I Used To Swear By These Cruise Tips. Not Anymore (Here’s Why)

On my last cruise by doing the opposite of what I used to recommend, instead of hanging around for ages I sailed through check-in and was on board and in my cabin within 15 minutes of getting to the port. It got me thinking about how many other tried-and-tested tips that I, and other cruise creators, have suggested for ages also no longer work.

Welcome aboard. I’m Gary Bembridge, and before I get to that embarkation day tip I no longer recommend, I want to talk about another tip that could be costing you dearly. Let me explain.

Cruise Tips: Booking Last Minute?

For years it made sense to wait until the last minute to book a cruise because you could save a fortune as lines cut fares to ensure their ships sailed full, because they make a significant amount of their profits from onboard spend.

However, this no longer applies for most cruise lines and major cruising regions like the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Alaska because demand for cruising has rocketed, especially by attracting more first-timers and families.

In fact, on average every cruising group says their ships are sailing over capacity. Ship capacity is defined by double occupancy, but because three and four people (mostly families) are increasingly sharing cabins, ships are sailing over capacity consistently. There are rarely cabins they’re looking to clear last minute at bargain rates.

So, waiting for last minute deals is less likely to save you money.

In fact, the best prices you get these days is by booking when cruises come on sale. This is when the fares are cheapest. And now, largely speaking, prices keep moving up from then onwards.

However, if you don’t want to book early, are flexible, and want to try to get better prices closer to sailing, there are two key things that I recommend you do.

First, look for flash sales. They often run over a weekend and particularly at the end of a quarter where cruise lines are trying to hit their sales targets.

For example, as I make this Celebrity is offering 60% of second person and Virgin Voyages 80% off second person for 3 days, and Silversea is offering 45% off selected sailings.

I look for flash sales on social media, like Instagram and Facebook, where all these showed up on my feed and by signing up for the cruise line emails.

Second, if you do book early, do fare tracking, and if prices do fall, you can push if you haven’t paid final payment for a fare change or upgrade, so your cabin matches the new fare. If after final payment, push to get onboard credit or an upgrade.

Some lines are more accommodating than others, bit do try.

I have a post on my blog showing how to do this on sites like Cruise Critic, Cruise Watch and Cruiseline, and there are now some Google Chrome extensions like that from AllAboardDeals.com that show you pricing trends when you search for cruises and will alert you of changes. You can find out more about all of this at tipsfortravellers.com/faretracking

What about that tip around embarkation day I spoke about earlier?

Cruise Tip: Arrive Early?

If cruise lines offer the ability to book the earliest available slot on in embarkation day, I used to recommend doing that, and if there’s no set time I always used to suggest arriving as early as possible to get on board the ship, explore it and have lunch on board.

However, with a few exceptions like Virgin Voyages and Cunard, most cruise lines do not enforce booked or allocated check in slots.

For example, on my recent Holland America Zuiderdam cruise out of Miami they had sent out check in times based on deck level. However, they also mentioned check-in desks were opening from 11am for the first allocation. So, most people arrived around that time anyway leading to long lines to get into the terminal, for check in and waiting to be called to board.

However, arriving from 1:30pm there were no lines, and it took minutes to do the process and board. It also meant that cabins were available to go to, so not hanging around waiting for them to be ready.

These days, I no longer use the tip to get there early. I arrive later but before the final check in and all aboard time, which is normally about an hour before the ship is due to set sail.

Instead of standing in lines, sitting at the port, and hanging about for cabin to be ready, I use that time to have a leisurely breakfast and enjoy whichever city I am in.

For example, before a Symphony of the Seas cruise from Barcelona recently, I booked and went to the famous Sagrada Família church and had a bite to eat on The Ramblas. I arrived at the port to no lines and could get straight into my cabin.

Of course, though, I still follow the tip to get to my cruise departure city at least one day before, and for long haul even more to get into the time zone, go sightseeing, and to have a few days buffer if there are major flight disruptions which seem frequent from weather storms and conflicts.

Cruise Tip: Build Loyalty?

I used to recommend against sticking with one cruise line to build status on their loyalty program. But I have now changed my mind on this. Why?

It takes a lot of cruises to get to a tier with any meaningful perks, perks are not that impressive overall anyway, and it may cost you both money and opportunities. Sticking with a line means you are limited by where they’re going, on what ships, and at their fares. You may be missing a better itinerary, and a better fare by moving between lines.

However, there now is a case to be made for being loyal to at least one line – but only if you make some strategic choices.

The reason being cruising is increasingly offering status matching. That means if you have built loyalty with one line, you can unlock perks when cruising on a different line.

For example, with Royal Caribbean Group, you can match your loyalty level from any of their three lines (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Silversea) if you sail on one of the others.

So, I had high status on Celebrity, and so when I travelled on Royal Caribbean having never cruised with them before, I was matched to their Diamond level despite never having been on the before. This unlocked things like four free drinks vouchers a day, access to the Diamond Lounge, priority check in and so on. When I then went on Silversea, it gave me status matching which unlocked perks like free laundry.

And if you do not have high status with any one of the Royal Caribbean Group lines, they now give you the opportunity to select which of your loyalty programs (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, or Silversea) that your points get allocated to when sailing on any of them. So, you can build status on one line even if moving between their lines to then to leverage across the others.

Another group doing status matching is Norwegian Group. Thanks to my status on Regent, I unlocked Gold status on my recent Oceania Riviera cruise which gave me $650 in on-board credit. I will also be using that to status match for my Norwegian Aqua cruise in a few months.

Another reason for building status on one line these days is you can also now use that to unlock status perks on other lines across even competitor cruise lines.

For example, MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys status matched my high Regent status when I cruised on them, as has Virgin Voyages for my Brilliant Lady Caribbean cruise later this year.

However, at time of making this the Carnival Corporation and their lines (Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Seabourn, and Cunard) do not status match between them nor with other lines. And as they say they have no plans to, when thinking of building status, a strategic choice may be to focus on a line in the other groups.

So, there is a case for ignoring my older tip about not building loyalty on a line, as it can now unlock perks across a multitude of lines.

Cruise Tip: Cruise Line Excursions?

One tip that I had stuck to for a very long time was around using cruise line excursions.

Cruise line excursions say the ship will almost always wait if their excursions are delayed for any reason. They also claim that they have screened the providers, and as it’s linked to the cruise line, if you have any complaints, you have the cruise line to sort them out.

However, I have shifted away from them as their cruise line excursions are getting expensive, and with ships are sailing so full, often they can be sold out way in advance.

For example, I’ve booked a repositioning cruise going from Papeete via Hawaii on to Vancouver in 15 months’ time. But already several of the must-do excursions I was keen on are sold out.

I find cruise line excursions in regions like Alaska and parts of the Mediterranean are often sold out way in advance. For example, that Zuiderdam cruise I was talking about from Miami to San Diego via the Panama Canal, many of the most popular excursions were completely sold out well before the trip.

So, I do more independent tours these days. I mostly use ShoreExcursionsGroup.com (where if you do use them, use the code “TFT5” at checkout to get a 5% discount on top of any other promotions they may be running) and I also use VentureAshore.com.

As well as offering lower priced and smaller groups, the two reasons that I like those two is, first I can input my cruise line, my ship and the dates, and it’ll bring me up all the excursions port by port that they offer.

And second, they guarantee to get me back to the cruise ship in plenty of time or they will arrange and cover costs to get to the next port.

Viator.com is another good one, as is ToursByLocals.com if you want more local and self-employed tour providers.