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as someone who does it regularly i
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wanted to find out if there was
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anything to be gained by paying a cruise
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final payment date this is what i found
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some surprises to come if you're new to
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welcome aboard i'm gary bembridge and
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i'm here to make it easy
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to discover plan and enjoy dream cruise
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there are three ways to pay for a cruise
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and which one you use
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will affect what benefits there are or
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aren't in paying your cruise
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off early first of all you can of course
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pay your cruise in full when booking
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that could be by choice
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or for most cruise passengers this
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normally happens when you're booking a
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after the final balance due date has
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so for example when you're booking
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perhaps that last minute getaway
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or you're taking advantage of a really
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for something that's departing within
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you're going to have to pay in full at
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the second way is you pay a deposit
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which is usually between kind of 10 and
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and then you pay off the rest of that
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through a monthly payment plan what i
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discovered is many many travel agents
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to help their customers spread out the
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and avoid them having to find that lump
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sum you know 90 days before a cruise
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now i had realized that many cruise
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a monthly payment plan at checkout if
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you're booking direct now they normally
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a third-party provider to manage the
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but it is interest-free so for example
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at the time of recording
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carnival has carnival easy pay princess
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cruises says ez pay in the u.s
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and princess pay in other regions of
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course there's also nothing stopping you
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something every month either to your
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travel agent or the line if you book
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to kind of slowly reduce the amount owed
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so you don't have that big lump sum to
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thirdly the more traditional way is
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paying a deposit of booking
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and the balance before or on final
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if you pay off your cruise early using
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while there are benefits that i'll come
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really big downsides to talk about first
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really big downside that could be the
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absolute deal breaker for paying early
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and this is what happens if your cruise
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in price once you booked a cruise
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especially if you booked it
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way in advance you must must must track
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you could be paying much more than you
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need to i've been able to reduce
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fares by hundreds of dollars by tracking
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in the past now if fares go down you
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need to act to get your fare reduced
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but if you've paid it off early you have
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and are at a really big disadvantage how
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fair movements well i track fair changes
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first of all i ask my travel agent to
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secondly i sign up to the cruise line
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and watch out for promotions that are
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covering my booked cruises
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but thirdly and easiest by a mile
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is i use one of the free cruise tracking
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sites now there are many of these but
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the one that i like and has worked
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best for me is on cruise com
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i input my cruise and cabin grade and
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they alert me by email
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every single time fares change which
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multiple times because cruise fares
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change based on demand
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i've put links to the different tracking
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options in the notes of this episode
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if fears go down you must must act
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contact the line if you book direct
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or get your agent to if you book that
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for the new fare if you still owe them
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they will usually just reduce the fare
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in their system so nice and simple
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you simply owe them less for the same
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by the way many lines promise to match
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fares when they go down
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but they don't make it automatic you
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still have to contact
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and ask them so if you haven't paid the
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if they won't cut the fare and you have
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a refundable deposit you simply say i
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and re-book at the lower fare and you'll
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find they basically move then
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but what if you've paid off your cruise
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early the line will say
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either you simply can't have the lower
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fare they'll suggest you take an upgrade
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or that they will add some onboard
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credit to the booking they will almost
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never refund your cash so that means as
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extra on board credit is you're locked
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paying a higher fare than you need to
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for that cruise in reality
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and secondly you have to spend those
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with the cruise line on that particular
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cruise they're effectively keeping
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your lost savings by paying the fee in
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full early you have lost the ability
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to pocket the saving from phase going
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and do whatever you want with it it also
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makes the option of cancelling
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and rebooking at the lower fare pretty
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complicated you have to get into the
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whole area of refunds and so on
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now remember fares can and probably will
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a number of times so you need to keep
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every time they do now if you really
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really really like to pay off your
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as it helps with your cash flow and
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budgeting what i suggest you do is
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hold back some so maybe 200 or 300
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so if fares do go down you can still
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those savings another downside of paying
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is if you have to cancel or cannot go
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or want to or need to move to a later
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date the cruise lines are known
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at being pretty slow for paying refunds
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and you risk tying up your cash for a
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if you push the cruise back because you
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have hundreds or even thousands
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tied up with that particular line now
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this is a lesson we all learned
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during the pandemic shutdown when
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hundreds of thousands of cruise
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passengers had money locked up
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in future cruise credits effectively
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having paid in advance
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it's the same principle here so what are
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the benefits of paying early are there
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any after those big downsides well of
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first of all you have the satisfaction
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of knowing your cruise is
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paid for and there's no need to have
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that lump sum built up
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and ready you've spread it out across
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the course of a year or more
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there's also some suggestion from
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industry insiders that i spoke to that
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what order you are in any upgrade list
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and it works in your favor
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over those with just deposits paid but
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you can't really count on that but it's
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now as i explained earlier you can still
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negotiate some benefit when fares go
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down although you don't have the same
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as those that haven't paid in full but
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overall there seems to be more downsides
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upsides from paying a cruise off early
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cruise money saving tips watch these two
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videos in this playlist
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that i've put together right now
