Hello again Elaine!

I know off hand that Princess actually has a routing that sails from Barcelona to Venice (or vice versa), taking 12 nights. Often there are offers with extended stays in port and I believe the ship overnights in Venice.

I am sure there are other lines too, such as Celebrity. If you choose P&O you'll be sailing out of Southampton so the holiday will be approaching three weeks in length.

You should get an early booking discount for booking before the end of January/February. After that prices seem to stabilise until the very last minute when there will be some discounts, but perhaps not on the line or itinerary you want.

Happy sailing!

Ok here is what you need to do, Identify the trips that do this combination in 2007 and 2008 and watch the 2007 prices for the rest of this year and monitor the early booking prices for 2008.

If you see Late deals in 2007 then there is a CHANCE they may occur again in 2008 so you can decide if they are good enough to take the risk and wait.

Also for a lot of these you may be better off DIY flights with a cheap airline.

One problem is these trips especialy the big US ships are marketed to the US people and are still popular. There is however an increasing number of berths in the med each year so there may be some over capacity which will keep prices down.

Looking at Sept 2007 here are some options flying into the med.

Celebrity Millenium.
Carnival freedom.
RCI Brilliance of the Seas.
NCL Jewel.
Emerald Princess.
Orient Marco Polo

If you could split into two trips and do one port in each you would increace your options alot. eg OV and Island do barcelona from palma, and others will do Venice.

Manythanks for your responses. I will definitely take your advice. Unfortunatey, travel agents appear unwilling to take the time to go through the options yet because 2008 cruises not yet published..... at least I'll have time to save a bit more!

Thanks again.
Elaine

Unfortunatey, travel agents appear unwilling to take the time to go through the options yet because 2008 cruises not yet published

I don't use TA any more for research, the cruise lines web sites are fine for that you can check online the prices and expect 10% discounts when you book through a TA. If you sign up for emails from the cruise lines t hey tell you what the special offers are.

You also need to monitor a number of the specialist cruise TA for deals where they block book.

In most cases the same Itineries will turn up next year anyway unless a cruise line is changing its market or adding new ships.

Some early 2008 itineries are available.

Hi just a word of advice remember that if you watch the prices for Celebrity or Royal Caribbean and possibly also Princess and there is a price drop you just ask your Travel Agent to get the lower price applied to your booking.
If you book directly with the cruise company then you just call then and ask for a price reduction.

If you follow some of the boards on Cruise Critic you will see many instances of this. Personally I have had 3 price reductions plus an over 55 discount appied to the booking I made last October. I have upgraded by 2 grades to a CC room and still save just under £500.

In some ways there is little point in waiting if there are good early booking discounts as you might find like me if I now wanted to book the same grade of room I have it would cost me £810 more. Prices are fluid and they are adjusted according to the and demand.

Good luck Sue