Josh and I decided to cruise to Alaska again this Summer. Josh has been working really hard and needs a vacation. We decided to take a cruise out of Seattle because it is super easy to just pack our bags and get an Uber to the cruise terminal, which is about 20 minutes away from our home in Bellevue, WA.
I booked the cruise about 3 weeks before the departure date. We had purchased future cruise credits on our last NCL cruise and chose to use one of those for our trip. Just like I always do, I decided to shop on Costco Travel for our cruise. Costco offered the same price as NCL with an extra perk of a Costco Cash card and allowed me to use our future cruise credits. To apply the future cruise credits towards our purchase, I couldn’t use the Costco Travel website and had to call their customer service. I had the customer service rep on the phone within a couple minutes of my call and the rep had all the information about the cruise I was intending to purchase based on my activity on their website the day before.
Watching the price drop..
Even though the cruise is in September, which is the last month for cruise travel to Alaska, the cruise wasn’t cheap. We have cruised the Inside Passage to Alaska before in a balcony cabin on the beautiful Holland America’s Westerdam so we decided to purchase an ocean view cabin for our cruise this time.
We thought we was getting a good deal when we purchased the cruise 3 weeks before disembarkation day, but to our surprise the price has been dropping since the day the day we bought it. 3 days after our purchase, the total price for our cabin category dropped by $200, a week later, the price was down by $250 and today (1.5 weeks before disembarkation day), it’s down by $700. There’s nothing we can do about the price drop than to watch it and learn from it for next time (I am sure this isn’t the last time we will cruise to Alaska from Seattle).
Update: 10 days before disembarkation
Today, all the ocean view rooms are sold out. The cheapest inside cabin is less than a $100 cheaper and the cheapest balcony cabin is about $500 more. So, I guess you take your chances if you book last minute.