Table Of Content
To get a great price on a high-end cruise ship, you might want to reconsider your aversion to booking the cheapest rooms. The Alaska cruise season begins in late April or May and runs through September and occasionally October. These travel dates are often nonstarters for families who wait for the summer school break to take their vacations. Even travelers not bound by school schedules sometimes shy away from these cruises because of the imperfect weather conditions. Travel agents specializing in cruising also will be able to guide you through the many types of cabin categories on some cruise ships and steer you away from cabins to avoid. Plus, they'll be there for you when things go wrong on a cruise.
Hotels With Cruise Shuttles For Every Major Port in America
The biggest caveat though, is that not all guarantee cabin fares are eligible for those booking perks we told you to bundle, so ensure the value tradeoff is worth it before you commit. A cabin guarantee, which basically means you're assured to get a cabin in the category specified -- or better -- means you can't choose your exact stateroom. At many big lines, you'll find that the newest, most amenity-filled cruise ships sell at a premium price.
Best Cruise Tips, Tricks, Secrets, and Freebies
The best cruise deals aren’t as hard to find as you might think. If you’re an American Airlines AAdvantage member, you may want to book your cruise through your existing American Airlines loyalty membership. Doing so allows you to earn airline miles, while also taking advantage of savings. Next up, Avoya Travel is a unique option, as it combines online search features and travel agent know-how to give you what it calls a superior cruise-booking experience. You enter some info about what kind of cruise you want, and then a planner uses your information to show you the best cruises for you.
CardMatch
I wrote a whole blog post on guarantee cabins here if you want to learn more. Before retiring from my job as a college professor to become a full-time cruiser, I gained a bit of a reputation around campus as a scavenger. Occasionally I’d have to miss an event and my colleagues or students would leave a “to go” container outside my office door stuffed with cold pasta bake and sauce-soaked garlic bread.
CruisesOnly
Cruise deals are your key to scoring a perfect vacation at sea without breaking your budget. Whether you're looking for a last-minute deal, discounts on a luxury cruise or family-friendly cruise deal, or extra onboard credit, finding real deals on cruises can take a lot of work. Cruise lines and travel agents offer a huge variety of confusing extras -- some that are an amazing value and others that aren't. CruiseDirect is a leading online cruise travel company dedicated to providing customers with better deals than any other cruise website and access to great deals on cruise vacations. You won't find these prices on other cruise booking sites. Even if your cruise fare isn't dirt cheap, you can still get more value from your vacation dollars when you pay for that vacation at sea with the right card.
Travelocity
Many cruise booking websites, even some of those we’ve listed above, look a little sketch. Just make sure to always read the fine print before you book any sort of travel online. If you’re looking at a specific cruise across a swathe of websites, you’ll usually find that the base price is the same across a handful of sites.
Use Cruise Critic's Deal Score to Know When a Deal is Really a Deal
She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays. These are the times when cruise lines will be aiming for a large volume of sales with a lower profit margin. These are the travel agents I have used myself and recommend. When you’re cruising as a family, one of the most important things to pay attention to is the child prices. Be sure to look up your nearest port and see which ships sail from there to see if you can save on airfare.
Luckily, there are, in fact, ways to take a cheap cruise for as little as $30 per day. It just takes a bit of skill, a lot of discipline, and a bit of sneakiness. Know when prices aren't set in stone and negotiate a lower fee to save on your in-port purchases.
The best cruise booking perks – and which ones are actually free - The Points Guy
The best cruise booking perks – and which ones are actually free.
Posted: Fri, 05 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Use a Travel Agent
It does make sense that a cruise line might drop its prices to sell out cabins right before a cruise is set to launch. However, even having empty cabins on a cruise is a lot less common than you might think. So, if you thought you might wait around and take a last-minute cruise that’s half-off the week before sailing, you might just want to abandon that idea. But what if you’re not a member of any frequent flyer program? You can still earn points for an existing loyalty program if you’re a member of Marriott Bonvoy. Earn points based on how much money you spend for a cruise booking, via Marriott Cruises.
Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.
This is especially true if the site doesn't look professional or some of the information is outdated. This may be the best approach if you know which cruise line you want to book and which cities you want to visit. However, you may miss out on promotions offered by third-party sites. If you want to earn hotel points on your cruise, Marriott Cruise with Points is the best cruise website for you.
Several major cruise lines, like Norwegian and MSC Cruises, offer select guests the option to bid for an upgraded cabin. Bid less than the difference between your cabin cost and the price of the nicer room, and if your bid is approved, you'll get upgraded onboard digs at a discount. Newer ships with their one-of-a-kind attractions and up-to-date everything get all the attention — and can command the highest prices. Cruise lines maintain their older ships and often give them massive makeovers to add the latest restaurants and top-deck attractions, so you'll hardly notice you're on a 20-year-old ship. But your budget will notice the more affordable rates, leaving money in your pocket to spend on splurges like spa treatments and specialty dining.
Vacations To Go’s website may seem a little outdated, but it does have some nice features. It allows you to search for cruises with certain port stops. You can also search for cruises with particular themes, such as a singles cruise or cruises for emergency personnel. There’s also a 90-day ticker feature that shows you last-minute available cruises. When booking a cruise with Marriott Bonvoy points, you’ll only get 0.4 cents per point in value.
Prices are for 2 adults in an Infinite Central Park View Balcony room. Costco Travel is easy to use and offers all of the search and filter functions found on any other website. One of the nice things about Orbitz is that it offers a rewards program, but, unfortunately, cruises are not eligible for Orbitz Rewards.
The absolute best way to save money on cruising is to sail during the off-season. For Alaska, you’ll find the best prices early in the season (April and May) or late in the season (September and October). The cheapest room on the ship is an inside cabin, so choose one of those rooms if you want to spend less on your next sailing. You'll get access to the same pools, restaurants, shows and activities as the folks in the balcony cabins; all you're missing out on is a window and some more floor space. Some people actually prefer inside cabins for amazing sleep in the pitch dark and because they spend all their time out and about on the ship and are never in their room.
