Good Cruise -- Bad Price ?
 

Found an interesting Holland America 10 day Southern Caribbean cruise from Ft. Lauderdale but the price is nearly $2500 with only a window, no verandah, no flight. Does include, taxes, port charges, insurance, etc. $250 per day, per person seems high to me. What do you think ?

Yes, that does seem high, especially since it's not even a balcony cabin. Last year over Christmas and this year over Thanksgiving week (two of the more pricey times to sail) we got balcony cabins on Princess that averaged about $125 per person per day. Those prices did include all the taxes and fees. Did you check MyTravelCo.com and BestPriceCruises.com? They always seem to have good deals.

Where are you seeing the prices, the brochure?? Brochure prices are sometimes 2-3 times the real amount.<BR><BR>What month are you looking at and also which ship?

The price was quoted by American Express Travel for Category D, April 3, 2003 and ship is the Rotterdam.

Definately get a rate from www.cruisequick.com, that seems really high.

$1840. category D April 3--my research. Now YOU need to do the same. I guess we aren't supposed to give agents or websites on this posting.....so please look around. There are better deals out there than your $2500. Happy cruising!!

I just did a quick search for this exact sailing - Cat D. Without talking to a booking agent, I got a $2148 price quote from MyTravelCo.com and $2088 from Expedia. There will definitely be better deals out there in the coming weeks and months. You've just got to know what you want (maybe narrow it to 2-3 cruises) and be deligent about checking prices with various sources regularly.

<BR><BR>Hi Cruiser:<BR><BR>Your $1840 price sounds interesting. I'm sure no one would object if you gave us all some good hints on where it's possible to get a better price like this. (I've been searching for weeks now.) Thank you !

Ruth--try wwwicruise.com<BR> It is still showing $1840 today (not sure if this included post charges though). I have never booked through them, but the website has lots of useful info on it.<BR> Good luck!!

I booked my family-of-four Veendam cruise out of Tampa Dec. 21-28 about a month ago (actually, Sept. 21) from Liberty Travel. Checking the HAL website a couple of days ago, the rates are about $400 per person less on a veranda suite (level V - guaranteed Veranda but no assignment until closer to cruise date), or about $1200 per person, as opposed to the $1600 I paid, and I think that includes port charges but NOT airfare. The rate for the outside cabin I booked for my kids is nearly the same as when I booked it, so the website price for veranda is definitely a bargain! Their website price was much less than any of the other discounters I looked at. My travel agent said they were unable to adjust the difference but that I 'might' get an upgrade.<BR><BR>The high price of booking early, I suppose! I hope you didn't book the $2500 per person already . . .

Go directly to the Holland America web site (www.hollandamerica.com). Their prices are UTD and I have not seen a lower price on any other web site. Best way to look is to click on the Best Buys button (top right). They also have something called a 5 day flash but you need to call them to get the pricing. Checked today and nothing past January on the special.<BR><BR>One thing to keep in mind. Their site lists a 10 day southern which actually does the Panama Canal. These are always the most expensive.

I took a look at the Hal site. Your Southern Carib cruise is a canal cruise. These cruises are always higher. Hal did not do much discounting on these cruises. Other Southern Carib cruises, Wayfarer and Seafarer have come down in price but not the canal cruises. <BR>

Now I agree this price seems high, however not one person thus far has seemed to point out the &quot;value&quot; of the services you will / have received from the Amex Travel Assoc. Feel free to book with any number of online &quot;cruise&quot; wholesalers, but keep in mind if / when something goes wrong who do you call??<BR><BR>Your amex cosultant, or any other TA for that matter is getting paid to be there for you to answer questions and help out when you get into a bind (i.e your flight going to Ft. Luderdale gets cancelled).<BR><BR>If anything I would really recommend doing your research but book w/ HA directly for cruise and book air direct with Airline, that way you have someone to call who might actually care to help you.<BR>