In this video you are going too find out the best way to find incredible last minute cruise
deals.
Hi, I am Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers and also author of books like "The CruiseTraveler's
Handbook" and "Essential Cruise Tips".
I am going to share with you how you can get a phenomenal last-minute cruise deal.
First, and most important thing you should know, is don't start looking for a last-minute
cruise deal until at least 90 to 60 days before your cruise.
The reason for that is that cruise lines require passengers to pay their final balance 90 days
before the cruise.
So those people who have booked in advance have to pay the full amount.
So 90 days before or 60 days before the cruise line know how many cabins they still have
to sell.
That's when they start to look at putting on deals.
Obviously the closer and closer you get to a cruise ,and the more cabins that are unsold,
the more likely you are to find a deal.
But do not start looking until at least 90 days before you want to cruise.
The second critical thing to do is focus on non-peak times of the year.
You are unlikely to find an incredible deal last minute at peak times like school vacations
or holiday times like Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter.
The other thing you should do is avoid public holiday weekends.
So take a look at US or UK or European long weekends, have a look at when those public
holidays are and avoid cruising around that time - because that's when people will take
vacation and go on cruises.
So you are less likely to find deals then.
The third most important tip is be flexible.
The more flexible you are, the more likely you are to find great last-minute cruise deal.
So if you know there is a specific ship on a specific itinerary at a specific time you
want to go on, you probably not going to find a last minute cruise.
But, if you know basically I want to go to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, or want
to go to South America, you have a broad basic region you want to go to, you are quite flexible
about what cruise line, what ship you are on - that is going to give you the greatest
chance of finding a deal.
The more flexible you are, the more you are going to find an incredible cruise deal at
the last minute.
My fourth tip is to focus on really big embarkation ports.
Ports where a lot of cruises sail from.
For example, Miami which is the biggest cruise port in the world, Fort Lauderdale, Barcelona
or Rome.
You know those ports you have lots of ships sailing out of them, you have lots of cruises
starting and ending there - so those are the ports to really focus on because that's where
most of the capacity is, that's where most of the flexibility is, that's where most of
the competition is.
So you are more likely to find a great deal.
My fifth tip is when you are looking for a great deal, look at longer cruises.
Clearly people like to go on one week or maybe 10 day or two week long cruises - with one
week being the most popular cruise of all.
So the longer the cruise, the greater the chance you are of finding a deal.
One really big tip is to specifically look at repositioning cruises.
Now, repositioning cruises are when the cruise lines move their ships from one region to
another.
It tends to happen twice a year and largely happens twice a year between the Mediterranean
and Caribbean.
Repositioning cruises tend to have quite a lot of sea days and so are less popular.
They also tend to be a little bit longer.
Repositioning cruises tend to be cheaper anyway on a per day basis, They tend to combine a
couple of ports at the beginning and end, but there will be more sea days.
People will generally like cruises with lots of port days, so you going to find the best
deals on longer cruises and those with more sea days.
Tip number six is take a look at what new ships are being launched and avoid them!
So if a cruise line is launching a new ship in any particular year, you will find those
are very popular.
There is lots of marketing effort put behind them, there's lots of publicity.
Lots of people want to go on the new ship.
So take a look at some of the older ships in that cruise line, because they may be finding
this harder to fill.
Particularly if they are adding capacity to the line.
So take a look at some of the older ships because you are more likely to find last-minute
cruise deals as everybody tries and goes on the new ship in the cruise line.
Now that's a great way of finding last minute cruise deal.
My next tip is also to focus on ports that are driveable from where you are.
One of the things that you will find is getting a flight last minute is often quite expensive.
Flight prices tend to go up the closer it gets to departure.
So actually you might get a great cruise deal, where you save a lot of money, but that is
negated by finding a flight to the port which is very expensive.
So that's why I recommend focusing on ports that you can drive to.
So if you are lucky enough to have a port which is drivable to, or you can get there
on a bus, you are more likely to find a great cruise deal - because you are not going to
find you are having to spend a lot of money getting to the port.
Now my 8th tip may sound a bit goulish in a way, but one of the things you should do
is keep an eye on the news.
Look for activities or events which may put off people travelling to a particular port.
So if there is something happening in that particular port, people may want to cancel
their cruise.
And you might find there is much more capacity available.
Reality is things happen and cruise lines are committed to certain itineraries and people
may be reluctant to go to a certain region and fares will come down.
Do make sure though that your government is still saying it is okay to travel there and
your insurance will still cover you.
Now my 9th tip is an important one.
Make sure that you sign up for newsletters.
Sign up for newsletters with any cruise line that appeals to you.
Cruise lines use their email newsletters to push out activities and promotions, especially
related to last minute cruise deals.
Have signed up for many many cruise line newsletters, and pretty much every week almost every day
I get an email with different offers for cruises in the next two months or month.
And you get great deals.
The second option, which is also a great one, is there are some online cruise agencies that
are fantastic.
They collate and bring together all the deals and they will send you out an email newsletter.
Two examples of those are: in the United States there is a site called VacationsToGo.com and
another one which is based in the UK which is called ROLCruise and they are at ROLCruise.co.uk.
So again I recommend sign up for newsletters and get a constant flow of great deals.
My last tip, and this again an incredibly important one, is rely on your cruise agent.
Get a hold of your cruise agent, and I always strongly recommend you use a cruise agent
to book a cruise, get hold of your favourite cruise agent, tell them that you are looking
to go on a cruise in the next month, two or whatever it is.
Tell them what your budget is, tell them what you are looking for and ask them to look out
for deals.
Now that's very important because although you may be signing up for newsletters, getting
other alerts elsewhere, often cruise lines will talk to the agents when they have some
capacity to sell.
Particularly agents that are very strong with any particular cruise line, and they may offer
them deals or promotions that they don't want to make that public.
So your cruise agent is very well connected to the cruise line and they probably are going
to know special deals that you will not find out anywhere else.
So there you are, that's 10 ways that you can get a phenomenal last-minute cruise deal.
Cruising is a fantastic experience, it's a great way if you have flexibility and you
want to to cruise at short notice.
Just remember, be flexible and keep looking out for all those different ways of finding
out of finding a great cruise deal.
You can go on a phenomenal cruise at a phenomenal price.
Hopefully you found that helpful.
If you have any other ideas or tips, please leave those in the comments.
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