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Keep in mind that these value-packed cruises, which hover around two weeks, feature far more sea days than typical itineraries to account for the travel time between the embarkation and disembarkation ports. Ashton Palmer is also a T+L A-list travel advisor who specializes in expedition sailings. For example, we found a cruise offering a $45 Costco Cash Card for booking the cheapest stateroom for just $409.
Mary Jean Tully, Cruise Professionals by Tully Luxury Travel
Some cruise travel agents even throw in booking perks, such as a complimentary bottle of Champagne, awaiting your arrival in your cabin. Cruise.com is a cluttered website and can be overwhelming when you’re searching for a cruise (especially if you’re a first-time cruiser and not quite sure how everything works). It offers lots of deals and discounts, but many of those are actually offered through the cruise line, so it can be hard to tell which bonuses are actually coming from Cruise.com. For example, a deal was offered for up to $2,000 cashback, $1,500 to spend onboard, or a Visa gift card. However, after reading the fine print you’ll notice that in order to get the full bonus you’d have to spend $20,000+ on a cruise.
Award vs. cash calculator
Each of these cruise line websites will allow you to be as narrow or as broad with your search as you wish. You can search all cruises, or search for trips on a specific ship, leaving a specific date, and from a specific port. 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.
Land Vacations
See our Advertising Policy for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. When you think of Costco, you probably think of bulk food and toilet paper. But the next time you’re booking a cruise, it’ll be worthwhile to pull up Costco Travel, which is, unexpectedly, one of the best cruise websites. It’s no secret that cruising has become increasingly popular in recent years.
What’s the Best Length of Time for a Cruise?
When prices are the same, we recommend cruise bookers compare the perks being offered, then book on the site with the most appealing bonuses, like onboard credits, airline miles, hotel points or cash back. Marriott Bonvoy also offers a 110% best price guarantee — if you find the exact same cruise priced lower within 48 hours of booking, you’ll be refunded 110% of the price difference. United Cruises offers a 110% best price guarantee — if you find the exact same cruise priced lower within 48 hours of booking, you’ll be refunded 110% of the price difference. SkyMiles Cruises also offers a 110% best price guarantee — if you find the exact same cruise priced lower within 48 hours of booking, you’ll be refunded 110% of the price difference. Plus, Priceline offers a 110% best price guarantee — if you find a lower, publicly available price for the exact same cruise within 48 hours of booking, you’ll be refunded 110% of the price difference. Its front page is clunky and sort of in your face, but CruiseDirect is still one of the best cruise sites for a variety of reasons.
Ashton Palmer, Expedition Trips
With all this in mind, we tapped Clabbers, along with a few other T+L A-list travel advisors, to share their expert insight on how to find the best cruise deals. For LGBTQ+ travelers, including travelers of color and those who are traveling solo, Mike Henderson is a great travel advisor to help you get started on your path to exploring the world of cruising with other like-minded travelers. Henderson crafts trips around social events in destinations all over the world, such as Pride festivals, New Year’s Eve, and Oktoberfest, in hopes of creating a safe, inclusive, and interactive environment for travelers. CEO of luxury travel agency Avenue Two Travel in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and member of the AFAR Travel Advisor Council, Joshua Bush is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to luxury travel both on land and at sea. And as an added bonus, Bush is an avid adventure traveler and can also be of service in helping you add an adventure element to your trip. In addition, while aggregator websites will almost always have the same prices you’ll find everywhere else, they often offer perks you won’t find on the cruise lines websites.
Comparing cruise prices across websites
When booking a cruise with Marriott Bonvoy points, you’ll only get 0.4 cents per point in value. Since Marriott Bonvoy points are generally worth about 0.7 cents each, you’ll be missing out on some value, so you might want to look into other ways to redeem your Marriott Bonvoy for hotels or flights. Cruise Critic is a cruise-focused website that features reviews, tips, and advice for a huge community of cruisers. The Cruise Critic forums provide a place to ask questions, give advice, and get help booking your next cruise. Keep Cruisewatch in strong consideration—more than a typical cruise booking website, Cruisewatch bills itself as a “digital cruise advisor” that couples data power with personalization. The Canadian government has made the decision to extend the interim order that prohibits cruise ships from sailing in its waters and calling on Canadian ports through February 2022.
Consider repositioning cruises.
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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. For instance, one recent search promoted free gratuities on trips booked through the site, but we couldn’t find any mention of this once we actually started the booking process. Digging further, the incentive applied only to certain cruises, despite being heavily promoted. In addition, these sites feature their phone number prominently for those who wish to talk to a person about their reservation. Their staff are also focused on cruises, giving you someone who knows what they are talking about compared to someone with more general travel knowledge.
Just like searching for a hotel room, you can search these websites for a cruise across all of your options. They also give you the ability to narrow searches to specific dates of cruising, length of trip, destination, port of departure and more. Delta Air Lines is another airline that allows members to earn airline miles when booking cruises through its portal. Booking through SkyMilesCruises.com helps you earn Delta SkyMiles on your purchase. From our findings, here are the top cruise booking sites for your next vacation, plus the pros and cons they offer travelers. While you can find some great deals on last-minute cruises, it’s not a guarantee.
The site’s vibe is beach-oriented and a bit cheeky, with a front page that can overwhelm—but click on the “Cruises” tab, and a cleaner interface appears. There you can search by cruise line, ship, destination, departure date, and departure port. Like several of the other best cruise websites, Avoya offers a low-price guarantee; if you book a cruise with Avoya and then find a lower rate on another website within 24 hours of booking, Avoya will refund the difference. According to Clabbers, select lines, including Cunard and Princess, offer “extra benefits for certain types of passengers,” including added perks and, in some cases, discounted or free fares. Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines offer special military perks and discounts.
If you have any preference about your cabin type or location, you’ll want to book as early as possible to make sure you get exactly what you want. If you’re traveling with a group and want to book cabins that are next door to each other, you’ll also want to book ahead of time. However, if you’re super flexible and don’t care what type of cabin you’re in, where it’s located, or even what cruise you’re on, you can often find some good deals at the last minute. Priceline often offers deals above and beyond what’s being offered through the cruise line.
American Airlines AAdvantage members can earn airline miles when booking cruises at BookAACruises.com. All members earn one mile for every dollar they spend on cruise reservations, up to 10,000 miles. Some cruise specials offer up to 100,000 miles based on your selected cruise. CruiseDirect is the best cruise website when all you want are cruise prices. It doesn't offer hotels, flights, rental cars or other reservations you may want for your next vacation.
CruiseDirect is a leading online cruise travel company dedicated to providing customers with better deals than any other cruise website and access to great deals on cruise vacations. Offering special rates and savings on cruise bookings with some of the most popular cruise lines in the world, we are so confident in our cruise packages that each and every deal is backed by a price guarantee. There likely isn’t a name more synonymous with cruise travel than Judy Perl and her eponymous travel company, Judy Perl Travel. She has spent more than 22 years crafting cruise itineraries for travelers, specializing in niche, luxury experiences.
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In fact, cruise lines consistently have occupancy rates above 100% — meaning that more than two passengers are in some cabins. Unfortunately, most cruise lines do not offer free cancellations or changes to take advantage of price drops after you book. Passengers can always negotiate with a booking site or cruise line, but they aren't obligated to refund the difference. Instead, they may offer you onboard credit, complimentary excursions or credit toward another cruise booking. If you have an American Airlines credit card, you'll earn 2x miles, up to 20,000 miles. Additionally, trips booked through this site are eligible for promotions offered by the cruise lines.
In other words, that deal is like getting 11% off the price of your cruise. For instance, a cruise might be priced the same as another website, but will have an offer of free onboard credit as an incentive to book through them. That’s because some sites can offer perks like onboard credit or even a direct phone number to call to talk to someone with any questions you might have before you cruise. 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. The go-to guy for a wide range of sailing trips, including river cruises.
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