How to find the best cruise deals

Cruise holidays aren’t cheap – but you can keep costs down if you shop around.

We’ve worked out how much you could save by booking early, using an agent and organising your own flights and excursions. And did you know you should keep an eye on prices even after you’ve booked? 

Our research also found it rarely makes sense to splash out on a drinks package.

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1. Don’t book too early

Cruises go on sale between 12 to 30 months before departure, but don’t assume early-bird fares are bargains. We checked prices for Royal Caribbean’s seven-night Eastern Caribbean cruise, which you can book up to two and a half years in advance. A balcony cabin cost £1,781pp for May 2024 – £1,275 cheaper than for April 2025 (£3,056pp), and £507 cheaper than for April 2026 (£2,288pp).

When you find a cruise you like the look of, compare fares across different months and look out for promotions. Set up a price alert at cruisewatch.com or cruiseline.com to get an email when the price drops. Cruise lines often advertise the price of an interior cabin, but other cabin types can be cheaper on different departure dates.

See how passengers rated Royal Caribbean for cabin quality, customer service and value for money in our ocean cruise lines survey, and find Royal Caribbean cruise deals.

2. Use an agent

Travel agents are often able to give a better range of discounts or deals than would be on offer by going direct to cruise lines. Some get special offers from certain cruise lines or split their commission with you, so they can pass that discount on to the customer. For example, we found a balcony room on P&O’s 14-night Caribbean cruise for £2,061pp on vivavoyages.co.uk, rather than £2,099pp direct – a saving of £76 per couple.

And don't just stick to one cruise agent. There's often some wiggle room if you're happy to haggle. Even if agents can't beat the cruise line's own rate, they can sometimes offer sweeteners such as on-board credit, prepaid gratuities or add-on tours.

Solo travellers can search for cruises that don’t charge a single supplement on vacationstogo.com – a US travel agent. If you’re paying in dollars or euros, consider paying in full at the time of booking if the exchange rate is favourable.

3. Buy your own flights

Flight-inclusive deals from cruise lines give you peace of mind in case of flight delays or cancellations (in which case the ship will wait for you). Sometimes they offer great rates, too, as they bulk-buy seats. But, in some cases, buying your own flights can be significantly cheaper.

Lots of cruise lines with flight-inclusive deals give a discount or credit of between £150pp and £500pp on Mediterranean voyages if you organise your own flights (P&O is the exception because it charters planes).

When we looked, Princess’s cheapest flight quote for a cruise beginning in Barcelona and ending in Rome was £245pp. We found the same flights for £120pp, so a couple would save £250 by booking their own.

If you do book your own flight, make sure you're aware of your cruise consumer rights. It may be that if your flight is delayed or cancelled, you won't be able to get a refund on the cruise (unless your travel insurance covers it). And if you choose to catch up with the cruise, it will be at your own expense.

Want to know what cruise insurance covers? Every year, Which? rates the best and worst cruise insurance policies

4. Look out for promotions – even after you’ve booked

After you’ve booked, keep an eye on the price of your cruise. If it drops, contact whoever you booked with and ask for the cheaper price. One Which? Travel reader told us he’s received substantial price cuts and perks by doing this. 

He added: 'Norwegian upgraded us from an interior to a balcony cabin for free. They were running a promotion: a free upgrade to a balcony cabin if you booked an oceanview cabin. So I asked if I could upgrade to an oceanview room and pay the difference – and they upgraded me to a balcony cabin without charging.'

5. Save on drinks on board

Cruising and boozing can be very bad for your wallet, especially if you travel with one of the big US-based cruise lines that whack a service charge on top. A glass of wine on board a Princess ship, for example, ends up costing around £9.

Think you can cut costs by bringing your own drinks on board? Think again. Very few cruise lines allow this (the exceptions are P&O, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Disney, but only for limited amounts). 

Most cruise companies sell all-inclusive drinks packages, so you don’t have to worry about running up a huge bar bill. But when we added up how much you’d need to consume with P&O, Cunard, Princess, Celebrity & Fred Olsen to get your money’s worth, we found it rarely makes sense to pay full price for a drinks package (our guide Is a cruise drinks package worth it? lists the prices of drinks packages, beers, wines and soft drinks for each cruise line).

For example, Celebrity’s costs $107 (£88) per person after you add on its 20% service charge. So you’d need to put away 13 beers (around £7 each) or 10 glasses of wine (£9 each) every day for a package to save you money. 

Keep an eye out for promotions – drinks packages are often heavily discounted or thrown in for free in cruise sales. If you’ve already bought a package and spot a better deal, check if you can cancel for free and take advantage of the lower price – many cruise lines allow you to cancel up to two or three days before you set sail.

6. Save on shore excursions

Most cruise lines sell excursions at exorbitant prices, and you’ll save money if you go it alone or book with a third party.  

We looked at the shore excursions offered by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) on its eight-day Mediterranean Italy, France and Spain cruise, and found similar options for a lot less. When we checked, NCL’s Sorrento and Amalfi tour was £229pp, whereas Shore Excursions Group’s Classical Rome tour was $179pp (£148).

Companies such as Shore Excursions Group guarantee they will get you back to your ship in plenty of time, but promise to get you to the next port of call if there’s an unavoidable delay. 

Booking with a local company is likely to be even cheaper, but allow plenty of time to get back to the ship. For example, NCL’s bus tour is £98pp – five times the price of a hop-on-hop-off bus tour with sightsofathens.gr which stops at the cruise port at Piraeus and costs €20pp (£17). You can ask cruise-goers for alternatives to shore excursions and local recommendations on cruisecritic.co.uk’s forum.

The cheapest option is to go it alone. In Athens, the metro will whisk you from Piraeus to the city centre in 30 minutes and there’s a free shuttle bus in the cruise terminal (€2.40/£2.10). Make sure you check how far the port is from the city or attraction, and the logistics and cost of transport options.

Check how passengers rated Norwegian for shore excursions, on-board facilities and value for money in our recent survey, and find Norwegian cruise deals.

7. Consider going all-inclusive

Some brands lure you in with a low headline price, but costly add-ons soon mount up once you’re on board – from drinks and premium restaurants to wi-fi and service charges.

Our research found that P&O passengers on a seven-night cruise can expect to fork out around £400 extra per week for a drinks package, a couple of speciality dinners and wi-fi. Holidaymakers on Cunard or Princess cruises also have to cough up for service and daily gratuities. We estimate Cunard guests could shell out £600 a week for these add-ons, while Princess customers could end up paying more than £650.

Noble Caledonia, Saga and Viking – which include everything from wi-fi to excursions in the headline fare – were among the top-rated ocean cruise lines in our survey of 1,700 passengers. Tui’s cruise line Marella – which doesn’t charge extra for drinks or tips – was also among the top brands, which all received at least four out of five stars for value for money.

Marella charges a higher price upfront than P&O, Cunard and Princess, but we found its Mediterranean cruises end up costing less once you factor in the add-ons.

Read our reviews of Marella, Saga, Viking and Noble Caledonia and how passengers rated other cruise lines, and find Marella, Saga, Viking and Noble Caledonia cruise deals.