We officially booked our Honeymoon this morning as H's leave was approved. I am really excited but have to keep reminding myself we are not on the ship yet.
We even have top picks for excursions/activities. Like, Cirque Du Soliel dinner while you watch the show, Blue Man Group Performance and a Murder Mystery Lunch/Show.
Anyway, the point of the post was to review Expedia. We compared Expedia with Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) directly.
This is my first time cruising with NCL (H's second) but my 4th cruise overall. The last time I cruised I used a travel agent so I wanted to see if I could plan one on my own and spare the travel agent fee. -NCL claims to have a Military Discount but when I called to book/inquire about it the associate said it needs to be reserved/booked a year in advance. (Say What? haha good luck trying to get that one)
*Expedia offers a Military Dis and gave it to us no problem. They even list the price difference online just select the cruise and date. They only require the AD/Retired SM show their Mil ID at check in at the Port. *This alone saved us about
$200/person so $400 total* This discount gets better as the rooms increase in price. Conversely the lowest level room is the same price as the Mil Dis. And they don't offer Mil Dis for the very best room (think penthouse or family mini apartment)
~Whatever promotions NCL is running Expedia will automatically give them to you. They also add some extras - like $100 on board credit and free bottle of wine in your room at check in.
**However, some of the extra's are not available with the Mil Dis.** *Expedia was able to give us a better room than NCL which really surprised me. Both companies are offering a free upgrade so you can get a Balcony Stateroom for the price of a Oceanview (just a window) ... however within each level there are seperate categories. Prices increase as the categories increase. When I called NCL they were able to give us a room in the lowest category of the type of room we wanted. Whereas Expedia was able to give us the top category within the type of room.
~Expedia and NCL offer the same travel insurance for the same fee $89/person
~Expedia and NCL also offer the same airport to port shuttle services as well
~NCL offers to book your flights for you as well but we saved another $500 booking them ourselves.
(It's a mega PITA to DIY but if you are familiar with cruising {the port, nearby airports and their strict schedule} its doable- This is where it's nice if you have a relationship with a travel agent because they can do all the work and it's much more reasonable). ~Expedia Cruise dept. is unable to book airfare for you - but if you want their general travel dept will book it for you.
Before this experience I always thought it was cheapest and best to go to the vendor directly (ie NCL). But it turns out it isn't. I understand Expedia is given special perks from NCL, for advertising and stuff but I surely thought NCL would have better access to the rooms (giving us the best category for the room type) but it wasn't the case.
I did feel a little guilty as the Expedia rep called NCL to finish the booking. {Almost it was like stealing haha}
Anyway just thought I would share all the things I learned with this process in the event that anyone here is looking at cruising and/or going to the cruisline directly or using a 3rd party like expedia.