Can I book & pay a cruise through USA site

[Bigmaan]

Hi All

 

I will be holidaying in USA in April 2017. I am planning on doing a back to back Caribbean Cruise. I want to book them through Carnival Com as they are cheaper than booking through Australia or com.au. It asks for the US state.

 

Is this possible, or does anyone know how I can do this ? It terribly expensive from Australia to do this and I am sure I did this in 2012 when I was last in USA.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated. If there is alternative websites that accept international visitors booking that would be great too.

 

Kind regards

[The_Big_M]

As of January 1, Carnival expanded the coverage in Australia to include Carnival US bookings. Until then, they were handled by the US.

 

As a result of the change, I suspect you can no longer book through the US but am not sure.

[Hailzmick]

Do you have friends in the US? They could book for you & say you live there.

[MicCanberra]

I have booked multiple cruises through an online agency in the US in the past. However, now that our dollar has dropped significantly the currency exchange erodes all savings in the fares. None of the cruises I booked were Carnival, but they certainly listed them while they had listed that Princess cruises couldn't be booked through them.

[stingau]

We book all our overseas cruises thru online USA based agents. Some will take your bookings others won't. You can also try Canadian agents as they book via the USA based system.

 

Worst comes to the worst I know a way around it that some have used. You can get a USA based mailing address that is redirected to Australia. Used primarily for Amazon purchases. Once set up you can then use that post box address to book cruises. No cruise details are sent via snail mail anymore and documents luggage labels boarding passes are all done online.

 

I believe Aust post has a redirection system that gives you a us address to send things to, they were not the cheapest and if you google I'm sure you will find others .

 

For an outlay of under $50 you can save thousands

[Bigmaan]

I just spoke with Priceline Cruises and they said they do as long as you pay in USD dollars. I might give that a try. But with our AUD$ tanking all the real savings is going unfortunately.

[MicCanberra]

I just spoke with Priceline Cruises and they said they do as long as you pay in USD dollars. I might give that a try. But with our AUD$ tanking all the real savings is going unfortunately.

 

Yes, that is the real problem that I highlighted before. Good luck.:D

[Ms Jo UK]

I am in the UK and have this year booked on Carnival. com (USA) for the state I just chose other.

 

I deliberately wanted to use the USA site and not Carnival UK for a chance to cancel before final payment and for the chance of price drops should one occur.

[sayaguru]

We usually book through an online US based agent.

 

You can get some amazing last minute deals for the Caribbean.

 

We did B2B Caribbean and Bahama's last September the flew to NY and did a New England cruise.

All on carnival. So cheap (even with our dying $$).:D

[Fletch1]

We use to book through a USA agent as it had many advantages..

 

- fully refunded deposit (less maybe a $25 admin fee) up to final payment date

- much cheaper cruise fares

- lots of on board credit and other goodies booking through a US agent.

 

However, on a Princess cruise when we were cruising to China I think it was, I was asked to produce my US residency or Green Card proving I lived in the US. When I couldn't, they wiped all the OBC I received from booking through the US agent from my on board account.

 

With our low dollar as it is now, I have found booking here to very competitive if not cheaper than some US sites, when you factor in exchange rates etc. Don't forget that the advertised price on US sites usually doesn't include taxes, so when the final amount is revealed, it can be a lot more than the advertised price.

 

I also found it was very stressful booking through a US site 12-15 months ahead and then hoping our dollar doesn't drop too much. We once booked a cruise through a US site, then when our dollar dropped so much, cancelled and got our deposit back and re booked through an agent here. It worked out cheaper that way.

[MicCanberra]

When we were using a US agent, Princess was always off the list of possible bookings.

[Pushka]

Ive priced our Alaska cruise- through Princess on the USA site and the Aussie portal and allowing for the $ exchange the Aussie site was significantly cheaper. Weird.

 

I had booked our last years cruise through a USA travel site but the currency fall was a killer. Because our cruise hadn't been selling well (it was taken off booking sites as it was being held as a possible charter but the date was then released and the next cruise was chartered) the price in Aust fell. So I cancelled and rebooked a gty Aqua site for less.

 

That is the beauty of US sites - being able to cancel in unusual circumstances. But I see booking through the cruise line direct has now often meant full refund if cancelled before final payment. Although the Carnival group is not so good as RCL.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Pushka

[annenic]

We book all our overseas cruises thru online USA based agents. Some will take your bookings others won't. You can also try Canadian agents as they book via the USA based system.

 

Worst comes to the worst I know a way around it that some have used. You can get a USA based mailing address that is redirected to Australia. Used primarily for Amazon purchases. Once set up you can then use that post box address to book cruises. No cruise details are sent via snail mail anymore and documents luggage labels boarding passes are all done online.

 

I believe Aust post has a redirection system that gives you a us address to send things to, they were not the cheapest and if you google I'm sure you will find others .

 

For an outlay of under $50 you can save thousands

 

I would be very interested to learn how you set up a USA based mailing address that is redirected to Australia. Did you arrange this while you were in the States or were you able to achieve this online?

 

My email: anaserfr at gmail dot com - that would be so helpful to me if you could provide info - thanks!!

Edited February 4, 2016 by annenic

[Pushka]

Try myus.com. I use them for Amazon purchases.

Do your research though. Other than OBC I've found the Aussie direct cruise sites are very good with pricing now and once we dropped well below parity the US sites arent as good.

Edited February 4, 2016 by Pushka

[Lanwood]

However, on a Princess cruise when we were cruising to China I think it was, I was asked to produce my US residency or Green Card proving I lived in the US. When I couldn't, they wiped all the OBC I received from booking through the US agent from my on board account.

 

Wow, that sounds a bit harsh...I wonder why they did that? I can't see any rules or laws being broken..???

 

I don't myself, but I have friends who use agents in the US to handle their bookings as it can often give them better pricing and tonnes more OBC, but you have to take into account he current exchange rate (which I think cruise lines are also doing when calculating who gets better deals..). I remember on a Crystal cruise, passengers who booked through a US agent had an extra $500 OBC (most of the ship = LA to NY), compared to those who didn't. Was a hot topic on board for a while.

 

I also know of a couple who use an agent in Hong Kong. They find the pricing and deals are similar to that offered to US agents, but easier to deal with..??

 

I personally use an Aussie TA. Our population is small enough already. They're never going to get the big volumes to be really noticed by the cruise lines if we're jumping offshore to do our bookings....we gotta support our own..:)

[annenic]

Try myus.com. I use them for Amazon purchases.

Do your research though. Other than OBC I've found the Aussie direct cruise sites are very good with pricing now and once we dropped well below parity the US sites arent as good.

 

Thanks, I'll try that site. US sites for cruises still work for us as we are able to use our US cc.

[annenic]

Try myus.com. I use them for Amazon purchases.

Do your research though. Other than OBC I've found the Aussie direct cruise sites are very good with pricing now and once we dropped well below parity the US sites arent as good.

 

Thanks Pushka!! Site is perfect and I am already signed up!

[sayaguru]

Cruiselines change their rules at times as to who can access prices. We booked Princess through a US site and they informed us that it would be a little more as we weren't US citizens. MSC have prices for US and Canadians only. At the moment Aussies can't book through the US sites for them, whereas we used to be able to (no loss in my book).

 

There used to be restrictions on HA and Princess for those outside the US but they have lifted the restrictions recently.

 

Just check at the time of booking. It's worth checking both Aussie and US sites and comparing to get the deal that best suits your circumstances.

 

I recently booked a VERY cheap cruise that was only available on Australian sites, for Aussies and New Zealanders. :D That was to stop US citizens from cancelling and rebooking at the low price.

[Obilix]

I booked an Alaska cruise through a US travel agency online last February for a cruise this May.

 

No problems at all.

 

I have to pay the balance this month, and contacted them re a credit card change. They threw in an additional US $50 OBC without me even asking.

 

Thats the way I'm going to go again in the future ...