What exactly constitutes a bargain cruise is more difficult to determine than you might think, as our recent article about bargain cruises shows, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t interested in bargain cruises, however they are to be defined. On the contrary, people are always looking for a bargain, in the realm of cruise vacations or elsewhere, so in this article we explore some of the cruise lines that offer cheap cruises or some type of cruise deals. Strictly speaking, these might not be bargain cruises for the reasons spelled out in the article linked to above, but we can nevertheless unearth which cruise lines offer below-average prices for their vacation packages.
Since there are dozens of cruise lines in the world, we can’t possibly survey every single one, much less report back on the bargain cruises each one of them offers. That would be a monumental undertaking of limited value, especially since there are websites that have updated databases that list cruise specials. There are websites like CruiseDeals.com, which is dedicated specifically to cruising, that aggregate information on deals from several cruise line websites. Such sites, coupled with other websites dedicated to travel deals in general (Orbtiz, Travelocity, etc.), are a good place to start looking for bargain cruises. What we can do is look at examples of cruise lines that offer bargain cruises and explain how these specific deals are indicative of any given deal a cruise line will offer.
Since we mentioned CruiseDeals.com, let’s start our search for cruise lines that offer bargain cruises there. As it turns out, this is an excellent place to begin, as it lists all the different cruise lines that offer deals through the site. There are, to begin, all the major cruise lines that you would expect to offer deals. Royal Caribbean International, Carnival Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Princess Cruises, to list a few examples, are all prominently featured on the CruiseDeals website. There are also a number of smaller cruise lines, like Crystal Cruises, a Japanese luxury cruise line with two cruise ships, that offer deals through the website. As you can see, numerous cruise lines, and in fact most if not all cruise lines, offer bargain cruises, so that’s the general answer to our question “which cruise lines offer bargain cruises?”
But let’s look at a specific cruise line – say, Norwegian Cruise Line because we like their “freestyle cruising” philosophy – to get a sense of the deals we are talking about. To virtually any location that a Norwegian ship sails, you’ll be able to find a deal associated with it, if we are to understand “deal” as a price that is cheaper than the standard fare (although “standard fare” is itself a slippery concept). In order to get these deals, you’ll have to be flexible in how you plan your vacation. You might need to take your cruise during the off-season, when cruise lines offer deals to attract customers, or you might need to book a room on board that doesn’t have a view of the sea. Making adjustments like these is how you find a bargain cruise, and the same applies to most cruise lines.
Bargain cruises are offered by a wide range of cruise lines, but to get these bargains, you have to be open to many different options with respect to your on-board accommodations, your travel dates, and so on. The bottom line is that cruise lines offer bargains – you just need to find them.