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In this video, you're going to find out the best ways to get incredible last-minute cruise deals
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Hi, I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips of Travelers and also the author of books like the
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Cruise Travelers Handbook and Essential Cruise Tips. I'm going to share with you 10 amazing ways that
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you can get yourself a phenomenal last-minute cruise deal. The first, the most important thing you
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should know is don't start looking for a last-minute cruise deal until at least 90 to 60 days before
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you want a cruise. The reason for that is that cruise lines require passengers to pay their final balance
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90 days before the cruise. So those people who booked in advance have to pay the full amounts. So 90 days
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before or 60 days before the cruise lines know how many cabins they still have to sell. That's when
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they start to look at putting on deals. Obviously the closer and closer you get to a cruise and the more
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caverns that are unsold, the more likely you are to find a deal. But do not start looking until at least
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90 days before you want to cruise. The second critical thing to do is focus on non-peak times of the year
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You're unlikely to find an incredible deal last minute at peak times like school vacations or holiday
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times like Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter. The other thing you should do is avoid public
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holiday weekends. So take a look at the US or the UK or European long weekends, have a look at
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when those public holidays are and avoid cruising around that time because that's when people will take
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vacation and go on cruises so you're less likely to find a deal then. The third most important tip is
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be flexible. The more flexible you are, the more likely you are to find a great last minute cruise
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deal. So if you know there's a specific ship on a specific itinerary at a specific time you want to go on
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you're probably not going to find last minute cruise. But if you know basically I want to go to the
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Mediterranean I want to go to Central America you have a broad basic region you want to go to You quite flexible about what cruise line what ship you on That is is going to give you the greatest chance of finding a deal The more flexible you are the more you going to find an incredible cruise deal at the last minute My fourth tip is to
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focus on really big invulcation ports. So ports where a lot of cruises sail from. So for example
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Miami, which is the biggest cruise port in the world, Fort Lauderdale, Barcelona or Rome
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those kind of ports, you have lots of ships sailing out of them. You have lots of ships sailing out of them. of cruises starting and ending there. So those are the ports to really focus on because that's
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where most of the capacity is. That's where most of the flexibility is. That's where most of the
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competition is. So you're more likely to find a great deal. My fifth tip is when you're looking
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for a great deal, look at longer cruises. Clearly people like to go on one week or maybe 10 day or
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two week cruises with one week being the most popular cruise of all. So the longer the cruise
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the greater chance you are of finding a deal. One really big tip is to specifically look for
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Repositioning cruises. Now repositioning cruises are when the cruise lines move their ships from one
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region to another. Tends to happen twice a year and it largely happens between the Mediterranean
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and the Caribbean. Repositioning cruisers tend to have quite a lot of sea days and so are less
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popular. They also tend to be a little bit longer. Reposition cruises tend to be slightly cheaper
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anyway on a sort of a per day basis. They tend to combine a couple of ports at the beginning and at
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the end but there will be more sea days. People generally like cruisers with lots of port days
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so you're going to find the best deals on longer cruises and those with more sea days
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My tip number six is take a look at what new ships are being launched and avoid them
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So if a cruise line is launching a new ship in any particular year, you'll find those are very popular
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So marketing efforts put behind it. There's lots of publicity. Lots of people want to go on the new ship
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So take a look at some of the older ships in that cruise line because they are probably finding those
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harder to fill particularly if they adding capacity to the line So take a look at some of the older ships because you more likely to find last minute cruise deals as everybody tries and goes on the new ship in the cruise line So that a great way of finding a last minute cruise deal
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My next tip is also to focus on ports that are drivable from where you are. One of the things
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that you will find is getting a flight last minute is often quite expensive. Flight prices tend to
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go up the closer it gets to departure. So actually you might get a great cruise deal where you've saved
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a lot of money, but that's negated by finding a flight to the port, which is very expensive. So that's why
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I recommend focusing on ports that you can drive to. So if you're lucky enough to have a port
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which is drivable or you can get there on a bus, you're more likely to find a great cruise deal
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because you're not going to find that you're having to spend a lot of money getting to the port
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Now my eighth tip might sound a little bit ghoulish in a way, but one of the things that you should do is
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keep an eye on the news. Look for activities or events which may put off people traveling to a
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particular port. So if there's some kind of things happen at that particular port, a lot of people
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may want to cancel their cruise and you might find there's much more capacity come on board
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The reality is things happen and cruise lines are committed to certain itineries. People may be
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reluctant to go to that particular region and fares will come down. Do make sure, though
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that your government is still saying it's okay to travel there and make sure that your insurance
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will cover you. So my ninth tip is a very important one. Make sure that you sign up for newsletters
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Sign up for newsletters of any cruise line that appeals to you. Cruise lines use their email
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newsletters to push out activities and promotions, especially related to last minute cruise deals
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I've signed up for many, many cruise lines, newsletters and pretty much every week, almost every day
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I get an email with different offers for cruises in the next two months or month, and you get great
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great deals There a second option which is also a great one which is there are some online cruise agencies that are fantastic They kind of collates and bring together all the deals and they will send you out an email newsletter Two examples of those are in the United States
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There's a site called Vacationsto-go.com and another one which is based in the UK
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which is called ROL Cruise and they are at ROLCruise.co.uk. So again, I would recommend sign up for those newsletters
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You'll get a constant flow of great deals. And my last tip, and this is again an incredibly important
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one is rely on your cruise agent. Get hold of your cruise agent and I always strongly recommend that
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you have a cruise agent to book a cruise. Get hold of your favorite cruise agent. Tell them that you're
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looking to go on a cruise in the next month, two months, whatever it is. Tell them what your budget is
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tell them what you're looking for, and ask them to look out for deals. Now that's very important
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because although you may be signing out for newsletters, getting other kind of alerts elsewhere
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often cruise lines will talk to the agents when they have some capacity to sell, particularly
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agents that are very strong with any particular cruise line and they may offer them sort of deals
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and promotions that they don't want to make that public so your cruise line agent is very well
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connected to the cruise lines and they're probably going to know special deals that you will not
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find out anywhere else so there are that's 10-eyed ways that you can get at a phenomenal last-minute
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cruise deal now cruising is a fantastic experience and here's a great way if you have flexibility
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and you want to go on a cruise at short notice remember be flexible and keep
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looking out for all those different ways of finding a great cruise deal and you can go on a
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phenomenal cruise at a phenomenal price. Hopefully you find that helpful. If you have any other ideas
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or tips please leave those in the comments. If you enjoyed the video, it would be great if you
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