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Then you click off to the site of your choice to make your purchase. Prices generally match what’s advertised on Cruise Critic. Expedia’s cruise deals tend to come paired with other enticing offers, including steep discounts on pre-departure hotels when you book both your cruise and hotel through Expedia.
Rules to Getting the Best Deal on a Cruise
Avoya’s team of staffers and wide network of independent agencies make for a cruise booking website that’s a bit different from the rest. Its front page shows the “Best Travel Deals,” which might include half-off cruise fares, onboard credit, prepaid gratuities, and free or reduced airfare. On Expedia, it’s common to find bookable cruises for 70 percent off face value, with the ability to sort by price so the best cruise deals come up at the top of the list, saving you the scrolling. A sample search for a mid-June cruise to Alaska, for example, quickly came up with a seven-night itinerary starting at $389 per person—that’s less than $56 per person, per night for a mostly inclusive weeklong vacation. Once you’re ready to book, Cruise Critic shows you a variety of offers from some of the best cruise booking sites, including bonuses such as onboard credit and prepaid gratuities.
Expedia
We think so as they can help you look at every cruise available to find one that fits. Smart cruise shoppers use them to look at all their options and see what sort of incentives they have for booking through their site. If you’re a deal-hunter, there isn’t some magic website that has cruise fares for dramatically cheaper than everyone else (that we’ve ever found). Think of all the options you have to consider — the length of your trip, the cruise line, the ship, the date, ports of call, and more. And that’s before you even decide on which website to use to book your cruise.
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All offers are based on select sailings and categories and are subject to availability at time of booking. In that case, you’ll want to contact the website that you booked through — not the cruise line (unless you booked through the cruise line’s website). For example, if you book through CostcoTravel.com, then contact them first for any price drops you see. For example, we found a cruise offering a $45 Costco Cash Card for booking the cheapest stateroom for just $409. In other words, that deal is like getting 11% off the price of your cruise. So if you want to sail from Miami, you’ll see all the options from the port for every cruise line.
To help you out, we detailed the pros and cons of the best websites to book your cruise below. Before we get too far, however, there’s something you should know about price shopping for cruises online. Thanks to this comprehensive price history, Cruisewatch can predict cruise prices and drops with an accuracy rate of around 80 percent.
Cruises offer a great value and are an excellent way to see your favorite destinations around the globe. Cruise.com offers cruises on all cruise lines, including Carnival Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises and a host of others. When booking a cruise on Cruise.com you can select your preferred cruise line, destination and many other search options to find the best cruise for your next vacation.
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Cruise line websites only have cruises from that line, so you are limiting your options of prices, ships, dates, and itineraries. In other words, if you’re looking for the absolute best deal or the most flexible schedule, you aren’t likely to find it searching only one cruise line. Note that a Costco membership (starting at $60 per year) is required to book with Costco Travel, and that Costco doesn’t accept American Express. Like other cruise-buying websites, Costco offers rates that are in line with what you’ll find anywhere else.
Answered: What’s the Cheapest Time to Take a Cruise?
Learn all about cruising from the comfort of your own home with our live complimentary Virtual Cruise Lectures. By waiting until the last minute you aren’t likely to find great deals, but it will mean that you have fewer cabin choices. In other words, these sites are more akin to having your own travel agent to help you with the booking process compared to only a website.
Using the site’s cruise price prediction alerts, travelers can save up to 71 percent just by booking at the right time. Using the seven-night Alaska example, Priceline brought up an itinerary aboard Royal Caribbean International’s Radiance of the Seas that starts at just $374 for the full week—roughly $53 per night. Hard-to-believe cruise deals like this show up on Priceline with regularity, which is part of what solidifies it as one of the best cruise websites. The Carnival Corporation is the largest cruise company in the world and operates several different brands. The cruise line ‘Carnival Cruise Lines’ has the largest fleet in the group with 24 vessels.
The initial interface comes off a bit clunkier than, say, Expedia’s or Kayak’s, but the tradeoff is that you can quickly search by cruise line, both standard and luxury, as well as by cruise length and departure port. If the site offers a good incentive for booking through them, then know that you’ve found a good deal. If the incentive isn’t that strong or you don’t want to go through a third-party to your reservation, then booking directly through the cruise line is your best bet. These websites are similar to the large aggregator websites in that they can help you search through every cruise out there to find the best deal.
And savor a burst of flavors throughout culture-rich ports in the Mediterranean, the British Isles, Scandinavia and beyond on an unforgettable cruise through Europe. No matter where in the world you choose to wander, cruises can take you deep into top-rated cruise ports and off-the-beaten-path gems, so you can experience each one like a local. Get on island time and unwind on some of the best beaches in the world, venture deep into the rainforests, and snorkel the most vibrant reefs on a Caribbean or Bahamas cruise getaway with the whole family.
A subsidiary of Tripadvisor, Cruise Critic has similar search results to that site, but it offers a bit more comprehensive information for seasoned cruisers who want more details before they book. Cruise Critic has tons of filters and sort options to help you find what you want, including everything from cruise line to cruise style (family cruises, luxury cruises, cruises for the disabled). Each itinerary clearly lists what is and isn’t included in the fare; Wi-Fi, alcoholic drinks, gratuities, and port taxes and fees are among the common exclusions. Expedia is an obvious first mention in a list of the best cruise booking sites, in part because it’s an absolute juggernaut (Expedia also owns Travelocity and Orbitz). Its cruise-booking interface is simple and straightforward, only requiring you to enter your preferred sailing destination and date range, as well as how many passengers you’ll be bringing along.
