Best times to go on a cruise: Alaska, Caribbean, Mediterranean
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Royal Caribbean does offer "Going, Going, Gone" rates on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they tend to be very limited offers on close-in sailings. If you're planning your family vacation, waiting for one of these to roll around isn't a great strategy. There are definitely better days of the week to book a flight, but that's not the case with cruises. Prices during the first week of March aren't too high before they edge up throughout the rest of the month. If your aim is to cruise with your own children while they are on break, there are plenty of ships with age-appropriate facilities.
Cruising the Mediterranean in Winter: Pros and Cons - Cruise Critic
Cruising the Mediterranean in Winter: Pros and Cons.
Posted: Wed, 07 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Winter months
The concept caught on, and in 1867, Mark Twain himself boarded the first cruise out of North America. Not all East Coast and Bermuda sailings are available year-round like in the Caribbean. If you are retired and love to cruise, you could get to a Florida port from most places in Florida with a quick drive. Image waking up and just hopping on a Caribbean Cruise from your back door.
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Look for the best prices during the shoulder seasons, from September to November (spring) and from March to May (fall). The height of the cruise season in Australia and New Zealand begins in early October and runs through the end of April because these months are spring and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. May and September can also be great times to cruise Alaska if you'd like to save a little money.
Best time to cruise New England and Canada to avoid crowds
The Bermuda cruise season generally runs from late March into early November. For mild weather, cheaper cruise fares, and fewer crowds, try to sail right at the beginning of the season in April or May. If you don’t mind spring break crowds, Good Friday and Easter is a fun time to visit Bermuda as there are lots of fun treats to eat and a Good Friday kite flying event at Horseshoe Bay Beach. The official Atlantic hurricane season, June 1 to Nov. 30, falls within shoulder season, so you may need to weigh low prices with the risk of a storm affecting your trip. Also, some fares in the summer months can be higher with many families taking vacations.
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But operators can monitor for bad weather in advance, and ships have stabilizers that reduce the impact of rough waters, Harris noted. “The nice thing about cruising is that they can sail somewhere else,” he said. Banks also recommended avoiding hurricane season, which runs from June through November. Harris echoed that, noting that winter is a particularly good time to take those sailings. “Chances are where you're coming from, it's very cold, so it's a good change of temperature,” he said.
When to cruise to Hawaii for the best weather
And the truth is that you can get the same exact cruise for hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of dollars less just by sailing during the right part of the season. The final payment date is a day of reckoning for cruise salespeople. It's the last date that undecided travelers can cancel without penalty.
Alaska Cruise in October: Chilly Weather and Cruise Deals When You Cruise Alaska in October
For cruises, booking with a travel agent will still get you some of the best deals. Keep in mind that July and August means families are taking advantage of school breaks and vacation days. If you're looking for a more low-key Caribbean cruise this time of year, look to the smaller islands of the region.
It then begins to climb in October and November as weather becomes colder up north and average rainfall begins to lessen. Many destinations experience a high point of tourism from December through February because of people fleeing the northern winters. But that period also has the lowest average temperatures for the Caribbean, especially in the islands lying closest to the United States. Each cruise season during the year has a different combination of weather, prices and crowds.
Because European cruises span a large geographic area, we’ve outlined our seasonal strategies separately for Mediterranean cruises and European river cruises below. Check out Hawaii cruises in May, when the weather is relatively dry as well. As well, when winter has gripped most of North America, the Caribbean still offers a warm getaway with lots of sunshine. If you want to spot herds of caribou, book an Alaska cruise that puts you in range of Denali National Park. And with salmon runs in full force, you can catch fishing bears in the southeast. While the weather in Alaska in June brings out the flowers and even greener scenery, expect mosquitoes to be biting.
The key to the answer is recognizing that cruise lines adjust pricing as cabins sell out (or fail to do so) on any given ship and itinerary. If you want to book a solo or family cabin on a Mediterranean cruise in July, you likely want to book much earlier than January for the most availability and the best prices. As I said earlier, great sales and deals can pop up year-round, including on other holidays such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. The best time of year to book a cruise is often January through March.
May in Bermuda is your best bet for shoulder season travel if you're after discounts and the highest likelihood for sunny skies and warm temperatures. Even so, you can expect temperate weather year-round, and far less humidity than islands farther south. If it's too chilly for the beach in the shoulder season, you can always try out the island's many golf courses and spas.
You can also look for a last-minute Alaska cruise deal, though keep in mind that with Alaska's cruise season growing longer, interest in Alaska September cruises is rising. We’ve charted the per-person cabin prices for both a balcony and interior room. Specifically, these prices were for a 3-day cruise aboard Carnival from Miami that sailed regularly throughout the year.
We break down the best times to visit some of the most popular cruise destinations below. The shoulder seasons may not be the warmest, but they typically offer better pricing than summer cruises. For example, a 14-night sailing to the Baltic with Holland America is $949 in early May 2023 but $1,329 in mid-June. The shoulder season months are also the least crowded times to visit Alaska because kids are in school and fewer families are vacationing.
Springtime will be the quietest time to visit the Aloha State, although you might find an uptick of families traveling for spring break during March and April. The summer is the busiest time for vacationers, and the winter months bring whale-watching enthusiasts and surfers. There are also two major sporting events in January, so you'll want to avoid the crowds on Oahu and Maui during that month.
The other really good time of year to book a cruise is when Royal Caribbean releases new itineraries. Prices of a cruise can change by the minute, and there isn't any kind of pattern that favors one day over another. While the cruise line's internal pricing logic isn't publicly known, anecdotally, there isn't any reason a price would be less on a certain day. When it's time to raise or lower the price, it happens in real-time.
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