Your own cabin

[Mtn.gal]

Anyone receiving newsletter or have booked with this site??

Thanks.

[axu9914]

I've been receiving the newsletter from YourOwnCabin.com since mid February and have since booked 2 cruises. The newsletter is definately worth the $19.95 subscription fee. Better than spending hours searching the web for single occupancy specials or hoping my local travel agent would come up with something.

 

Also, there are other postings on the newsletter in this forum if you do a search.

[Mtn.gal]

Thanks for your answer. It is good to hear a recommendation. Which cruises are you going on?

I did hear from another member on the Princess board and she is very happy with the newsletters too.

[Searanger]

I subscribed to it for almost a year...just booked my first time with them. Received my tickets really quickly...so service wise...no issues. Once you book with them they waive further fees for a year. The only thing I found is they have more trips that are 4 to 6 weeks out rather then 3 or 4 months out. So, if you like to plan ahead or have to book vacation time far ahead, it's difficult to use their services. I found that with the exception of HAL..who offer competitive single prices anyways...they offer prices with RCI, Celebrity etc...that you could never find on your own.

 

Michael

[bobcalhoun]

It is an excellent subscription.

The prices are great if you have time flexibilty. There are a few schedueled way out

there Dec (non xmas) but mostly 4-6 weeks.

[CruisinMK]

i booked one panama canal cruise and was completely thrilled with the rate and ship i got. Some of the rates offered are widely available, some definitely seem exclusive (or at least not offered on the online pricing engines I checked). Booking was straightforward, no hitches. I think some of the lines regularly slip her a few cabins to sell discretely without broad publication of the fare.

 

[JFontaine]

I've booked six cruises with them - mostly with solo cabins - but I like them so much I give them my business when I travel with someone. Never had a problem.

[Stuart Suss]

My experience with this agency has been somewhat different.

 

A few weeks ago I had some open time on my schedule. I e-mailed Your Own Cabin to see if there were any available sales for that week. I received a response saying that all information was reserved exclusively for paid subscribers to their newsletter.

 

Now, I have many travel agencies that are happy to e-mail me each week promoting their sales. They charge nothing for this opportunity to try to sell cruises to me.

 

Earlier this week Your Own Cabin sent me an e-mail proclaiming, ** Look What You Are Missing By Not Subscribing ** The mailing offered several specials which they said were available to non-subscribers. I then compared the Your Own Cabin rate (supposedly with no single supplement) to an online travel agency which customarily offers among the lowest rates. I will not mention the name of the online agency, just in case that is against the rules of this forum.

 

Your Own Cabin offered the Star Princess December 12 Eastern Caribbean, Oceanview guarantee for $929, including port charges. That breaks down into a fare of $790 and port charges of $139. The online agency's double occupancy price was $610 plus port charges of $139. The difference between $790 and $610 is almost a 30% single supplement. Even factoring in the $50 onboard credit for early booking, the supplement is in excess of 20%.

 

For the Star Princess, December 5, Western Caribbean, Inside Guarantee, Your Own Cabin was 640+139. The online agency was 510+139 for double occupancy, a single supplement of approximately 25%. The $50 onboard credit reduces the supplement to approximately 15%.

 

For the Celebrity Century, July 31, Western Caribbean, Inside Guarantee, Your Own Cabin was 910+139. The online agency was 590+139 for double occupancy, a single supplement of more than 70%!

 

Add in the newsletter fee, now $24.99 for six months.

 

So I ask the other members of this group. Is this agency all that good in its prices and value?

 

Thanks, Stu

[BaumD]

There is a big difference between the double occupancy price and the singles price. If you can get a single supplement that nets 15% or 20%, that is fantastic. Most mainline cruiselines will either put a 50% or 100% single surcharge. For example, using your Star Princess example, your typical online agency would charge you $610+$610+$139 = $1359. A $929 total charge from YourOwnCabin seems like a real deal to me.

[Cruiser@Heart]

Stu~

 

In order to compare Your Own Cabin prices to the Online Agency you checked, shouldn't you have priced the online agency at single occupancy not double occupancy...so that you are actually comparing apples to apples and not apples to oranges?

 

I just subscribed a few weeks ago so I haven't used them for a cruise yet, but I have taken some of their offers and priced it using various online agencies as a single. Most times the Your Own Cabin price was better than what the online agencies offered.

[love_the_sea]

Some of their "deals" look like deals...I saw a Crystal cruise that sounded too good to be true. But their Radisson Diamond "deal" for a 4 day Carribbean cruise in December was exactly the rate posted on the Radisson web site including the single supplement. Silver Sea has some good specials on Single Supplements that are only 10% above the pp double but none of these have been advertised in the newsletter. Except for Crystal, they don't seem to have the luxury cruises. I like the smaller ships so this seems to be a waste of money. I think finding a travel agent who specializes in the cruise lines you like could probably find the same deals for you.

[gdeltry]

I have been a subscriber to yourowncabin.com for about 9 months and I also received the email "Stuart Suss" listed. I agree that "Stuart Suss" needs to compare apples to apples. And not just with single occupancy rates, but also category. I actually booked the Century July 31st, the special was not for an inside guarantee, but for a Category 9. I checked other agencies on-line pricing before I booked and yourowncabin's price was pretty much HALF of what other agencies were offering for a single in that category. "Stuart Suss" also didn't list the other two specials in the email, including the Summit 10/25/04 one, which I have also booked. They have balcony 2B cabins for $1699 single, including port, and the current DOUBLE occupancy rate is $1875 per person, so there single rate is LESS than the double rate. It doesn't get any better than that!

 

One more thing to point out is that they never say all of their specials are no single supplement. Their info says "We offer cruises with little or no single supplement for solo travelers wanting their own cabin." Some are no single supplement and some aren't. Some of the specials are theirs exclusively and some are not. For me, it is worth the $24.99 to get an email with all of the specials in one place and not to have to search the web for hours looking for specials or hope my old TA would send me something.

[Stuart Suss]

Hello again everyone,

 

I would like to thank all of you who took the time to read and to critique my posting. Let me take a moment to defend my calculations.

 

Most, if not all, of the online booking engines automatically calculate a 100% single supplement. But that is not usually the actual single price. In my experience, when I have found an attractive double occupancy rate, I call the agency on the phone and ask them to find out from their contact at the cruise line what the best single occupancy price is for that level of cabin on that voyage. It may be a 100% single supplement; it frequently is less than that.

 

Whenever I contact a travel agency, I have already learned the available double occupancy price (not including port charges or taxes). Then when I am given the single occupancy price (not including port charges or taxes), I can determine the true single supplement that is being charged, and make a decision as to whether I am being offered a good or bad single passenger price.

 

So I do not believe that comparing the advertised offer to the automatic 100% supplement of the online booking engine is the true "apples to apples" comparison. The only true apples to apples comparison would be if you could get a quote by telephone, from an online agency on the same day the ad was published, and then compare the two.

 

I did something else. I evaluated the accuracy of the claim that there was "little or no" single supplement. I am satisfied that it is fair to evaluate that claim by comparing the advertised single occupancy rate to available double occupancy rates and measuring the difference.

 

I will do that again now.

 

The e-mail offered the September 22 Transatlantic, Norwegian Dream, inside for $999 (including port charges which are actually $120). The cabin only price was $879. Tonight I checked two online agencies and found a double occupancy, cabin only, inside guarantee price of $600. That is a 45% single supplement for what is advertised specifically as "no single supplement."

 

Now, to be fair, the e-mail was sent out three weeks earlier, and the price may have dropped in those three weeks. If the price dropped, I doubt it dropped by 45%. It may be that $879 + $120 is the same price that this agency charged for double occupancy. The ad would then be literally truthful about no single supplement, but only because of an inflated double occupancy price.

 

It may be that, as of three weeks ago, $879 + $120 was the best available single occupancy rate that any agency was offering. But there was either a single supplement within that price, or an inflated double occupancy rate.

 

 

One poster was proud to have booked a balcony cabin on the October 25 Celebrity Summit for $1699. Excluding $219 in port charges, the cabin price was $1480. The best online, double occupancy price I found for a balcony guarantee was $1416. So this may be a genuine "no single supplement" cruise.

 

So my bottom line is this. If you find a cruise you like at a price you like, go ahead. Have a great voyage! Just get competing quotes from other agencies and compare them all to the double occupancy rate (exclusive of port charges and taxes), before you assume that you have beaten the single supplement.

 

Thanks again,

Stu

[FlorenceItaly]

I am embarking on my second solo cruise in 3 months so am very interested in any information I can find on solo cruising. I recently discovered a new resource called singlescruiseresource.com .

 

Concerning fares, for one and two solo cruising, I got a great rate on HAL...cruise #1 was same as DO, and cruise #2, to Alaska was about 110%. I just booked solo cruise #3 on Celebrity in Oct-Nov for cheap, cheap. If anyone wants details, my email is listed. I can give you direction, and no, I am not a TA.

There are quite a few of us solo cruisers on this Celebrity cruise because the rate was so good.

 

I hope I have helped some.

 

Marie

ExaltingHim@cox.net