Florida residents

[Karlou]

I heard once-and I can't remember where-that Florida residents get a discount on the cruise fares. Is this true? If so, does it apply to other states that have a home port?

If it's true, it might make me change my future retirement plans...[emoji1]

[LMaxwell]

I heard once-and I can't remember where-that Florida residents get a discount on the cruise fares. Is this true? If so, does it apply to other states that have a home port?

If it's true, it might make me change my future retirement plans...[emoji1]

Not always but some times. This applies to any / all states as well. Depends on promos being run

[shonuf]

We moved to Florida 3 years ago so that we could drive to multiple cruise ports within 3 hours. I don't know that we necessarily have ever gotten a better deal because we live in Florida. You can go to the Fare Viewer and try plugging in different states to see if there is a difference.

[jdcml]

I've never seen one on our cruises. Certainly doesn't seem like they do it often enough to have to put up with 98 degrees for what seems like 6 months of the year lately :).

[Ken076]

Carnival actually intermittently offers resident discount for many states, and not just those with ports and not just Florida. The resident discount is not a permanent discount and is offered as a reduced fare. When you do a cruise search, enter your state and any resident rates currently offered will be indicated. Ken

[JCJR]

Carnival actually intermittently offers resident discount for many states, and not just those with ports and not just Florida. The resident discount is not a permanent discount and is offered as a reduced fare. When you do a cruise search, enter your state and any resident rates currently offered will be indicated. Ken

I agree. I have done mock bookings where I saved a small amt when I enter FL resident and other times no savings. The website advertising usually states Resident promotions.

 

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[welldone60]

I think the only advantage would be in last minute cruise deals.

[loxley]

I live in a port city and years ago you could get fantastic deals 4-5 days before a cruise but those days are long long gone.

[RuthlessBoss]

I live in a port city and years ago you could get fantastic deals 4-5 days before a cruise but those days are long long gone.

 

How true:mad:

[slybear]

I live in a port city and years ago you could get fantastic deals 4-5 days before a cruise but those days are long long gone.

 

Not necessarily. We got an LA residents rate 6 days out on the Elation for Thanksgiving last year & ended up paying $140 each for a 5 day cruise ocean view cabin. So you just never know when they need to fill cabins at the last minute.

[Karlou]

Well, I guess I don't have to feel too badly, then. Canadians get reduced rates as well once in a while.

It may have been something I heard from years back for the short cruises.

The real benefit is that one can drive to the port rather than booking airfare.

I was just curious....

[Karlou]

Not necessarily. We got an LA residents rate 6 days out on the Elation for Thanksgiving last year & ended up paying $140 each for a 5 day cruise ocean view cabin. So you just never know when they need to fill cabins at the last minute.

 

 

It was last minute, though. What a great price, though! Lucky!

[cruiseJMO]

The Florida resident deal usually isn't as good as other promos they have going on.

The benefit of moving to Florida for cruising would be all the ports you could easily drive to and avoid the airline hassle.

[loxley]

Not necessarily. We got an LA residents rate 6 days out on the Elation for Thanksgiving last year & ended up paying $140 each for a 5 day cruise ocean view cabin. So you just never know when they need to fill cabins at the last minute.

 

We were getting $99 rates on 4, 5 and 7 day cruises and they were available most weeks.

 

But like I said, that was years ago and I did not like to cruise carnival then because of the dining situation, but we still took a couple. It was cheaper than staying home.

[tommy]

We moved to Florida 3 years ago so that we could drive to multiple cruise ports within 3 hours. I don't know that we necessarily have ever gotten a better deal because we live in Florida. You can go to the Fare Viewer and try plugging in different states to see if there is a difference.

 

 

 

We also moved to Cape Coral about 2 years ago for the same reason It has worked out well for us We have done 4 cruises both years

[Love2Cruz2015]

The benefit of living in Southeast Florida is that we are within driveable distance to 3 cruise ports...I've bumped up our cruise count considerably since moving here, and I'm not even close to retirement...it's great not having to fly. Other advantage is you could hold out for last minute deals.

 

My daughter just turned 6 and she is gold member on Carnival..lol

 

 

As for discounts..not really, Disney is the only one that gives considerable discounts..but they are getting scarce with them too.

[Jay Sam]

Not necessarily. We got an LA residents rate 6 days out on the Elation for Thanksgiving last year & ended up paying $140 each for a 5 day cruise ocean view cabin. So you just never know when they need to fill cabins at the last minute.

 

A great time for last minute too are the weekends just after Thanksgiving. But I have seen those for Thanksgiving week too like you described.

 

In Nov most of the ships have come back to the US from Europe etc, so capacity out-paces demand.

[sharonh1885]

Currently live in northern CA but am getting a few years from retirement. What kind of other advantages besides being closer to the ports does living in south Florida have for retirees?

[loubetti]

Currently live in northern CA but am getting a few years from retirement. What kind of other advantages besides being closer to the ports does living in south Florida have for retirees?

 

Well, unlike northern CA, it is later Spring / Summer all year long here. Love it or hate it. We are often the only state that escapes Winter without snow.

 

No earth quake threat, and hurricane threat is diminishing (knock on wood!).

 

No local or state income taxes. Road tolls and parking meters are few and far between.

 

No need to have your car inspected every year or so.

 

One of the best medical care systems in the country. Top-notch hospitals and doctors, as would be expected of a state referred to as "God's waiting room".

 

The list goes on and on.

 

C'mon down and join us, and this comes from someone who spent 55 years in New Jersey!

[zdcatc12]

 

No local or state income taxes. Road tolls and parking meters are few and far between.

 

No need to have your car inspected every year or so.

 

C'mon down and join us, and this comes from someone who spent 55 years in New Jersey!

 

There are plenty of tolls if you live anywhere other than north Florida; also, they should go back to car inspections when you look at some of the crap that is on the roads there. Not sure how you ever spent 55 years in Jersey.

[Swampbabe]

As a Florida native, you DONT want to come here. We have bugs, gators, and it's really hot. You wouldn't like it. Really ;)

[near the beach]

All of our cruises have been from a Florida port.

 

We have never received a Florida resident rate that was better than all of the other listed rates.

 

Driving to the port in a few hours does save us a bunch of money since we don’t have to fly. We also can over pack without any problems.

 

The 30 minuet drive to Port Canaveral is the best. Wake up at 9 AM and be on the ship at 11:00 AM.

[kdawg954]

Like others have said, the biggest perk is having 6 ports in the state (including west palm for the quick two night crowd). Tons of options.

 

There are discounts all the time for residents, problem is, the average sale a cruise line runs will usually trump any resident perked deal.

 

Also cosign last minute deals, last three years we have taken three short birthday cruises in January by waiting until late December and lo and behold a three night weekend oceanview pops up out of miami/port everglades for $89/99 p/p. Great way to experience other cruise lines as we tried Celebrity and Royal Caribbean this way.

 

Hoping for NCL this year.

 

Carnival Pack and Go usually has the best rates for people. Didn't have the time to go, but passed up on a 8 night on the Freedom in January for $240 p/p. Still kicking myself for not being able to make that trip. Great itinerary of Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk and had the full 2.0 recently did. Ughhhh . . . Next time :)

[Karlou]

Airfare is a killer and never mind the stress of flying through the winter months-hoping against hope that there won't be a blizzard somewhere...doesn't matter where. It'll mess everything up across Canada and the U.S.

[GatorGirl57]

Disney has great Florida Resident rates sometimes - we got like 50% off and it was only Fl residents.