Thread: money saving tips

The best way to save and still have a great cruise is to book early. Most cruise lines now lke Carnival cruise lines have the Early saver rate which can give you as much as %20 off. this rate also gives you a price protection gaurantee. with that you can pretty guarantee that you will get the best price. dont be intimidated by the non refundable deposit. if you have to cancel it is a $50 fee, but if your not ready to book, dont book. wait until you are ready book early and save. booking early also has advantages as there is the most available rooms to choose from.

I booked early to get the cabin I wanted, not for financial reasons (although saving money was a nice bonus).

We always try to book early and when on Carnival we bring a 12 pack of water with us to save on the outrageous prices they charge for bottled water. I know most people think that bringing on water/soda is dumb because you have to carry it around until your cabin is open but since we only drink purified non-tap water at home & find that the water on the ship doesn't always taste quite right I'd rather lug around a case of water & save $ than get dehydrated.

I found that booking on board can be a great option as well. I booked my next cruise while onboard with Holland America and got a $100 deposit, no more to pay until final payment. Plus got the price protection until final cancellation date, This was great because they dropped the price about $500 and they honoured the lower price.

Originally Posted by cruiseportconnection

dont be intimidated by the non refundable deposit. if you have to cancel it is a $50 fee

That's not quite right. If you cancel your Carnival cruise and you booked the Early Saver Fare, you lose your entire deposit, which if you booked a 7-night cruise, it is $250 per person.

If you decide to change the booking from one cruise to another, there is a $50 fee and the rest of the deposit is transferred to the new booking.

But if you cancel, it's a loss of your entire deposit - not a $50 fee.

And most cruise lines do not offer something like the 'early saver fare'. There are only a couple of cruise lines currently offering a non-refundable deposit fare. Although I figure that there will be more doing so in the near future.

And while booking early is definitely the best way to go, saying it's as much as 20% off, is not accurate. The price could stay the same, it could go up, or it could go down, but the price is based on supply and demand - there is no set amount and could be much more or much less than 20%.

Pete

It's important to find out if something is non-refundable or has a fee for changing your booking.

I remember when we were making our plans for our honeymoon in 1995. My hubby to be was showing me that we can book our flight arrangements on the reservation website that TAs use. He went ahead and booked our flights -- on a non-refundable basis. Then I looked at the return flight and realized he messed up and booked the day before our desired date. But since he had submitted the data, we were stuck. We immediately called our Honolulu hotel and cancelled the last day. But it turned out to be better to come back the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, rather than the Wednesday. And since I was scheduled to work the day after Thanksgiving, it gave me an additional day to recover from the flight.

Since then, he's had me make the arrangements for any cruise, hotel, rental car.

I booked a lot of my travels through a Travel Agent for my first trip, not really knowing any better. Then when I realised half the stuff the TA was booking on the individual provider websites, and figured how difficult could it be.

Since then the only thing that I have booked with the TA is international flights and the cruises, especially since the price is pretty much the same as what I would pay if i booked it myself.

I just be sure to check dates and times four or five times before I push the purchase button. I always try and get the refundable rates on hotels though as I figure worst comes to worst that something can always be changed, and this is often cheaper then getting a refundable airfare.