See What The Press Has to Say About Cruise Compete! CruiseCompete Blog

Table Of Content

• Cruise Buying Tip: Prices Are Often the Same Across Every Site
• Using Cruise Compete Website for quotes and bookings
• Time sensitive offers directly from the cruise lines
• Get the Best Cruise Deals
• Booking Direct Through Cruise Line Websites
• Ways to Plan Your Cruise Dining Experience

That’s where having the phone number to call an agent of the company directly is a big help in getting things explained. For more on getting the best deal on a cruise, see our 10 Rules to Getting the Best Deal on a Cruise here. As you can see, they all have the exact same rates. That means you don’t have to run yourself ragged trying to find the best deal. We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform.

Cruise Buying Tip: Prices Are Often the Same Across Every Site

Ron our Guide (originally from Holland) was excellent - so polite, informative and friendly. The tour was in a jeep with deep cushioned bench seats and back rests. We recognised some of the sights from musical film South Pacific (Bali High). Above all, remember the age-old rule that if something sounds too good to be true, it likely is. Be wary of any websites advertising cruise deals that are significantly less than the same cruise priced elsewhere. In addition, these sites feature their phone number prominently for those who wish to talk to a person about their reservation.

Using Cruise Compete Website for quotes and bookings

It’s a milestone worth celebrating and showcasing to clients, partners, and the industry as a whole. Since 2011, and year after year  Kiplinger.com lists CruiseCompete as one of the best 26 secrets to save on travel. Get FREE email communications from Fodor's Travel, covering must-see travel destinations, expert trip planning advice, and travel inspiration to fuel your passion. The other disadvantage is that you need to be a member of Costco to book.

Time sensitive offers directly from the cruise lines

What if I book on a website and the price drops? It’s possible that if you book one day, the next day the price may go down. The good news is that the price is unlikely to move much (unlike airfare). In addition to the large cruise aggregators, there are a number of smaller websites focused solely on cruises. So should you just find any random site and book your cruise? Below we lay out the advantages and disadvantage of booking with each different type of website.

But there are differences on where you book. CruiseCompete travel advisors can assist with deals, details and sailings. It goes against our guidelines to offer incentives for reviews. We also ensure all reviews are published without moderation. I booked 2 tours with Cruise Compete1st tour Exclusive Mykonos Old and New was successful. 2nd tour BOOKED was Highlights of CorfuWith the 2nd tour I reported to Travel Co and duly commenced the tour.

This includes Costco Shop Cards — a gift card to the store. In other words, these sites are more akin to having your own travel agent to help you with the booking process compared to only a website. These websites are similar to the large aggregator websites in that they can help you search through every cruise out there to find the best deal. Think of all the options you have to consider — the length of your trip, the cruise line, the ship, the date, ports of call, and more. And that’s before you even decide on which website to use to book your cruise. Digging further, the incentive applied only to certain cruises, despite being heavily promoted.

That’s a big help if you’re not entirely sure about which cruise you should book. As well, these sites often have deals and incentives to entice you to book. We think so as they can help you look at every cruise available to find one that fits. Smart cruise shoppers use them to look at all their options and see what sort of incentives they have for booking through their site. Every major cruise line allows you to book online and do everything from find a cruise to make upgrades, buy extras like drink packages, and pay for the trip. In other words, you can book your spot on the ship completely online at any time of the day.

How you could go in the draw to win an Alaskan cruise - Nine Shows

How you could go in the draw to win an Alaskan cruise.

Posted: Mon, 12 Jun 2023 09:06:58 GMT [source]

Some of deals offered did not offer…

You don’t always find that with the large aggregation websites. Their staff are also focused on cruises, giving you someone who knows what they are talking about compared to someone with more general travel knowledge. We are not a travel agency or owned by a travel agency, and we provide travel agents with a steady stream of easy-to-manage, highly qualified leads. Money (in magazine only, not online)Best Deals on Everything – Part 1“The real fun of most cruises is exploring when the ship docks. Cruise lines typically mark up guided shore excursions 100%. How do I know if a website is legit to book a cruise?

What about booking last-minute cruise deals on websites? It makes sense that if a cruise cabin is about to sail empty the price would drop to fill it up. In fact, cruise lines consistently have occupancy rates above 100% — meaning that more than two passengers are in some cabins. Cruise line websites only have cruises from that line, so you are limiting your options of prices, ships, dates, and itineraries.

Travel agencies pay a fee based on the value of the travel they sell. Just like searching for a hotel room, you can search these websites for a cruise across all of your options. This means being able to search across all the lines at once. They also give you the ability to narrow searches to specific dates of cruising, length of trip, destination, port of departure and more. If you are loyal to one specific cruise line, then that’s ok for you. But if you want to see all your options, it’s better to do a search on an “aggregator” website that will search all the cruise lines for that perfect vacation.

At the 1st stop I checked my itinerary and as this was not on my tour. Spoke to the Guide who said "oh didn't they tell you. Our tour does not go to that area". I asked for a refund for the tour which I did not have. While many prefer to travel by plane or even automobile, for others, it’s cruisin’ time.

In addition, the Costco Shop Cards are only valid at the store. With a focus on cruising, they are able to better serve cruise passengers — including having staff that you can call directly to help you book. However, if there is a reason where you need to change your booking or get a refund, then it could be a little more complicated than booking directly through the cruise line. One thing to note is that many websites in this space are actually owned by a single company — Expedia. For instance, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and Orbitz.com, are all part of the Expedia family.

These perks usually aren’t huge, but are a nice to have. So if you want to sail from Miami, you’ll see all the options from the port for every cruise line. That gives you a better chance of finding something that matches your budget and schedule versus just searching one line. That means you’re going to find the same prices across these sites, along with similar search functions. That’s because some sites can offer perks like onboard credit or even a direct phone number to call to talk to someone with any questions you might have before you cruise. If you’re a deal-hunter, there isn’t some magic website that has cruise fares for dramatically cheaper than everyone else (that we’ve ever found).

Self Driving Cars Driverless Rides

Table Of Content

• Rider Review
• California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy
• New paths ahead
• BBC News Services
• Cruise driverless cars pulled off California roads after safety incidents
• Scout Motors wants to put the ‘mechanical’ back into electric trucks

Cruise autonomous vehicles sit parked in a lot in June 2023 in San Francisco, Calif. The company's fleet of robotaxis have not been operating for the past few months, after the company's response to a crash in October raised concerns with regulators. Despite public angst over autonomous vehicles, California state regulators voted to allow the companies to expand their robotaxi services in August. That prompted the city of San Francisco to file motions with the state demanding a halt to the expansion. Cruise has not announced when or where it will resume driverless operations.

Rider Review

In March, she said the company was "confident" that Cruise would launch and commercialize operations "sooner than many people think." German car maker Volkswagen has been struggling with the development of self-driving cars and has complained about the ''huge complexities that we are facing". As part of that deal General Motors announced plans to develop a self-driving vehicle in October 2018. Chief executive Dan Ammann wants drivers to move away from individual ownership to a sharing model, to help reduce emissions, accidents and congestion.

California allows robo-taxis to expand and emergency responders aren't happy

The company’s main operations were historically based in San Francisco, but Cruise lost its permits to operate there following the accident. Cruise began expanding its paid service area in the Phoenix area in August 2023. Technological issues aside, what really put Cruise in hot water late last year was its response to the incident. Regulators accused the company of withholding information about the crash, only sharing that a Cruise robotaxi ran over a pedestrian who had been flung into its path after first being struck by a human-driven vehicle. Cruise first obtained a permit to offer paid robotaxi rides in the city in June 2022. In August of this year, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the expansion of paid robotaxi rides.

New paths ahead

The cars will be in “manual mode,” so they won’t be driving themselves. The relaunch comes after the company ceased operations weeks after an Oct. 2 accident in which a pedestrian in San Francisco was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise robotaxi after being struck by a separate vehicle. Cruise’s plan to test its vehicles in New York City — arguably the most difficult driving environment in the US — went nowhere. In July 2019, the company announced that it would miss its goal of launching a large-scale self-driving taxi service by the end of the year. It tried to sugarcoat the disappointing news by announcing a plan to dramatically increase the number of its test vehicles on the road in San Francisco.

Cruise is now facing government investigations, fines that could total millions and an uncertain future. "Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV's response to this kind of extremely rare event," said Navideh Forghani, a Cruise spokesperson. Rescuers used the jaws of life to remove the vehicle and free the woman. The company said in January that investigations or inquiries into the incident included those by the California DMV, the California Public Utilities Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Of course, bureaucracy and politics could drive the whole thing right off the road. “It’s designed to be comfortable if it’s shared, but if it’s just you, you’ve got so much space in here you can really like stretch out,” he says, extending his legs so his feet almost touch mine.

The launch of the vehicle, which has no steering wheel or pedals, had been delayed from last year. In a scathing report, released Thursday, the law firm said Cruise's interactions with regulators revealed "a fundamental misapprehension" of the company's obligations to the public. After the fire truck collision, the California Department of Motor Vehicles told Cruise to reduce its fleet in half, to 150 cars, while it investigated the incident. Driverless cars run by Cruise, which is owned by GM, and Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, have been involved in numerous mishaps in the city over the past several months.

Self-driving Cruise vehicle accused of nearly hitting kids in two separate close calls one day apart - NBC News

Self-driving Cruise vehicle accused of nearly hitting kids in two separate close calls one day apart.

Posted: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

But that’s going to creep up sooner than a lot of people realize, Vogt says. Experts estimate that each self-driving car could cost upward of $300,000-$400,000, when taking into account the expensive sensors and computing software needed to allow the vehicles to drive themselves. Recouping those costs will be enormously challenging, and Cruise is trying to address that by building a car with more staying power than most personally owned vehicles. Inside are two bench seats facing each other, a pair of screens on either end...

In the Oct. 2 crash, a vehicle struck a pedestrian and sent her flying into the path of the self-driving Cruise car. The Cruise vehicle then dragged the pedestrian for another 20 feet, causing serious injuries. Cruise lost $3.48 billion in operating costs in 2023 and laid off 24% of its staff.

Videos of snafus caused by the driverless cars immediately began appearing on social media. In September, San Francisco officials said a Cruise robotaxi blocked an ambulance and “delayed patient care”, after which a person died at a hospital. The move comes after one of Cruise's driverless cars struck a pedestrian in downtown San Francisco earlier this month.

Its official name is “Origin,” and Kyle Vogt, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Cruise, is clearly excited to be showing it off. With a broad smile, he reaches out and touches a button on the side, causing the doors to slide open with a little whoosh like something out of Star Wars. By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. Whether you have a question or want to report an issue, our team wants to hear from you.

Learn the basics of how a Cruise car navigates city streets safely and efficiently. The time frame given for the vehicle is the most detailed yet and also hints at when the commercial operation of Cruise's current autonomous vehicle test fleet is expected to start. General Motors had aimed to launch a commercial, self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco last year but delayed the plan saying the vehicles needed more testing. He did not say when the vehicle would go into production nor how many the company planned to build. It has not been approved to drive on roads, and it will require extensive testing before this is granted.

Based on police reports and initial video footage from Cruise, the woman was first struck by a hit-and-run human driver whose vehicle threw her into the path of the driverless car. A year ago, the future seemed bright for the driverless car startup Cruise. As 2022 wrapped up, CEO Kyle Vogt took to Twitter to post about the company's autonomous vehicles rolling onto the streets of San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise citing pedestrian safety concerns. "We need actual people behind the wheel with a pulse and a brain that know how to maneuver in sticky situations," San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton said at Tuesday rally protesting the driverless cars. "These Cruise vehicles are dangerous on our streets. When they see tragedy or see danger or there's an obstacle in their way, all they know how to do is freeze."

But the DMV says it was only after requesting the footage that Cruise handed it over – 10 days later. "Our folks cannot be paying attention to an autonomous vehicle when we've got ladders to throw," San Francisco Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson said in an August hearing. "When you start having passive aggressive protests like people putting orange cones on your cars, this isn't going to come out your way," says Cummings. Even before the October incident, tension over self-driving cars was simmering in San Francisco. Cruise said in January that it "accepts" the conclusions found in the report.

"Cruise is so solid even on narrow streets — the steering wheel has no jitter, totally smooth each block." Cruise's path to autonomous driving creates opportunities for increased mobility and independence. Letting a video "speak for itself" when the video couldn't even play didn't quite rise to the level of concealing the truth, the law firm concluded. But the report said it revealed a lot about Cruise's corporate culture. The company on Thursday said it is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in addition to California agencies.

Cruise has a strong history in Phoenix and it is home to a large number of Cruise employees. It’s a city that supports AV and transportation innovation, and Phoenix leaders strive to ensure the metro area is an incubator for advanced technology. We plan to expand this effort to other select cities as we continue to engage with officials and community leaders. Cruise ridehail services are not available at this time, but you can join the waitlist to be one of the first. Learn how our data visualization tool shaped the future of autonomous driving.

In August, a Cruise robotaxi was involved in a crash with an emergency vehicle in San Francisco. California suspended Cruise’s permits to operate self-driving cars on the state’s public roads, effective immediately, the state’s department of motor vehicles said in a statement on Tuesday. The agency said Cruise’s vehicles pose a danger to the public and that the company had misrepresented key facts when dealing with safety regulators. Cruise, which owns a fleet of robotaxis in San Francisco, then failed to adequately inform regulators of the self-driving vehicle's full role in the incident. Since then, Cruise's driverless ride-hailing services have been paused in all markets.