Can I Buy a Cruise For Someone Else? Yes. Here’s How…

The only thing better than taking a cruise? Taking a cruise that someone else has paid for.

If you’re considering purchasing a cruise for someone else, give yourself a pat on the back. While cruising is often considered a vacation with a lot of value, it’s still not cheap to sail on most trips. And if you’re generous enough to buy a cruise for someone else, then you should rest assured that you’re purchasing something they will never forget.

Of course, with the heightened restrictions and rules seen in lots of travel these days, it’s a fair question to ask if you are allowed to purchase a trip for another person.

The good news is that you can definitely purchase a cruise for someone else, and it’s relatively easy. However, before you do, you should realize there are some hurdles you should consider before buying that trip.

Before You Buy For Someone Else, Consider This…

While we will walk through some details of booking for another person below, at the most basic level, the process is just like booking a cruise for yourself except that you will enter all the details for another person instead.

That means you will need to know everything that other person will want, from the cruise itinerary, to the dates of sailing, to the cabin type and location on the ship. All of this is selected when you buy your cruise. It is possible to make changes later, but not without some work. As well, you will need to know their personal details like date of birth, email, and contact details to successful book a cruise for someone else.

In other words, if you want to surprise someone with a pre-booked trip, then you will have to figure out exactly the trip that will work for them.

That’s why if you want to surprise someone with a cruise, it’s a better idea to purchase gift certificates to give them instead. This way they can book at their own convenience and book exactly what they want.

All that said, there is something special about having an entire cruise booked for you by someone else, where all the person has to think about is packing their bag and enjoying the vacation. If you want to give this sort of experience, we’ve outlined the process below.

Buying a Cruise For Another Person

As mentioned above, buying for another person is similar to buying a cruise for yourself. You’ll have to find and select a cruise, a departure date, and decide on which cabin to purchase. This actually take several steps, so you’ll want to be sure you know exactly what sort of trip, date, and cabin will work for whomever you are buying for.

After you have all of this selected is where the process changes a little. Once you have your itinerary and cabin set, you’ll need to enter the passenger details.

For this information, you want to enter the details of the primary traveler — NOT yourself. So to complete the booking you’ll need the name, phone number, and birth date of the person you are booking the cruise for. Some cruise lines may also require you have the details for any other passenger as well (Carnival, for instance, allows you to enter this after the cruise is booked).

After enter the traveler information, you’ll see the final payment page. Just like ordering anything else online, here you can put your payment information, even if the cruise is for another person. There is no requirement that the credit or debit card be issued to the same person taking the cruise.

As you can see, it’s not that difficult to book a cruise for another person — there are no travel rules against it. The biggest complication is that lots of details go into finding the perfect cruise and it’s hard to decide what exactly someone else would like or when it might fit their schedule.

If you aren’t sure what someone would like, you can also purchase a gift certificate instead.

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