Voice of Travel

There’s nothing like getting home after a long vacation, and being happy to get back to your every day routine.

I recently returned from a 9-night Eastern Caribbean cruise (round trip NYC), and am now recharged, and ready to go. Vacations will really do that for you.

Back in late August, I decided that I wanted to book a cruise sometime before the end of the year, and that I wanted to leave out of NYC since I live in NJ.

After a little bit of research, I decided on a cruise.  Then I just need to find the best price.  So I started my quest to find a cheap cruise to the Caribbean that left out of New York.

I am one of those crazy people that isn’t happy with a price unless I’ve checked about 100 other websites out to make sure it’s the best price.  I know most people are happy checking one or two sites…but I just can’t be happy until I’m sure I have the lowest price.

So, while I was online checking every travel and cruise website I could think of, I also put the cruise I wanted to go on into Cruise Compete.

If you don’t know, the way Cruise Compete works is that you tell them exactly what cruise you want to go on, and what type of cabin you want…and multiple travel agents will give you their best price!

The best part about it is you don’t have to deal with a ton of travel agents. You use the electronic form to fill out exactly what you’re looking for…and then you wait. Depending on the time of day, usually just a few hours later you’ll start getting emails from Cruise Compete, letting you know about a new bid.

No one but Cruise Compete has your info, so they can’t email you. When you’re ready to check out the prices, you log in, and can see all of the prices at once. They’ll even show you which is the lowest price for each category cabin you choose.

Note: Make sure you pay attention to the text. Sometimes the travel agents will offer something like onboard credit or included gratuities, which should be factored into the total price of the cruise.

In my particular case, in just over 24 hours I was able to get 8 different bids. And boy did the prices vary!

While most of them were lower than what I had found on the web already, one was lower than all the rest, and so I contacted that company and purchased the cruise through them. I would say that I saved about $350 on the room than if I had booked it on any of the other websites I had found on the web.

To book these special prices, all of the bids either had a special link you had to go through, or a phone number to call. The one I used had a phone number…and it was very easy to book the trip at that price.

For about 2 minutes worth of work (to enter the information about the cruise I wanted), it was definitely worth it. It wasn’t the first time I used Cruise Compete, and it sure won’t be the last.

The way I see it, is you can’t lose. If you’re ready to book your cruise, fill out the form. If they don’t find you a cheaper price (which I doubt), then book through whatever the cheapest you found is. And if they do…then you’ve just saved yourself some more money.

Find the Lowest Price for Your Cruise with Cruise Compete!