Arthur Frommer in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned that it was only two or three years ago that the Cruise Industry had announced that there would be no more discounting of fares by travel agents or other dealers who handled their tickets. Well you just have to be flexible and ready to take advantage of whatever opportunities come knocking. With the slowing of economies and rising cost of fuel the cruise lines are offering some of the biggest discounts to be seen in years. This fall and winter everyone can take advantage of budget travel and no one should be paying the regular price for their vacation.
Most of the large discounts seem to be available for cruises that originate out of Miami and these discounts aren’t only for the lower priced lines but are extending to such fine ships as Celebrity’s Century where you can find an inside cabin for a 5 night cruise starting December 15 at just $339. This cruise will take you to several ports of call in the eastern Caribbean. There are several other dates available with fares that are comparable to those savings.
If you care to leave from Tampa then can you imagine budget travel on Celebrity’s Grandeur of the Seas on a 10 day voyage in a balcony room that will cost you only $69.00 per day? If you have any interest in these discounted offers then be sure to contact onlinevacationcenter.com or call 1-800-329-9002 for more information.
Auctions have always been a lot of fun and usually they are a great place to make your purchases at a bargain price. For those of you who have been around the internet for a while there is Priceline.com which allows you to make bids on car rentals, hotel stays and airline tickets. Skyauction.com is there too and they allow you to bid on nearly anything that has to do with travel. This week one of the major airlines has offered 300 roundtrip tickets for two and six vacation packages on ebay auctions.
Jetblue is offering the tickets through their ebay store this week and the flights will have to be completed before October 6, 2008. To get a little more attention and make the auctions more fun, four of the vacation packages are being offered as “mystery vacations” with the actual destinations not revealed until the end of the auctions.
To get in on the auction action you need to go to
http://www.jetblue.com/ebay and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Go To Our Store. There you will find all the details on the various destinations and the dates you will need to fly. It should not be difficult to get a good buy on tickets if you would like to travel sometime in the next four weeks. Budget travel hasn’t died yet, just don’t get caught up in “auction fever”.