Military Deals on Cruises & Vacation Packages

In addition to military travel deals on things like airfare and accommodation, there are also special discounts afforded to members of the military, veterans, and their families on things like cruises and vacation packages.

Some cruise lines offer regular discounts to military personnel, others have seasonal discounts, and then there are some booking agencies that promise discounts even when the cruise lines themselves don’t offer military deals. With vacation packages, you can go through a military travel agent or you can look for the resorts and tour providers that offer military travel deals.

Here are a few ways to find military travel deals on cruises and vacation packages.

This should go without saying, but just in case it’s not obvious – these military travel deals are for people who are in the US military, veterans of the military, and their families. This isn’t an article about how to get deals you’re not entitled to.

How to Find Military Travel Deals on Cruises & Vacation Packages

Military Travel Deals on Cruises
Many cruise lines offer discounts on a regular basis to military personnel, although they’re not advertised. Since the general public can’t get the discount, it doesn’t make sense for the cruise lines to spend big money on TV or magazine ads about them – but they’re there. Finding them is likely to require a phone call to a cruise line, since the websites also aren’t geared toward military travel, but some cruise lines offer huge discounts that are definitely worth the extra effort.

Other cruise lines may not offer year-round discounts but will offer periodic sales available only to military personnel. These tend to be for off-peak times, but not when the weather’s terrible – they’re often in what’s called the “shoulder season” when rates are lower overall anyway but the weather is still good. Again, you’ll need to contact the cruise lines to find out if they have any military cruise deals going on when you want to travel.

There are some cruise booking agencies that promise discounts on cruises to military personnel regardless of whether the cruise lines themselves are offering discounts. There are a few cruise lines for which even they say they can’t get military discounts, but they tend to promise lower cruise rates than other booking services because they’re focused solely on getting military-related discounts.

Some cruise lines that have offered military travel discounts in the past and are worth looking at for current deals are: Disney Cruises, Carnival Cruises, Norwegian Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises, and Holland America Cruises.

Military Travel Deals on Vacation Packages
There are two ways to go about finding military travel discounts on vacation packages – either you can do all the legwork yourself or you can leave it to a travel agent that specializes in military travel. Generally speaking, you’re more apt to find better deals if you’re willing to do the work yourself. But when it comes to vacation packages, they’re already pretty hands-off so you’re not likely to be sacrificing as much in the way of savings if you let someone else do the work (especially if they can get you military travel discounts you can’t get otherwise).

Using the Armed Forces Vacation Club website can get you access to military travel deals to resorts all over the world, including some deals as low as $349 for a 7-night stay – that’s $50 per night. But even without going through AFVC you can get great discounts at theme parks and resorts simply by asking about military discounts.

Places that tend to offer discounts to military personnel and their families on a regular basis are Disney theme parks, Universal Studios, Nickelodeon Suites Resort, Busch Gardens, Dollywood, Legoland, Six Flags, and Sea World. You may need to contact the Information, Tickets, and Tours (ITT) office at your military base to find out how to access these military discounts, but again – it’s worth asking.

photo by twodolla