Luxury cruise lines Deals

Free-flowing champagne, spacious suites, gourmet meals served on fine china, charming travel companions and pampered service. It’s the way we'd all like to cruise, right? If only we could afford it.

The good news is luxury cruise lines are offering more discounts and other enticements to get us onboard than ever before.

Now is the right time to buy. You're going to see a lot of deals," says Michelle Fee, CEO of national retailer Cruise Planners. "Luxury cruise lines want to know now they have people on their ships in 2012."

The top lines are pulling out perks, Michelle Fee adds, including free air, two-for-one deals, complimentary shore excursions and shipboard credits, which customers can use to purchase massages and other onboard treats.

"With the stock market as it is, up and down, luxury is the first to go," Fee says. "The cruise lines realize no matter what category of customer you are, you want a deal."

Here are some ways to land luxury cruise savings.

Take a shorter cruise 

No one says you need to cruise for a week. Take a shorter cruise and you can sample the product before making a bigger commitment. Mass market lines have offered this for years - the idea being you try it, you like it, just as in taking a luxury car out for a test drive.

In this realm, luxury line Crystal Cruises will offer its shortest cruise to date this fall, a six-day sailing, departing Nov. 10, from Athens to Venice, on the 1,080-passenger Crystal Serenity. Fares are from $2,995 per person, including air from New York, and a $500 shipboard credit. By comparison, the line's 10- to 13-day Med cruises this fall start at $7,025.

Cunard has a short cruise options. You can see how the other half lives on the 2,592-passenger ocean liner Queen Mary 2 next July 13. A two-day cruise from Southampton, U.K., let's you indulge in a Queen's Grill Suite - the kind of accommodations the rich and famous inhabit - from $1,585 per person.

Cruise off-season 

As with hotels and airlines, cruise lines also have prime seasons and shoulder seasons. Fall and early winter are slower periods - spring is another - and the lines serve up some of the best deals of the year, especially on late-season cruises in Europe and early-season cruises in the Caribbean and other warm weather spots.

Luxury small ship operator SeaDream Yacht Club has weeklong Caribbean cruises on sale from $2,599 in November on the identical 116-passenger SeaDream I and II. The published brochure price for the same sailings, from San Juan to Antigua or St. Thomas, is $6,900 per person.

Crystal Cruises is marketing a 10-day Mexican Riviera cruise, during the slow period between the holidays, with sale prices from $1,995 per person, about the lowest you're likely to see from the posh line. The sailing embarks Dec. 11.

Watch for targeted cruise specials 

Luxury cruise lines sometimes roll out deals geared toward specific types of travelers such as singles or grandparents traveling with grandkids. Single travelers can get stuck with supplements as high as 200%, since cruise pricing is based on two passengers sharing a cabin.

Deluxe line Silversea took a lead in addressing this crunch by offering supplements of 10% to 25% above double-occupancy fares on select sailings. The line is also currently giving a shipboard credit and free air on select sailings. A weeklong Caribbean cruise on the 382-passenger Silver Whisper from Barbados on Nov. 1, 2012, for a single passenger, is priced from $3,498 with free air and a $250 shipboard credit. Bonus for women: Gentlemen hosts are onboard as dance partners.

Check fares to see what's included 

What's included in the fare varies by luxury line. Seabourn, Silversea, Regent Seven SeasCruises and, starting next year, Crystal, all include wine and liquor, alternative restaurants and gratuities.

Top-of-the-line Seabourn has a cruise on the 208-passenger Seabourn Pride priced from $3,999 per person, for a 12-day Aegean autumn sailing from Rome (Civitavecchia) to Istanbul on Oct. 15. That's $333 per day, including the extras.

Free air and shore excursions can also bring substantial savings.

Regent sweetens the pot with free round-trip air and unlimited shore excursions, plus two-for-one fares for its remaining 2011 cruises. A 10-day Caribbean cruise from Fort Lauderdale on the 490-passenger Seven Seas Navigator, Nov. 18, is priced from $4,099 per person.