Advice on getting best price?

[mm6mm6]

Okay, my wife and 5 year old DD are officially Disney nuts now! We made Boo, Mickey, and Jesse pumpkins for Halloween!
We want to go on the 7 day Western Caribbean cruise next summer (June-Aug). Anytime that our DD is off from school (she'll be 6 1/2 when we go then).
So we know the cruise we want and we are open to going anytime during summer '03.
Does anyone here have tips on getting the best price. Obviously we must book six months in advance. Are there deals online or through specific travel agencies?
We will drive to Port Canaveral and park there while on the cruise.
Thanks in advance fellow Disney friends, you have been extremely knowledgable in the past!

 

[private 1965]

Hi fellow Illinoian. My family is in southern Illinois (Mt. Vernon). We had great luck with iCruise.com. You can search their site in a variety of ways, but to get the cheap cruises, search thru the $500 and less category. We also drove and parked at the port and had no problems.

Our table mates at dinner were from So. Carolina and were also iCruise.com clients. (a freak chance?) We compared notes and both found this website and service to be a pretty good deal. They let you know immediately which cabin you have and they also sent a bon voyage goodie box to our stateroom as a thank-you. (something GOOD, but not all, travel agents will do for their customers)

I know there are probably other good cruise sites out there, I just haven't had any exposure to them.

We have booked a second Disney cruise for this Christmas thru iCruise.com and also found this to be glitch-free so far....

 

[Michelle]

Hello mm6mm6! Actually to get the best price book NOW...waiting until six months in advance could result in a much higher price, especially for a summer sailing.

Dreams Unlimited sponsors this board and they offer rebates off your total cruise price. You can get a quote by clicking on the link under the ship above.

Have a great Halloween!

 

[WDWLVR]

Another member from Illinois checking in. I would take Michelle's advice and check out Dreams Unlimited. We used them for our last cruise (a 4-day last May), a trip to Disneyland (last Feb.)., our cruise next May (a 7-day Western), and a trip to Disney World next December. They are fantastic to work with, know Disney inside and out, and best of all will continue to work to find you the best deal even after you booked. Logged on one day early this year to find out fares had gone down on our May 2002 cruise and they had re-booked it for us at the new lower price saving us over $400! They are the best.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I use a TA who does only cruises and she is great. She just got me a better price than Dreams (even with the rebates) plus she also checks for the rates to go lower. (She saved me $2000 on my last Princess cruise which you got to love, lol.)

www.kimskruises.com is her website. She will beat any price you find.

Shop around! There are good prices out there...none of them are cheap though when it comes to Disney.

 

[Ashley24]

What has worked for me is calling Costco's travel number which seems to have the lowest advertised prices and then I call Cruise.com and ask them if they can beat that price. So far, I have had great service and prices from Cruise.com but they will not research lower rates for you like Dreams does. It all depends on what is important to you and if you are willing to do research to find out if your prices go down. If so, Cruise.com will lower them if you let them know about it.
Ann

 

[Carol RN]

Last year when I booked our cruise for September of this year, I booked through Dreams Unlimited as they were cheapest at that time.

I'm am looking to book a Disney cruise again for next year, however, Dreams is NOT the cheapest right now. Last year, they offered a $200 rebate as well as a stateroom shipboard credit. They are not offering any shipboard credits that I've found.

The rebate amount also went down. It is based on the TOTAL cost of your cruise. If our cruise falls within the same price range as the one last month, (which it will) they are only offering a $100 rebate.

My advice.....definitely shop around.

 

[LarryGadget]

Now I feel like I'm missing something. I thought that no matter who you booked through (TA, DIsney Direct), you get the same price for a Disney Cruise. Is that not true?

 

[Melrosgirl]

that's not true. There are many TA's out there that will dig into their own commission in order to get you the best rate. That's what I'm guessing mine does because I really didn't think she could get such a good price on the disney cruise, but she beat everyone else. (She has great service too, so I felt I couldn't go wrong.) (I think Dreams is great though for land vacations...for cruises it never hurts to shop around.)

Originally posted by LarryGadget
Now I feel like I'm missing something. I thought that no matter who you booked through (TA, DIsney Direct), you get the same price for a Disney Cruise. Is that not true?