You’ve likely seen the articles – how cruise ships fill cabins and how you can score a great last-minute deal on a cabin. Well, there are some myths and truths to understand when searching for cruise cabin deals.
When do cruises offer discounts?
Unsold staterooms may become available at a discount about 90 days before departure.
However, getting a great stateroom deal isn’t always easy. Deep discounts create a problem for cruise lines: Because they need to maintain their luxury image, they hesitate to undervalue their services. Once a line offers too many discounts, they’re seen as a bargain company and then travelers tend not to book at regular rates. Cruise lines are also reluctant to anger their passengers who paid full fare nor do they want to anger their travel agent partners.
When they do discount, the process is simpler than you might think. They typically offer discounts first on the lower priced cabins which makes sense because it’s cheaper to offer a $200 discount on a $700 inside cabin than to offer $500 discount on $2,000 balcony cabin. The higher category cabins tend to fill up anyway, so less need for reductions.
The unsold cabins are usually:
Offered at sale prices to large travel companies
Offered to those already booked on the cruise
Advertised on social media or email
Finding available cabins
Researching available staterooms before you book can be helpful in understanding how full the cruise is and whether you have a negotiating advantage. Here are ways to search available cabins.
- Travelocity.com and Expedia.com will show what cabins are available. If you select a cruise and start a booking, you can see cabin availability in each category. However, some selections only show up to 15 vacant cabins per category and sometimes more…so you can’t be certain if it’s a true picture of availability.
- Depending on the cruise line site, you can start the steps for booking a cruise and then see what cabins are still available. Though not all cruise lines offer this feature.
- seascanner.com is a British site with rates in UK pounds, but to find out cabin availability, just select your cruise using “cruise finder” at the top of the page, then click on “availability and booking” and it will give you a list of the available categories and within those categories, the empty staterooms. This site appears to be the most accurate way to see availability. Another cruise site with a similar feature is www.cruise.com.
How to find cruise deals?
- Vacations To Go is one of those mega travel agent discounters that cruise ships offer their lower priced cabins to. Vacations To Go markets the cabins for the cruise line. To see the deals, you need to sign up for the VTG newsletter.
- Scoring an Upgrade
I’ve never tried this tactic but learned from an avid cruiser that it CAN work. If you’d like an upgrade to a balcony room, then book an Oceanview Guaranteed room, but don’t book a specific cabin number. Often the oceanview rooms will sell out and then they’ll bump you up to a balcony room. But be prepared that the upgrade could come with risks. You may end up in a sub-standard room – one that’s underneath the dining room or one with an obstructed view. - Join the Cruise Line mail lists or accounts
Because the cruise line may advertise discounts to their social media contacts, it’s wise to follow the cruise line on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and also sign up for their e-newsletter. If they advertise a discount, you have a better chance of learning about it. - Repositioning cruises
Repositioning cruises offer great deals. Because they have to travel the route anyway, they like to fill the ship to make revenue. One year, we scored on a great reposition cruise that cost less than $200/day for both of us. A Celebrity ship was repositioning from Vancouver (Alaska cruise season was ending) to Los Angeles (the start of Mexico, Panama cruise season). It was 10 days and an awesome trip with interesting ports of call at a great value. Transatlantic cruises also offer repositioning deals. That’s on my wish list! - Talk to a travel agent you trust. They still know the travel world best and can advise on current specials you may not be able to dig up.
- A final pointer
It’s smart to check the higher end, all inclusive cruise lines. For instance, Regent Seven Seas or Crystal. These luxury lines include airfare, onboard drinks, excursions and gratuities. When you compare their price to a lower cruise line’s price where you need to add in all additional charges, sometimes the all-inclusive cruise works out to be less expensive. Just do the math to figure out price difference.
The future of cruise deals
In the sales world, the rules of supply and demand still influence prices. Cruise lines continue to build and refurbish more and more cruise ships every year. Right now, the Boomer generation is booking cruises in record numbers. As that generation ages, the number of cruisers is bound to ebb off. At that point, supply should exceed demand and deals should be easier to find.
Bottom Line: Keep the faith and keep bargain hunting because the more you search, the better deals you’ll find.
*Note: None of the companies or products listed here have contacted us, paid or requested we mention them. All references are entirely the result of Opptee travel searches.*
See also Cruise Hacks: Wine and Liquor
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