BUSINESS IS SO COMPETITIVE THESE DAYS that it's rare for a passenger to pay full price for a cruise. There are discounts for booking ahead, discounts for booking at the last minute and just plain discounts. Reduced prices on cruises are available through local travel agencies as well as out-of-state companies that sell cruises nationally. Before you put money down on a cruise, we suggest you shop around. Check with a local travel agent or two and call a national discounter. Find out if the quoted price includes roundtrip airfare from Salt Lake City as well as transfers from the airport to the ship.
Following are names and phone numbers of major national discounters:- South Florida Cruises, Inc., 1-800-927-7447
- Hartford Holidays Cruise Centers, 1-800-669-2784
- World Wide Cruises, 1-800-882-9000
- Cruise Holidays, 1-800-866-7245
Examples of upcomimg two-for-one rates offered by World Wide Cruises, for example, are:
Seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise Thanksgiving week is $599 per person; roundtrip airfare from Salt Lake City is an additional $300 per person. A seven-day eastern Caribbean cruise on Commodore's SS Caribe is $399 per person, good for sailings thru Dec. 12; airfare is $300 per person extra. Seven-day Caribbean sailings thru Nov. 28 on Norwegian Cruise Line's SS Norway and SS Seaward begin as low as $549 per person with $250 extra per person for airfare.
Passengers get the best available rooms at the time of booking.
AMTRAK'S COACH-ONLY, NONREFUNDABLE regional fares are on sale thru Nov. 13. The round-trip or one-way tickets allow 45 days of Amtrak travel in one, two or three regions of the U.S. thru Dec. 17. Passengers are allowed up to three stopovers. Prices of these Special All Aboard America fares are $138 for one region, $188 for two adjacent regions and $288 for all three regions. Travelers 62 and older who begin thri trip Monday thru Thursday qualify for an additional 15 percent. The special fares are available on a first-come, first-served basis. You must purchase the ticket within seven days of reserving it. For details call 1-800-TEL-TRAK.
These fares cannot be used in combination with custom class, first-class Club Service or sleeping cars. The eastern region is the Atlantic coast to Chicago and New Orleans. The western region is the Pacific coast to Denver, Albuquerque, Wolf Point, Mont., or El Paso.
The central region is everything in between.
The tickets are nonrefundable but may be exchanged for an alternate travel date.