Why the tide has turned on late deals for cruises

It may come as no surprise that trends are changing when it comes to snagging a bargain cruise, especially if you have held out for a late deal this year and are finding there is barely anything left and what is left is not the usual late deal bargain price. I wonder what’s going on, you may be thinking to yourself as you scour website after website trying to find the perfect cruise at a cut down price. Well unfortunately you may well be left disappointed and I can explain why.

In the last few years new strategies have been formed by the board members of a lot of the major cruise lines whereby they thought that by releasing schedules much earlier than usual, it would give them longer to sell their cabins and spread out the deals so to speak in the hope they wouldn’t have lots left to sell nearer to the departure date and have to slash the prices. They call it Price Integrity and I for one think it’s a very clever idea. For the last 2 years they have admitted to struggling to come away from the mind set that the ships must sail full at any cost but they have held fast and instead of selling cabins for peanuts, they let the cabins sail empty and some sailings only half full. Why? Because they want to change the mindset of those ‘late deal seekers’ to the ‘early bird savers’. They want the early birds to get the best deal, those who book a year or so in advance to get the free drinks packages, onboard spend and maybe some parking. Added value is what they are striving for rather than discount but the message is clear. Book early to take advantage.

Many clients have already clocked on after having issues last year and the year before and this is exactly the plan, to encourage all (or as many as possible) to book as early as possible. Its gives the cruise lines the security of knowing they are filling ships in good time and its giving clients reassurance that if they book early, they will not dine with someone who booked their cruise a month before at £1000 less.

Sure Thomson cruises, Fred Olsen and Cruise & Maritime to name but a few still have the dirt cheap cruises sailing within 12 weeks, but that is already a thing of the past for Carnival corporation who own P&O, Cunard and Princess. As well as RCCL who own Celebrity, Azamara and Royal Caribbean. Norwegian Cruise Lines are also no longer discounting late and instead are offering flash sales for the year ahead (but not 2017) and many of these lines are in fact INCREASING their prices closer to sail date. Why? Because they want travel agents and guests alike to start seeing lack of availability and higher prices. They want us to encourage you to book early for a better deal and they want you to take advantage safe in the knowing you aren’t paying over the odds.

What a load of tosh you may be thinking, well I have two very good examples here.

1. My own P&O cruise which I booked September 2016 to travel in October 2018 is currently £760 more expensive for my little family of 4 than what I have secured it for (and no unfortunately i don’t get any different deals to the rest of you).
2. I spoke with a client yesterday who wanted to go ahead and book a Cunard cruise she had been considering for the last few months which travels in November this year. The price has risen not once, not twice but 3 times in the last week alone and is now £515 per person more expensive than it was last month.
3. (I thought of another one) Again a client who had been watching the same October 2017 cruise for months in the hope of a free drinks package, now completely sold out and its not even a school holiday sailing!

I read this was the plan back in 2015 in the Travel Weekly (you can view it here: http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Cruise-companies-increase-focus-on-pricing-discipline) … but I didnt think it would come to anything, customer demand was key I thought. I thought dead wrong. It just goes to show how if they all club together they really can change booking trends throughout an entire industry. The tide has been turning for some time now and it won’t be long before booking early is the ONLY way to secure yourself a good deal.