Cruising’s Biggest Secret

You can find plenty of advice on the web on how to get the best price for your cruise. And some of it is on my own blog.

But what I recently uncovered is cruising’s biggest secret. The key to saving bucks—big bucks— is to hold off final payment and keep a watchful eye on the pricing. Here’s my story: 

December 2013: Booked a nine-day trip on Celebrity’s Constellation for December 2014. Put down a deposit (reduced deposit during promotion) and delayed full payment.

September 2014: Brought up same trip in travelocity.com; found there were still a lot of empty cabins. Did as if we were booking a new cruise, selecting the same room type and category. A senior discount (55 and over) is suddenly available where there previously was none.

Celebrity—like other cruise lines—will match the new lower price if it’s not in the penalty period. We call our travel agent, who calls Celebrity.
 
Result? A savings of $500!
 
Now this won’t always work. The Constellation is an older ship, the itinerary is longer than usual (nine days) and the trip sits right smack in the middle of the Christmas season, coming back just shy of the holiday, which is not too desirable for many people.
 
Another caveat: the cruise lines may not allow you to use more than one promotion. So if you booked with promotion, you may have to choose between the new discount or the old one.
 
But here are my suggestions on how to get a really great deal:
 
Book early to get the initial best price and best cabin (middle of the deck always goes first). You can always get your deposit back if you cancel before the penalty phase.
 
Put off final payment until just before the penalty period begins (this varies by cruise line and can sometimes be different over a holiday, so check its website).
 
As you near the penalty period, check out the pricing. Go to a website like travelocity.com or the cruise line’s site. Simulate booking a new cruise, pick a room with the same category and deck location as your current booking and check out the pricing.

If the prices have gone down, call your travel agent to have her/him match the price.

Consider checking other room categories as well. The prices might go down in some categories and not others. And you might even be able to upgrade for the same price or even less than your original booking.

 
Important note: you must do all this before the penalty period begins. If you try it during the penalty period, your travel agent will have to cancel your trip and rebook it, which means you may lose the cabin you selected. You’ll also have to pay a penalty, but you may still come out ahead.
 
So, with a bit of luck and a little extra work on your part, you may see some steep savings. And in the process, dig up the deposit for your next trip!
 
Musing’s Top Tip: Herein lies one of the values of a travel agent: someone who knows how to make these cost savings happen for you. But you must be proactive; most travel agents won’t be watching the ups and downs of your cruise pricing once you’ve laid down the deposit.

 

How to Be a Tightwad and Still Have Fun

We’re not the cruise lines’ best customers. Well, yes, we’ve done a lot of cruising—14 so far, with number 15 coming up fast. But we spend little beyond the cost of the cruise.

Yet our tightwad-ness does not detract from the experience one little bit. In fact, that we are frugal on trips allows us to take more of them.

If you’re on a tight budget or just want to be able to afford more trips, here are a few tips on saving money when you cruise:

Start at the very beginning. Get the lowest price on the cruise that you can. There’s plenty of info out there on how to snag the best price. For example, book early—at least a year out—for the best price and choice of room. Or, get a last-minute deal. If you’re going with a cruise line you’ve sailed with before, you might be able to get a loyalty club discount.

Saving the night before. When we first started cruising, we spent the night before in the traffic-clogged, high-octane, always-expensive, stress-producing Ft. Lauderdale. We wised up and now stay outside of town, for a cheaper, more relaxing experience. This only works, of course, if you’re driving to the port.

The lowdown on stateroom savings. The cost of a stateroom varies all over the place. Not just inside room (the bottom price) vs. suite (the top price), but categories of staterooms, based on where they are on the ship and where they are on each deck. Getting a room on “guarantee” (the ship picks where you’re going to end up) can snag savings.

A trip within a trip can pay off—or not. While cruise line-sponsored excursions at the ports can be memorable, other times they’re not worth the cost. You can try reading the forums (such as on cruisecritic.com), but with the cruise lines offering so many, it’s hard to get any feedback on the specific excursion you’re interested in. Look carefully at the excursion itinerary and the timing to help make a decision.

No-cost beaching. Some ports have nearby beaches or pools you can use for free, so you can skip the beach excursions. Some examples: St. Maarten’s Philipsburg (tender to the public beach right in

The public beach in St. Maarten's Philipsburg

town), Aruba’s Oranjestad (public beach is about a 10-minute walk from the pier), Grand Turk (beach--as well as a big pool--are right at the pier) and Costa Maya (huge public pool right at the pier).

Walk, don’t cab. Balance off all that sitting and eating onboard with a walk into town. Not only do you get to see more of the town that way, but you’ll burn off some calories, which makes room for some more!

Booze for free. Most of the cruise lines now allow you to bring a few bottles of wine on board. And if you cruise a few times on one line, you’ll automatically be included in their loyalty club, which entitles you to special events, which often include free drinks.

Ask the veterans for their tips. Anyone who has cruised a few times has money-saving tips of their own. Like when you’re in St. Maarten, invest in the unlimited tender fee instead of the one-trip fee, so you can go back and forth to the ship as many times as you want. Or take advantage of the free wi-fi at the library in Dominica’s Roseau, which is just a short walk from the pier. Get your bottles of rum at the Kmart near the Havensight port in St. Thomas.

If you don’t think the excursions, specialty restaurants, bar bill and casino visits add up, consider this: on his first cruise, what a friend of mine spent on all of these nearly equaled the cost of the cruise itself!

Have some of your own tips for saving money on cruises? Please let us all know!