Cheapest Day to Book a Cruise

We split every fare change in our price history by the weekday it was recorded and counted cuts against increases. Saturday had the highest share of cuts: more than three in four of the changes we recorded on a Saturday were cuts. Sunday was next at 57%, the only other day where cuts outnumbered increases.

That's a share of changes, not a price level. It doesn't show that fares are lower on Saturday, how much you'd save by booking then, or how likely a given fare is to drop that day. We haven't compared actual fare levels by booking day, so we don't name a cheapest day.

These figures come from our own fare-tracking dataset. We first published them from 4.3 million price snapshots across 34,681 sailings, and in July 2026 we re-measured them on the full record for March 9 to June 4, 2026: about 4.7 million price records across 36,133 sailings and 31 cruise lines. The day-of-week and booking-window figures on this page held on that re-measure.

For the day-of-week figures we took every fare change in that window, about 4.2 million in total, and split them by the weekday the change was recorded. Each day's figure is its cuts divided by its cuts plus increases. Each fare's first recorded price isn't a change, so we leave it out. The shares measure the direction of changes only, not fare levels, the size of cuts, or how often a particular fare drops.

For the booking-window finding we measured each fare against its own peak price and grouped snapshots by how many days remained before departure. Because the window spans about three months, we report patterns we can stand behind and avoid seasonal claims our data does not cover.

Here's the share of logged price changes that were cuts, by the day the change was recorded:

• Saturday: 77% of changes were cuts (highest)
• Sunday: 57%
• Monday: 49%
• Tuesday: 42%
• Thursday: 40%
• Friday: 39%
• Wednesday: 28% (lowest)

Cuts made up most of the changes on Saturday and Sunday and fewer than half on every other day. That describes when fares changed direction in our data window, not which day is cheaper to book, so don't plan a purchase around it.

We also measured how far each fare sat below its own peak price, grouped by how many days before departure it was recorded. Here's the average:

• 365+ days before sailing: about 9% below peak
• 181–365 days: about 11%
• 101–180 days: about 13%
• 31–100 days: about 15–16%
• Inside 30 days: about 16% (but availability shrinks)

The 31–100 day window roughly doubles the discount you'd get booking a year out. Book too early and you lock in a worse price on most sailings. Wait too long on a popular itinerary and your cabin sells out.

Tracking the exact sailing handles both: you ride the price down while watching availability the whole time.

Already know your budget? Browse cruises sorted by lowest price and start from a sailing that fits.

January through March is Wave Season, when the lines roll out their biggest promotions of the year. The savings tend to show up as perks rather than lower fares: onboard credit, drink and Wi-Fi packages, smaller deposits.

They're worth having, but they vary a lot by line, and a promotion is not the same as a price floor. Compare the sailing you actually want on the Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian pages before assuming Wave Season is the cheapest time to book. Our guide to wave season cruise deals breaks down what the promotions actually include.

The simplest way to pay the least is to stop predicting days and seasons and just watch the cruise you want. Set a free price alert on CruiseLookup and we'll email you when the fare drops. More than 7 in 10 of the sailings we tracked dropped at least once. Once you've caught one, see how to get a cruise price drop and whether prices drop after final payment.