Cruise Booking Mystery...

Let me start by telling why I decided to post this story... This is my 1st time booking a cruise vacation and it was rather confusing... I figured by sharing what I have learned, some of you might be able to save some time and money... here is also where you might want to stop reading if this is not a topic of your interest... I thank you for reading this far nonetheless! :-)

Here goes my story... I heard from a number of my co-workers and friends that cruising is extremely fun and well worth the $, especially when we get it on a deal.  I started browsing and noticed that the prices changed.. Turned out that they were having a sale for the last 2 days of the month of March with a number of perks.  I was pretty excited and proceeded to plan for a trip for 5.

My options were:

1. A family suite to accommodate all of us
2. Two staterooms: one for my wife and I, and one for my kids

Since this is my 1st time booking a cruise vacation, to my surprise, option 1 was cost prohibitive.  The only option was the Captain's Suite for almost $1800pp.  Option 2 was the only way to go and it rung up a total of ~$3900 (about $780 pp).  That was much much higher than "advertised", which was $539 pp.  Now, I get that $539 pp must be based on a certain departure date as well as selecting the IS (Inside Guarantee) stateroom, what I didn't realize was, the deal is based on dual occupancy for a stateroom and booking for only 2 people.  I started tweaking the number of people, the dates, the category of staterooms and discovered that the total cost changes in illogical ways.  To make a long story short, I ended up with staterooms with ocean view, in the middle of the ship for the least "sway", and in between staterooms on at all 4 directions (left, right, above, below -- for least noise) for about $690 pp.

Summary of things I learned:

1. This is not a fact that I know by experience, but per what I have read, to reduce the effects of the ocean sway which causes sea sickness, stick to the lower decks and as close to the middle of the ship as possible.
2. I will probably look at the booking sites again at the end of the month to see if the "48 hours sale" will repeat again... good to note in terms of when to book.
3. Booking the least expensive stateroom does not equal to the cheapest cost at checkout.  I think this perhaps has something to do with demand.  Most people are looking for a deal.  At the end of the day, booking a stateroom that is more expensive at the beginning may end up being cheaper when you checkout.
4. Per comments by others, the staterooms that has the least noise (other than those super expensive suites on higher decks) are staterooms that are adjacent to staterooms in all directions -- left, right, above, below.  To achieve this, make use of the deck layout view when booking the trip.  Example of a noisy deck:    (try to stay away from staterooms above or below decks with massive activities.
5. If you enjoy alcoholic drinks, definitely go for the all you can drink packages, it will certainly save $$$ as compared to buying à la carte.
6. Excursions are great!  But it is even better if you pre-book it to get up to 20% discount.  Another alternative is to do some quick research and enjoy similar activities for a fraction of the cost.  For example, a beach resort type excursion (snorkeling, wave runner tours, etc.) may cost $89.99 and up pp but if you check resorts near the dock, you will most certainly find some that would provide the same services, including food, for almost half the cost!

That's all I have to say for now... hopefully you have found this story a little bit on the helpful side!

Thank you for reading!