My assignment for the last week — after my other assignments, like cooking, editing, washing dishes, proof reading, doing the laundry, writing, cleaning the house and doing the budget — was to study the advantages or disadvantages of booking a cruise at the last minute. Since I am the one in charge of budgets (he’s hopeless), I thought this would enable me to come up with a penny-wise conclusion.
The conclusion is…there is no conclusion.
I picked two ships at random, Allure of the Seas and the Island Princess. The Royal Caribbean ship sails to the Western Caribbean every second week, and the Princess ship does Alaska.
For the Allure (above), I watched four sailings…inside cabin prices only. The first, which began on Sunday, didn’t change at all. The second (next Sunday) dropped from $899 to $799 and then jumped to $1,154. The third (September 11) dropped from $979 to $799 before rocketing to $1,006. The fourth (September 25) continues to stay at $819.
For the Island Princess, I watch two 7-night Voyages of the Glaciers from Vancouver to 
Whittier. The one leaving August 24 (Sunday) has stayed at $870. The one leaving September 7 has stayed at $765.
I am left to conclude — even though I did say there is no conclusion — that once the cruise line computers reach a certain number of beds available (low or high) they automatically adjust pricing.
The politically correct assumption is that sometimes there are good last-minute deals, and sometimes there aren’t. The answer is in a computer program…for better or worse.