We'll be taking a small-ship Greek-island cruise of 1-2 weeks in the summer of 2017. Some companies (e.g. Windstar) seem to have "book-now" prices that are w-a-y below their normal prices, but if I can get a similar price I'd rather wait till early 2017 to book. Does anyone have experience with how prices are likely to change between September and January? Thanks for the help.
Posted by
TN, USA
2156 posts
Jonathan,
Gosh it really is anybody's guess on that. There are so many variables that affect cruise pricing...the economy, what's going on in any particular region, the world, etc.
This past summer, it seems many of the cruise lines had some excess capacity with Mediterranean cruises....lots of special offer emails/mailings, etc. I suspect that was because it was common for cruises that go thru the Greek Isles to start/finish in Istanbul, and the events that unfolded in Turkey scared off a lot of travelers....so prices dropped (or a few ships changed itineraries to eliminate the Istanbul port).
I haven't looked at the 2017 cruises (and some of the catalogues are beginning to arrive), but I'm guessing there MIGHT be some reduction in the number of sailings or potentially altering of ports.
When Greece was having a lot of strikes a few years back, more specials suddenly appeared.
Right after the market meltdown, we got an incredible deal on our Silversea cruise from Athens to Istanbul. It seems we paid (I think) $3700 and that included airfare!! For our Seabourn cruise, which was NZ and Australia, we booked about two weeks before the sailing and got a very attractive price and a very nicely located suite. It's just a roll of the dice as to whether it is better to book early or wait. Some cruises and cabin categories do fill up, too.
There are some attractive early-booking discounts with most cruise lines, but it's hard to know what might happen in the region or the world that could affect pricing later.
And, of course, except for certain cruises (like the journeys with Tauck, National Geographic, SeaCloud, etc. that really do not discount, or just offer small early-booking bonuses) it is generally expected that no way really pays the published starting price with cruise lines....there seems to always be some sort of discount, just a matter of when the very best discounts happen....with is just a matter of supply/demand...how quickly are the ships filling vs. what the cruise companies feel are the sales targets at various time points.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10621 posts
What's Windstar's cancellation policy. Many people reserve and put down the deposit to at least hold a spot and choose a cabin as long as they can get their money back in full before the final payment date if they change plans.