# Ice Gallery and RCI Cruise Exchange



## traceyjs (Mar 22, 2008)

Hi, has anyone cruised using RCI or Ice Gallery exchange?  We are looking at cruise exchange and it seems quite expensive.  Any advice would be truly appreciated.  We're looking at heading to the US in June 2009 and would like to cruise the Carribean early June 09.  Thanks.


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## geekette (Mar 22, 2008)

There is usually no savings using RCI or ICE Gallery.  

A few years ago I did a lot of research on that and on a few sailings, in very high category cabins, there was some savings, but, they have increased the fee and if you also trade in your week, even less savings.  The rate was good for every person in up to 4 cabins, and now those other 3 cabins also have a 'redemption fee.'

I advise you to look elsewhere.  Vacationstogo.com is pretty representative.


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## dougp26364 (Mar 23, 2008)

You'll actually spend more for your cruise AND give up your week using either RCI or ICE. They are the biggest jokes I've seen in the exchange game. 

Your best bet is to go to www.cruisecritic.com and start reading. There are many online cruise discounters that can save you a considerable amount off the price of the cruise. Many of the favorites are listed on the sticky at the top of the travel forum on this site. 

Even the best timeshare exchange for a cruise isn't a good value. At best all I've recovered was approx. the amount of my MF's when exchaning our HGVC points for a cruise and that was off the retail price of a cruise. In our case, we cruise with Royal Caribbean and at the time Royal Caribbean wasn't allowing the cruise discounters to rebate a portion of their commisions to lower the price of the cruise. Rebating is the manor in which large online TA's manage to give discounts on cruises and they try to make up the lose in volume.


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## traceyjs (Mar 23, 2008)

Thanks to you both.  It seems the general consensus is that exchanging a cruise isn't really a great saving.  Not worth the loss of a week.  I'm just a bit worried about waiting till last minute to get the good cruise prices as we are coming a long way and I'd hate to miss out.


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## beanb41 (Mar 23, 2008)

We did the comparison of ICE cruises viz a viz booking direct with a travel agent and the best deal was direct through a travel agent because of the discounts for early bookings and cheaper airfares and here is NZ is about as far from the best cruises as you can get and the bonus is that we still have our TS to use.


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## traceyjs (Mar 23, 2008)

beanb41 said:


> We did the comparison of ICE cruises viz a viz booking direct with a travel agent and the best deal was direct through a travel agent because of the discounts for early bookings and cheaper airfares and here is NZ is about as far from the best cruises as you can get and the bonus is that we still have our TS to use.



Hey - a fellow kiwi!  I'm a Wellingtonian born and bred - only moved to Melbourne later in life.  Can you tell me who you booked through to get a better deal than ICE or RCI?  Maybe I can contact them to get an idea.  By the way, I'm from Karori!


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## geekette (Mar 23, 2008)

traceyjs said:


> Thanks to you both.  It seems the general consensus is that exchanging a cruise isn't really a great saving.  Not worth the loss of a week.  I'm just a bit worried about waiting till last minute to get the good cruise prices as we are coming a long way and I'd hate to miss out.



Don't wait until last minute - prices usually only go UP.  At least with Royal Caribbean, if there is a price drop, you can call up and have it applied to your booking as On Board Credit (OBC).

Book NOW!

If you have already picked the cruise you want, use CruiseCompare.com to find the TA's offering the best prices/perks.


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## dougp26364 (Mar 23, 2008)

http://www.vacationstogo.com is a last minute online travel agent that usually offers some of the very best last minute cruise pricing around. Unless you have your heart set on one particular cruise line or one particular cruise, you can often get some great discounts on ships that haven't sold out their cabins and it's less than 90 days before sailing.


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## beanb41 (Mar 23, 2008)

Tracey - "Tawa Travel" seem to have the best deals for cruises. They seem to specialise in cruises. The biggest problems we have is getting to and from the cruises. Whilst one can get a cruise cheap a cheap airfare to conicide with it is often non existant yet a combined package with early bird discounts is normally cheaper than the two separate deals.


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