I hate to admit it, but there can be some pretty bogus stuff out there when it comes to marketing cruises. And most of it quite often deals with pricing. A quick sampling at your Sunday paper or online travel sites reveals some unbelievable deals for cruises.

7 days from $299, 4 nights in Bahama cruise $99 per person, travel insurance included, gratuities paid! How do you know if your deal is a deal?

We’ll address some of these issues, clarify the shady, and give you some pointers that will help plan your next cruise vacation for the best price!

First pointer … what about the Best Price Guarantee or the Low Price Guarantee? You see it everywhere. To be honest, I think it is bogus and I’ll tell you why.

The fact is, the price you will find for your sail date will most often be the same at all the sites. Yes, there sometimes are some individual promotions, like offers of pre-paid gratuities which I’ll cover on another day, but the price of the cruise itself is no different. For example, I looked at a 7 day Western Caribbean on Royal Caribbean sailing out of Miami May 18th. I priced it at Vacations to Go, Orbits, Cheap Cruises, and the cruise line directly. All had the exact same pricing.

The price is set by the cruise line and that amount is determined very simply on one factor….their cabin inventory. Too many cabins left, lower prices. Fewer cabins available, higher prices. And cabin numbers are affected by such things as the seasons, school year schedules, weather, ship or line popularity, holidays, etc.

Now what about the Low Price Guarantee you will see promised. The devil is in the DISCLAIMERS. :) I took a look at one of the policy details on one of these…and they are all about the same. This particular one was 114 lines long! Why? Clearly to present the company with a lot of loopholes and the knowledge that not many are going to read it when they SEE it.

Here was the headline Italics and bold emphasis are mine): Simply the best prices on travel anywhere. We Guarantee it!

  • If you can find the identical product you purchased on ****.com at a lower price online within 24 hours, we will credit the difference to your account, AND give you $50 in (their) coupons to be used toward a future purchase.

Finding a better deal will be just the start of it. Here are just the highlights of the guarantee:

Simply (????!!) send a request to us within 24 hours of your purchase. Include the following information: Your Fulfillment ID number, Name of Passengers, Dates of Travel, Rate quoted by other web site, The web address (URL) showing the lower price you obtained online for the identical product purchased, and please make a print out of the exact offer as it exists on the competitive web site.

All requests are subject to approval. ****.com’s decisions are final. (Meaning…if you don’t like it, get a lawyer.)

So, the best price guarantee is rather bogus. First, pricing will be relatively the same and if in a rare instance it isn’t, you will have 24 hours to simply contact them in the described manner. And they will make a final decision :)

Bogus. Your time is worth many times in what the amount of difference in price you find.

These marketing ploys are not of concern for you. Next, we’ll discuss some things you can do to book your cruise vacation for a great price …. the best one! Guaranteed.