How much was your least expensive cruise?

We have booked early, and we have booked last minute. Which works best? Any tips on who (what line?) or when to book with them? What is the most for your money answer? Inquiring minds want to know!:confused:

It really doesn't matter....If you book early you get the cabin you want and when the price goes down you can take advantage of that. We booked in October 2005 for our cruise in September 2006 . We already had one decrease and hopefully we will have another. Plus we have a AFT cabin so we get it all.

We booked last minute a few years ago on the NCL Dawn and the two of us went for $900 for 7 days. We were even assigned an outside cabin.

The cheapest cruise we ever booked was....

$99 per person for a category 6 (balcony) on the Disney Magic for 3 nights. That was a real steal. It was a perk we received for not cancelling our 7 night Disney cruise in January following 9/11 :( . The four of us cruised for less than $400 total!!

The next best was our 1 night NCL Spirit cruise out of NYC. That was a whopping $70 for dh and myself in a balcony stateroom. We are taking advantage of that deal on 6/17!!

Did a back to back on Celebrity Galaxy in October 2004 for 750 per person with an outside cabin. That was two seven day cruises. Started in Baltimore and ended up in San Juan and second week went from San Juan to Galveston, Texas. That was a sweet deal.

Wow! How did you find these deals? Just looking all of the time and pounce or do you have little secrets?

My secret is looking for repo cruises because they are usually longer than most people want. I'm doing the Zenith repo this fall from Bayonne to Tampa, with lots of islands in between for 13 nights for 900 per person for an outside cabin. I always look for deals.

Sad thing is I don't think I have ever had an inexpensive cruise....reason being I travel single and always have to pay for two anyway. My friends never want to go or can't get away when I can. I've always had a great time so it doesn't seem so bad...and its always good when I win a little back in the casino

Hey LJ! How are you?

The best we did was $399 PP for a 7 night to Bermuda during Hurricane season. We didn't have any problems....great cruise. Yes there are deals out there. We've found quite a few.

I most always sail in hurricane season, best prices are then. Daughter and I went on sovereign last october for 4 nights at 229.00 each. Great deal I think!:)

(though the onboard spending and excursions is where they get you) we did atlantis on that trip and had to "rent the hotel room: that you really don't use" and that was an additional 200.00 plus an additional 300 or so spent on the ship... (daughter's first cruise she liked to shop!) :eek:

Got the 99.00 special for the 3rd on sovereign sailing Sept. 8th

289 for 1st and 2nd... 3 night mini trip.:)

but where we get good deals there is usually an expensive one in the mix... for example we are on legend in Novemebr and have a JS.. wanted a balcony as we have never had one, and that is a lot more than I wanted to spend.. but being it is 7 nights I wanted the extra room and balcony due to three of us in the cabin.. that one is 1099 each and 299 for the third..:eek: but I think we will be glad we did! (besids we get the extra cruise credit) I knew I could justify this somehow......LOL

We did a 3 night on the Majesty for $169 pp a couple years ago. It was a last minute special. Booked about a month in advance.

$750 for a Radiance balcony southern Caribeeand in Jan 2002. Cruise lines were dropping their prices to get folks to book after 9/11. Princess would not drop their price (we were on Dawn) so switched to RCCL and got a newer glitzier ship. Wonderful cruise and the folks in the islands were so glad to have us come back.

But when you get a great deal on a last minute cruise don't you end up paying extra for airfare? Or can you often get to the cruise line cheaply too?

Just curious :) We're getting ready to book our first cruise. WOOHOO!

Got a 7 night cruise to Western Carribean on Costa Victoria, Inside cabin. 325.00/person. Would rather have sailed Celebrity or RCCL. But we did have fun.

But when you get a great deal on a last minute cruise don't you end up paying extra for airfare? Or can you often get to the cruise line cheaply too?

 

Just curious :) We're getting ready to book our first cruise. WOOHOO!

Yes and no. I always consider air when booking the cruise. For the $169pp cruise we found air for around $170 pp roundtrip. Same day air there and back.

Not bad... considering it was a flight from upstate NY to Florida.

Our upcoming cruise was booked about 6-8 weeks in advance. (I can't remember) and I found air for 6 of us for $59pp each way.

I love Airtran :)

We did 7-night W.Carib on Rhapsody out of Galveston in Oct. 2004 for $549 pp for an outside cabin (deck 2 w/ window). Galveston is only 90 minute drive from home so no flight!

I did Majesty 4-night for $329 pp in Jan 2005. I think air was around $189 pp so it wasn't much of a bargain.

We booked our upcoming 7 night HAL cruise on the Oosterdam to Mex. Riviera for Jan. 6, 2007 when prices first came out online for that cruise and for an oceanview cabin we paid $850 pp. We have never paid so little for a 7 night cruise (oceanview)

Cheapest cruise we were ever on was the Golden Princess trans-atlantic from England to New York in Sep of 2003. Found it on a website called moments-notice or something like that. We got an inside room on the Aloha deck for $259 pp. We booked it about 3 weeks before the cruise.

It was a 7 day non-stop cruise with no ports. I think since then most of the trans-atlantic cruises are now 11 to 14 days with two or three ports thrown in.

Tim

I think I booked it yesterday. I have been watching a Osaka Japan to Bejiing cruise and trying to convince myself to spend the $3025pp that the cruise line wanted for the cabin class I wanted when I noticed that ***** had the same cabins for $1950 pp ( I regularly use *****) so I called and it ends up I can get the balcony cabin and airfare for what Princess wanted for the cabin.

I know the trip will be expensive, but at least I start with a bargain and go up from there.

And Herb ... sigh I keep wishing the Oosterdam was where I wanted to sail when I wanted to sail ... I really loved that ship

Kathy

Yes, but let me explain.

We originally booked RCCL ,San Francisco, Panama Canal to Ft Lauderdale. Evidently RCCL overbooked and needed cabins. T.A. called and asked if we would accept RCCL's offer of total refund and a free cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii. It took me a nanosecond to decide. And the best part was that we booked the cheapest inside and were upgraged to an oceanview. Boy were we lucky.

Happy sailing,

Joanne, the chocoholic

Done both and it really has more to do with time of year and dumb luck than anything else.

My least expensive 7 day was $699.00 on the Mariner last year. My most expensive 7 day was close to $1500.00 a few years ago on the Enchantment.

We weren’t sure when we would be able to travel. We are two working adults wit a high schooler and college kid with busy summer schedules. We finally figured out that we could go around the middle of August. We live in New Jersey and really liked the idea of living out of Bayonne (Cape Liberty). We wanted the two balcony (would take OV if we had to) on the August 11th sailing of the Explorer. Over the last few weeks the price continually climbed to where it got to close to $8000 with taxes. It would have been much cheaper to fly to San Juan for the Adventurer. Than I saw on RCCL.COM that they were now offering Balcony Guarantees for $1299 pp. We jumped on it. It was even cheaper for AAA members. We ended up with 2 balcony guarantees for 4 people for 9 nights for around $5400 total.

Dolphin 1982

Norway 1984

Elation 2000

Enchantment OTS 2004

Disney Wonder 2005

Explorer OTS August 2006

We have 2 cruises that I consider great deals:

The first was a couple years ago on the Majesty, a four night cruise for 2 in an inside cabin for $410.00 for both of us. We had taken a bump from Delta in October the previous year, so we had free airfare, so it was a really great deal. Especially since it was the coldest week in January and even the schools in our city were closed due to frigid conditions. It was a great time to be on a cruise.

Just last September we took Celebrity Horizon out of PHL. Cruise ended up costing us $840.00 for both of us in an outside cabin. 7 night to Bermuda.There was no air involved since we can drive to PHL. When we booked it, it was $750.00 per person and the price just kept dropping.

The least expensive cruise (for the itinerary and cabin) was January 5th 2002. That was on the Adventure for the 7 night Southern Caribbean (Aruba/Curacao) itinerary. The price was only $599 pp and the cabin was 9504 (ninth deck "F" catagory ocean view). That was a deal!!!

In October 2002, we sailed the 7 night Western Caribbean on the Granduer for $495pp (which included $249 airfare) This was an oceanview room and then we upgraded to an Owner's Suite for $600 more. We also recently sailed NCL Pride of Alhoa for $795pp, which included roundtrip air from LAX.