I want to take a transatlantic cruise from the US to Europe in April.

Many ships are making the crossing, and I'm flexible and would be happy on any, but would prefer Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. Also, I can leave on any date.

So . . .

When do you think prices will hit rock bottom?


In advance, thanks for your help.

24 hours after you pull the trigger.

call the cruise line & ask what cabins are available in the category you want.....if lots are available, wait for a last minute deal.....or, if you see what you want in your price range, book it and don't sweat the small stuff.....good luck...

I tend to watch www.vacationstogo.com, but learned that at least Celebrity can have the very same sale rate on their own site.

It is pretty much basic "supply and demand" economics for the answer to your question. And clacko had a good suggestion for getting an idea about the direction things are headed.

Romelle

what price are seeing for what you want? [# of nights, usd pp]....

edit to add....better yet, provide ship, dates, cabin class, & price....good luck...

Thanks to everyone for your ideas.

I'm hopping to find a 14 night cruise for around $400 - $450 for an inside cabin. The Europe to USA sailings had rates as low as $299 a few weeks before the crossing.

Right now, there are rates at $599 for window. but the Celebrity Equinox is still at $999 for an inside cabin and slightly more for outside cabin. That's the ship I'd prefer.

If you are the gambling type, look at 30 days before sailing and again 14 days before.

Spring '09 I saw $299 on Royal Caribbean and $399 on Celebrity at the 30 day mark (of course not including port taxes). Both of those sailing though were San Juan departures.

I don't think we'll see the same low prices this year that we saw in 2009.

Have you (OP) checked if the CL's have any price guarantees to see if you want to work that angle?
We booked our E. Carib RCI cruise about 11months in advance. They have a price protection guarantee where if you make final payment and the cruise price goes down, you get the difference in onboard credit. We ended up with $500USD in onboard credit when we finally sailed in Dec09. Surprisingly, we were able to get unspent credit (only about $25) refunded on the last day.

Also, if you're a "gambler", if you think the cruise isn't going to be full, you can also just book an inside or outside guarantee and hope for an upgrade. Alaska cruises in 09 were hurting so we grabbed one of the many deals and we were upgraded from inside to outside on Celebrity Millennium. And for our December cruise, where we watched prices fall, we were upgraded from inside to a inside promenade cabin on Liberty OTS.

Possible. The variable is that there seems to have been a bunch of new ships launched in 2009 that added a chunk of capacity. Granted tho, the extra capacity doesn't translate like extra hotel capacity in a city.

A great site to see all available cabins (not just the 6 or so you can check on Travelocity & co.) is www.sea-scanner.com

To OP -- Celebrity and RCCL are amongst the very few cruiselines which will give you all reductions that show up after booking -- up until boarding. (Exception are special sales offered only for new bookings.) So, even if you've booked, you can still get the reduction amount (generally in OBC) for the cruise.

If you are looking at the Celebrity Constellation for April (Miami-Hamburg) -- there are still a lot of cabins available. There may be even more until just before final payment is due on January 31st. (The ship goes into drydock at the end of this cruise and some people may get "cold feet" as to the condition of the ship.) We're booked and going!

I know that at least Holland America also gives you reductions that come up between booking and final payment. Also, I was excited to learn about sea-scanner until I saw how few cruise lines are represented there!

I also don't think some of the '09 sales will likely be seen again this year and would also counsel against leaving a decision until last minute as often what if anything is gained on the cruise front may as easily and quickly be lost on the airfare front. Just MHO.

You may have this covered, but if you need one-way tickets for the transatlantic cruise, I had good luck with:

www.OneTravel.com

for the transatlantic flight MSP-BCN.

I was able to use an airline site directly for the return MIA-MSP.

Romelle

As was mentioned earlier, RCCL and Celebrity both have very strong policies of allowing fare reductions to be passed to passengers, even after final payment, the one exception being "Happy Hour" rates (also called Sales Event on RCCL and Xciting Deals on Celebrity). These Happy Hour fares are typically on Tuesdays, though agents get access to them the previous Thursday/Friday. Usually, they are for sailings within 4-6 weeks of sailing, though I've seen some even just a few days prior.

Because you're dealing with one way TATL fares, I'd suggest finding the one you want and going ahead and booking. While you may not have the absolute best fare, that airfare last minute can be killer.

By the way, if your agent knows how to manipulate the data in the agent One Stop files correctly, and is highly familiar with it and Happy Hour trends, one can get a pretty good idea of which sailings are likely to go on Happy Hour. Feel free to send me your preferred itineraries and I can take a look for you and give you my best estimate of likelihood.

Thanks for your kind effort to help scope out best fares.

Our first choice is the April 19 sailing on Celebrity Equinox, FFL to Rome.

Second choice is Ruby Princess, April 19, FLL to Barcelona.

Third choice is Independence of the Seas, Arpil 11, FLL to Southhampton.

Also, all else equal, we'd like to book from the Delta site to get the 10,000 miles for a 14-night sailing.

Our last crossing was on the Independence, a great ship, but ht Equinox looks really nice!