How do you manage to cruise so often? Are you loaded? Do you get freebies or are you paying?
I get asked this often. So, it’s time to tell all. As along the way I discovered
things that will help you cruise more too - or at worst help you get more cruise for your buck
Welcome aboard. I am Gary Bembridge
Finding out how to cruise more often began 10 years ago.
I had chemotherapy for cancer in 2012. I have been in remission since then,
several years more than my oncologist expected. Knowing that the clock
may be ticking down made me want to visit the places and try all the lines faster.
I drew up a list of all the places, itineraries, and cruise lines I wanted to try.
As I looked at my list, I quickly realised I needed two precious commodities: time and money.
This is what I did, and what I learnt on the way.
I initially got the time I needed by retiring from my full-time corporate job, on a pension.
But soon discovered that while having more time gave me more opportunity to go cruising,
I needed to make my money go further
than it was to be able to. That’s when it hit me that being more flexible was key.
Flexibility drives down the cost of cruising whether you have unlimited time or are like
my partner who is still working full-time with 30 working days of vacation. As we found out.
The more flexible we are willing to be, the cheaper
and / or the more frequently we can cruise.
First, I became flexible on cruise line. I stopped being tied to one cruise line,
which was Cunard, and trying to move up their loyalty tiers.
I used to value perks like priority embarkation,
specialty dining, added Wi-Fi minutes, free laundry and so on.
By being flexible on lines, I now always find a fare that more than compensates for loyalty perks
lost. Sometimes the fare includes them or is still cheaper even after paying for the lost perks.
You need to decide how flexible you can be on this. I tend to limit myself as I
cruise less on big mega-ship resort lines, like Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, MSC and Carnival,
as I am happier on smaller ships and am less of a party animal.
On those resort lines a balcony cabin is usually around $100 to $200 per person per night,
while premium lines like Celebrity, Holland America, Princess, and Virgin that I prefer are
twice that, the smaller luxury lines like Oceania and Azamara are double that again,
and ultra-luxury lines like Seabourn and Silversea around 7 times more than the resort lines.
Second, flexibility means being willing to cruise off-season or at the start and end of the season.
It’s less busy and significantly cheaper than school vacation and key holiday times.
For example, Caribbean cruises in November
to early December, January, and February are so much less.
So, if you don’t have kids, you have this flexibility already.
Third, being flexible on how far out I plan a cruise. This means I am willing
and able to travel when lines reduce prices to fill ships, which happens
usually after 90 to 60 days before a cruise when final balances for bookings are due.
There are two more areas of flexibility that I should use more than I do, and these will have
a big impact if you are flexible on these.
I like to choose my cabin, as I am obsessed with avoiding areas of potential noise, like under
the pool deck or above the nightclub, and those with interconnecting doors to the next cabin.
If I was more flexible on cabin location, I could book a “guaranteed cabin”
which usually is cheaper. This means the cruise line allocates a cabin within whatever grade
you have booked, usually 3 to 4 weeks before the cruise.
I also like to cruise in a balcony cabin. If I was more flexible more often on cruising
in an inside, Oceanview or balcony cabin this would open even more opportunities,
of course, when chasing fares and routes.
I tend to be most flexible for costly trips, like booking an Oceanview to go to Antarctica on
Silversea Silver Cloud, or to upgrade to a luxury small ship line, like a Windstar Mediterranean
cruise where an Oceanview cabin costs the same as a balcony on a larger line.
That brings me to the issue of money itself. Here is what I do
to make each cruise as inexpensive as it can be without compromising much.
From comments on the channel, it’s assumed
I mostly go on free cruises or get heavily discounted fares.
I do get asked by cruise lines and have been on press trips in the past. But now 99% of the time
I do not. Preferring to cruise when, where and on who I have on my to-do list.
Looking back at my last 20 cruises there is one I went on invited by a cruise line. A 3-night Virgin
Voyages trip out of the UK. The other 19 I booked at the same deals and fares available to you.
While over the last few years the growing income I get from the advertising YouTube
runs on my videos means more funds to book, I still use the same approach
when I had only my corporate pension to buy cruises. This is what can help you.
First, I obsessively track promotions and special sales events. I sign up email newsletters for
every line I consider cruising on. These is where promotions first appear. The industry wide “Wave
Season”, often at the start of the year, is a good time to look as all lines are running deals.
I look in weekend newspapers where cruise lines run deals, and regularly
check the homepage of many cruise line sites
to see if there are any promotions. 24- and 48- hours sales often pop up here.
My travel agent knows to alert me of any deals or upgrade promotions the lines are
running through her, as they often give her agent-only offers to sell.
I try and book every cruise linked to a promotion of some kind, a lower fare, upgrades like pay
for Oceanview and get a balcony or those including drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities, extra On-board credit.
I met a couple on my Viking Cruise recently who use a similar approach.
They have some flexibility as are self-employed and have a target price
per night of around $250 per person and want to only cruise on premium and small luxury lines. So,
they track promotions as I do, and only cruise when they find promotions slip into this range.
This promotion-led approach means I need to often book at shorter notice and works
best for the popular cruise regions like the Caribbean, Mediterranean and to a lesser degree
Alaska. These all have many lines sailing there, all with very similar itineraries,
all at the same time as each has a set season and so promotions are more likely.
But what about the more out-of-the-way
and exotic places on my list, or those that do not have as many lines sailing there?
I plan ahead for those and found the best pricing I usually get is when the itineraries are first
launched. These then tend to increase in price over time. The lines want us to commit early,
often a year to now even 2 years ahead, and have offers to encourage that.
For example, I booked a Japan cruise way in advance as there are only a
few lines sailing there, the season is very short (February to April usually),
and demand is high. I can already see prices edge up as the ship starts to fill.
When I book, I always ask what happens if the price of this cruise changes. Because,
once I book a cruise, I price watch.
As the cruise gets closer, and particularly before paying final balance, I check if the
fares for my cabin grade have gone down, and if they have, I ask for mine to change.
I often do a dummy booking on the cruise line site, but also set up a fare tracker for my cruise
on either CrusieWatch.com or CruiseCritic.com as they send email alerts when prices change.
This has helped me to cruise more often as I
have often had fares reduced, got added on-board credit or upgrades.
The most dramatic one, which I've spoken about before, is an Azamara Mediterranean
cruise where the price of the cruise halved. I got that back, enough to book another cruise.
I do not spend a lot of money on-board, making the total cost of my cruises lower than many.
It’s easier for me because I don't drink alcohol.
I do a lot of self-exploring rather than cruise line excursions. I use Hop-on Hop-off busses,
port guides, port talks on board, and guidebooks to plan. If destinations are far from the port,
like Rome and Florence, I book the line “On Your Own” transfer which are much less costly.
I avoid the spa, because the spa is crazy expensive, and shopping on-board.
I do upgrade the Wi-Fi, because keeping in touch with home is important to me,
particularly if I can FaceTime, because I travel solo a lot.
My weakness is the casino. So, every year I allocate a budget of money that I use.
Though bizarrely since cruising resumed that pot is ahead as luck has been on my side.
I often book future cruises onboard, because there are
added discounts and the booking still gets credited and managed by my travel agent.
If you found this helpful and want to know which lines I think are the best
in each cruise category right now that I recommend you try, watch this video where
I start with the most popular cruise category of all. See you over there.