Booking US Cruises from Australia

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  Cheapo Moose on 09/01/2018 - 16:59

  I've been on a few overseas cruises and have always booked directly through the cruise line.

  I've never seen the point of using a travel agent when all the information and bookings are readily available online.

  Most cruise lines have an Australian website where everything is in AUD.

  You can still book using the US website but you must be mindful of exchange rates.

  If you pay a deposit on the Australian website you know exactly what you'll be paying, regardless of fluctuating exchange rates.

  While sometimes it may be cheaper to book an say the US website, the dollar might tank before you pay off the entire cruise and you could end up paying a lot more. This goes both ways though.

  I don't believe there's many traps to fall into, pretty simple these days.

  We're planning a Florida holiday in October (7 days Disneyworld, 7 night cruise from Fort Lauderdale) and we're doing everything online.

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    mattson on 09/01/2018 - 17:42

    Yep - that's good advice - was considering that there isn't a huge difference between the NCL AU page and the NCL US page with conversions/taxes etc. I hadn't considered changes in $$ with the exchange rates though - I figure booking this close, we'll probably have to pay all upfront any way.

    Cheers

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  try2bhelpful on 09/01/2018 - 17:03

  The only gotcha I know is the number of cruises out of Miami that seem to be affected by Norovirus. You might want to be mindful of your hygiene routine.

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    mattson on 09/01/2018 - 17:43

    Yeah I hear ya, and unfortunately it might not even be your own hygiene, some grub could cough in the buffett and ruin it for everyone…

    thanks for the feedback though

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  pencilman on 09/01/2018 - 17:54

  +1

  Check carefully what is covered by the cruise fare.

  For example, in Australia the cruise companies are supposed to quote a price inclusive of the compulsory gratuities, whereas US quotes never include gratuities.

  Also check for any unexpected taxes and charges.

  It’s often hard to compare like for like.

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    ozzguy on 09/01/2018 - 23:59

    Yes, very hard to compare, but you have to be careful once onboard as the cruiseline will automatically charge the daily gratuities where it's probably already been charged in the cruise fare for Australians. We had a struggle to get the extra gratuities taken off our account when we had already paid for it as the cruise fare.

    The US fare may look cheap but add tax, port fees,gratuities, currency conversion rate and it mightn't be much different anyway.

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    dane45 on 10/01/2018 - 08:39

    Pencilman is spot on. I booked a cruise on the NCL Pearl that was chartered for a different company (Sixthman) and here's a few things that got me:
    *- There's a per-day gratuity charge which is added to your account on the cruise (this is standard for a lot of cruises, but something that's easy to forget)
    * The advertised price for drinks packages was "Only $xx.xx per day!" but when purchasing, I found out that tax and gratuities were added on to that
    * Even with the drinks package, when we were in port we had to pay the state taxes for drinks