I have mixed feelings about this offer, as I'm not sure if it will always add up to real savings. But here are some of the factors you may want to look at before booking:
- Orbitz is not generally known for getting the best overall prices on cruises by which I mean it seems less likely to offer such valuable extras as free upgrades and on-board ship credits than other cruise-only agencies do. So be sure you're getting more gimmes than other agencies are offering before you book.
- The shore excursion offered is not one of the official tours sold by the cruise lines. Instead, it's from an outside company partnered with Orbitz. So when you're crunching all the numbers, be sure to factor in the original cost of these shore excursions before booking to make sure the deal's worth it.
- Alas, the freebie only goes to one passenger per cabin. Unless you like to divide up for your days on shore, here's another reason to look at the cost of the Orbitz shore excursions before booking.
If you decide that all is kosher with this promotion, act quickly. Bookings must be made before the end of this month to get the freebie. The freebie applies to cruises to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Caribbean and Mexico on NCL, RCL, Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America and Princess. Click
here for more information.
Hi, listen, I'm pretty new on this blogosphere and Internet thing, so I don't know if there's a sort of "subscription" method that I can use in order to receive notifications of your new entries...? Thing is I enjoy reading your blog a lot and I'd like to be up to date with your posts!
ReplyDeleteI just booked a Carnival cruise with Orbitz for a first time and have to tell you that Orbitz offer of "free shore excursion" is completely misleading to the customers.
ReplyDeleteI've been on many cruises before and booked several excursions but with other agencies and had NEVER been tricked like this.
First of all, the list of excursions is very different than Carnival offers (I found out it ONLY after booking a cruise with Orbitz, booking agent clearly told me to go on Carnival website and pick a excursion I want and I did and it wasn't included in this offer), second of all, it is not "free" it's $70.00 off, so if the excursion costs more than $70 you would have to pay extra. That I found out AFTER booking the cruise as well. And after I finally booked the excursion I wasn't really interested in because Orbitz didn't have any similar to what I've seen on Carnival: the ride to the place was NOT included. YOU MUST BE KIDDING ME! They couldn't organize a ride for $70 excursion? Couldn't they make $75 instead if that's the money issue? I go on the cruise by myself and I simply don't feel safe to get a taxi in a foreign county I don't speak the language. And you call it "free" excursion? Who knows how much more taxi ride is going to cost as well? It makes me wonder: if I get to the place who knows what other "surprises" I might experience? So I have to make a decision not to go at all.
Like I said I've booked several excursion with Carnival before: everything was VERY well organized, from the start to finish, no gimmicks, no hidden costs, to tricks and transportation was ALWAYS included in the cost of excursion!
If someone new will have this experience he/she might think that all cruises are so poorly organized but that's so not true. I wouldn't be coming back! No wonder Orbitz advertise that their excursions are less crowed. Who wants to experience this? Keep finding out what is not included as you go and you can't do anything about it?!
Thank God I haven't actually paid that $70 dollars, but I'm sure I'll NEVER book a cruise with Orbitz again! I have been completely fooled! This is how I feel about this experience!