When to book???

[tinytinkmom]

We’re Platinum Disney cruisers, looking to take the plunge and try Royal! We had booked a Disney Med cruise next summer, but I’m not sure if I can stomach the price, so we’re looking at changing to a Med cruise on Oasis of the Seas. My problem is, I feel like I have a good handle on when to book Disney (when it first comes out, with an OBB placeholder!!), but I have no clue about Royal. I assume the Oasis Med cruises will be popular, so should I just book now, or will they likely have sales later? Thanks for any advice!!

 

[OKW Lover]

Book now. Prices will rise as time goes on. If RCL decides to lower the price because of poor bookings, which is not likely, re-book then.

 

[rosaciri]

I would book asap - prices rise just like Disney as it gets closer to the cruise. We sailed DCL on The Fantasy and got a great deal for a balcony room for a family of 4 by booking well in advance and we are now cruising the med in October and followed the same rule and booked as soon as dates came out. We have been checking prices for our cruise and they have more than doubled from what we have paid (we booked April 2017 for October 2018). We are now booking while onboard for Alaska Glacier cruise for July 2020. Crazy I know but I think the best deals are when dates are released or if a cruise isn't selling well. We have booked a suite with RCCL for our med cruise in a few months and it cost us a fraction of the price for a very similar cruise with DCL. I must say though our DCL cruise was just magical.

 

[paults]

is it worth getting the refundable ticket price?

 

[g00fy!]

We’re Platinum Disney cruisers, looking to take the plunge and try Royal! We had booked a Disney Med cruise next summer, but I’m not sure if I can stomach the price, so we’re looking at changing to a Med cruise on Oasis of the Seas. My problem is, I feel like I have a good handle on when to book Disney (when it first comes out, with an OBB placeholder!!), but I have no clue about Royal. I assume the Oasis Med cruises will be popular, so should I just book now, or will they likely have sales later? Thanks for any advice!!

We are booked for 8/2019 on the Oasis Med cruise. We booked a couple of months ago. I was looking at adding a cabin and was surprised to find out that the ship is more than 3/4 full at over a year out. Balconies are severely limited although you can still score a $20,000 suite. You may want to start looking now. I keep pricing it when there are sales to see if it would go down and our the price is rising, not going down, and is now over $4,000 more than what we booked at.

 

[g00fy!]

is it worth getting the refundable ticket price?

We did, but now I regret it. The money we would lose if we canceled would have been less than the additional we are paying for the cruise. I can't change now since the prices have gone up so much since we booked.

 

[Frozen2014]

Note that you can start as refundable and then change to non-refundable anytime prior to final payment (but not other way around). We did that when our Symphony cruise dropped by $400 from our booked rate compared with non-refundable. Also price drops are applicable to both booking types.

 

[g00fy!]

Note that you can start as refundable and then change to non-refundable anytime prior to final payment (but not other way around). We did that when our Symphony cruise dropped by $400 from our booked rate compared with non-refundable. Also price drops are applicable to both booking types.

Thanks for the info, I am not the OP, but I will keep watching. Unfortunately for our cruise, I don't foresee our prices going down and they have actually gone up over $4,000 (non-refundable) in 2 months since we booked. I just called to see about an additional cabin. For 4 people, there are no ocean view balconies left, only a few Central Park balconies. If we want to split the party into 2, then there are a few ocean view cabins available on decks 8 & 9. With less than 100 cabins available overall 14 months out, they don't need to drop prices to sell. Some of those might be refundable that people will drop as the cruise gets closer, but they will probably be minimal due to RCI lately making refundable deposits very difficult.

For the OP, I was told by two RCI people that for at least our Med Oasis cruise, they are no longer doing refundable deposits, so if I wanted to add a cabin, it had to be with a non-refundable deposit.

 

[paults]

thanks for the reply everyone

 

[poohbear6]

First time (possibly) cruiser. Was looking at the prices for July 2019, was surprised to hear they have a good amount of cabins booked. did not realize they book up this far in advance. When should I book a RC cruise for July 2020?