Best Place for Cruise Deals out of Charleston, SC?
March 9, 2010 by admin
Filed under Cruise FAQ
I am looking for some suggestions on the best legitimate places to book cruises for 2010 that have a majority depart out of Charleston, SC. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
Only two cruise lines will have departures from Charleston in 2010. This is the web site for that port and it has a calendar for 2010and 2011: http://www.port-of-charleston.com/Cruises/
Celebrity and Carnival are the only options for next year. Thus your options are limited both by the number of cruise ships and dates. Therefore, there is little or no competition to drive down the prices like at high volume ports like Port Canaveral, Ft Lauderdale and Miami.
My suggestion is to go to the web site for each of these cruise lines and search for cruises departing from Charleston.
Carnival: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Search/default.aspx?src=qp&startDate=08/28/2009&cruiseMonth=August&endDate=08/28/2012&Senior=N&PastGuest=N&embkCode=CHS&portName=CHS
Celebrity: http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationSearchResults.do;jsessionid=00009-OEjHXTZE-8mcZv370yhHR:12hdebcnj?cS=HomePage&dest=ANY&date=ANY&ship=ANY&port=CHS&showSailings=CSO&Submit222.x=61&Submit222.y=11&Submit222=Submit
You have two options, a short cruise of 5 days with Carnival or a longer cruise of 10/11 days with Celebrity. The best thing is to look at all of the options on the dates and go when the price is the lowest. Also, you generally always get the best price by booking well in advance and that means a year or more in advance. Once you look at the prices shown on the cruise line web sites, print off the cruises that interest you and then shop online or check to see if a travel agent has a lower price. My bet is you’ll not find a lower price; my experience is the cruise lines have the best prices.
I live only 4 hours drive from Charleston and wish they had more options. What I have done is driven to Port Canaveral (about 10 hrs for me) ( http://www.portcanaveral.com/cruising/cruising.php )and there are more options and better ships and prices. The Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas now cruises out of Port Canaveral and that’s a great ship (just 3 yrs old) with great prices.
If you’re looking for single-day cruises, you will find a few different options departing from Charleston, SC at:
http://www.vacationsmadeeasy.com/CharlestonSC/activity/CharlestonSightseeingCruises.cfm
I hope this helps!
References :
http://www.VacationsMadeEasy.com
Pick the dates you want to travel, check out the websites of various cruise lines and keep track of your research. If you’re a little flexible with your dates, you might be able to get cheaper rates by choosing a different travel date such as a time during hurricane season.
I planned our first two cruises and we’re about to go on our 2nd cruise in 4 weeks. I spend 4 weeks researching various September and October dates, and suddenly one day I got an e-mail from the cruise line advertising Early Bird Specials for the time period I had in mind. I booked this 2nd cruise way back in April and got a better room on a higher deck and for $100 less compared to our first cruise.
To find out which cruise lines depart from there, try web sites such as AAA.com, Expedia.com, and Travelocity.com. Your best bet is to book directly through the cruise lines (not these above mentioned sites) or through a travel agent.
Cruise lines to consider are
Carnival Cruise Lines (Carnival.com) (this is a really fun one!)
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RoyalCaribbean.com)
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL.com)
and I’m sure there are others.
Consider booking now for a winter or spring cruise. BTW: remember college spring breaks…the cruises might be crowded!
Good luck and have fun.
References :
Only two cruise lines will have departures from Charleston in 2010. This is the web site for that port and it has a calendar for 2010and 2011: http://www.port-of-charleston.com/Cruises/
Celebrity and Carnival are the only options for next year. Thus your options are limited both by the number of cruise ships and dates. Therefore, there is little or no competition to drive down the prices like at high volume ports like Port Canaveral, Ft Lauderdale and Miami.
My suggestion is to go to the web site for each of these cruise lines and search for cruises departing from Charleston.
Carnival: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Search/default.aspx?src=qp&startDate=08/28/2009&cruiseMonth=August&endDate=08/28/2012&Senior=N&PastGuest=N&embkCode=CHS&portName=CHS
Celebrity: http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationSearchResults.do;jsessionid=00009-OEjHXTZE-8mcZv370yhHR:12hdebcnj?cS=HomePage&dest=ANY&date=ANY&ship=ANY&port=CHS&showSailings=CSO&Submit222.x=61&Submit222.y=11&Submit222=Submit
You have two options, a short cruise of 5 days with Carnival or a longer cruise of 10/11 days with Celebrity. The best thing is to look at all of the options on the dates and go when the price is the lowest. Also, you generally always get the best price by booking well in advance and that means a year or more in advance. Once you look at the prices shown on the cruise line web sites, print off the cruises that interest you and then shop online or check to see if a travel agent has a lower price. My bet is you’ll not find a lower price; my experience is the cruise lines have the best prices.
I live only 4 hours drive from Charleston and wish they had more options. What I have done is driven to Port Canaveral (about 10 hrs for me) ( http://www.portcanaveral.com/cruising/cruising.php )and there are more options and better ships and prices. The Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas now cruises out of Port Canaveral and that’s a great ship (just 3 yrs old) with great prices.
References :
experienced cruiser