Hotel Sierra - How to Save Money on a Cruise Vacation

If you know how to do it! . . A cruise can be a very affordable vacation, believe it or not. There are still ways to take a trip somewhere exotic without breaking the bank, fortunately. You don't necessarily want to give up your vacation or stay at home for one of those pretend "stay-cations" though. You're looking for ways to save money, if you're like just about everyone else these days.

Save Money on Booking Your Cruise

In addition to the excitement of traveling to a warm climate and escaping our rainy Pacific Northwest winter, and all sorts of free entertainment, all our meals, that includes 7 nights of lodging on the ship. And we are paying less than $250 per person, my mom and I are about to take a 7-day cruise to Mexico. You can save a lot of money, if you do your research. Ever pay the brochure price for a cruise, you should never ever.

There are two key times when you can save money when booking a cruise:

Book very early or book very late.

The cruise lines like to get cabins booked as soon as possible and reward those willing to sign up early. You can save money by booking right away, when a cruise is first scheduled (a year or more in advance).

) (Don't worry-we'll talk about those extras and which ones you might want to avoid to save money. So they can take the loss when it comes to accommodations, they know people are likely to spend on some extras during the cruise, after all. So they will drop their prices drastically to get bodies in those rooms, cruise lines don't make any money off of empty cabins. The prices start dropping a lot, when the sailing date is only a month or so out. Which is what my mom and I did, you can also get awesome deals by booking "last minute" cruises.

Save Money by Cruising Close to Home

You can save a lot of money by avoiding airfare, if you're lucky enough to live near a port where cruise ships depart.

These cruises typically swirl around the Caribbean Islands and the east side of Mexico and sometimes visit other countries on the east side of Central America. Lots of cruises leave out of the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area, in the United States.

The San Diego/Los Angeles area features a lot of cruises to the Mexican Riviera (the Pacific Coast side of Mexico), also.

West coasters might want to take a Hawaii cruise leaving from Los Angeles while east coasters might want to do the Caribbean, for instance. You can still save money on airfare by picking the closer of the major ports, if you don't live in California or Florida.

Save Money by Being Frugal on Board the Cruise Ship

" and shopping at the onboard mall, "alternative restaurants, shore excursions, save money by buying an unlimited soda card), sodas (for frequent soda drinkers, some of the extras that you will pay for on a cruise ship include alcoholic beverages. You don't want to spend a lot of time and energy on saving money booking your vacation only to run up the credit card onboard.

And going ashore to explore on your own instead of booking expensive shore excursions, enjoying the onboard entertainment options, eating at the buffet or free restaurants, but know that you can have a great time simply lounging by the pool, you probably want to enjoy some of the activities.

It's easy to lose track when you're simply swiping to pay everywhere you go. Check the balance often on your room card (which is used like a charge card aboard the ship) to make sure you're not spending more than you want to, also.

And entertainment are all included in the cruise price, transportation to various ports, unlimited food, remember that room! Gives you a great vacation for your money, even with extras, and you'll likely find that a cruise, do some research on your own. That's it for my recommendations on saving money on a cruise vacation, okay.