Fishing for Cruise Deals - Top Tips

WORRIED about paying too much for your next cruise holiday?
A new web site www.Holidayinsiders.com with its US partner web site CruiseCompete.com, aims to eliminate that fear for your next cruise - where prices can vary by hundreds or even thousands of pounds or dollars depending on where you buy.

Holidayinsiders.com's new web site helps you find the cruise you want, and then delivers competing quotes from multiple independent travel agencies. You then choose which agency you want to contact to book your next cruise.
Go fishing for deals
Consolidators, basically act as travel agents, but they sell cruises at steeper discounts than are found elsewhere. Recently, cruise lines have prevented these brokers from advertising their best offers, but with Holidayinsiders.com & cruisecompete.com, that doesn't mean they don't have 'em. Ask about unadvertised deals and upgrades.
Arrive at the port the night before
The cruise line doesn't care if the traffic was bad or your flight got delayed because of the weather. The ship will leave without you, and the responsibility to catch up with it is yours and yours alone.

Walk right off the ship and head home
At the end of the cruise, if you carry your own bags, you can often disembark before everyone else.

Don't forget your passport
Travellers returning to the United States by sea after visiting Mexico, Canada, the non-U.S. Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Bermuda don't need a passport until January (at the earliest). But anyone sailing before then should bring it anyway. If something unfortunate happens and you need to fly home, having a passport will make things considerably easier.

Book your own excursions
You can save money by finding out who's running the shore excursions or similar outings and booking directly with them. Check out www.Holidayinsiders.com before you travel or post a question in the forum. It's not without risks: If you book an excursion with an outside operator and don't get back to the ship in time, you're out of luck; but when you book through the cruise line, the ship will wait.

Let cruise brokers fight over you
CruiseCompete.com is Holidayinsiders.com booking partner. It's unique search engine is where you post info on the cruise you want to take, and then agents bid against each other to get your business. You're under no obligation to buy anything if you don't like what you see. But, you will save money.

Make the first day count
Your bags won't arrive at your cabin for a few hours after you board, so pack everything you might want in the interim (a book, swimsuit, sun block inside your carry-on bag.

More Brits are booking floating holidays than ever before, and they're cruising for greater lengths of time too. The typical cruise length increased 3% in 2007, averaging 7.1%. In addition, since 1990, cruise numbers have increased at a rate of over 7% annually. If numbers continue along at this historical rate, the cruise industry will receive 12.8 million guests in 2008. With 17,000 travel agents, the challenge for consumers is to find the best deal possible on selected cruise sailings. Offers can vary dramatically from one agent to the next in this highly competitive business.