As someone who does it regularly, I wanted to find out if there was anything to be gained

by paying a cruise off early before final payment date. This is what I found out.

If you are new to the Channel, welcome aboard. I am Gary Bembridge and I am here to help

make it easy to discover, plan and enjoy dream cruise vacations.

There are 3 ways to pay for a cruise, and which one you use will affect what benefits

there are - or aren’t - in paying your cruise off early

First, you can pay your cruise in full when booking.

For most cruise passengers this happens when booking a cruise after the final balance due

date has passed.

For example when booking a last minute getaway, or taking advantage of a great deal for a

cruise departing within 3 months, you have to pay in full at time of booking.

Secondly, you pay the deposit (usually between 10% and 20%), and then you pay off the rest

of the fare through a monthly payment plan.

Now, many travel agents offer these to help spread out the cost of a cruise, and to avoid

you having to find a lump sum.

I hadn't realised that many cruise lines also offer monthly payment plans at check out if

you are booking direct. They usually use a third party provider to manage the payment

plan, but it is interest free. For example, at time of recording Carnival has Carnival

Easy Pay, Princess Cruises has EZPay in USA and Princess Pay in other regions.

Of course, there is nothing stopping you paying something off every month either to your travel

agent, or the line if you booked direct to slowly reduce the amount owed.

Thirdly, the more traditional way is paying a deposit at booking and the balance before

or on final balance due day.

If you pay off your cruise early using any of these methods, while there are benefits

I will come to, there are a few big downsides to talk about.

And there is one really big downside that could be the deal breaker. n

And this is what happens if your cruise goes down in price.

Once you have booked a cruise, especially if you have booked it way in advance, you

must track the fares. If not you could be paying much more than you need to. I have

been able to reduce individual cruise fares by hundreds by tracking fares in the past.

If fares go down you need to act to get your fare reduced. But if you have paid it off

early you have less options, and are at a big disadvantage.

How do I track fare movements? I track fare changes in three ways. First, I ask my travel

agent to watch pricing. Second, I sign up to the cruise line email newsletters and watch

out for promotions covering my booked cruises.

But easiest, by a mile, is I use one of the free cruise fare tracking sites. There are

a number of these but the one that I like and has worked for me best is on CruiseWatch.com

.

I input my cruise and cabin grade and they alert me by email every time fares change,

which usually do multiple times as cruise line fares change based on demand I've put

links to the tracking options in the notes of this episode. (https://www.cruisewatch.com/cruise-price-alerts).

If fares go down you must act.  Contact the line if you booked direct, or get your agent

to if you booked that way, and ask for the new fare.

If you still owe them money, they will usually just reduce the fare in their system. So nice

and simple. You owe them less for the same cruise.

By the way: Many lines promise to price match fares when they go down, but they do not make

it automatic - you still have contact and ask them.

If they won't cut the fare, and you have a refundable deposit, then ask to cancel and

simply rebook at the lower fare.

But, what if you have paid your cruise off early? The line will say either you can't

have the lower fare, suggest an upgrade or they will add some On-Board Credit to the

booking. They will almost never refund your cash.

So, that means that (as nice as extra On-board credit is)  you are locked into firstly paying

a higher fare than you need to for that cruise, and secondly you have to spend the lost "savings"

with the line on that cruise. They keep your lost money.

By paying the fare in full early, you have lost the ability to pocket the savings from

fares going down and do whatever you want with it.  It also makes the option of cancelling

and rebooking at the lower fare very complicated.

Remember fares can, and probably, will change a number of times keep contacting the line

every time they do.

If you really like to pay off your cruise early, as it helps with your cash flow and

budgeting, I suggest you hold back some, so maybe $200 or $300, so if fares go down you

can still benefit and pocket the savings.

Another downside of paying early is if you have to cancel or cannot go, and want to or

need to move to a later date, the cruise lines are known for being pretty slow at paying

refunds or you risk tying up your cash for a long time when you push a cruise a back.

You then have hundreds or thousands tied up with one line.

This lesson was learnt during the pandemic shutdown when hundreds of thousands of cruise

passengers had money locked up in future cruise credits. It's the same principle.

So what are the benefits of paying early?

Of course, the satisfaction knowing your cruise is all paid for and no need to have a lump

sum ready.

There is also some suggestion from industry insiders that it may affect what order you

are in any upgrade list, and it works in your favour over those just with deposits paid.

But you cannot count on that.

And as I explained earlier you can still negotiate some benefit when fares go down.

But overall, there seems to be more downside over upside from paying your cruise off early.

For more cruise money saving tips watch the two videos in this playlist I have put together

right now