john55c wrote:
ric wrote:
Being local to it all, cruises are just something you do when you're bored and feel like spending $200 (locals get massive last minute discounts to fill the boats).
Are those last minute deals only available to locals (FL residents), or could someone who could get there in short notice also book? Given a super deal on a cruise per person, a last minute deal could work if the airfare isn't ridiculous. Off-hours flights from the northeast down there are often pretty reasonable, depending on time of year.
I think a number of sources offer "last minute deals" and these are somewhat based on the time of year and of course how well the cruise ship is booked.
Just for information, we normally vacation between Christmas and over New Years each year. We pick this time as my wife works with the school board and my son is in public school and is off school for the Christmas holidays. Doing a cruise in the last week of December while still on the cruise over New Years eve is an expensive time to cruise as compared with other times of the year. We typically book our cruise almost a year in advance and flight about 330 days in advance to try and get the best price we can for cruising this time of year. We monitor the cruise pricing and flight pricing for the heck of it to see the fluctuations as our cruise date gets closer. For example in checking our cruise price today (our cruise departs in 7 days) our cruise is $1100.00 more (for the three of us) than what we paid and our flight out of Detroit, Michigan and return is over $1300.00 more (for the three of us) than what we paid. Our $2400.00 savings will pretty much cover our boat gas for 2015.

Mike.
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Current Boat
- 2001 Four Winns 328 Vista "Hour Decision"- 2010 310 Mercury Inflatable
Previous Boats
- 30' Doral Prestancia
- 25' Doral Citation