Late Deal No Problem? Not Always….

In the travel industry there are 3 categories of holiday maker. The early bird savers, the late deal seekers and the in-betweeners as I call them. I am usually an early bird when it comes to our holidays, I like to plan ahead and know where we’re going, have time to buy the summer wardrobe and save up the spending pennies not to mention having something to look forward to throughout the cold, dark winters that sometimes seem endless.

We gave our 2015 holiday a miss as we knew we’d have our hands full with the arrival of our little boy so as soon as the 2016 holidays were released I was itching to get something booked especially as our daughter starts school in September and the cheaper term time breaks would become a thing of the past. I found the perfect deal for us, a lovely all inclusive resort in a quiet corner of Ibiza, somewhere I have yet to visit and a short flying time for my littlest monsters. Great I thought, everything about it seemed fabulous. Got it booked and all we had to do was wait for it to come round.

As the holiday grew ever closer we found ourselves faced with a very large vet bill after our family dog, Rio who unexpectedly damaged his cruciate ligament resulting in several rather expensive operations, countless check ups and bottles full of different painkillers and antibiotics each costing a small fortune. Not knowing if our pet insurance would cover the cost coupled with the prospect of a very long road to recovery I took the difficult decision to cancel our holiday. I was gutted, but the reality was that I simply couldn’t afford to pay for both the holiday and the vet bills not to mention the uncertainty of whether or not he would have recovered by the time we were due to go.

A few weeks ago I received a letter from our insurance company who thankfully had agreed to pay for all of Rio’s treatment minus a small excess so I set about looking for another holiday. My heart was set, of course on a cruise. We were flexible with our requirements but if possible wanted to cut out flying and sail from the UK or atleast have a departure from a port we could fly to within 2 hours. I trawled through the array of available itineraries only to find that either the sailings were full for the age groups of my children due to the cap some cruise lines have in place or they were charging almost adult prices for my 4 year old and 1 year old which to me is a little far fetched. Had there just been myself and my husband we would have had no problem getting a late cruise deal, but with children involved the task proved too difficult so I gave up on our long awaited first cruise together as a family and rebooked our cancelled holiday to Ibiza.

There are some fantastic late deal cabins available at the moment for cruises sailing within the next 3 months with prices starting from as little as £369 per person for a 7 night getaway, so absolutely last minute bookers can find themselves an absolute steal. For those of us with children however I feel that we are somewhat restricted and should be looking to get booked as early as possible to avoid disappointment, even if it does mean paying a little extra to secure the perfect itinerary, best choice of cabins and maybe even bag a free all inclusive package or free on board spending money. So my task once we are back from Ibiza is to get our 2017 cruise booked to avoid missing out.

Are you a late deal seeker or an early bird saver? Id love to know your thoughts on the late vs early debate.