How Much I Saved Booking a Cruise Through Costco Travel

Table Of Content

• Planning my cruise activities through Royal Caribbean
• You might want to avoid booking a cruise through Costco Travel if you…
• Things to know when booking Costco cruises
• Are Costco cruises a good deal?
• Costco cruise deals: How to save money booking travel at a warehouse club
• Airline Reward Programs
• How Much I Saved Booking a Cruise Through Costco Travel

There's nothing Randy likes more than the first couple of hours on a ship, exploring every nook and cranny and seeing how it's different from everything else out there. He's known for providing detailed and analytical coverage of cruising to help cruisers get a comprehensive picture of a ship's offerings. Their automated system said it’d be about 20 – 30 minutes to speak to a representative, so I put my phone on speaker and waited. This time can vary a lot; I called once before and got an agent in 5 minutes; other times, it was an hour, so I hung up and called later.

Planning my cruise activities through Royal Caribbean

These groups are not affiliated with the cruise line and are often created by a fellow passenger, but it gives you a great place to get ideas and input about your specific cruise. Today, someone in the Facebook group for this cruise posted that they saw a price decrease today. I repriced the cruise on Costco Travel’s website, and saw the price was now $220 lower. I called up Costco Travel and was connected to an agent in about 5 minutes. He verified that I could be eligible for the price drop and then he called Royal Caribbean to get it changed. He was on hold about 35 minutes to make that change, but kept checking in to let me know he was waiting on the cruise line.

You might want to avoid booking a cruise through Costco Travel if you…

The Costco cruise deal was slightly better, especially if it really did come with shipboard credit. That's free money for you to spend, either in a Costco warehouse or on the ship – especially as Costco cruises typically have competitive fares. It's not like you're paying more than you would by booking directly and getting the difference in Costco money. Also, if you're an Executive Member, you earn 2% back on qualifying Costco purchases (up to $1,000), including many travel purchases. With cruises, you'd earn the 2% back on the cruise fare but not on the taxes, fees, auto-gratuities, other surcharges and trip protection.

Things to know when booking Costco cruises

There is an option to book flights through some vacation packages, but if you're only looking for airfare, you'll want to head to Google Flights to check out your options and book. You can, however, use a future cruise credit from a cruise line to pay for all or part of your Costco cruise. Your shop card amount will be determined by the cost of the cruise fare, not how you pay for it. So, if you use FCC to pay for your entire sailing, you will still get the shop card based on the invoice price. Costco only accepts Visa and MasterCard for cruise booking payments. You will not be able to use your American Express and earn Membership Rewards points for your vacation purchase.

Are Costco cruises a good deal?

If you’re a Costco member, you can book travel or rental cars through the website CostcoTravel.com. It’s technically a separate company from Costco, and you won’t see any of these offers in the Warehouse. Still, the vendor has to go through a pretty stringent selection and review process to get to use the Costco name, and they must offer certain deals and benefits to Costco customers. I’ve booked rental cars through this website in the past and had a great experience and got a great price. Costco has over 800 locations worldwide -- find a warehouse near you here.

Costco cruise deals: How to save money booking travel at a warehouse club

I promptly told her we'd probably be better off booking directly and brushed off the idea of booking through Costco — neither of us even had a membership at the time. Its cruise change and cancellation policies are simply what the cruise lines put in place themselves. Costco Travel boasts "exclusive Costco member rates," but are you really getting a deal? I priced out three sailings on different cruise lines to see how much you could potentially save by booking a Costco cruise. Typically, Costco Travel offers competitive rates on cruises, so you can either find a discounted deal or at least pay a similar rate offered by other travel sellers. In the past, when planning a cruise, I’ve either booked directly through the cruise line or through a travel agent.

CardMatch

Why This Costco Member Has Booked 4 Vacations Through Costco Travel -- and Plans to Book More - The Motley Fool

Why This Costco Member Has Booked 4 Vacations Through Costco Travel -- and Plans to Book More.

Posted: Sat, 22 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

It’s hard to be sure, though, because of all the stipulations, so I gave them a call to see. The Digital Costco Shop Cards can be used for Costco warehouse purchases (a game changer with grocery prices so high due to inflation), but you can also use them toward future Costco Travel bookings. You could use a Digital Costco Shop Card to buy a new flat-screen TV for movie nights and game days, a new outdoor patio setup ahead of summer or even Costco Pharmacy prescriptions. While Costco had a deal available for the same resort, we happened to be booking when the resort chain was having a Mother's Day sale for anyone booking directly. When planning our annual beach trip back in 2022, my best friend found a few options for Mexican all-inclusive resorts on Costco Travel and shared the links with me.

Airline Reward Programs

Norwegian cruises even feature free perks, such as a photo package or spa credit, that are combinable with the line's Free at Sea value-adds offered to everyone. Celebrity cruise deals were the ones centered around food-and-wine theme cruise perks, while Costco Carnival cruise deals typically offer both onboard credit and a Costco shop card. She was friendly and, using my Costco travel booking number, pulled up all the information to confirm. I said that it looked like the cruise was cheaper on the website and is it possible to make a price adjustment. She looked at my reservation and ran the numbers, and said it looked like I was correct. She put me on call and then called Royal Caribbean to see about the adjustment.

How Much I Saved Booking a Cruise Through Costco Travel

I've personally had a lot of success booking friends getaways to popular destinations like Mexico through Costco. Using the service has helped me save on other expenses with the Digital Costco Shop Card I've gotten with my bookings. And since Hotel Wailea isn't a member of any major hotel loyalty program, booking through Costco Travel wouldn't mean missing out on elite night credits or other loyalty program benefits. Even without including the additional benefits, you're already saving more than $400 via the Costco deal. Trips booked through Costco Travel are often discounted and/or include perks and benefits you may not get by booking directly or through other booking portals. Usually, a trip booked through Costco Travel will also include a Digital Costco Shop Card (essentially a type of Costco gift card) of varying value.

Overall the process with Costco Travel was simple and I still am really impressed with the service. Again, the only thing I wish is that they monitored the prices and adjusted them accordingly. I am typically a staunch proponent of booking directly, but Costco Travel is an exception. Even when you do find availability, you should always price-check what you can find by booking directly or through your credit card travel portal and hotel programs. Costco isn't just the place where you can buy toilet paper in bulk, inexpensive gas, cheap hot dogs and gift cards. You can also book great trips via the company's online travel agency, Costco Travel.

Right up front, the website listed this itinerary as a “Kirkland Signature Cruise,” which meant it had special prices and benefits. I couldn’t see what those benefits were until I created an account with my Costco membership number. Most of the process was pretty standard for a cruise booking website. You start by picking your sailing, then entering the number of guests and the type of room you want. The only part that got confusing was when I had to choose the actual cabin. Costco cruises are priced competitively, especially when you factor in the shop card or shipboard credit available with every purchase.

That's because low fares and value-added extras are hallmarks of Costco cruise bookings. Combine that with generally friendly service from the warehouse club's travel agents, and you might have another way to get maximum value out of your membership. In the end, booking through Costco Travel was not much different than if I booked through Royal Caribbean. The letter below was left in our cabin around 6 PM on the first day.