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Booking a cruise for a family vacation or romantic getaway? Cruises can be a great way for extended families to enjoy time together, as they offer activities for kids, adults and seniors.
If you book a cruise strategically with travel rewards credit cards or cash-back cards, you can save money and get extra perks for your trip.
Kiplinger editors have found three methods for saving money on cruises.
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1. Book a cruise with rewards credit cards
If you're a veteran cruiser, you know that booking a cruise can be complicated, especially if you're trying to earn or redeem credit card rewards at the same time.
"The best strategy is to keep it simple and flexible," says Ted Rossman of Creditcards.com. Rossman recommends avoiding cruise-branded credit cards, which typically deliver meager rewards and lock you into one cruise line. Instead, he advises using a flexible travel rewards card or a cash-back card.
Booking with a travel rewards credit card can help you get travel-related perks, such as travel assistance and no foreign transaction fees. Here are some of Rossman's favorite travel cards for maximizing the points you earn when booking a cruise:
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns five points for every dollar booked through its travel portal. Instead of booking directly through the Chase travel portal, you must call a Chase cruise specialist at 1-866-331-0773. Chase works with almost every cruise line except Disney and will match the price of any package you find on a partner cruise website. Chase offers 60,000 bonus points after customers spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months. The annual fee is $95, and interest rates are 20.49% to 27.49% variable APR. The card also offers complimentary access to DashPass, which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card earns five miles for every dollar booked through Capital One Travel and two miles per dollar on all other purchases. New cardholders enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once they spend $4,000 on purchases within three months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel. You can also book a cruise without using the Capital One Travel platform and get reimbursed at the rate of one cent per mile. Need more details? Read Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card — $1,250 Bonus Offer.
If the thought of managing points or miles for booking and redeeming travel sounds like a hassle, keep it simple with one of the best cash-back credit cards. One of the best options for travelers is the Citi Double Cash® Credit Card. This no-fee card offers a nice sign-up bonus: Earn $200 cash back if you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first six months.
Earn 5% total cash back on hotel and car rentals booked on the Citi Travel℠. Get a total of 2% cash back on everything you buy: 1% when you make a purchase and an additional 1% when you pay the bill. Rewards are tracked as Citi ThankYou points, which you can exchange at a rate of 1 cent apiece for a statement credit, direct deposit into your bank account or a check. Rates are 18.24% to 28.24% variable APR.
2. Use a Costco or BJ's membership
Costco
If you're a fan of the perks a Costco Membership can offer, check out the company's travel discounts.
Costco cruise packages, especially those under the store's Kirkland brand, are some of the cheapest on the market. Costco also partners with Disney and other major cruise lines.
An entry-level Costco membership costs $65 per year.
BJ's
BJ's Wholesale Club members receive up to a $500 BJ gift card when they book a cruise through the company's travel portal. BJ's offers discounts on major cruise lines, as well as everything you might need to get to the departure dock, such as airfare, rental cars and hotels.
The lowest membership tier costs $55 per year.
Both Costco and BJ's provide last-minute deals on cruises, some of which are incredibly cheap.
For example, Costco is advertising a five-night cruise on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship to Cabo and Ensenada, Mexico for $349 per person, plus taxes and fees.
BJ's touts a four-day Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas and Florida starting at $233 per person.
Both these deals are for "interior" rooms with no windows or portholes, which can be acceptable to cruisers on a budget.
3. Use travel agents
Remember travel agents? The internet decimated the industry with such sites as Expedia, but it has adapted. Using a travel agent to plan a trip can provide clients with real value and save on time and hassle. This is especially true when booking a cruise, which is exceptionally complicated.
A good travel agent can help you find a great deal, understand pricing tiers and perks and help keep track of multiple payment deadlines. Best yet, you don't pay the travel agent any direct fees — those are typically covered by cruise lines commissions.
To find a reputable agent, ask family and friends who cruise if they have recommendations. Vet agencies by reading reviews from the Better Business Bureau, and consider looking for an accredited agent, such as through the American Society of Travel Agents’ consumer site, Travel Sense.
Other considerations
The cruise industry is not always pretty — think of how often norovirus outbreaks put passengers at risk and ruined vacations in the past few years.
Cruises are also very polluting, with a typical ship having a carbon footprint of 12,000 cars. Surprisingly, cruise ships emit more carbon dioxide per passenger than airplanes, and they discharge billions of gallons of toxic waste into the ocean.
If environmental issues are important to you, look for a cruise line with solid policies and practices.
For a sense of how clean and sanitary a cruise ship or cruise line is, search the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advanced Cruiseship Inspection Search tool.
As an independent publication dedicated to helping you make the most of your money, the article above is our view and is not the opinion of any entity mentioned such as a card issuer, hotel, airline, etc. Similarly, the content has not been reviewed or endorsed by any of those entities.
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