Best Way to Shop for a Cruise?

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caninelover

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Neither SO nor I have ever taken a large ship cruise and we'd like to try one, possibly next year. We know we want to go to the Carribean and we want 7 days or less (SO still w*rks).

No particular preference on cruise lines since we've never cruised. We are not party animals so we would like to avoid a big party atmosphere. We would like a package that includes beer / wine and meals if possible.

Is there a website I can go to shop multiple cruise lines with criteria like this? Or do I have to go to their individual websites?
 
Once you decide on the cruise...ship, itinerary, date, cabin etc. you can put your business out for bid to:

https://www.cruisecompete.com/

Fill in the details and let multiple travel agencies bid for your business. Just watch out for low ballers, get everything in writing and cover the basics.

-credit card to be invoice by the cruise line
-no charges for reprices or cabin changes
-no TA charge for cancellations.

We sometimes use this to check that our on line TA is still providing us with good prices. They do not have to be the lowest, just in the ballpark. We have had good success with this method. 20 plus cruises.
 
Alectoris said:
Try looking at https://www.cruisecritic.com
Click to expand...

+1

The web site is a great resource to research cruise lines, individual ships, ports of call, and things to do at each port.

Most of the posters are frequent cruisers. We have found the information to be generally very credible.

There is usually a roll call for each sailing so you can connect with folks who will be on the ship with you. And someone usually sets up a "meet and greet" for the cruise critic folks.
 
Here is what I do:

Use VacationsToGo to look up cruises (they won't have all, but have a lot).
Then go to cruiseline site and look up the same cruise. click choices up to payment point so you can see all the choices and charges and get a REAL final number.
Check Costco if you are a member, or borrow a member number to look. Sometimes they have deals when you consider the rebate they give you as a costco card.

Get a travel credit card example Chase Sapphire that has travel problem insurance, be careful as some CC say they are travel cards but don't have any travel insurance other than baggage delay. Or buy travel insurance.

When we go on a cruise we get health travel insurance as our health plan does not cover foreign countries and does not cover helicopter medical evacuation off cruise ship.

All cruise ships include all meals, you have choice of restaurant or buffet for most of the time, or BOTH :D

They charge a LOT for booze, so if you are not going to drink 5 drinks each or more per day it's cheaper to buy them at $10-$12 per drink.
Some cruises will allow you to bring a bottle of wine each on board to have in your room or balcony. There is a small refrigerator in each room.
 
Cruise companies have frequent cruiser programs like airlines frequent flyers. Consider finding a company that has a lot of itineraries that you like, and you can work on earning future perks.
 
DrRoy said:
Cruise companies have frequent cruiser programs like airlines frequent flyers. Consider finding a company that has a lot of itineraries that you like, and you can work on earning future perks.
Click to expand...


Very true. I am in the Elite Class on Princess (not bragging). Among the perks are:
Free laundry (very important on a long cruise. You can take less clothes)

Bar setup
Priority boarding
 
We've been on a couple of dozen cruises, including 3 repositioning cruises.

Start with short cruises--long weekends.

Pick a decent mid line cruise line to go on. Stay away from Carnival unless you're a party animal and stay away from Holland America unless you're 85 years or older.

Go some place interesting on your first cruise. We too shop on Vacations to Go as they have the best computer system online. But we do have a travel agent that can come up with some freebies usually.

We've been to Mexico so many times, and have been to virtually every island in the Caribbean--even islands we've never heard of.

We picked up a Baltic Cruise in June for a week--prices as low as $440 per person. But we sprang for a more premium room. The big trick is finding European flights cheap, and we've booked them at 1/2 price of what most people are paying.

We love cruising in very expensive places--like Scandinavia. There, cruises are such a bargain in comparison with self travel on the ground. We prefer to sail out of San Juan as you can be in a new port every morning, and the islands are very diverse in the Eastern Caribbean.

Now we just hope the political situation calms down and our St. Petersburg stop will be allowed.
 
I know Carnival likes to promote the party aspect, but we find it fine as we don't go to the midnight rock parties by the pool.
That's largely the only party aspect we notice.
They do have a lot of announcements about activities/events by the activity manager, to encourage participation.

However, we have found Celebrity cruises to have a better selection of food.

Large cruise ships have more entertainment choices and better show performances than small ships which might not have any shows.
Large ships have the slides, and other activities topside on calm days.
 
audreyh1 said:
It’s much easier to shop for a small ship cruise!
Click to expand...

I agree! We did an Uncruise to Alaska last year and we both loved it. I'm a hermit and don't like crowds - but SO really wants to try a big ship cruise at least once for the experience of it. My feeling is we'll go back to smaller ships after this one trial though!
 
caninelover said:
I agree! We did an Uncruise to Alaska last year and we both loved it. I'm a hermit and don't like crowds - but SO really wants to try a big ship cruise at least once for the experience of it. My feeling is we'll go back to smaller ships after this one trial though!
Click to expand...
No way I’d get DH on a large ship cruise, and I’m not interested either.
 
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We do not think the perqs offered by cruise lines for loyalty are up to much. We actually get better benefits from our on line TA in terms or the dollar value to us.

We are not loyal to any one cruise line. We use an on line TA. We often buy inside the final payment window if prices has dropped to our sweet spot. 20 plus cruises so far. Anywhere from Crystal to Carnival and those in between. Never had a bad cruise experience yet

For us the ship, the itinerary, and the per diem cost of a balcony cabin are more important than the logo on the funnel or the bow. Lots of cruise line inconsistency these days.

We shop cruises, and other travel products, in various markets. Our last Australian/NZ cruise was purchased two weeks prior to sailing. We booked directly by calling RCI in Sydney vs booking with our usual on line rep in the US. Why...the fare, same for same, worked out to 30 percent less adjusted for currency. Unusual for this to happen but it can, it does, so this is why we shop other countries web sites.
 
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audreyh1 said:
No way I’d get DH on a large ship cruise, and I’m not interested either.
Click to expand...

Same here. Our first ever cruise was on a ship with about 1,400 capacity and we said never again. Since then all our cruises have been on little ships, with the max so far of about 250 pax, the smallest 48. That's the range we'll stay in.

I can certainly understand how many folks enjoy all the amenities on the big ships. I have a good friend who does at least a dozen cruises every year, and loves it. Just not for us.
 
Picking a cruise line and ship is like picking a restaurant. You won't know if you like that particular one until you try it yourself and see how it melds with your preferences. I find other people's advice interesting, but I won't let it make my decisions. I've been on 20 cruises on 5 different cruise lines. All I would gladly do again. I'm early to please. But not everyone is.

Edited to add: But I guess I'll toss out my own commentary:

My cruise lines in order of preference (the ones I've actually been on) are: Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival, MSC
 
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brett said:
Once you decide on the cruise...ship, itinerary, date, cabin etc. you can put your business out for bid to:

https://www.cruisecompete.com/

Fill in the details and let multiple travel agencies bid for your business. Just watch out for low ballers, get everything in writing and cover the basics.

-credit card to be invoice by the cruise line
-no charges for reprices or cabin changes
-no TA charge for cancellations.

We sometimes use this to check that our on line TA is still providing us with good prices. They do not have to be the lowest, just in the ballpark. We have had good success with this method. 20 plus cruises.
Click to expand...



Good tip, didn’t know about this website. Thanks!
 
braumeister said:
Same here. Our first ever cruise was on a ship with about 1,400 capacity and we said never again. Since then all our cruises have been on little ships, with the max so far of about 250 pax, the smallest 48. That's the range we'll stay in.

I can certainly understand how many folks enjoy all the amenities on the big ships. I have a good friend who does at least a dozen cruises every year, and loves it. Just not for us.
Click to expand...

I think the same way about hotels. I don't want to be one of 1500 people looking for a poolside chaise each morning, or standing in line for 20 minutes for breakfast. I like smaller, boutique style places, so a small cruise would also be my choice.
 
Aerides said:
I think the same way about hotels. I don't want to be one of 1500 people looking for a poolside chaise each morning, or standing in line for 20 minutes for breakfast. I like smaller, boutique style places, so a small cruise would also be my choice.
Click to expand...

We've been on 4,000 passenger Carnival ships to Viking 900 passenger ships, to 180 passenger river cruise.

We thought like most folks the bigger the ship the longer the wait in lines, but it's not really true. Larger ships have more lines, more space for passengers. In our experience bigger just means more choices, and less personal interaction.
For example on the Carnival Horizon, the 4K passenger ship, we had zero line up for the roller coaster on top of the ship. I had expected a huge line.

It's largely the personal interaction we noticed on a smaller ship, like a river cruise, they truly know you by name and even your preferences.
 
We have been on a dozen+ cruises and have found "vacations to go" and "cruise critic" to be very helpful. Ships have been both large (2800) and small (64). We have found the larger the ship doesn't necessarily mean proportionately more amenities but it does mean they made more room for cabins. Ships are getting larger and great for those who like parties and mixing with lots of people. We prefer using more of a midsize ship as a means for accessing ports and having a convenient place for meals (when not sampling the local favorites) and for sleeping or a smaller ship to access ports not always possible with larger ships.
At the moment we are not sure when in the future we will cruise again. Eventually we may try another bike and barge cruise or river cruise but an ocean cruise will be limited to a trip to Norway.



Cheers!
 
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We actually talk to our AAA travel agent. I like sitting down face to face and being able to discuss and add questions. And she does all the bookings etc. Maybe I'm old school. I'll have to check out some of the sites mentioned here.
 
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