Table Of Content
The higher the room category you’re booking, the more bonuses you’ll be able to get. Keep in mind that lots of the bonuses you may see advertised won’t kick in unless you book a balcony stateroom or a suite. To get a great deal, you’ll need to look for bonuses that a particular website is offering, such as onboard credit, free specialty dinners, cash-back, or bonus airline miles.
How to Get Cheap Cruises: An Insider Guide
In order to lure passengers through their doors, onboard spas may offer first-day discounts, and specialty restaurants might throw in a free bottle of wine. If this is your first time cruising, then you might be tempted to test the waters with a weekend trip. Not only are weekend trips exhausting, they’re also more expensive per day than trips that are five nights or longer. Gratuities and fees abound on cruises — and not all of them are optional. One Redditor suggests pre-paying these extra charges to make budgeting for your trip easier.
Tip 2 for Finding a Cheap Cruise: Price shop
With smart money management, we have used these for the above mentioned “free cruises” as well as dozens of free flights over the years. Whether you have general travel points, airline miles, or a cruise line’s credit card, earning points and then redeeming those for cheap cruises is easy once you earn enough points. Some travel agents have access to group rates, which will give you a cruise fare that is lower than advertised rates.
Bonuses for United Premier Members
If there's a problem with your reservation or you need to make a change, you don't have to worry about the booking site and the cruise line pointing fingers at each other. Executive Members earn 2% back on Costco Travel purchases and receive additional benefits on select packages. Plus, Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi cardholders earn 3% cash back rewards on Costco Travel purchases. You could go to Southeast Asia for a month on that kind of money. So, if it's not getting enough bookings from one place, it'll drop the price slightly -- say, in Florida -- to entice more Floridians to book.
When deciding whether to join a rewards program or apply for a credit card, make sure that you understand the benefits and potential fees for said programs. As the most discerning, up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel, Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse, offering both inspiration and vital intel. If something goes wrong, an agent can help rectify the situation faster than you may be able to if you go it alone.
Tips To Helps Enjoy a Cheap Cruise
The best place to book a cruise will vary depending on what you're looking for out of the experience. We've broken out cruise booking sites based on common booking goals. Most beaches you'll visit on a cruise, including the cruise lines' private islands, will rent you snorkel gear, umbrellas and beach floats, or sell you beach toys. Save money by purchasing and bringing your own snorkel gear, beach shade, inflatable beach toys and floats.
CruiseDirect is a website that specializes only in cruises. The site allows you to quickly search cruises by destination, cruise line, departure port, or last-minute deals. You’ll find lots of different types of cruises, from budget to luxury and from mega-ships to riverboats. As well as getting the best price on your cruise, there are other advantages to booking your cruise with a travel agent rather than directly with the cruise line. If you’re booking flights and hotels too, a travel agent can get you the best package price, sort everything out for you and take charge if anything goes wrong.
Many experts say that they are not ideal for first-time cruisers, however, as there may be many sea days. If nothing else, these knowledgeable advisers can save you from making costly mistakes on the wrong cruise purchases, and that is a value in and of itself. The corollary advice is that cruise lines will sometimes drop prices or offer value-added promotions on cruises that have too many available cabins left a few months before its scheduled departure. You can find cheap deals on last-minute sailings, especially if you're not picky about which cabin you get. Some of the best cruise deals aren’t only about getting the bottom dollar cruise fare. A number of cruise lines offer booking promotions that include your choice of perks, such as free specialty dining, tips, Wi-Fi and drink packages.
18 easy ways to save money on a Royal Caribbean cruise (2024) - Cruise Blog
18 easy ways to save money on a Royal Caribbean cruise ( .
Posted: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Even if you are booking well in advance, don’t trust that the cruise line will have the best deal. Yes, they advertise the lowest prices, but there is plenty of fine print. It’s easy and affordable to reach the boarding port, and shuttling between the clusters of islands offers a compact, convenient way to experience a multitude of cultures. “Think of a cruise as a tapas menu,” says Spencer Brown—it allows you to sample destinations to which you might later return for a longer visit. Even handier, when on a Caribbean cruise almost every island accepts payment in dollars, so there’s no need to juggle currencies. The waters also are largely calm, keeping seasickness to a minimum.
All that said, if you're willing to take a risk on the weather and aren't planning a land tour up to Denali, you can score a deal on a high-end Alaska sailing during these off-peak times. Some of the best bargains in the cruise world are the voyages that cruise ships make as they reposition from one part of the world to another. As a result, the fares you'll find for cruises this year are significantly higher — by 20% or more — than they were in 2019, the last normal year for cruising.
But if the high seas are calling, there are a few things you can do to keep your expenses low, according to frugal Redditors. Of course, booking last-minute airfare might wipe out any savings. Plus, you'll have a limited selection of cabin locations and dinner seatings. But if you're flexible and can drive to a cruise port -- or have plenty of frequent flier airline points to burn -- it's a great way to take a cruise without breaking the bank. In general, there are always plenty of Caribbean cruise deals, as well as some for the Mediterranean.
If you’re committed to Carnival and are able to plan pretty far in advance, I’d strongly suggest you book the “Early Saver” fare. All the details can be found here, but the lowdown is that this fare offers price protection up to 2 days before sailing as long as you book out a certain number of days in advance of your sailing. Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.
Enlist the help of a travel agent who can monitor pricing after you've booked, and who can request a re-fare to the lower rate. The second best deals are often those sailing on dates just outside the peak seasons of popular destinations. Repositioning cruise deals, whether transatlantic or something less dramatic like ships moving into and out of Alaska, are some of the lowest cost per night/per person deals available. As a traveler chasing luxury, you're all about the upgrade.
We combed through the most popular websites used to book cruises to look at their pros and cons and to do some head-to-head price comparisons. If you want a cabin for two people and aren’t fussy about where you go, when you go or on which ship, then you can definitely save money by booking your cruise 6 to 12 weeks before departure. Prices are likely to drop at this time because balance payments are due and some passengers drop out. MSC may offer some cheap Caribbean cruises but a lot of their cheapest cruises will be one-way Europe cruises, so you’d need flights. Same with Costa – it’s not just about how to get a cheap cruise but also how to get cheap flights too, sometimes. Of course, you do need to ensure you have these communications appropriately flagged on your social media platforms and email servers.
Even so, you should know that if you’re a big gambler there are some benefits to your play on the ship in the form of heavily discounted cruise fare. Older ships still have plenty to offer and can be an amazing time, but they just aren’t quite on the same level. And since everyone wants to enjoy the latest and greatest, the newer ships are priced accordingly. No, not every trip on an older ship will be less expensive compared to a cruise on a newer ship.
