Probably the best advice. Typically we research and plan our cruises up to two years out. Since we’re destination cruisers and not particularly loyal to one line we’ll often have two or more lines that have the same or similar itineraries. My wife has an Excel spreadsheet where she captures all the basic information. Over time we track fares and incentives like reduced or included airfare, on-board credits, cabin category upgrades, etc. I guess over 25 years of cruising we’ve seen almost every kind incentive from early booking discounts to two-for-one to reduced fares with non-refundable desposit to whatever. Some are good to excellent and some are nothing more than sales “slight-of-hand” and no real savings. At some point we engage our travel agency/agent but that’s usually after we’ve picked our cruise so we’re using them to book the cruise and to get their discount.