Navybaby

clseale13

Since you've been our "go to" budget girl I was wondering where you seem to find the best deals on cruises. My 2 MOH's are trying to put together a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas for my b-party and even though they won't let me pay for anything...I want to try and help find the best deal possible for all of the girls. Thanks!

janedoe1113a

Haha...I like being the budget girl.  lolI always book my cruises directly through the cruise lines.  I only have experience with Carnival because that's the only cruise line I sail.  Carnival will most likely be one of the cheapest and they have a ship that sails out of Jacksonville so that makes it even cheaper because you don't have to travel.  The ones out of Jacksonville are 4 and 5 nights to the Bahamas.  Depending on when you're planning on going, it might still be far enough out for early saver rates.  They're cheaper than most other rates, but the only downside is that they're non-refundable deposits.  So if for some reason you need to cancel, you don't get your deposit back.  But you can always spend $50 to transfer the sailing to a different date.  We booked our honeymoon on early saver and now the rate is sky high at about $2000 more than what we paid.  Another upside to booking early saver is that if the price goes down, you fill out a form and Carnival will give you onboard credit in the amount that it went down.Also, you could do a pack and go rate if you're willing to plan at last minute.  Like the week before a cruise, they normally drop the rate down drastically to fill the ship.  You can get some good rates doing it this way.I definitely would recommend actually booking through the cruise lines because it makes it so much easier.  If you book with a travel agent or an outside website, the cruise line won't talk to you and all communication has to go through the travel agent.If you have any specific questions, please let me know.

NYHarleyBride

To get an good idea of what is available, try cruise.com. I have booked through them as well as direct, but often (not always) there are perks you can get direct that you don't get through a conglomerate, but it is a good place to start to show you what is out there.

GatorD

We've always booked through the cruise line website (Royal Carribbean) and were able to find really great last minute deals.  We just did a 3 night  Bahamas cruise in May with an oceanview cabin for $209 out of Port Canaveral. 

clseale13

That's what I'm afraid of. We want to book the cruise by sometime in November since there is a group of us...but I'm worried we'll miss out on some later deals. Right now that exact cruise that you're talking about is the one we want to take and it's $318. We're going to talk to RC since there is a group of us and see if they'll honor prices in they fall like Carnival will.

GatorD

It is definitely a gamble.  Some of our friends who booked before us paid over $300 for an interior cabin on the lowest deck, and some who tried to book after found it to be sold out.  I would definitely see if they can cut you a group rate.  Good luck! Sounds like a great bachelorette party!