Jump to content

How to book best


jaykayham
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi, looking forward to my first cruise with "Fred".

 

Only problem, how do I book best? I found much better prices for the same cruise on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) than on their own homepage.

As I have no experience booking "Fred", do they have a price guarantee or regularly discount codes with their newsletter? Unfortunately, "Fred" is not responding to this questions send per email. :( Or do you have any other ideas to get the best price?!

 

Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have found Fred's website pages much the same and more accurate than OTA's, though I have used a cruise travel agent who have given us a small extra discount based on the amount of previous bookings we have made with them - but that is calculated as we book the cruise and not an advertised price. I have though seen agents advertising rates that are not available because they have been sold out e.g. agents advertising the price of an inside cabin, when all the inside cabins have been sold! In that case Fred's website is far more likely to give the up to date 'price from £X' as their advertised prices are updated daily - that seems to be sadly lacking with agents. You can do a mock booking on Fred's website to see what is available live time - the advertised 'from' prices will be for Anchor (guarantee) fares if they are being offered with that cruise. Anchor fares usually come out in the last 3 months or so pre-cruise, but not with all cruises.

 

The way to get a Fred cruise at a good price is to book when certain offers are in place. Time limited offers come out from time to time, but then go off and others come out sometime later - no good offers at present unless you want a cruise within the next 6 months or so, but you could monitor what happens over the next few months to a year to see what I mean. Offers used can be free drinks and/or tips, and book 3 cruises with certain restraints on what cruises you need to book for that offer (the book 3's have different restraints at every re incarnation). You could also book an Anchor (i.e. guarantee) Fare, but you would need to look at Fred's website to see what you do/do not get with Anchor Fares.

 

Fred also gives -5% if you book on board and past passengers sometimes have reduced Freedom Fares (i.e. full prices - no discount on Anchor fares for past passengers). Those discounts depending on their Ocean's club level and how long prior to a cruise they book, but as a first timer you would not get that. You can look up Ocean's club levels and benefits on Fred's site as a matter of interest if you wish - there are no hidden offers.

Edited by tring
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Be wary of booking the back of Fred's ships as they are old and you can get quite a bit of noise and vibration, even in cabins not labelled up as such. Personally I would always avoid the back 25%, especially if looking at a low deck - we tend to go for the front of the mid ship section, though we have had cabins to the rear of that which were OK. Some people are not as bothered as us about that sort of thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
On 9/2/2018 at 11:28 AM, jaykayham said:

Hi, looking forward to my first cruise with "Fred".

 

Only problem, how do I book best? I found much better prices for the same cruise on OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) than on their own homepage.

As I have no experience booking "Fred", do they have a price guarantee or regularly discount codes with their newsletter? Unfortunately, "Fred" is not responding to this questions send per email. 😞 Or do you have any other ideas to get the best price?!

 

Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

I'm surprised they are not responding to your email. I usually get good response time.

 

Also outside the UK, I had some issues booking using their website. It didn't accept my non-UK MasterCard, and gave me an inaccurate reason. Also, once I had to explain to the representative how to find the fare I saw online - but it was a great fare and well worth the extra effort.

 

Finally, for solo travelers, they recently changed how fares appear after selecting 1 guest. You can now see all of the solo occupancy fares on one page. In some cases, I have seen lower solo occupancy fares for non-single cabins than the fares for the single cabins. Sometimes, the lowest fare is not for the lowest cabin grade. Now, that's much easier to see.

 

At the end of the day, Fred was awesome for both of the four-week long cruises I took with them last year. And yes, the first time I cruised on Fred, it was 27 nights long, to the Arctic Circle. Spectacular.

 

Enjoy!

Edited by jlajr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...