‘I’m a cruise ship expert and cruisers can beat soaring prices with six tips | Cruise | Travel

A cruise ship expert has shared his six top tips to get cheaper deals in the face of spiralling prices.

Gary Bembridge, who runs the YouTube channel Tips for Travellers, said that while cruise prices are rising ‘scarily fast’, there are ways to beat the system.

The first tip is to book a cruise, when lines launch new itineraries. According to travel expert Gary, this ensures you get the best price before for any cruise before fares rise due to dynamic pricing strategies.

Secondly, the expert advises travellers take advantage of various promotions.

He said: “While this might sound obvious, there’s some important things I’ve discovered you must focus on with promotions. First, I ensure I am ready to take advantage of promotions as I keep a list of all the places, cruise lines and ships I’m interested in. But I hold off booking until any of those go on offer.”

Gary also recommends booking your next cruise while you’re on board your current liner. This is because cruise companies often offer discounts that are only available on board.

Next up the expert recommends joining a group cruise to take advantage of bulk discounts.

He continues: “Group packages are also a useful way to find late deals. If a specific sailing is not full, occasionally the cruise liners will offer group rates to clear a block of cabins to travel agents that create and sell packages bundled with flights, hotels and transfers.

“These disguise the discounted cabin fares from us passengers as there is no direct comparison possible.”

Gary also suggests prospective travellers could use their friends to get a discounted fare.

He added: “This is an underused way to cut your fares. Many cruise liners will give a credit to be applied to current or future bookings if you refer a new traveller to them and they make a booking.

“The person who you refer will also usually get a credit.”

Lastly, Gary said the timing of your booking is crucial to the fare offered by cruise companies. Some will offer last-minute deals on their websites so it can pay to leave it as late as possible.

He said: “Many cruise liners use travel agents to clear unsold cabins rather than advertise the last-minute discounted fares on their sites.

“It could mean people who have booked spotting the lower prices on the cruise lines site and hassling them to reduce their higher fare to the lower one. By using these agents lines can reduce that risk.

“One of the key things to do to make sure you’re not paying more than others is to do fare tracking.”