Cruises are always good for that. Final payment isn't generally due until 90 days before the cruise. We have three cruises booked in 2021, one in 2022, and we're booking another 2022 cruise this week.

Just to back this up, I’ve been checking 2 of the 4 Royal Caribbean cruises I’m booked for in the coming year because my friends want to come but can’t because they are sold out. Even went on Sea Scanner and all the rooms are taken. The other 2 only had suites available. Luckily I was able to redeemed my free 700 points cruise before it sold out. Got a Jr Suite for a 15 night sailing.

I'm guessing SkaterJasp is aware, but RCL went to non-refundable deposits for certain suite & guarantee categories a few years ago https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2...e-cruise-fares https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2...eposit-program as did Celebrity for suites. There is a $100 change fee to move the booking unless you happen to have an pre-regulation Future Cruise/Open future cruise booking.

Just pointing this out as some less frequent cruisers may not be familiar with these change policies since non-refundable bookings became more common a few years ago and are priced lower than refundable fares. Future cruise credit is line specific and has limited terms of usage, even with the more flexible cancellation policies https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/r...-cancellations

My 2021 Celebrity passages (initial deposit made while onboard) bookings are flexible enough to move before final payment and I expect to move them when new sailings get announced for 2022 & 2023 this fall. Some of the 2021 prices didn't appeal when I shifted the bookings in late 2019 so I was already treating them as self managed "open bookings".

That is true normally.. however, with COVID-19, RCL now have a temporary program, “cruise with confidence”. All booking made by August 1, you can change to a different booking with no fees as long as it’s done 48 hours prior to the original sailing. In some case, will even price protect.. but I think it has to be a similar cruise to what was originally booked. More details can be found at https://loyaltoyoualways.com/service...thconfidence1/ I would of posted the link directly to the Royal Caribbean site, but it’s currently down for maintenance.

Yes, there's also lift and shift. Both cruise with confidence and lift and shift allow conversion to future cruise credit or future booking within a year or Dec 31, 2021. I just priced a 10 night RCL sailing in late 2021 and the deposit is $900 for a junior suite (lowest suite class). That deposit & fare is non-refundable since it is in the suite category. If Cruise With Confidence FCC is not redeemed and sailed on or before December 31, 2021, it will be forfeited.

Booking strategy might depend on how comfortable people are with being issued future cruise credit vs refund. In my mind, cash refund of refundable deposit outside final payment is more flexible than than a future cruise credit with expiry date. Paying $100 to move it without cruise with confidence might allow moving a non-refundable deposit beyond April 2022? Future bookings might have different terms, of course.

On the sort of upside, the Best Price Guarantee up until 48 hours of sailing for US bookings is a nice documented change https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-with-confidence though it also leads me to suspect they may not be dropping prices very much.

I’m not sure about price drops, if they do drop prices, it’ll be very last minute and I think they’ll do something like guarantee stateroom price drops at the last minute. The cruise lines aren’t dumb, everything’s very calculated. What cruise lines need to be doing is open up their 2022 schedule because so we have more options on cruises to pick from.