finding the best cruise price?
 

I've been trying to decide between the RCCL Explorer of the Seas and the Carnival Legend for a cruise to the Caribbean next July. The price will help us decide, but try as I might, I cannot find anyone who offers a better price than anyone else. I have tried cruiseplanners.com, samsclubvacations.com, cruisesonly.com, vacationoutlet.com, and orbitz. I've always heard to shop around on the internet, but so far they all give the same prices as each other, $50 less then the Carnival website (I haven't checked RCCL yet) Is there really anyone who gives a really good discount, or is this the best I can expect?

Thanks for your advice.

You might want to check:
www.mycruisevalue.com - has very good pricing
www.buycruises.com
www.cruise411.com

www.Cruisecompete.com will send you several quotes from different agencies.

Good Luck!

I always get the best price from my Cruise Value Center agent, Alex. RCCL does not let travel agencies to discount their prices, but he gave me a free travel insurance and onboard credit. You can contact him at [email protected]. Tell him spur sent you.
As for your choice, I'd always go with Explorer vs. any Carnival ship. But it will probably be more expensive.

I agree with katybird. Try cruisecompete, we have used their service twice already.

OK thanks for the info - I'll definitely check them all out! I appreciate your help.

No kidding that RCCL does not let agents discount. I tried all of the websites listed by katybird (haven't gotten a quote back from Cruisecompete yet) and they are all actually MORE than on RCCL's website. Very frustrating since I would LOVE to book the 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise, but it is turning out to be quite a bit more expensive than the other lines. Fortunately Princess has a similar itinerary although the departure date is not as good.

Carnival has actually been a bust for us (fine by me) since I can't seem to get any response from them even thought I got an e-mail saying that someone would contact me soon. That was 2 days ago. Oh well. Maybe I'll get in touch with Alex. Any other suggestions for getting a better price on RCCL?

We just booked a cruise on Celebrity and tried every website mentioned here and others - price was exactly the same on all. Cruisecompete did send us several quotes, 2 the same and the other 2 seemed lower until we realized they did not include tax and fees.

Interestingly, we had to book thru Travelocity since the cruiseline said they had no cabins left in the category and location we wanted, but Travelocity did (we booked a specific cabin, not just a category). Call to cruiseline has verified that we do in fact have that cabin.

So if you do not like cabin selection at one site, you might check others.

AAA had told me they get bulk rates for cruises, so I did go in there for a quote, but she said she's check the Internet and get back to me (which she hasn't done after 4 days!) Seems she will look at the same sites I'm checking, so I guess I'll do it myself.

We went on Carnival to the Caribbean once and it was fine - there were 10 of us on a big family trip so maybe we concentrated on each other rather than the cruise - but why do you say it was a bust for you jcasale?

We will be going with 3 teens so money is an issue here. Which would be better - the lowest category on RCCL or a bit better/higher up on the Legend? I had really wanted a balcony, but it's not looking good for RCCL.

I have also found that if you phone the internet agent you might get a better price than what is on the web. There can be past passenger discounts or specials not listed on the web.

Another site is www.cruisequick.com. You only work through email but it worked fine for us.

I know! It can be tough to find a good deal!

Cruisequick sounds familiar (but don't they all now?!), but I'll try them too. Thanks. There is also a department store travel agency near here which we'll try - they say they buy cabins in bulk to offer better prices. I'll believe it when I see it!

When I said Carnival was "a bust" it was because I had gone to their website and entered all of the information for the cruise we were interested in. I got an email saying that someone would contatc me soon and so far (3 days later) no one has. The cruise travel agent we have dealt with in the past (quite successfully) no longer handles Carnival cruises. I don't remember why, but that concerned me. I am planning to go talk to the agent we have worked with in the past, but with all of the new on-line booking sites I thought I'd first see what prices I could get so I would know if we're getting a good deal from her. So far I'm thinkint that if we do this cruise it will wind up being Princess. We've cruised with them before and I seem to be able to get a pretty good rate on their website.

The last thing you want to do is to book a cruise directly with a cruise line, whether it is on their web site or by phone: you will pay the cruise line price with no discount or perks, and you'll get little or no service. In case of any problem or complaint you may wait for cruise line responce forever. If you book with an agent, he/she will be 100% on your side with all the tools of a professional. The reason for that is simple: they want you to come back.

What sort of perks are there with a TA? The TA at AAA never called us back, so I'm not at that stage yet. If the TA doesn't offer any, should we ask for anything specific?

Some of the perks we've gotten from our TA have been $100 onboard credit, upgraded room, and a complimentary copy of the Alaskan guide that others had to pay $30 for in the ship's store. When we have gone on a cruise to celebrate out anniversary, she has also sent a bottle of champagne to our room. Granted it was pretty cheap champagne, but the thought was quite nice.

Sounds to me that many of you need a good travel consultant who can search for best price and then follow specials to get lower prives until final payment.

try Laura at cruise-con
she saved us big bucks on an cruise. Original TA was just jacking us around
got her name and she was quick, offered all kinds of options and ideas and in the end saved us big-time.
[email protected]
you can mention my name if you want

Used a "cruise specialist" TA for our first cruise. It was someone recommended working out of a rather large travel agency. All she did was call a TA-only number at the cruiseline and got us the same price we could have gotten on our own. And then she booked us air at a ridiculously high fare (which we rejected and did on our own). Glad to hear others have had better experiences with TA.

I think there are good TA's and more crummy ones. When you get a ball park idea of where you want to go and ballpark on the price then you can start looking and refine things. We started out with a poor one and we got lucky we found a good one.
It is like buying the plane ticket. I never seem get that superlow rock bottom price but I come d---close just by doing my homework. Let us know how this all works out for you.

We just booked a southern Caribbean cruise with RCCL through Travelocity.com.
It was cheaper than anywhere else. I tried Cruise Compete,RCCL website, Expedia, Orbitz, and Priceline but travelocity was cheaper

Thanks - I'll look into Travelocity. We need adjoining rooms, or at least 2 rooms across the hall from one another, so that should just make things a bit more difficult.