How To Go On A Cruise For Cheap
February 2, 2010 at 7:50 am by Max Lance - (1) Comment
3- and 5- day cruises can be your best bet
Anywhere between the dead of winter and the first signs of summer – sans Spring Break of course – is a great time of year to try and snag a travel deal, and that theory continues with cruises. If you want to find a bare bones offer, you’re going to have to sacrifice your flexibility and fantasies of the most perfect and accommodating cruise. However, if you want to kick back on the sun deck, stuff yourself to a point that would inspire a Morgan Spurlock documentary and see some new (and warm) parts of the world, you can make that happen on the cheap.
Be Flexible With Your Travel Plans
Like any vacation planning, if you aim for peak season (or Spring Break in this case), you’re going to run into prices at least twice the cost of what you can get in the off-peak. There are two theories to booking a cruise for little money: booking super early, or booking last minute.
Booking Early
Cruise ships like to lock in their cabins well in advance, so if you are looking for something in, say, six months from now, you can find offers that will quickly disappear. Search travel sites, create alerts on Kayak, Orbitz, Travelzoo, Bing Travel and Priceline that will notify you of deals or e-mail you search results as often as you like. Also check the official sites of the cruise lines themselves for special offers. Some of the most popular include: Carnival, Celebrity, Windstar, Disney, Crystal, Norwegian, Princess, Regent Seven Seas and Star Clipper.
So. Much. Food.
So. Much. Food.
Book Last Minute
If you have the luxury to pick up your bags at the last minute, you can bid on your cruise on Cruise Auctions or Priceline. Same deal with the travel sites listed above, which often post last-minute get-aways.
Go With More Friends
A four-person cabin is usually cheaper than a two-person cabin, so get a few buddies or another couple and reduce your cost per person.
Go For a Cramped Room
It won’t be glamorous, but it’ll just be a place for you to sleep. You can spend the rest of your time out on the deck, dancing, eating and gambling. Prices are drastically reduced if you are willing to stay in an inside (aka windowless) room on a lower deck. The lower, the tighter, the windowless the room, the cheaper your bill.
Don’t Spend Money On The Boat
Cruises offer these deals because they can charge like crazy once you are on the ship. Alcohol comes at a premium price, as do goods from the gift shop and Internet access. Gambling especially is a way to see the price skyrocket. If you can use some self discipline and stick to the freebies, you can enjoy your trip at no extra cost.
Look For 3- and 5-Day Cruises
Taking everything above into account, plenty of cruise options exist for less than $100 per night, which is nothing if you look for a trip that you could pull off in a long weekend. If the ship sails from your city, you don’t even need to factor in travel costs. You can take an extra day off from work and see an amazing island in the Caribbean or hop down to Mexico for a stunning and romantic long weekend.
Work For the Cruise
Have a skill that might come in handy? Can you cook or give a great massage or teach golf or swimming? Go to the website of the cruises listed above and search around for a link that says, “Jobs.” Almost every site has detailed info for how to work on the ship, but avoid scams that promise to offer job listings for a fee.
The idea that booking last minute can save you money is completely fallacious. No travel operator will offer last minute deep discounts, because, as soon as people catch on that booking late is advantageous, the company will get few proper bookings, and will rapidly go bust. Just look around for cheap cruises leaving in the next couple of weeks or so. There aren’t any!