I've been following some cruises around the middle east for several months. And one such cruise from MSC has gone from $830 with everything (OBC/Drinks Pkg) included to now $2000+.with a $75 obc.

And it showed all cabins are sold out except balcony, which definitely isn't true. Yesterday it showed all cabins available.😄

A week ago they had $1000 off the one I wanted, but I waited too late to book it. My fault 😞

I have a feeling the ship hasn't been selling very well due to the conflict in that general area and they are trying to offload higher end cabins.

But their Black Friday sale isn't a sale when they increased the rates and put a small obc to entice customers.

I plan to wait until after black Friday to see if the prices drop. If not I won't be booking.

Anybody notice this with other cruise lines recently?

Very rarely is a Black Friday Sale (or any other "sale") actually any cheaper. As you noticed, they jack up the rates and then discount them. One exception I found was Crystal where their sale, while not actually any cheaper on the face of it, now includes an upgrade and a hotel.

You're right. Black Friday sales are basically bogus everywhere. But back in the day everything was deeply discounted.

You're better off waiting until after final payment. Then scoop up an orphan cabin at a discount. Cruise line sales are deceptive. It is not uncommon to see a sale right after prices have been jacked up.

I�m sad that I never got to take advantage of true last minute cruising. There was a time when folks hung out at the dock hoping to score a heavily discounted cabin the day before or the day of sailing.

My problem is that, even though we live very close to a port, I like to book 2-3 years out. Not to mention that most cruises out of Vancouver go to Alaska, and I'm pretty bored with that.

Final payment was months ago. It sails in less than a month. I just booked a hotel as a replacement. I just can't see paying that price they want now. It would be cheaper to fly to Qatar (which is the main country I want to go to) which I have been several times before and just book a hotel for week, than cruise there. All I want is an inside cabin with no extras. At least now I have a backup plan, and will just spend my time in Al Seef (Dubai) during their shopping festival. I've done that before so it will be nice.

I'll come back and post an update.

One place where this still can make sense is Antarctica. Those "cruises" (more like expeditions) are very expensive on a per-day basis, especially if you don't count two days each way in the Drake Passage. There are businesses (fully legit, operate openly on the main street, nothing remotely shady here) in Ushuaia that sell last-minute vacant cabins on behalf of the cruise lines. If you're not particular about which line you sail with, and can hang around for a day or two waiting for one you like to show up, there are huge savings to be had.

Have you any personal experience with doing this and what the daily cost PP is? Want to do a cruise but baulking the price (friend spaid over USD 20k each for a cruise on an Australian line within the past year or so).

Wouldn't mind going to USH speculatively to do this.

Not personally myself, but talked personally to people who have. In your situation I'd totally do it.

That said, you can book in advance for way less than $20K US pp. Check out, for example, HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions until about a year ago).

BTW, you might scoff at the idea of a balcony cabin - who wants to sit on a balcony in that weather? - but it's worth it, if the added cost isn't outrageous, for the full-wall window.

Heck, we're in an upgraded cabin on Seabourn to Antarctica and we paid less than $20,000 per person. OK, not much, but a Penthouse...And yes, we'll be outside as often as possible. There's no bad weather, just bad clothing ;-) We booked a few months ago as soon as the 2028 itineraries were released. My husband had a wild hair (it'll be his 60th that year) and who am I to say no? My binoculars and I can't wait!

Did they mention lines? Interested in Ponant but not sure such a deal would garner any elite benefits. Would even be better if Le Commandant Charcot was sold cheap as that is one of the few ships that can go deep into the Antarctic (into the Weddell sea) where most ships cannot go.

Should mention that it was a ~20 day that included South Georgia and IIRC Falkland/Malvinas so explored much more than the standard ~1 week cruises. USD 1k pp pd seems to be the going rate.

High enough to avoid waves in rough seas too. Some of the ships have watertight doors for the lower balcony decks (e.g., the older Ponant ships) rather than sliders. And the front cabins have metal instead of glass for the waves. Crossing the Drake passage is serious business!

I just got off an Atlas Ocean Voyages Antarctic sailing. It was amazing. Had the Drake Lake both ways and warm sunny weather most of the days down on the continent. Saw more orcas on this sailing than they saw the entire 2024-5 season! I sell a lot of Atlas and I can attest that they will wheel and deal for those last cabins starting about a month out. I had close to 20 people on this sailing with the last solo passenger booking just a week before the cruise. I called to get him a price and they pretty much asked me "how much do you think he's willing to pay?". I got him a solo balcony for about $10,000 for an 11 nighter with the pre hotel and charter flights. It's found money for them. The smaller lines like Atlas, Swan Hellenic, Aurora, Albatross, etc will be more likely to wheel and deal, but I'm sure some local agents in USH will have some additional inventory to sell. My Atlas rep said they work with USH agents to sell last minute cabins to those wandering around Patagonia.

Been looking at the myriad of Antarctica cruise postings by PRC travellers on little red book app. Some reports that the sale rates are drying up and bedt to try booking 4-6 weeks in advance.

There was a large group of Chinese passengers on our Antarctica cruise last week. Atlas even provided a Chinese interpreter for the Voyage. I get a lot of request for quotes from China but I think most end up booking with local agents.

Well, I'm back to report on the cruise I've been looking at. It's no longer available and completely booked, according to the website. The last time I priced it, it was still way more than I wanted to pay. So, lesson learned....if you see a deal book it then! I knew that already, but decided to wait.😅