Travel expert reveals a "secret" trick that will help you get cheap cruise vacations

Going on vacation can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it, and many of us are looking to cut costs as much as possible. Tips from a travel industry expert show how you can make luxury much more affordable.

With the cost of living crisis gripping us all over the past few years, millions of us have flocked to airlines like Ryanair for the cheapest flights to fly to some of the most beautiful places on earth. However, what if you dream of a cruise, because the prices for this type of vacation are extremely high, ladbible.com writes.

According to the Cruise Line Industry Association, the average cost of a seven-day cruise per person is $1,700 (£1,339). For example, the cost of a cabin with a balcony can vary from $800 to $8,000 for a week in the Caribbean. And then there's the "crazy" cost of Wi-Fi, which cruise ships stubbornly defend.

But there is a "secret" way to reduce the cost of a cruise ship vacation if that's something you really want to try. TikTok user @covertrip regularly gives travel tips to his more than 110,000 subscribers. In one of his videos, he talks about "an amazing way to get a great deal on a cruise".

He explains: "It's a secret that travel agents know about, but even cruise lines have to keep it a secret. Sometimes cruise lines have empty cabins that they can't sell. Perhaps it's an unpopular date or airfare to the port of departure has become too expensive."

"In any case, they have empty cabins and they want to get rid of them completely, so they need to lower the price. But if they were to publicly lower the price on their website, people who paid full price would be upset. That's why they send out these silent offers. So they send these silent offers to travel agencies that specialize in cruises."

There are two ways to find these unpublished prices, he says. The first is to search the Internet for agencies that specialize in cruises and sign up for their email lists. This is how they will send out these secret offers, says @covertrip. - Next, when you search online and see a button that says "call for pricing," call them. Talking to a real person is another way to find these unpublished rates."

On Reddit, those who have been on cruise ships talk about how they managed to get these cheaper fares. One user said: "We called these sites twice. Once they had a better price. The other time they didn't. There was no pushy sales pitch or anything like that, we just called and they gave us the price."

Another person said that in their experience, cruise lines can give you a discount through access to group fare discounts. They said: "It's usually group fares that they have access to. If they have a group fare for a particular cruise, they'll add you to that group and give you some additional discount."

Earlier, Travel Wise wrote that the cruise line Fred Olsen Cruise Line has announced two new luxury trips.