My wife and I want to take our first cruise. We want a cabin with a deck. Need help with best deal?

Question

Looking for a 5 day cruise out of Tampa or Jacksonville. Looking for Oct 30 to Nov 3. Anybody have any good ideas??

Answer 1

I have been on 14 cruises and have never booked directly with the cruise company. Here is what I do and I always save money...
1. Be flexible. Always book well in advance, try to cruise in periods other than Christmas, New Years, March breaks and so on.
2. Start at CruiseValue.com and search for fares and jot down two or three cruises that you are interested in.
3. With this information go to CruiseCompete.com and fill out their form for your desired cruises. If you are not yet registered with Cruise Compete you can register for free.
4. Within minutes you will receive competitive quotes sent to you by email from a wide range of cruise travel companies and cruise wholesalers.
5. Contact the company with the lowest fare and ask them if there is a charge for cancelling later and if they say no then I proceed to 'book' the cruise with them.

Answer 2

You are not likely to find a "deal" or good price/discount because (1) you have limited yourself (at least in what you are asking ) to a very specific time frame of 10/30 to 11/3; (2) that time frame is now barely 30 days away and cruise lines give the best price for early booking six to twelve months in advance; and (3) you are wanting to leave from just two ports which do very few cruises. Most cruises on the East coast are going to be leaving from Miami, Ft Lauderdale, or Port Canaveral in the South or New York and Boston further north. The only cruise lines cruising out of Tampa are Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Holland America . The sailing schedule for Jacksonville shows one 5 day Carnival cruise leaving November 3, 2007. If you want or must go on that date you will pay whatever prices are available.

BUT, that's not to say that you cannot get on a cruise during your proposed time frame. You can either search the cruise line web sites yourself by simply entering in their cruise search windows the dates and departure port you want and it will give you a list of cruises available with itineraries and prices; Or have a travel agent see what they can find. The agent does not charge a fee for this since he/she will eventually be paid by the cruise line. The agent will also be able to give you some other options.

Answer 3

The only thing i can think of is to check the different cruise lines web sites. I know Carnival has alot that go out from several ports in florida. We took a cruise out of port canaveral last week and it was nice. I believe it is cheaper to book through the cruise line, not a travel agent.

Answer 4

We simply called a travel agent, we wanted a 10 day cruise. She got us a great deal!We docked in Key West, Honduras, Belize, Cancun, Cozumel, and 2 other Islands I for some reason am drawing a blank on their names, but my husband and I took our teenage son and for all 3 of us it was only $1200.00. That was for unlimited food and drinks, except for alcohol. We then had more money for the extra packages, so we went hiking through the rain forest in Belize then cave tubing, we went to Stingray city in Cozumel, and did a lot of shopping! We had a wonderful time!! Travel agents often get packages for cruises that are not full and they are dirt cheap!

Answer 5

try Royal Caribbean great ships very good deals

Answer 6

go to cruiseclues.com
cruisecritic.com
for more details.
from there you can try some other sites which gives you prices for the itinerary and dates you want.