Cruise Planning Questions?

Question

My husband and I have been on two previous cruises and have immensely enjoyed both.

We have a personal agent with Carnival and we are looking at going on the Carnival Liberty to Cozumel, Ochos Rios, and Grand Cayman in April 2009. Our travel agent says that we should go ahead book now, which I think we are going to do. I just want some more opinions.

The deal is we don't know for sure that we are going to be able to go. My husband is graduating from college in December looking for a teaching position in High School Social Sciences. I am currently a 2nd grade teacher. If his job does not match up with my Spring Break we won't be able to go.

My question is should we go ahead and put down our deposit and then cancel if the dates don't work. Or do you think that cruise prices will be going down because of the economy?

Answer 1

personally I would wait.  sometimes you can get away with changing your dates without a penality or fee but it can be a hit or miss.  prices on cruises can change almost daily.  Most of the time they go up as the cruise starts to sell out but if the cruise is lacking in bookings the price can drop like a rock.  I once got a 5 day cruise on carnival for 250$ each.  if the economy keeps tanking the prices will go down.

Answer 2

The Liberty is a nice ship,  I was on it about 18 months ago.  You will probably get the best prices now.  They tend to go up closer to the actual cruise time.  However, occasionally if a cruise isn't selling well they will have specials about 60-90 days out if the cruise didn't sell well.  However that is a c**p shoot. I doubt that prices will go down due to the economy.  You need to remember that these ships run on diesel fuel which means if anything, the prices will go up as it costs more to get the ships from port to port.

Answer 3

I would definitely wait! They just want to get early reservations. In fact, the last I heard Jamaca was not a current cruise ship port due to high crime. Wait a while. Just start a cruise ship fund and have it all paid for before the time to go. Trust me, there will be availabilities right up to sailing time and you will probably get a better deal too.

Another thing. Don't use a Carnival agent. Find a travel agent that's looking out for your best price and trip. You'll be surprised at how much MORE and FURTHER they can make your money go.

Good luck and great sailing!

Answer 4

I would wait as this is a long time before your trip and so many things can happen.

No one can tell what the prices will do these days especially that far out.

Check out http://www.wvtraveldeals.com

(click the "Book Travel" link on the top right)

This will search all of the cruise sites for you.  

Check out the DreamTrips section as well as there are better than wholesale deals found there for cruises and other travel.  More vacations are being added all the time.

You can book any type of travel there as well.   For vacations this will search dozens and dozens of travel sites up to 200 sites depending on your search criteria (including all the main ones Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Yahoo, Apple vacations, as well as many many more most people do not even know).  It does this all in a matter of minutes which would take someone hours and it will return more results than any of the others.

None of the other sites you currently use to book travel will pay you for your booking, but I can show you how you too can have this too.  Imagine getting paid to take your own vacations and even better eventually traveling for free.

If you love to travel this is the real deal.

Answer 5

the problem is not the dates, but rather that you will take carnival. royal caribbean is way better

Answer 6

I suggest that you book now and make absolutely sure that you know exactly when the date is that you can cancel without any penalty and get all of your money back.  Book now because cruise lines ALWAYS give the best price for early bookings 9 months to a year or more ahead of time.   Its' been my experience that the price always goes up as the cruise date approaches.    I have been on about 20 cruises with 4 different cruise lines, but not on Carnival.  But the booking and cancellation process on all cruises is basically the same. Normally you will be required to pay a deposit of about $250. per person to book and then the cruise contract will specify a date approximately 60 to 75 days before the cruise when you can cancel with NO PENALTY.

According to Carnival's web site for a 7 day cruise there is no penalty if you cancel 76 days before the cruise (just to be safe I would count 80 days).:  http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/CMS/S...

Answer 7

You can find opinions on the Liberty at CruiseCritic.com.  Click on "Reviews", then on "Member Reviews".

You might also be interested in the "Boards" section, where you'll find discussions on every aspect of cruising.  You may be interested in the "Ports of Call" board.

Those ports are nice [except for OR] - Cayman and Coz are very easy to do on your own, but you have to MAKE SURE you get back to the ship on time.  You'll find lots of suggestions re excursions, etc at the "Ports" board.