Let's Book Your Cruise Blog

New to all of this? I’m here to help!

If you’ve decided to take the plunge and (finally!) get yourself onboard a cruise ship, you might find that the way you book cruises is a little different from other kinds of travel. In this two-part series, I’m going to talk about some of the things that make booking a cruise a little different so you understand them better going into the process.

Difference #1: You pay for a cruise differently than you pay for airfare or hotels. Each cruise has a final payment date between 90-120 days before the sail date, depending on the cruise line and the length of the cruise. Up until that final payment date, you can hold your cruise cabin at the offered rate just by putting down a deposit.

When I book a cruise for my clients, they have between 24 and 72 hours to make the deposit payment. What this means is that you can lock in a rate for your cruise for no charge while you quickly check with traveling companions, work, etc. to make sure that you’ll be able to travel at that time. In order to do this, I just need some basic information about each passenger — this doesn’t obligate you to pay anything, but it does allow me to hold a cabin at the current rate.

Although cruise fares fluctuate just like airfares, you can lock in a rate by putting down a deposit. Once you do this, your cruise fare won’t increase – but it can go down! Up until the final payment date, your agent (that’s me!) can call and have the cruise re-priced at a lower final cost to you. You may also have the opportunity to get a higher category of cabin — for instance, a balcony instead of an interior — for the same price you were originally intending to pay.

You have the opportunity to set up monthly payments toward your cruise, or you can choose to pay your cruise in one payment before the final payment date. Up until the final payment date, you can still cancel your cruise and receive most of the payments back, usually minus a nonrefundable deposit amount that’s held in penalty if you do this.

The rules for cruise travel are a little more complicated than other types of travel bookings, which is all the more reason to use a travel agent to help you move through the process. Answering questions is what I do! All you have to do is provide your information, and I take care of the rest. In the next blog, I’ll talk about a couple of other differences between cruises and other types of travel.