In just a few days (five to be exact) Marilyn and I will be boarding the Emerald Princess at Ft. Lauderdale’s Port Everglades for a 10-Day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Over the next few weeks we will be kicking off the new web site with some insights, information and opinions about Princess, the Emerald Princess and our ports of call.
Every once in a while I get asked about our travel plans. Some people want to know if we get special cruise rates or great cruise deals. Most people are just interested in where we are going and how we picked that particular cruise. The truth is that like most people it is hard for us to just pick up and go and most agent offers seem to be for what we consider to be pretty close to the sailing date. So we have to plan pretty far in advance and take advantage of the same savings we look for for our clients.
Our planning for this cruise started well over a year ago when Marilyn came across this sailing while researching cruises for one of our clients. In the end our client chose a different cruise but it got us thinking about this one. While we have cruised on Princess a number of times, we have not cruised on the Emerald Princess and, and while we have been to most of the most popular Caribbean islands (multiple times in some cases), we had not been to most of the ports on this itinerary! Since this is a Southern Caribbean cruise which departs from Ft. Lauderdale in Florida instead of San Juan, Porto Rico we felt that what we saved on air fare would more than balance the cost of a longer cruise.
There is our tip for the day: A longer cruise is not always more expensive. You should look at the total costs involved, sometimes you can get more cruise for less.
Marilyn also was aware that the Cruise Holidays franchise system was holding promotional group space on quite a few Princess cruises for 2011, including this one. What that meant for us is that we would get group benefits, in this case a $75 shipboard credit.
Another thing that made booking this cruise appealing to us is that Princess and Cruise Holidays were holding a Princess Cruise Sale that week which in this instance meant that we could take advantage of a reduced deposit amount of only$100 per person.
So this cruise had a lot going for it. Since it was a fall cruise (still technically Hurricane Season – more about that later) and right before Thanksgiving, the cruise rates were already “Low Season” rates with a chance that the rates might go lower since it is a longer cruise, right before the holidays and so it might be hard to fill (it went lower).
So. How did we decide on this cruise?
- The cruise went to places we really wanted to visit.
- It was on a ship we wanted to sail on
- It was far enough in advance for everyone involved with us being gone to make arrangements.
- We were able to take advantage of “Low Season” rates with a chance that the rates might go lower (never a guarantee but nice if it happens -more on that later too!).
- We had group space held on the cruise so we were able to get a shipboard credit.
- We were able to book during a Cruise Sale and only had to put down a $200 deposit to hold the cruise.
So now it’s time to pack. I’ll try to get in a few posts about our pre-cruise planning before we go. Wish us luck!
