Cheap galveston cruises

A $399 ticket from London to Boston? No, this isn't the latest round of economy-class discounting from the airlines. It's the cost of a seven-day cruise on Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas.

Each fall, cruise lines reposition their ships, moving many of their floating hotels from summer markets such as Alaska and Europe to winter getaways such as the Caribbean. Filling the berths on these unusual trips (sample itinerary: Barcelona, Spain, to Galveston, Texas) can be tough even in the best of times and often spawns deep discounting.

But with the cruise business in a slump, the bargains are particularly significant this year. Years of overbuilding have resulted in a boat glut, just as the weak U.S. economy is squeezing demand for travel. The number of berths available in North America is expected to jump 10 percent this year--and a further 13 percent next year--as new ships ordered years ago come into service.

The result is a wave of last-minute deals on cruises of almost every variety, from mass-market ships such as Brilliance of the Seas to the luxury liners of Silversea Cruises (free champagne and personalized stationery included).

Indeed, pricing on cruises for late summer and early fall has become almost as fluid as airline pricing. Recently, a 15-day voyage aboard P&O Princess Cruises' Golden Princess from Venice to New York was priced as low as $1,199. A day later, it dropped to $999 among some top cruise agents.

These cruises aren't for everyone. Unlike typical itineraries where a ship goes port-to-port in, say, the Caribbean and then returns travelers to their original departure point, all of these trips are one-way. That means you may have to buy an extra plane ticket on one or both ends, though cruise lines usually offer cheap options on one-way fares.

The trips often include more days at sea than more traditional trips, sometimes as long as half a month or more. They also involve some unusual stops: The Barcelona-Galveston itinerary aboard Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas includes port calls in Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Canary Islands. "It's not your basic run, but we've got to get the ship to Galveston," says Michael Applebaum of Royal Caribbean.

The price tag for the 15-day voyage: $1,299. That works out to about $87 a night--including food and entertainment. Once in Galveston, the ship will make regular hops around the western Caribbean all winter.

Cruise lines were struggling even before this latest round of discounting. To fill the new berths, cruise lines already were scrambling to draw in younger, more casual travelers. In some cases ships have gone so far as to erect rock-climbing walls and skating rinks.

After last year's terror attacks, cruise bookings dropped to nearly zero, which triggered a severe shakeout that quickly wiped out weaker players in the industry, such as Renaissance Cruises and American Classic Voyages, both of which ended up in bankruptcy proceedings. Meantime, a reluctance among travelers to venture anywhere near the world's hot spots forced cruise lines to remove many of their expensive ships from the Mediterranean.

Heightened safety concerns, in fact, are behind some of the unusual itineraries this year. Ships making their seasonal voyage to Asia from Europe aren't able to pass through the Suez Canal because of security issues.

As a result, some are charting extraordinary courses around the coast of Africa. Holland America Line's ms Prinsendam, for instance, will depart Oct. 13 on a 20-day voyage from Mombasa, Kenya, to Singapore. Earlier legs of its trip ran from Lisbon, around the Cape of Good Hope, to Mombasa.

Many of the season's one-off cruises are listed on cruise operators' Web sites, which detail everything from port calls to menus. But travel agents who specialize in cruises are often in a better position to track the best bargains.

That's because, unlike airlines--which often undercut travel agents by posting lower prices on the Internet--the cruise industry is a throwback: Agents still control access to the best deals. "They'll know the specials of the day," Susanne Ferrull of Princess says.

In addition, some lines don't heavily market their seasonal offerings. Windstar, which is moving three of its luxury sailing ships from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean for the winter, is selling trans-Atlantic cruises starting at $1,343 per person, or about $100 a day for 14 days aboard a relatively small, high-end sailing yacht. (The ships sail under wind power much of the time.)

With only a few such trips every season, "they are priced to sell immediately," a Windstar spokeswoman says. "We don't spend our marketing dollars on them."

Two full weeks may be a long time at sea for some travelers, however. Carla Carroll, who has taken a number of Windstar cruises, says she would discourage people prone to seasickness from choosing a trans-Atlantic cruise since the ride can get choppy. Another consideration is that seasonal one-way cruises tend to draw an older clientele, particularly on longer trips.