Best deal on cruises?

[lukenick1]

Can anyone direct me to the right cruise site to get a good deal on a cruise? Thinking Royal Carribbean or Carnival is more our budget, Disney is way too much for us. Unless they offer a kids cruise free this August?

 

[Darcy03231]

www.cruisecompete.com

You have to put in the cruise you want to go on and then you get offers from travel agencies.

To look at cruises in one place to see what's available I go to www.vacationstogo.com

 

[Silverscreen]

not necessarily a search engine for good deals, but "The Dis" of the cruise ship industry.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/

Very grand amounts of info!!

 

[Sprockie]

I'll second vacations to go and cruise compete. Holland America is the cruise line of choice for our family (kids 6 and 11). 3rd and 4th passenger is free on quite a selection of sailings.

 

[mikehn]

and then there's good ole costco travel which ran some incredible deals on black friday

 

[pigletto]

I am in the same boat (har har har) . I have been price comparing on many websites but find all the choices overwhelming. I like cruise.com for comparison and they were recommended from cruise critic. I will also try vacationstogo and cruisecompete now that I see them mentioned.

Does anyone ever book with these places or do you just price them out? I get nervous booking over the internet with a place I've never used before.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Booking a cruise is one of the few times I would recommend using a travel agent. They can often get you a lot of free extras you won't find on your own.

 

[Jaime4004]

I've always had better luck booking right on the cruise website (royal caribbean and carnival). For me, the other sites, vacations to go seem to have extras, then when I would go through the process, the final price is higher...

 

[Silverscreen]

6 cruises under my belt, and I always book directly with the cruise line.(except for our wedding cruise, too much and too many people for me to try and coordinate) TA's are not allowed to discount prices anymore, but they can give you "extras" ie. on board credit, chocolates, bottle of wine. We always book very far in advance, and usually the price only goes up. Last cruise on the Carnival Dream we had a couple price drops right up until about a week prior to sailing and we were able to get $260 OBC

 

[Darcy03231]

We're frequent cruisers and I use cruisecompete to book my cruises. Usually it ends up that Cruises-n- More has the best deal and I book through them.

While they can't discount your cruise, you can get freebies. Last cruise I got a $100 on-board credit. Others things offered have been free shore excursions, free trip insurance, drink coupons, etc. I also took advantage of price drops and went from an interior cabin on the lowest deck to a balcony cabin on Deck 7 for a total additional cost of $75.