While Cruise lines make it easy and convenient to book and buy most things for a cruise directly
with them, have you stopped to ask if it’s in your best interest? I have!
Cruise lines are banking on us not shopping around and discovering that
some non-cruise line alternatives not only cost less, but are better, safer,
and more comprehensive. Including as you will hear, one that I think will totally surprise you.
Welcome aboard! Join me, Gary Bembridge, as I help you get cruising right by knowing the
4 things you should stop buying through the cruise lines and why.
This first one might sound completely counter intuitive and crazy!
If you book a hotel, you'll normally get the best price by going direct to the hotel, with chains
like Hilton guaranteeing the best price when going direct. This is not true with cruise lines.
Cruise lines never undercut travel agent prices because they are too important to
their business. So, at worst you'll always get the same price as booking directly with the line.
And travel agents may even give you a better price,
as many get discounts if they sell certain amounts of cabins which they pass on,
some also use their commissions to cut price or to give us extra onboard credit.
Cruise lines also use some travel agents to sell off unsold cabins
at snappy prices when they don't want to advertise deep discounts to stop cruisers
like me who track fares chasing them to reduce my fare to the lower level.
But a travel agent also will make sure we book the right itinerary,
go with the right line, right ship, right cabin, answer all our questions,
and they may even steer us away from what we think that we need to what we really need!
For example, I wanted to cruise to Greenland, and I was set on a Seabourn cruise I had seen.
After talking to my travel agent about what I wanted to see and experience,
she suggested an option I had no idea existed and had not looked at.
I finally went with Hapag-Lloyd because the ship and itinerary were better,
and my travel agent was right. If I'd just gone direct to Seabourn I would have missed out.
But even if you don’t take this suggestion up,
I think you should consider not booking getting to and from your cruise with the line.
I know many cruisers like to book the cruise line offered flights,
transfers, and pre- and post-stays, which you can do whether booking direct or with
a travel agent. The theory being that with everything linked, if something goes wrong,
like a flight gets delayed and getting to the ship on time looks challenging,
they will make plans, hold the ship or sort out getting you to the ship.
However, booking these with the cruise is not always the best idea.
Flights
I have often found cruise line flights usually have less appealing routings,
I assume from the deals they have with the airlines.
For example, the next cruise I am going on as I make this, is a Silversea South Africa
cruise out of Cape Town. Their routing would have had me flying from London Gatwick, not
Heathrow the airport closest to me, to Istanbul Turkey, onto Johannesburg, then onto Cape Town.
But there is a direct flight which goes from Heathrow and would take
me almost half the amount of time. And the price was lower booking that myself.
When booking flights with the line, bear in mind it may not actually be the best routing.
I always try and avoid connections if I can when flying to a cruise as it adds more risks of things
going wrong from delays and cancellations, which makes me cautious of line flights.
With one exception I will come to, I tend not to book cruise line transfers as I get
more flexibility using Uber, pre-booking on car service sites or using a taxi.
For example, I recently flew to a Norwegian Viva cruise out of Barcelona,
and I had booked a transfer with the cruise line. I had to sit for well
over an hour until everybody allocated to that bus had arrived. If I had jumped into an Uber,
I could have been at the ship within 20 minutes.
But while that works in big well know port cities,
I learnt sticking with the cruise line transfer makes sense when it is not.
For example, last year I went on a Holland America Oosterdam South America cruise.
I flew into and stayed overnight in Santiago Chile and booked my own taxi
transfer to the port of Valparaíso over an hour away the next morning.
However, the cruise passenger check in terminal is not where the ship docks and was tucked away.
The driver struggled to find it and I was madly trying to use Google translate to find
it and direct him there. I wish I'd booked the cruise line transfer as they knew where to go.
I’ve already mentioned the best hotel rates are by booking direct. In theory the lines should offer a
better rate as they get a volume/ group rate, but not always as I have seen, so compare their quote.
For example, for the Silversea cruise I mentioned their price
for a 3-night pre-stay at The Capital 15 on Orange Hotel in Cape Town I could beat
price going direct. Though on other trips this has not been the case.
But there are two other things I found.
First, the hotels always seem to allocate me a better room booking myself versus those used
for the group. I found this when sailing out of Barcelona staying at the Eurostars Grand Marina
Hotel having been there a few times, both having booked through the lines and direct.
Second, booking with the line means getting
no points towards loyalty I have with the hotel group.
While I know many of you like to keep flights, transfers and hotels linked
to the cruise so there is one contact and all linked to make it simpler and
interlinked if a problem occurs. However, check if your travel agent can do this.
My travel agent, Sarah Bolton of Travel Counselors, can do bookings
and package all those things together and I have a 24/7 contact if anything
goes wrong. And often she will tell me there is an issue before I know it.
For example, when my flight to Panama City to join an Oceania Marina cruise was cancelled 12
hours before departure, she picked it up, told me to wait while she sorted out alternatives
and found a new routing and changed transfers and hotels based on the new times and arrival.
This brings me to another critical cruise item to not buy from the cruise line.
When you are going cruising, get insurance as the costs if
anything goes wrong is enormous. None of us expect anything to happen but it can.
For example, I was following the story of Natalia Ortega and her
partner Ashley from Tampa USA who thought the same but had an accident on a scooter
they hired in Cozumel while their ship, Carnival Paradise, was in port.
They had no insurance and the hospital demanded $20,000 for the operation on
Ashley’s broken ankle before they could leave which the family did not have access
to leaving them desperately trying to raise it, and the cost to get them home.
You should also ensure your insurance has cruise specific cover as some
travel insurance policies will not pay out for losses incurred during a cruise without it. So,
if you are relying on insurance linked to your credit card cover, check cruising is covered.
The cruise lines offer insurance for us to buy, but this too is not the best option I believe.
Many policies do include trip cancellation insurance due to unexpected weather or illness,
trip interruption or delay if we must join the cruise late or return home early,
some include emergency medical and dental care, medical evacuation and delayed and lost baggage.
However, there are big watch outs versus alternatives.
First, I’ve always found travel insurance from Third-party providers is cheaper and
has many more inclusions than cruise line insurance. Not all cruise line
policies cover everything on that list I gave.
Secondly, cruise line insurance usually does not cover any pre- or post-cruise expenses
like airline, hotel, or transfers unless I have booked them through the cruise line.
Third, cruise line insurance policies tend to
have way lower limits on medical cover versus third-party cover.
And third, if my cruise is cancelled or disrupted,
many would not pay back in cash but only give me future cruise credits.
I am not a travel insurance expert of course but I use third-party insurance for those reasons. So,
check before just buying the cruise line option as easy as it is.
I’ve seen travel magazines like Afar suggest USA travellers look at companies like Allianz,
Travel Guard from AIG, Travelex, and Berkshire Hathaway. In the UK I've used at various times
Staysure, AllClear and Holiday Extras. So, these could be places to start.
This leads me to another area you should really be cautious about booking with a cruise line,
even though it's very easy and convenient.
While I have deep dive video on this topic you can get even more information on it,
I do need to address buying cruise line excursions without comparing three things here.
First, never book a hop-on hop-off bus with the cruise line because it will be
significantly more expensive. For example, on that Norwegian Viva trip I mentioned,
the line was selling the Barcelona one for $70 on board, but it cost half that in the terminal.
Second, don't book cruise line excursions to well-known and
nearby attractions or rides as the line will charge a huge premium.
In that video I give examples of how the Flam train and Loen Skylift in Norway and the
White Pass & Yukon train in Skagway Alaska cost me dramatically less booking direct.
Third, I always do a comparison with independent providers and have
seen excursions cost as much as 40% lower from sites like ShoreExcursionsGroup.com,
VentureAshore.com, and Vaitor.com.
Some like ShoreExcursionsGroup.com say they've never had anyone miss a ship,
but if they get back me back late, they will arrange and pay for my accommodation, meals,
get me to the next port and offer up to $1,000 compensation on top.
Never book an excursion on a cruise line without at least
looking at your options because you could save a lot of money and have
a better experience as they tend to have smaller groups versus the line.
I have other ideas on how to get more from your cruise based on what
seasoned cruisers do that not many other passengers know about in this
video where I start with the one that I use all the time. See you over there.