(MELLOW WANDERER) ‘Tis the season to say bon voyage. Early cruise booking is here! The champagne cork has barely popped on 2015, and the cruise industry is standing by to lure travelers in with deals for early commitments.
MW’s email already has an alert announcing January’s “Wave Season” offerings via Cruise Critic, an independent, reliable one-stop cruise booking and information clearinghouse website for all things cruising.
What kind of deals are out there? Just about everything. There are happy hour style 2-for-1 cabin promotions, free upgrades, reduced cash deposits, shipboard credit, beverage packages, pre-paid gratuities, free hotel rooms, reduced airfare and as the email declares: “A LOT MORE!”
Wave season is a cruise industry tradition, just like the New Year’s Eve ball dropping in New York’s Times Square. Though some industry insiders question if the deals are, in fact, better between January and March.
The “brrr-factor” looks to be still in play for Caribbean cruises. The islands are like warm mittens to freeze weary travelers wanting to escape the winter. They can ride the savings wave during early booking season. That’s not to say you can’t find similar deals throughout the year for other worldwide cruise destinations.
You can score deals when a cruise shopping caravan shows up where you live. AAA Travel (Automobile Association of America) will usually advertise them at local hotels. All the cruise operators will be there pitching and wheeling-and-dealing. What kind of deal can you get? Let’s use MW’s recent experience as an example. In February 2014, we booked an eight-day Danube River cruise with Viking Cruise Lines that sailed the last week in July. 
We came away with a 50% cruise discount, a $600 airfare discount, an additional $300 discount for booking during the February promotion, another $200 discount for referring a friend, and a $175 shipboard credit as a first-time Viking cruise guest. One additional perk- AAA sent us a $250 check when we returned as a reward for booking a cruise through them. I must say we felt it was a great deal.
Don’t miss the boat if you’re yearning for a 2015 cruise vacation!
River cruises are a popular and fast growing segment of the cruise industry. They offer a calm and stable ride compared to ocean cruising. River cruising can also be a more intimate experience. Instead of traveling in a herd of thousands of passengers, boats have a limited capacity of a couple hundred. Take a look at the video below as Mellow Wanderer traveled on Viking’s Idun longboat during an 8-day Danube River vacation.
Ocean cruise operators are learning that bigger isn’t always better. The new line of mega-ships with jumbo human capacity can turn-off vacationers who want a quieter, less crowded experience. Now you’ll see more new offerings in 2015 for exclusive, almost private cruising. First class passengers will travel on the same boat as everybody else, but enjoy a very different experience– for a much higher price, of course! How much? About triple the cost of a standard cabin. A Florida TV news station reported this new trend in cruising from the industry’s epicenter in Miami. Bon voyage!
