I've never booked a cruise before, and am thinking of booking one for a vacation.

I'd like to depart from California somewhere, either to Mexico or elsewhere.

Where are the best places to look at Cruise deals? I have AAA membership but don't know if they're more expensive to book or not.

So what do you all recommend for doing research on cruise deals and booking cruises?

I am still learning but if you can do a Kayak search to see what is available and then request quotes on your particular sailing from CruiseCompete.com. Also CruiseCritic.com is a great resource for reviews, networking, etc. Bon voyage.

Cruise Critic is a good source, but as a first time I would highly recommend also consulting a good travel agent. If you don't have one, ask a friend for a recommendation, particularly an agent that sells a fair amount of cruises. The different lines and different ship provide a pretty wide variation on experiences and if you are on the wrong ship for your tastes, you might not enjoy yourself.

cruise.com

One of the best search engines is found at www.vacationstogo.com You can narrow your possibilities as to departure port, cruise length, number of days etc. Register there and also at www.crucon.com to get emails with their special offers very regularly. I also use cruise.com quite often.

CruiseCompete.com is a good resource. It gives you a base price to use to compare other offers.

CruiseCompete.com shows rating information for its bidders. BUT do your own check at bbb.org.

I prefer using an agent I know but if the price savings are real and the bidder rated B- or better, I'd consider Cruisecompete.com's bidder. If less than A- I'd carefully look at how complaints have been handled.

With the internet, the first rule is: you look everywhere! I find that once I see a cruise I want, the price is the same on each website whether it's expedia, travelocity, cruise.com, priceline, or the cruise company's home page. I do find, though, that different sites offer different bonuses for booking through them. The cruise company offers nothing. Some sites offer free gratuities (worth 10-12 or 15 bucks a day per person, so not trivial), some offer a free hotel night, some offer credits to your onboard account. So once you pick your cruise, look around. If all else fails, booking through your favorte airline will get you miles. Booking through the cruise ocmpany gets you nothing, at least that I know of. Maybe if you book early enough you can get price adjustments of you book through the cruise, or a travel agent, and maybe not if through the online services. I don't know about that.

For browsing, if it's the mainline companies you are interested in, I actually like priceline. The serch engine is fine, but the nice thing is you can pick the cheapest cabin type in the category you want, and it lists the cost to upgrade to each higher category. It brings up the ships map and nicely highlights which cabins in that category are available. Then you click "for +$20 you can go up a category" and it shows the map of those categories -- you can click through all the way to suites. Other sites make you backtrack and re-enter each category, and many dont highlight the available cabins -- they give you a map of the ship and the room numbers that are available, and you have to squint to find where each one is. Ugh.

How about a cruise for one? I'm single and prefer to travel alone, but all cruises seem to be set up for 2 people/room. Anyone know of one where I can just go on my own?

Cruise lines expect to get 25% of their revenue from "extras" like alcohol, shore excursions, etc, so they dont like singles. They want two people (or more) per cabin to buy booze, trips, bingo tickets... So most charge per cabin -- the fare you see is just half the per cabin fare, and there's a 100% single surcharge. There are some exceptions, and they sometimes run specials. My mother cruised Holland America alone - the single surcharge was something like 50%. Some of the higher end lines and boutique lines also have lower suplements and some have cabins specifically for singles. Linblad comes to mind -- Nat'l geographic's line -- I know on the ship that does the Galapagos there is a single cabin or two.

Also, if you're .. .outgoing... most of the lines will hook you up with a roommate. Some I think even say that if you agree to a roomie, and they dont find one, THEN you dont have to pay the single supplement.

Many of the lines are becoming more accommodating to solos. NCL's Epic will have studio cabins with no single supplement, though they are quite small at 100 sq. ft. Other lines such as Princess and Holland America often price their insides and oceanviews for early bookings at only 150% supplement. Closer in, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity frequently offer some sailings with reduced supplement (especially for seniors or those qualifying for military rates), and their weekly Happy Hour specials are often with reduced supplement as well. Carnival, too, offers their Category 1A cabin at 150% supplement, while MSC and Costa have some reduced supplement categories.

River cruises and luxury lines are the most generous when it comes to reduced supplements, though often only if you book early as they limit the number of solo occupancy cabins on each sailing.

There are agents who specialize in this type of cruiser. You do have to be flexible in what you're seeking, and realize that sometimes there's no way around the supplement if you want x at y time, but a specialist can help you navigate the waters (pardon the pun).

I was going to post the same thing about Norwegian and the Epic.

I found a blog that gives you a picture and an overhead view of the single rooms. For $799 with no supplement on a brand new ship, that's a pretty good deal. When you book this room, you also get access to a private, key-card access area that includes an exclusive Studio lounge that is only accessible to cruisers who book the Studio rooms. I believe they are going to have breakfast and evening cocktails available in there.

Great, so for the MANY who are single who want to do a cruise on his/her own, the boat will 'match' the single with a stranger so that the single doesn't have to be charged 2X the amount for the room? Why would anyone travelling alone give up her hard-earned money to a business that treats her like that?

The cruise lines set themselves up for this, because while they charge on a per cabin fare, they are *marketed* as a per person rate. Like a hotel room, which for US travelers are almost universally sold on a per room basis, cruise revenue is also in actually per cabin. But because they're marketed per person, it makes solos feel horribly discriminated against.

Yes, solos don't eat as much as a couple, but food costs are incredibly low for the cruise lines and per person a small portion of the overall fare. Fixed costs and crew (even at their wages) are the majority.

I've gone around and around with cruise lines, as I know most of my solo clients spend more per diem on average than my couples do per person, as they tend to choose cruise line excursions over independent more frequently, spend more time in bars and casinos for example, and thus on a per person basis spend more. The cruise lines are slowly coming around, but it's a struggle. 4 years ago NCL wouldn't even allow agents to easily find reduced single supplements in their pricing grids - it took almost 2 years of work to get that changed. Now, on one ship, they have more solo occupancy cabins than any other line in the business.

Change is happening, but it's slow and a lot of long-held beliefs and pricing models have to change.

It's sometimes not even that good -- I've seen some that charge over 2x. But, as other posts have described as well, the cruise company really charges per room, not per person. Because it's an "all inclusive" they list the price as per person.

When you book a hotel, and it's $250 per night for you and your companion, you probably don't think of it as $125 per person. If you did, then you'd have the same reaction when your solo trip costs you $250 per person not the $125 per person you're accustomed to.

There ARE lines and cruises that offer a "discount" to the per cabin rate when only one person occupies it, but they are often the higher priced lines or on cruises that dont fill. The other exception is the Epic -- as posted above, where the room is (I think) quite small, or some lines that actually have cabins designated as singles, also usually quite small.

If the cruise industry wants to grow its business, they need do something to attract this potential market. A smart cruiseline will do this. Their business model that penalizes an entire customer base seems foolish.

The fact that it's a struggle as you say shows that the cruise industry is stupidly hanging on to a business model that loses them money. They are turning their noses down against a customer base that spends more money on their high-profit areas like booze and gambling?? Are they afraid to hire people who can show them how to improve their business model to open up their customer base to attract greater and more profitable business?

It is amazing that this change is slow. Singles can choose from a whole host of vacation options now. The longer the cruises avoid them, the harder it will be to attract them later on.

That antiquated business model is a money loser given that the areas of profit like booze and gambling, according to what I've read above, are greater with single passengers.

First, I'd NEVER spend that kind of money on a hotel room per night. So when we priceline a hotel in London and get a 3 star hotel for $75 per night, I am thrilled whether it is just for me or for my husband and me. I don't say....geez, since I'm alone, I really should only pay $37.50 each night!