5 Ways to Save Money Booking a Cruise

Cruising is often mistakenly thought to be an expensive way to holiday and visit some of the most popular destinations around the world. But in fact, cruises can be an affordable way to travel to almost anywhere in the world! What’s more, there’s extra things you can check or do to possibly save even more money.
 
Below are five of our top money saving tips to use to hopefully help save you money when booking your next cruise holiday…

Book Early

​Almost all cruise lines have special promotions and discounts for cruises booked in advance. Typical promotions include 5% or 10% savings, whilst some cruise lines offer BOGOF promotions, allowing the second passenger to cruise for free!
 
It’s always worth checking the price of these advance booking cruises compared to cruises with a closer departure date, to check you are actually saving money. Don’t be fooled!

Book Late

Alternatively, it can often also be worthwhile booking cruises late, close to the departure date. However, you do run the risk of missing out if the particular cruise you are looking at have sold out already!
 
But if you are not looking for a specific cruise, then booking late can often mean great savings. Sometimes this might even include discounted or free extras, such as cabin upgrades, free gratuities, transfers, or car parking.

Travel with Friends

Travelling with friends of as a group is a fantastic way to holiday and save extra cash. Cruise lines often price their holidays per person based on two adults sharing, but if you choose to share a cabin with a third or forth person, these extra guests’ fares are often, if not always, significantly reduced.
 
Most standard cabins with the capacity for three or four guests require the use of sofa beds or pullman (bunk) beds. So, it’s worth bearing in mind that you might have to negotiate who sleeps where!

Guarantee CabinS

Lots of cruise lines offer the choice of booking a ‘guarantee’ cabin. This is when you simply select the type of cabin you want when booking, inside, outside, or balcony for example. You cannot choose a particular cabin number, deck, or location. You will instead be allocated a cabin a few weeks prior to the departure date of your cruise. 

Selecting this option is often cheaper than booking a specific cabin. It’s basically a win-win situation, since you will always be allocated your selected cabin type, but often upgrades to bigger or better cabins are possible! 

Loyalty Schemes

​Signing up to cruise line loyalty schemes often results in saving money or extra perks on board. All cruise lines offer some sort of loyalty scheme or club to join.
 
Furthermore, it might be worth looking into what loyalty schemes travel agents offer. Some might reward repeat bookings, promotional discounts or even money off using reward points collected from previous bookings you’ve made.