Source for Discount Cruises
 

I would like to cruise the western Caribbean with my family (2 cabins) on Princess from Florida on 27 May the cheapest way possible. Any recommendations on where to purchase?

Thanks!

I use www.vacationstogo.com and they are showing the following rates for that sailing:

$699 inside
$799 outside
$1099 balcony
$1352 suite

If these are not to your liking, you might try www.cruisecompete.com

We've used cruise.com, but have negotiated pricing with them. If you're spending enough, everything in life is negotiable.

www.cruise411.com had the cheapest when I booked last year. Check out several companies. Dont' forget a local cruise agent. They can sometimes get really good deals with on-ship credits or spa credits etc.

I also used cruisecompete.com during Easter 2005. It appears they buy inventory and when all the air you could book through the cruise lines was used up the prices sure did drop. I got the back balcony that was huge and paid $750/night for 7 night cruise on farily new Carnival ship and booked 3 weeks prior. They also didn't charge any ticket delivery fees.

msv

I booked 'vacations to go'. Excellent price and excellent service.

I've used Rod's Custom Travel www.rodscustomtravel.com
Prices and service can't be beat.

We went on a Princess cruise over New Year's and after checking pretty much every internet booking site (they were all pretty close in price), we called Costco Travel and they easily beat the online prices.

best price
 

i have found that you can sometimes get good deals from the sites mentioned above, but becuase of restrictions on pricing by some of the cruiselines, Iwill also call my local travel agent and tell them the best deal I found and see if they can match or better it. In dong that, I have gotten a better deal from the ta about half the time. In fact just did one for norwegian in the last week.

cruise.com has always given me the best price. Once you get an agent you like, stick with them, they sometimes can find you great deals!

I always recommend checking out cruisecompete.com before booking a cruise, just to see what prices are out there. In every experience of mine, I have foudn the best deal by using cruisecompete.com.

If you are a member, we got a great deal with costco travel!

We used cruisecompete.com to book a seven day trip from Vancouver to Whittier, Alaska for Hunki's 45th high school reunion cruise in August 2005. We were able to get a suite for $1,300 each, when all of the rest of the classmates, who I believed booked through Princess, paid something like $2,400 each for a balcony room. :rolleyes: I guess my years on FT had taught me that there had to be a better way.

Now I am inclined to check prices on www.7blueseas.com and www.cheapcruises.com When I see a cruise I like (we typically just do short repo cruises) I call my local travel agent and she can always find me a comparable or better price.

This Friday we are doing a one-day cruise from Vancouver to Seattle on the Golden, in a balcony for $95 each.

Next Friday we are doing a three-day cruise from Los Angles to Vancouver on the Island, in a balcony for $218 each. ^ That one was such a hot deal that I am still sort of wondering if she didn't make a mistake.

These little Pacific Coast repos (May and September) would make a great FlyerTalk weekend, especially considering how cheap Alaska's one-way fares have become.

And since you get a full credit for the cruise, you earn elite status very quickly!

Join, book, cancel membership for full refund of membership fee.

Just wanted to and endorsement to www.vacationstogo.com

Excellent rates. You may also want to sign up for the cruise line own fare email service. As sailing dates approach they normally send out deep discount fares in order to sail at capacity.

I've had luck with BestPriceCruises.com, but you get the best deals if you join their "club." go to club.bestpricecruises.com and register for free to get access to their best prices. You have to book on the web to get them.

When you find a good price there, run it by Cruisecompete.com and/or a local travel agent to see if they'll meet or beat it. If not, book it.

I just booked an NCL cruise through BestPriceCruises when I saw a great price and jumped on it, but I didn't run it by other agents to see if they could beat it, and I'm regretting that now. It was a good enough deal that I don't know if they could have beaten it, but always give them the chance. If an agent is hungry enough for the sale, they'll cut their comission for it.

...

Or join, book, buy a 5 year supply of toilet paper/batteries/fill-in-the-blank, cancel membership...;)

Don't forget to wander through the store at least once, so you can also eat your weight in samples of soup, sausages, chicken nuggets and cookies, one at a time :-)

NWA website for cruises and miles
 

http://go.nwa.travelpn.com/ecruise/C...ffiliateId=NWA

i always book my cruises through the nwa site as a lot of specials also include bonus flight miles. so many options from florida for that week and depending on port of embarkation, rates as low as 329 for the week. check it out and have a good time. i have booked rccl to alaska from seattle the week of may 4 and did it through this site also.

Costco will definitely beat the best price you find (ok, maybe 90% chance)

I suspect a lot of these agencies charge similar prices, but there might be other things to look at besides price, as a tiebreaker.

I recently got some online quotes via Cruisecompete (www.cruisecompete.com). One thing I noticed is that for the trip cancellation insurance policy I looked at (don't recall offhand which agency's it was), pre-existing conditions were excluded, and the available waiver of the pre-existing conditions exclusion only applied to people below 70. :eek: Well, I am below 70, but my mother is above 70, so I felt this insurance policy would be rather useless in our case.

I looked into Costco Travel (I'm already a Costco member), and the travel insurance policy was much better vis-a-vis the waiver of the pre-existing conditions exclusion -- no age limits are mentioned. Their pricing (for the cruise, taxes/fees, shipboard credit, insurance) was competitive, so the insurance thing was the tiebreaker -- I booked through them.

Just food for thought.

I'm a Costco member; but I'd be getting the cruise for my parents, and they're not. Do you know if it has to be the member taking the cruise?

thanks in advance!

I can make an educated guess (they probably DO have to be members), but the best way to find out is simply to call Costco Travel: 1-877-849-2730.

Aaa
 

Does being an AAA member and booking through an AAA agent have any advantages? The prices on the AAA website seem to be about the same prices as on most of the other sites. Was just curious if there were any "value adds" to being an AAA member.

The few times I asked an AAA agent to give me quotes on land or cruise travels, they were never competitive with what I could find online

GREAT suggestions. Thank you everyone. I booked directly with the cruise line last year and probably got completely ripped off. We had a great time though.

Cheers,

hi everyone does anybody know anything about the relocation cruises i had an interesting conversation with someone about the fares for ships relocating in winter or summer
thanks

We are sailing on NCL Jade 2/29/08 to 3//13/08 on a transatlantic cruise. This cruise is moving the ship formerly known as the Pride of Hawaii to the Med. We booked this cruise in August of 07. The cost per person for a balcony room was $699 inclusive.

Fantastic cruise price. Can I ask what your airfare cost is (and where you are flying from/to)?

Thanks :)

I broke most of the rules for FT but I used miles for the airfare. We are flying ORD-MIA and the BCN-LHR-ORD on award tickets. The cost of the airfare was more that the cost of the cruise. The flight to Miami is not an expensive flight but the flight from Barcelona to Chicago was in the $800.00 range for a coach ticket. So, I booked tickets on AA using miles. Sometimes I think it is better to burn the miles than pay the money, this was one of them. That said, I have been monitoring the cost of the ticket home from Barcelona, if I find a good deal, I'll cancel the award tickets and rack up the miles.