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Discover the 11 best ways you can get the lowest cruise fare for your next cruise. These 11 tips will give you the top and proven ways to get a cheap cruise. I explore the different approaches to seeking out and ensure you pay the best price possible. All of these have worked for me and others. Do you have any others to add that have worked for you to get a great cruise deal?
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Every week Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers Channel posts a video to help you make the most of your precious travel time and money on both land and at sea. First-hand travel inspiration, advice and tips based on the over 20 years I have been travelling every month.
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in this video you're gonna learn how to
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get the best price for your next cruise
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I'm Garry beverage of tips of travelers
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I'm gonna share with you a series of
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tips and how you can get an amazing
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price for your next cruise tip number
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one there are two best times to book are
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either very early or very late so when
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cruise lines launch new itineraries and
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announce that attorneys for the coming
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years they normally launch those with
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deals and centers so there might be
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upgrades there might be a drawable
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credit they might include things like
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drinks packages or excursions but they
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will normally have various incentives
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and deals to get people to book early so
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when arteries are launched that's a
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great time to find a great cruise price
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after that the next best time is after
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90 days and the date of sailing
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basically what happens with cruises is
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you have to pay your final balance
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either 90 days or 60 days and the day of
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sailing so at that point the cruise line
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knows how many cabins they've got left
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and then what they work to do is to get
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rid of all of those cabins if there's
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lots of capacity they will start to
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slash prices to sell all those cabins
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because they want to sail full that's
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very important because they also make a
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lot of money once you're on board so
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very early when artillery is a launch
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there'll be a window of time and then
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after 90 to 60 days and the day of
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sailing that is when you're likely to
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get the best cruise deals possible the
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second key thing to getting a great
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cruise deal is flexibility the more
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flexible you are the better the price
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you're going to pay so if you know that
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there's a specific itinerary on a
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specific date on a specific ship in a
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specific cabin that is a chance that
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you're gonna pay the highest amount for
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your fare because you're very very fixed
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however if you're very flexible if
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you're very open you're going to find a
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much better price so what I mean by
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flexibility well first of all choose a
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broad region so in that that's a
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Caribbean or it's a Mediterranean
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whether it's Alaska bearing a mind that
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most cruise lines in those regions will
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have very similar tinner ease the second
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thing you need to look at is when you
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want to go so if you've got a broad
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period of time you want to go so it's
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anytime in a particular month then again
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your lightest find great Cruise deals
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because you're going to be able to move
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around between ships and dates that
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really have the best deals the third
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thing is if you're not fixed on an
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particular cruise lines if you're quite
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happy to go on any cruise line or
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perhaps a a small group of cruise line
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so if you like resort type cruises you
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might want to have a little bundle
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between norwegian or caribbean perhaps
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some of the MSC or perhaps you're
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looking at a boutique ship so you're
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looking more at your Seabourn your
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silver see your region 7c or haploid and
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also importantly is you're flexible
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about the cabin so the cheapest cabin
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that you're going to find whether you
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want to go for an inside cabin ocean
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view a balcony cabin or even a suite is
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instead of choosing a very specific
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cabin you go for what's known as a
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guaranteed cabin so whatever level you
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are you basically don't book a very
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specific cabin you book a guaranteed
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cabin the cruise line allocates the
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specific cabin so flexibility is very
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important so if you broaden you know you
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want to go to Alaska for example
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sometime in May or June
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you don't really mind which Cruise Line
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and you're really clear about I want an
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inside or a suite but I don't really
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mind which cabin it is so if you have
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that degree of flexibility as you start
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to look for prices and deals you have a
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huge and wide range of options so you're
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going to find the best price so
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flexibility is room the secret to
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getting a great cruise deal now the
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third tip is about when you want to go
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so if you want to cruise in the key
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school summer vacations or you want to
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cruise at Christmas you're going to be
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paying the highest prices going because
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there is huge amounts of demand the
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secret is choose what's known as the
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shoulder season so that's the beginning
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and end of a season this is when prices
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are going to be sharpest so for example
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if you go into Alaska you want to go at
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the very beginning of the season so you
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might want to go around May time you
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want to go to sort of August time now if
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you want to go to the Mediterranean or
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Caribbean the secret is to go at the
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beginning and the end of the seasons
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again so for example March April time
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September October time and similarly for
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the Caribbean because that's where most
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of the ships will move between the
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Caribbean and the Mediterranean that we
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deploy at the changeover of those two
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seasons need to avoid peak times so it's
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the summer school holidays it's also
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Christmas and also the big big holiday
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weekends like Easter and Thanksgiving
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now my next tip in terms of getting a
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great cruise deal is get them sent to
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you and there's two things that are
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really strongly recommend you do the
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first of all is for any cruise line that
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you're interested in sign up for there
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email newsletter and whenever there's a
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deal were nervous a promotion they send
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those out by email another thing I
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strongly recommend you do is sign up for
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the newsletters from cruise aggregators
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so these are sites which bring together
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all the cruise deals that are going from
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all the different cruise lines all
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around the world and these are great
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because then in one email you will get
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lots of suggestions for lots of
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different cruise lines sometimes they
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have deals that you won't get anywhere
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else because these are big sellers of
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cruises and so they sometimes get
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special deals three of them that I find
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really helpful are rol cruise they tend
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to be much more uk-based there's travel
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zoo another great one is also cruise
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directs and they claim that no one beats
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their price now my next tip is once
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you've booked a cruise keep an eye out
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for what that particular cruise is
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selling for if you find that price has
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dropped the cruise line is not going to
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tell you what you need to do is get hold
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of the cruise lines and point out that
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the price has shifted and you want
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something so for example you might ask
5:26
for an upgrade or ask for the difference
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in onboard credit now I've had some
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great experiences where I booked a
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particular cruise are booked a
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particular cabin I've seen the prices
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come down I've got hold of the cruise
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line and I've got some fantastic
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upgrades and onboard credit now my next
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tip is to focus on older ships now when
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new ships come along everybody wants to
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get on the new ship so what normally
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happens is the cruise lines start
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discounting or having lower fares for
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some of their older ships so you can get
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a great price by going on an older ship
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in a particular cruise line so what I
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like to do is whenever I know a cruise
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line is launching a ship I start looking
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at cruises on some of their older ships
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because you'll normally get fantastic
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prices on those older ships doing the
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same itineraries my next tip is also to
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focus on the large ports there's a huge
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capacity setting out of ports like Miami
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Fort Lauderdale Barcelona Rome all the
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big cruise ports around the world have
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lots and lots of cruise lines selling
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out of them they have lots and lots of
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capacity competition is much much higher
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so also as you're looking for great
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cruise deals take a look at the big port
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so if you can easily get to one of those
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ports focus your search for great cruise
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deals out of those port now my next tip
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is if you actually wanna find a great
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deal and this is a better particular
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when you look how much you spend per day
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focus on longer cruises longer cruises
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tend to be much cheaper on a per day
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basis so you might actually find that
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you can get many more days on a cruise
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for the same price as a seven-day cruise
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at a peak time and repositioning cruises
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are a great way of getting a phenomenal
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deal now repositioning cruises are when
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ships will change region so for example
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if they're selling in the Caribbean as
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that season comes to end most cruise
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lines will then reposition their ships
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say into the Mediterranean and you can
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really get amazing deals now the reason
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for that is or if you would I'd like
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them because there will be a lot of days
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at sea they'll normally be five or six
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days at sea so normally have perhaps a
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couple of ports in the Caribbean for
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example five or six days at sea a couple
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of ports in the Mediterranean but you do
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get great prices on them now the next
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step may be less practical but it is a
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way of getting a great price in fact
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possibly a free cruise if you have a lot
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of friends or perhaps you have some club
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or Association that you run if you
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organize a group cruise the cruise line
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will normally throw in one or two free
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cabins and you only after need to get
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together you know 16 to 20 people to
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actually do that so it's definitely a
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way where you could get yourself
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potentially a free cruise another way
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you can get a great cruise deal is by
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sailing on the same line so I mentioned
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earlier flexibility is important jumping
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around between cruise lines you
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generally going to find deals because
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you're not tied to want to keep Cruise
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Line but if there's a cruise line that
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you really really like building up
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loyalty and working your way through
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their frequent sailor program is also
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going to be a great way of getting a
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great cruise deal now some cruise lines
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will actually give you free cruises as
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you build up loyalty other will give you
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various discounts whether it's upgrades
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it might be extra humble credit internet
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time and all those sort of savings on
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the other costs of cruising which are
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not included in the fare so that's
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another thing to look at is if you don't
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like that there being flexible do go to
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the other extreme and actually be
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incredibly loyal and that's where you'll
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normally get two deals one of the ways
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of getting great cruise deals is still
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despite all the things I've spoken about
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working with a cruise expert agent now
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the reason for that is if you found a
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great deal you can go to the agent and
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point out your founders great deal and
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ask them can they better it now often
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they can be that they will either have
8:51
different deals would have princess
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and so they have a lot of flexibility in
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terms of price or other things that they
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can throw in so what I like to do is
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once I find a great deal that I really
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like I ask my cruise agent to either
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match or beat that deal and normally
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they can they can also keep monitoring
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prices they can also deal with the
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cruise line if price has gone down to
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try and negotiate extra benefits where
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there's onboard credit or upgrades but
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also they are likely to know that the
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great deals that are going around now of
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course by following these various tips
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you can be constantly and constantly
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looking to find a great cruise deal my
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alerts have that I would have is once
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you've found a cruise that you like and
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a price that you think is reasonable
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book it don't just keep looking and
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looking and looking because it's like an
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eternal Holy Grail you'll probably never
9:35
find the perfect price the critical
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thing to remember is the more fixed you
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are the harder it's going to be to find
9:42
a great price so if you know I want to
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go on this very specific itinerary on
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this very specific date on this with
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this very specific Cruise Line in this
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very specific cabin that is going to
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most likely give you the worst price the
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more flexible you are the more fluid you
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are the best price you're going to get I
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hope you found that helpful and it will
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help you find a phenomenal cruise price
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if you've got any other experiences I'd
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love to hear about them but very
10:08
importantly I really love it if you gave
10:10
the video a like a thumbs up but
10:12
critically important please subscribe to
10:14
tips of travelers and get much more
10:16
travel inspiration advice and tips
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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