The Early Bird gets the Cruise

Quite often people will ask me what’s best, booking a cabin early and getting the room number you want or waiting till the last minute and seeing if the price drops, but risk losing the cruise altogether if it sells out.

Listen to this story that happened just yesterday to myself and a colleague and see what you thinks best…………..
I’d just finished speaking to a customer about a balcony on the Queen Victoria. There was only one left and they were keen to grab it before anyone else did. They asked me to call them back in five minutes whilst they transferred some funds around in their accounts.

After I put the phone down, my team mate turned to me and asked if it was the September sailing, and if I was looking at a balcony.
It turned out he had been speaking to a client over the last three days who couldn’t make up their minds about whether to book or not, as the number of available cabins slowly dwindled.
Being the gentleman that I am, I gave my colleague the chance to call his client, as we had been speaking to him first, and offer him one last opportunity to book the cabin.
When we called him his response was, “I’m just not sure, I think I’ll leave it for now, I’m sure it will still be there in a few days”.
Naturally, I called my client back and booked the last balcony cabin onboard. The other client called back this morning, after deciding to book, and was amazed when we told him all the cabins had gone. I’m used to competing with other travel agencies to grab you all the last minute cabin, but I’ll be honest I’ve never had to compete with the guy sitting next to me.

And the moral of the story?

If you know you want to book on to a specific cruise, book early and avoid disappointment, last minute deals are for those who are flexible on dates and ships.

Happy Cruising