The holidays, along with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are over. But for cruisers, the Wave season has just begun. As holiday travel ends, cruise sales begin and last until the end of March.
According to Carmen Roig, Princess Cruises VP of Sales, “Wave season is a time when most cruise lines in the industry offer their biggest discounts and promotions, essentially creating a "wave" of deals to entice travelers to book their trips, making it the most affordable time to secure a cruise with potential perks like onboard credits or reduced deposits.”
If a 2025 Christmas cruise is being planned, now is the right time to book, as the rates are low, and the availability is high. If you wait for a last-minute deal, at the end of the year, chances are stateroom choices will be limited to inside cabins, as well as more popular sections of the ship.
When shopping for holiday cruises, it’s only natural to think about warm weather escapes from frigid temperatures. The idea of swapping snow for sand can still fulfill your need for a white Christmas, with a different kind of shovel. When asked about popular holiday cruise destinations, Roig stated that the Caribbean was very popular in 2024 and they expect 10 ships, including the new Sun Princess, to be active in the region in 2025.
Princess also offers theme park bundles so families, sailing out of Port Canaveral, can visit Orlando’s popular destinations as part of a package. And don’t stop at 2025, itineraries are already booked for 2026 and 2027 with these early months of the year offering the best deals.
(Carmen Roig, Vice President of Sales for Princess Cruises)
Hawaii is another favorite itinerary. As Roig stated, “It can be expensive and complicated to visit various islands, and the flights are long from much of the U.S. On a cruise, you can easily fly to L.A., San Francisco, or Vancouver to board one of the five Princess ships sailing to HI this year and then visit multiple islands all without packing and unpacking or taking multiple flights.”
Currently, Princess is sailing five ships to Hawaii and the South Pacific, including the following itineraries: 16-day Hawaiian Islands roundtrip from Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Vancouver; 32-day South Pacific Islands and Hawaii cruises from LA; and 54-day South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand voyage, roundtrip from LA, visiting 16 islands, including Fiji, Samoa, Tasmania, and Australia.
Roig also talked about Hawaii’s reputation as a romantic choice for holiday travel and Princess Cruises’ fame as the “Love Boat” line, enhancing couples' experience. Many weddings have taken place on Princess ships, making for a stress-free opportunity for family and friends to let Princess handle all the ceremony and reception
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I'm sitting on the 360-degree promenade deck aboard a Viking river cruise, with a glass of wine and a paperback, taking in the silver maples in the high afternoon sun on a bright August day. The water, blue-green and more beautiful than I had expected, hums with steamboats and pontoons. Staff members flit about, delivering cocktails and greeting guests like old friends. With its plentiful blond woods, the stylish ship has the kind of opulence you'd expect on the world's great waterways, from the Nile to the Seine. But I'm on board the 386-passenger Viking Mississippi, custom-built to traverse America's most famous river. Interest in sailing along it has been on the rise since the pandemic, but Viking is the first major luxury liner to offer a trip.
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