How do you get the best cruise discounts?

Here a some basic ideas for getting the best cruise discounts:

1. Take your cruise when most children are in school. As this lower demand results in lowers prices, you want to cruise when most people aren't free to take their vacations.

2. Book either well in advance or at the last-minute (i.e., 3-6 weeks out)-as these are the times when the best cruise discounts can be found.

3. Surf the web for advertised cruise discounts. This will help you the sailings with the lowest demand, but don't buy at the price advertised. As cruise lines only let agencies promote retail prices, you can do better.

4. Once you find a sailing you like, you need to get custom quotes directly from agents. You can contact each agency yourself, or you can put a quote request into a competitive cruise bidding site like CruiseCompete.com and let the agents come to you with their best offers.

5. When you compare offers, always make sure you're comparing apples-to-apples. While all CruiseCompete quotes include all charges to make them easy to compare, many sites don't add all charges until the final booking screen. Also, consider the value of onboard credit provided for your cruise especially on Royal Caribbean-owned lines. An extra $100 in your onboard account is just as good as a $100 discount off of your cruise fare.

There are great deals to be had out there, and just following these simple steps can make a huge difference in the cost of your cruise vacation.