Living in Florida or a very close by state is a real advantage for cruisers able to get a cruise at the last minute. Pre-9/11 my father was living in Orlando and his brother lived in Miami. For the better part of 10 years during the Caribbean cruise season my dad and stepmother would drive down to Miami on a Thursday or Friday then hang out at the cruise terminals in Miami or Ft Lauderdale on Saturday and Sunday looking for a last minute space available discounted cruise. They were surprisingly successful and more often than not they�d get a cabin. He was so cheap though he�d call me collect to tell me they�d caught a cruise and would be gone for a week or two. We actually turned it into just a signal. I knew if I got a collect call on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon they were off and cruising so I�d simply refuse the call. No call no cruise. After 9/11 it became harder to get into the port areas and to the terminals but by then my stepmother had passed away and dad was no longer able to cruise

While that’s been our experience in the past more and more cruise lines are going to early payment in full discount offers. Once they have all your money they are resistant to refunding actual dollars but will offer an offset in an onboard credit. The other little wrinkle some lines are going to is a non-refundable deposit as part of the early payment discount. That stops the cancel and rebook option. We’ve done one payment in full to get a 10% discount but we were fully comitted to the cruise and did have full travel insurance just in case. Add the early payment discounts to other sales and incentives plus throw in the whole cabin guarantee option and you get a very interesting pricing stew that is sometimes hard to wade through.