Our Cruise-Finding Tutorial

1. Know your limits. We had an exact $$ amount that we weren't willing to go above, lending us the ability to quickly determine the possibilities.

2. Figure out when you want to go. Our ultimate goal was to cruise during our anniversary, but in our search process, we went with the entire month of July realizing that any given week can have a different room rate.

3. Decide on length. For us, it came down to making the most of time off. Cliff's philosophy was that if he was going to take five full days off from work, he wanted to add in the weekend days and take the longest cruise possible for the money. You know, getting the bang for our buck. Therefore, we had 9 days to work with and on a 7-night cruise, like the one we're taking, you're gone for 8 days if you manage to schedule your flights as such. We'll be gone from early Sunday morning to the following Sunday afternoon, giving us both some time to recoup from the trip before going to work the next day.

4. Start searching. For me, this started with expedia.com, orbitz.com, and kayak.com, which each helped me get a general idea of what was out there that was within our price, date, and length range. I left the search open to each of the individual cruise lines so that I knew what was out there for each, because I didn't have a preference either way. In the end, Royal Caribbean and Carnival became the evident choices for the summer. Then, with that information, I went on to both Royal Caribbean.com and Carnival.com to get the specific rates quoted by the companies for those dates.

6. Start a list. I would have gone crazy without some sort of method for keeping track of the choices we had (because there are so many). Post-its strewn everywhere turned into a color-coded excel sheet where I could keep track of each ship/itinerary including calculations for total price based on room rates, flights (which we hoped to get through Southwest for wherever we were going, without the need to drive an hour to the port), port shuttles, taxes, and fuel charges (most cruiselines charge $5 per person per day). Then, I sorted them based on approximate price and we drew a line right where our price cut off was (realizing there would be more to pay for including excursions, tips, drinks, pictures, souvenirs, etc.). If you're not the excel type, notebooks work well too.

5. Make the location decision. For us, this was the hardest part, simply because we had so many options. When we first started, I wanted Alaska. And then the Mexican Riviera, and then somewhere in the Caribbean. We're waiting on Alaska 'til we're a bit older (not ancient) and can't enjoy the fun-in-the-sun days quite as much. Then, we decided against Mexican Riviera and Baja (Pacific Mexico) because we want to see whales and the summer is when they're all up north. Winter is when they're down south breeding. And finally, as far as the Caribbean went, our honeymoon was in St. Lucia which is part of the Eastern Caribbean, which we loved, but wanted somewhere new. Knowing I still wanted to go to Mexico and having the option of going to Belize, which is a country I have been fascinated with ever since my marine biology and rainforest-loving President of the Environmental Club days (it is home to the second largest Barrier Reef in the world), the West became a clear winner, as did Carnival, because it was the only line sailing the WC in our price range.

6. Consult the masses. I am a consumer review, nutjob. I love reading them, writing them, no kidding. I found a website called cruisecritic.com which is the be-all, end-all for cruiseline reviews, cruise itinerary reviews, advice on excursions, advice for first-timers, and so much more. I went straight to reviews for our particular ship (the Legend) and clicked on each of the reviews for our particular location. Reading each in detail, I got a good feel for what our trip would be like and that it was, by and large, one of the most well-rated ships and itineraries Carnival sails. So we felt confident with the choice.

6. Get competitive. With our preferred trip and dates in hand, and a general idea of how much it would cost to go through the cruiseline, we went to our travel agent for better rates. Unfortunately, we kind of got the shaft from her because we think her agency gets better return from Royal Caribbean, so we kindly ignored her pleas for us to travel outside of our price range on RC. With that, I was on a mission to get an unbiased quote from some travel agent somewhere. The skies opened up and I stumbled upon a website called cruisecompete.com where internet agencies compete for your business by posting their best quote for the trip of your choice. You simply create an account, put in your trip information, and let them know what the best quote you've gotten so far is. We got multiple responses within the day, and after calling around to a few of them (even the ones that didn't have the best quote, just to see about Guarantee rooms, etc.) I felt the most comfortable with the one that ended up getting us the best deal on our preferred sail date. And that was that!

7. Don't look back. After making the deposit, we're in and we're now in the stages of planning our excursions. With four stops along the way, we have a lot to choose from in the way of activities and I'm being rather diligent still with my consumer reviews to find the best, most enjoyable ways for us to spend our time in port. As for the cruise itself, we're looking forward to eating, celebrating one wonderful year of marriage, and sunning ourselves beside the pool with 24-hour views of the ocean. What could there be to doubt about that?!


I feel like I may have left some key advice out of this, seeing as it's been such a long process for us, so if you happen to have any furthur questions, feel free to ask. We are by no means experts, just cruise-virgins who are hoping all of their due diligence pays of in the end. We'll see!