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.
