Black Friday deals & Wave Season Deals
Royal Caribbean runs promotions constantly. Short weekend sales. Beat the Clock events. Kids Sail Free windows. Most of them are worth a glance and not much more — limited inventory, narrow timing windows, and modest discounts on a specific slice of sailings that may or may not include yours.
Two events are different. Wave Season in January through March and the Black Friday and Cyber Week sale in November through early December are where the real discounts happen — broader inventory, deeper fares, and the promotional combinations that actually change the math on a booking. If you're planning to book and one of these windows is within reach, it's worth waiting for it.
The short version
Wave Season (January–March) is the cruise industry's annual sale window — typically the strongest fares and promotions of the year.
Black Friday/Cyber Week (early November–early December) is the highest-value event for Cruise Planner discounts, and matters even if you're already booked.
2026 Wave Season: up to $1,000 off fares, free 3rd/4th guests on select sailings, savings on onboard extras.
2025 Black Friday (November 7–December 8): up to $1,000 off, 50% off Cruise Planner items, new All-In Package.
Booking during either sale does not affect your Best Price Guarantee rights — the sale price is your floor, not your ceiling.
Already-booked guests: the Cruise Planner discount during Black Friday is immediately actionable.
Wave Season: The Annual Reset
The cruise industry calls January through March "Wave Season" because it's when the major lines make their biggest collective push to fill sailings for the coming year. The timing makes sense: people make vacation decisions after the holidays, when they have time to think about it and the next trip feels far enough away to be worth planning properly.
Royal Caribbean's Wave Season offers vary year to year, but consistently include some combination of fare reductions, free or discounted fares for third and fourth guests, onboard credit, and reduced or waived deposits. The most recent Wave Season offered up to $1,000 off cruise fares, free sailing for third and fourth guests on select sailings, and savings on onboard extras, running through March across a wide range of upcoming sailings.
Wave Season deals generally apply to sailings departing across the next 12 to 18 months. The constraint — and it's a real one on Royal Caribbean — is that inventory on the newest and most popular ships moves fast once a strong promotion launches. Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas cabin categories can sell out within days. If a specific ship matters more to you than the fare discount, the opening week of Wave Season is when you need to be ready.
Black Friday: The One That Matters Even If You're Already Booked
Royal Caribbean's Black Friday sale has grown into a month-long event starting in early November. The previous sales ran from about November 7 through December 8 across three phases: Early Access (November 7–14), Black Friday proper (November 15–30), and a Cyber Monday extension running into December.
The sale last year included up to $1,000 off cruise fares, free third and fourth guest fares on select sailings, up to 50% off Cruise Planner items, and the new All-In Package — bundling the three most popular pre-purchased extras as a single option, introduced for the first time.
Under Royal Caribbean's Beat the Clock format, the deepest discounts were available in the earliest phase. If you're planning to book during Black Friday, the opening days matter.
If You're Already Booked: Don't Skip This Part
The Black Friday cabin fare discount is for new bookings. The Cruise Planner discount applies to everyone.
The Cruise Planner discounts by up to 50% during Black Friday. Because Royal Caribbean allows all Cruise Planner purchases to be cancelled and rebooked at any time without penalty, any item you've already bought can simply be repurchased at the sale price.
When the sale goes live: log into your booking, navigate to the Cruise Planner, compare your existing purchases against the sale prices, and rebook anything cheaper. Refund appears within a few business days. No phone call needed in most cases.
One practical note: during high-traffic sale periods, the Cruise Planner sometimes displays the sale price but reverts to the original price at checkout. Clearing your browser cache, trying a different browser, or switching to the Royal Caribbean app usually resolves it.
Know the Royal Caribbean fare pricing rules if you've already booked, so you can get a better price during these events!
The Part Most Guides Leave Out
Booking during Wave Season or Black Friday doesn't lock in your price permanently.
The sale price is your floor. If the fare drops further before your final payment date, you can still reprice.
Your Best Price Guarantee rights are fully intact after a sale booking. If the fare on your sailing drops below what you paid — even after a Wave Season or Black Friday booking — you should request a reprice and capture the additional savings. You're getting a strong starting price and keeping all the downside protection.
This makes the combination of a sale-period booking with active fare monitoring more powerful than either approach alone. Book during a sale, add your sailing to Cruise Alert, and capture any further drops before your final payment deadline.
→ Monitor your sailing free at cruisealert.com
The Other Sales — When to Pay Attention
Weekend WOW Sales — Thursday through Monday, discounts on select sailings. Worth checking if your sailing is included, but coverage varies significantly week to week.
Kids Sail Free — children in the third and fourth guest positions sail at no cabin fare (taxes and fees still apply). Significant value for families.
30% off every guest — applied broadly during larger events. Often appears as part of Wave Season and Black Friday.
Beat the Clock — deepest discount available at the very start of the sale window. Set an alert for the launch date.
When to Start Watching for Each Sale
Royal Caribbean doesn't publish a fixed sales calendar, but the pattern has held consistently enough to plan around. For Wave Season: start monitoring from late December. For Black Friday: late October is when early access announcements typically appear.
Crown and Anchor Society members and newsletter subscribers typically receive advance notice of sales and occasionally member-exclusive pricing before public availability. If you're targeting a specific sailing around either sale period, signing up for Royal Caribbean's emails beforehand costs nothing.
Don't forget that even outside of these seasonal events, Saturdays tend to have better fare pricing patterns than the rest of the week.
→ Saturday Is the Best Day to Check Your Royal Caribbean Fare
→ Royal Caribbean Price Drops: Everything That Actually Matters
Common Questions
When exactly does Wave Season start?
Typically early January. For the best-value sailings on newer ships, monitoring from the last week of December puts you in position to book on day one.
Does Black Friday start before Thanksgiving?
In recent years, yes — the sales launched around November 7. The early access phase often carries the deepest discounts. Watching from late October is worth doing.
I booked during Wave Season. Can I still get a price drop later?
Yes. Booking during a sale doesn't waive your Best Price Guarantee rights. The Wave Season fare is the floor, not the final word.
My Cruise Planner drink package got more expensive since I bought it. Can I do anything?
Nothing during regular pricing. But during Black Friday and Wave Season, your existing purchase can be cancelled and rebooked at the lower price with no penalty.
Is the All-In Package for Black Friday coming back?
Not confirmed. Royal Caribbean doesn't pre-announce sale formats. Watch the November launch — the pattern of expanding bundled options over recent years suggests something similar is likely, but the specific format may differ.
What's actually worth buying in the Cruise Planner versus waiting for a sale?
Beverage packages and Wi-Fi plans fluctuate most and discount most significantly during sales. The practical approach: buy what you want now at a price you're comfortable with, then check again during Black Friday and Wave Season. The no-penalty repurchase policy makes buying early essentially risk-free.