How far out do you plan your vacation? I know for us we like to plan at least six months out. This gives us time to get excited and look things up online that we want to include in our trip. It also would give your employer time to make changes to their schedule.
Now we are full-time Travel Bloggers, but I do remember when Jim would come home and say, “The vacation schedule is making it way around. When are we taking time off?” I usually said the same thing every year. I like a certain week off just like I’m sure you have your favorite time to vacation.
For me it was the third week in July, this seemed like the warmest time of the summer. I owned a daycare with young children and we went outside daily. Those dog days of summer in July I found hard to take. We had a five bedroom house with five air conditioners and two windows fans in it to help survive the heat. I am happy I made the career change!!
Our big trips, I plan as far out as possible. For our next cruise, we booked two years out. The day the itinerary opened up I was on the phone booking it with our travel agent. If the travel company is not running any booking deals, I may wait up to a month before booking.
The last time I booked a Royal Caribbean Cruise, the cruise line gave us $150/stateroom and the travel agent gave us $350/stateroom, totaling $500 on board credit to spend per stateroom. We booked two rooms. One for us and one for our older children. This is a GREAT win in our book!!
I also go online and scan the airfares as soon as they open. I was able to score four round trip tickets for $204/pp, non stop from Boston to Florida. My older son waited and got his tickets three months out and paid more for two people than I paid for four people, ouch!!
This next Royal Caribbean cruise we have planned, I booked like I mentioned two years out. I just checked and a cabin in the same category was $600 more expensive than last year and the exact cabin type is not available anymore.
We wanted to try out an aft balcony. That is on the back of the ship looking out from where we’ve been. I love looking at the trail of water as we cruise through the ocean. We are excited about our aft balcony and are very much looking forward to our next cruise!!!
Royal Caribbean is also only offering $100 on board credit and I received $150 onboard credit last year. Plus, my travel agent kicked in $175 onboard credit and a free dinner for two at a specialty dinning venue.
This will be a nice anniversary dinner for us to share! I could have waited for a better deal with onboard credit but the room I wanted my not have been available. So there are a few things to think about when planning your next vacation.
I’m on the hunt for airfare as it begins to open up now. Wish me luck, we’re always looking to score a great deal! Happy Travels and we hope our vacation planning tips will assist you in booking a fabulous vacation.
Happy Travels!!!
For more great travel tips, click these links:
https://lifeoftheemptynesters.com/2019/11/20/holiday-tips-traveling-stress/
https://lifeoftheemptynesters.com/2019/12/02/why-travel-insurance-coverage/
We plan ours as far ahead as we can, from 6 months up to a year depending on the type of trip. Since we live in our RV, it gives us time to plan whether we can take it or if we need to park it and get a hotel, etc. Love your blog! It’s so informative.
We do both. We plan far in advance and book last minute. I think we always have things planned far in advance and then we see things an get excited and look at each other and say what the heck, lets do it.
You all snagged some real deals! It looks like a ton of fun 🙂
Yes we certainly did. We have had a wonderful time working and traveling over the past 15 months. Thank you for commenting and we look forward to sharing our remaining 2019 travel itinerary!!