Wave season is the cruise industry’s January sale. It runs from about January into March, the lines pile on promotions, and every travel site in the country tells you it is the moment to book. Here is the part they leave out. Wave season is mostly about what gets bundled into your fare, not about the fare coming down, and for the trips I sell the calendar that actually matters has nothing to do with it.
I’m Donnetta Byrd, a travel advisor. Here is what wave season is, what it is worth, and what I would actually be doing in January.
What wave season is
Three months at the start of the year when the cruise lines compete hardest for bookings. Royal Caribbean calls it the industry’s peak booking season on its own site, and the classic window is January through March.
That window has been drifting earlier. Royal Caribbean’s own guide says deals can start as early as November. Cruise Critic puts the season at January through March but notes the lines may start teasing offers in December. By my count a dozen or so lines had something out before the end of December last year.
So if you have been waiting for January 1 to start looking, you are already a month or two behind the people who got first pick.
What the offers actually are
This is where it pays to read carefully. Here is what my lines ran in wave season 2026, which covered January through March of that year. Treat it as a guide to the shape of the thing rather than a promise about what lands this time:
- Princess ran up to 40 percent off fares, up to $500 instant savings, half price deposits, and free third and fourth guest fares on selected sailings.
- Royal Caribbean ran up to $1,000 off fares, up to 40 percent off onboard extras like drinks and internet, and free third and fourth guests.
- Holland America ran up to 30 percent off, reduced deposits, verandah upgrades, onboard credit, and shore excursion credit on Alaska sailings.
- Celebrity ran up to 75 percent off the second guest, up to $700 in additional savings, and free third, fourth and fifth guests on selected sailings.
- Norwegian ran 50 percent off sailings plus up to $1,000 onboard credit per cabin, and that one closed on January 20, barely three weeks into the season.
Read that list again and notice what it is made of. Drinks packages, wifi, dining, onboard credit, excursion credit, reduced deposits, and discounts expressed off a second or third guest. Cruise Critic’s own read is that while discounted fares make the eye-catching headlines, the best value usually comes from the onboard perks.
Three things follow from that.
The headline percentage is the least useful number in the offer. Fifty percent off, seventy five percent off the second guest, up to 40 percent. Off what? The line sets the starting fare, and it sets it knowing the sale is coming. A percentage is only meaningful against a price you already know, which is why I keep an eye on what a sailing costs before a promotion lands rather than after.
A sale can end in week three. Norwegian’s closed January 20. The season is three months long; any one offer inside it may not be.
The perks are real and they are worth having. I am not telling you wave offers are a con. A drinks package and prepaid gratuities on a seven night cruise for two is real money. I am telling you that what you are buying in January is usually a better package, not a cheaper cruise, and those are different things to plan around.
Read the deposit before you read the discount
This is the one I would most like you to take away, because it is the part that costs people money.
Cruise deposits used to be refundable until final payment as a matter of course. That is no longer how it works. Non-refundable deposit fares are now standard across the major lines, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America and Princess among them, and here is the catch: the non-refundable version is usually the cheaper advertised price. Sometimes by a few hundred dollars a person.
So when you are comparing two numbers on a screen, you may not be comparing the same product at all. One of them lets you change your mind and one of them does not.
It matters doubly in wave season, because reduced deposit and half price deposit offers are exactly the kind of promotion that comes with non-refundable terms attached. The perk and the restriction arrive together.
I am not against non-refundable fares. If you are certain of the week and the ship, the saving is real and you should take it. But you should know which one you are buying, and that is a question worth asking out loud before you put money down.
There is a third option most people never hear about. Group space often carries a refundable deposit, right up until final payment. And I do not have to be holding the block myself for that to help you. Through my host agency and my consortium I can frequently get at a group on a sailing that is nothing to do with me, including one you found yourself, which can mean a better rate, a bit of onboard credit, and deposit terms that let you change your mind. It is worth asking me before you book direct, because that is not a question the booking page is going to answer for you, and it is one of the clearest examples of what an advisor actually changes.
The calendar that actually matters
Cruise lines are not shy about this. Princess says on its own site that the rule of thumb for booking early is one year to 18 months ahead, and that early booking prioritizes certainty and choice. For Alaska specifically it recommends six to 12 months, because the season only runs roughly May through September. There is more on when to go to Alaska if that is the trip you are weighing.
Cruise Critic reports that advisors tell them pre wave offers are often some of the best, because the lines are trying to fill ships early rather than cut rates late. I would agree with that.
My own rule is simpler. The thing that runs out is not the promotion. It is the room.
A wave offer applies to whatever is still unsold in January. If the sailing you want is a popular week, and the category you want is a connecting pair or a verandah on a good deck, the promotion does not conjure those back into existence. I would rather have the room I want at a fair fare than a terrific package on a cabin under the pool deck.
There is no wave season for river cruises or train travel
Worth saying clearly, because people apply ocean cruising logic to trips that do not work that way.
River cruising runs on small numbers. A European river ship carries under 200 people, which means a departure has a few dozen cabins in each category and no spare capacity to discount into. River lines run early booking offers, and they run them early, because filling a ship that size does not require a three month national sale. Waiting for a January markdown on a specific September sailing on the Danube is how you end up on a different week than the one you wanted.
Train travel is tighter still. Rocky Mountaineer sells a fixed number of seats on a fixed number of departures in a season that runs mid April to mid October. In my own bookings GoldLeaf on a summer Friday is among the first things to go. Canyon Spirit runs its own season, April into November, on its own schedule. Neither has a wave season to wait for. There is a rate card, a season, and a finite number of seats.
So if your 2028 is a river cruise or a train trip, January is not a special month. It is simply a month in which the good departures have been selling since the schedule opened.
What I would actually do in January
Know the price before the sale. If you are watching a sailing, have me price it now so that when a wave offer lands you can tell whether it moved.
Ask which deposit you are being quoted. Refundable or not, before anything else.
Decide what the perks are worth to you. A drinks package is worth a lot to some people and nothing to a couple who have one glass of wine at dinner. Onboard credit is worth face value only if you were going to spend onboard anyway, since it rarely comes back as cash. Prepaid gratuities are worth nothing extra if your fare already includes them. Judge the bundle on what you will actually use.
Look at what is already open. Princess opened 2028 Alaska in July 2026, Viking followed in August, and Holland America opened its 2028 Alaska season on August 27. The newest season is where the choice is widest and the fares have had the least time to climb, which is the opposite of how most people shop.
Book the room, not the date of the sale. If the week and the cabin are right, take them.
A live example of why the promotion is not the deadline
I am holding nine staterooms on Holland America’s Westerdam for a round trip from Seattle, August 12 to 19, 2028. Nine hours inside Glacier Bay with National Park Service rangers aboard, five ports in seven nights, one day at sea. Fares start at $3,409 per person, and the deposit is $350 per person and refundable until final payment in April 2028.
Three things about that block make the point of this whole article.
Glacier Bay is not something a cruise line can simply decide to sell you. It is a national park, and the Park Service caps access at two cruise ships a day in season. Not every Alaska sailing goes in. No promotion creates a permit.
The group fare is negotiated space, priced below the same stateroom bought on its own, and it is fixed. A public fare moves with demand and a group fare does not, which means the gap is widest when you book early and the ship has had the least time to fill. That is the reverse of waiting for a sale.
And the fare carries Holland America’s Have It All package with its early booking upgrades already applied, which is the Elite drinks package, premium wifi and prepaid stateroom gratuities rather than the standard versions. Holland America describes that bonus as available for a limited time, on a first come first served basis, and says it may be changed or revoked at any time. They have never said how long it runs. So there is no sale to wait for and no countdown to watch. Waiting cannot improve that offer and it might cost you the upgraded half of it.
That is wave season in miniature. The thing with real scarcity was never the promotion.
Wave season FAQ
When is wave season 2027? Roughly January through March. Several lines start teasing offers in November or December, so expect the first of them before the new year.
Are cruises actually cheaper during wave season? Sometimes, but the savings usually arrive as bundled perks rather than a lower fare: drinks packages, wifi, onboard credit, dining, reduced deposits, and discounts off a second or third guest. Judge an offer against what the sailing cost before the promotion, not against its headline percentage.
Is my cruise deposit refundable? It depends on the fare you book, not on when you book it. Non-refundable deposit fares are standard across the major lines now and are usually the cheaper advertised price, so ask which one you are being quoted before you pay. Group space often keeps a refundable deposit until final payment, and I can frequently get a booking into a group even when the sailing is not one of mine.
Should I wait until January to book a 2028 cruise? Not if you have a specific week and cabin in mind. Promotions apply to whatever is unsold, and on popular sailings the good rooms go first. Book the room, and let me watch for a promotion you can be moved onto afterward where the line allows it.
Does wave season apply to river cruises and train trips? No. River ships carry under 200 people and train seasons have a fixed number of seats, so neither runs a three month national sale. Both reward booking early for the same reason: limited inventory.
Tell me what you are thinking about
If you have a trip in mind for 2027 or 2028, the useful thing is not a date on a sale calendar. It is knowing what the sailing costs today, which deposit terms you are being offered, what is still available in the category you actually want, and whether there is group space that beats the public fare and keeps your deposit refundable. That last one happens more often than people expect, and it is not always my own block. Tell me what you are thinking about and I will tell you what it looks like right now.
