I am looking for help booking a cruise for my honeymoon.

[bridget&jimmy]

I was looking into the Royal Caribbean Cruise for Nov. 20, 2005 and was wondering what is my best way going about booking and when do you think I should book it?

[Family of 14]

Sorry that you post seems to have slipped through the cracks and no one answered your question. We are usually not this rude on the boards. :D

 

It is never too early to book for November, 2005. If there is a price reduction between the time you book and closer to your trip, with the right travel agent, you can get a refund.

 

What are you thinking about...Caribbean, Hawaii, Bermuda? What size ship...smaller/older, medium/elegant or large/w/everything? When do you get married? You really need to get to a cruise port city a night prior to your cruise so that you don't have to worry about missing a flight or the cruise. Do you live near a port already that you would like to drive to?

 

I have a few suggestions for booking the cruise, just need more information. I am NOT a travel agent, but I do have a great one that lives in Miami. She is wonderful about getting me the best prices, discounts, telling me when the price of my cruise has been reduced AND, she accepts coupons! I do everything by email and a few phone calls if needed.

 

I am sure that others on this board will have suggestions for booking as well. We are all pretty experienced and have our own favorite TA's. ;)

[natesfirewife]

Where do you want to go?? As already stated when you find the one you want go ahead and book it, you can get the lower price if it pops up. :) I also recommend getting there a day before, there's nothing worse than missing the ship.

 

Misty

[Sports Mama]

You have come to the right place to get answers to this question. You will receive a lot of sound advice from a lot of seasoned cruisers. So I will try to help and I know that a lot of other people may add to what I said or can give you better advice than I have given (just like the two above post). Will this be your first cruise? If it is I would suggest that you talk to a TA personally to get some advice, especially if you are not sure what ship or itinerary you want to cruise. Once you have done this, SHOP around!!!!! Check out reputable online cruise brokers (this board can help you with this), store front TA's and the cruise line directly. Usually the online cruise brokers give you the best price, but please no matter where you book (online, store front TA, or RCCL directly) read the fine print to make sure you understand about cancellation or any changes for your trip once you have booked your cruise. To tell you which one of these are the best to book through is personal preference. If you feel you need a lot of help in deciding what to book or how to book, don't want to do a lot of the leg work yourself and want to probably pay a little bit more for your cruise then I would suggest a store front TA. If you are the type of person that likes to research to find things out on your own (you have the time to do this), know what you and your finance really want (ship and itinerary), and want a pretty good deal then I would say an online cruise broker. If you have family or friends that have a good TA use theirs, because they have past experience with them.

 

The prices for Nov. 2005 are not out yet for most of the cruise lines. You ask: When will they be out? This is the million dollar question - no one seems to really know. You could start shopping around by looking at Nov. 2004 cruises to get an idea of the ships, itineraries, and prices. Now some changes could be made (prices, itineraries, and ships), but this would give you a starting point to work from, so when the Nov. 2005 info comes out you will have a head start. As soon as you have settled on a cruise I would book as soon as possible, because I believe this is Thanksgiving week and a lot of people with school aged kids and teachers like to travel if they have this week off. Booking early will allow you to pick the cabin of your choice.

 

IMHO, you could not plan a better honeymoon than a cruise!! Good luck to you both. I hope that I have helped some.

 

Happy Sailing,

Sports Mama

[Family of 14]

I just checked a few cruises for Nov. and the prices WERE out.

 

For instants, the Mariner is doing a Western leaving Nov. 20th out of Port Canaveral. They had a pretty good price for a JS ( a fine honeymoon stateroom) for $1500 pp. Some of the categories were alredy sold out.:eek:

[Jimbo]

The following are available for November 19th, 20th and 21st of 2005.

Cruiselines, with ship names, length of cruises and departure ports of each cruise.

 

General speaking the first weekend after Thanksgiving is one of the lowest priced weeks of the entire year to cruise, So keep that in mine when picking a ship and date. So if you can wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving to go you will save alot of money. Holidays the prices are really high.

 

Click on the link below to see whats available for you.

 

http://www.icruise.com/cgi-bin/qworking.cgi?month=11&year=05&day=20&p_dest=Alaska&check=none_dest&date.x=1

 

Jimbo:)

[mojo4trav]

Best advice I can offer is to go to a local agent in your city/town and get some quotes, but before putting a deposit down, go to www.*****.com and put in a few requests. Within a couple of days you'll have numerous agencies all over the US offering quotes on the choices you selected. Then sit down and research the ports of call to see which cruise offers the most activities (based of the ports) that match your interests. Once you're ready, book it! Sit back and count down the days... Best wishes on your wedding!