaska and I was hoping to rebook our currently booked sailing with a discount (freeing up our current placeholder), but no such luck! PIF date is next weekend and nothing has come up.