How far in advance would you book?

How far in advance do you book your cruise? Are you someone who books early to secure the cabin you prefer to have, or do you need to book early to get a family cabin and family spaces? Or are you like me and are someone who waits for a deal to come out and tends to book to go within the next few months?

So if a cruise line decided to release their summer schedule almost 2 years in advance – is this just a bit too extreme?

At present we are still dealing with people trying to get a last minute cruise for this summer, and when we suggest maybe looking at next year instead for more availability, cabin spaces and kids spaces etc – some people think we are mad and that its too soon for them to be thinking that far in advance so I would dread to think what they would think if I suggested that next month we looked at booking for summer 2018.

P&O and Cunard have both decided to launch in September their summer programme for 2018 – is this so they can get ahead of the competition and try to take  customers away from them? Is this a sign that P&O and Cunard are struggling? Or do they think they will sell more cabins at a higher price so not have to reduce so much to fill the ships? Are they trying to get in before all the Brexit changes start to take effect?

For me it does seem too early, although I know what I would like to be doing in 2018 (as it will be my honeymoon), I haven’t even started to think about my plans for next year. I also think that over the recent years P&O and Cunard have had more competition with cruise lines sailing out of Southampton – whereas they used to be the only ones – now we have 2 Royal Caribbean, 2 Princess Ships, 1 Celebrity, occasionally MSC, NCL, Fred olsen, and also customers don’t seem quite so loyal to one particular cruise line and like to try the others to compare. 

Will you be booking for 2018 in September? Have you even booked for next year yet? Let me know your thoughts.

Have a great couple of weeks

Kerry

xx