Price question.

[ACobra289]

Hello,

 

We are planning on taking a cruise tour in late June 2010. How do we get the best price possible? Are the prices listed on the cruise line website set in stone?

 

As of right now, we are leaning towards Celebrity.

 

Thanks,

Bill

[d-dubya]

Hello,

 

We are planning on taking a cruise tour in late June 2010. How do we get the best price possible? Are the prices listed on the cruise line website set in stone?

 

As of right now, we are leaning towards Celebrity.

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Despite what some will say on here, there is no single source for the "best price possible"...sometimes you will find the best price online, sometimes from a TA...and sometimes the lowest fare for the cruise isn't really the best price possible, since some agencies may have group pricing where there are amenities like On Board Credits or pre-paid Gratuities that bring their real price below some other source...

 

the only thing you can do is thoroughly research all the possible sources. If that seems like too much work, find a TA you trust to do the work for you.

 

And no matter what you do, when you get on the boat, don't bother discussing what you paid...some will have paid more and some will have paid less. As long as you feel like you got all the vacation you paid for, it doesn't realy matter what anyone else did.

[nothriver]

We are cruising Alaska in June. I'm new to cruising but I love to plan vacations. This is my experience with the pricing. We booked a year in advance directly through Celebrity because 1) I don't have a travel agent, 2) I couldn't find a TA locally that specialized in cruises, and 3) I didn't trust the online TA's.

 

I checked the prices on Celebrity's website several times a week. Everytime there was a price drop for our cabin categories, I'd call Celebrity, and they would apply the lower price. I was also able to watch for open cabins and we wound up with some great cabins. (When we booked a year in advance I had no idea which were the "good" cabins, which is why we didn't book them to begin with.) In the end, we paid just over half of what we originally booked at. I'm VERY happy with our prices (4 cabins total) and our cabin locations. For our specific cruise, the best price was a few weeks just before final payment. Maybe a TA could have done just as well - but I guess I'm just a "do it yourself" kind of gal. Absolutely a TA would have saved me a ton of time online, since I check Celebrity prices, then log into Cruise Critic...

 

It is important to note that the low prices people paid for Alaska cruises in '09 as a result of the economy might never been seen again. No guarantees you'll ever see better rates than you are seeing right now. So be prepared to pay what you book at now and if you get a better deal, great, if not, it won't matter if you budget according to the prices you see now. This is true for any vacation. "Deals" are great if you can get them but never count on them to stay within your budget.

 

To check prices, I just go to Celebrity's website and pretend to book new reservation. You get current prices, which change often, and you can use the little search box for specific cabins to see if they are available.

 

HTH.