CruiseSlash and CruiseSignal are both iPhone apps with cruise prices at their centre, so they often get compared. They answer different questions. CruiseSlash helps you find a cruise to book. CruiseSignal helps you get money back on a cruise you have already booked.
What CruiseSlash does
According to its App Store listing, CruiseSlash tracks cruise deals and price drops across more than 20 major cruise lines and brings them to you, with a focus on last-minute offers on unsold cabins. Its website describes it the same way: access to last-minute deals on unsold cabins.
The listing states a few more things plainly:
- A subscription is required to unlock and access all the deals.
- CruiseSlash does not handle bookings. You reserve directly with the cruise line or a travel agency.
- It is not affiliated with any cruise lines or cruise sellers.
- It is available for iPhone.
In short, it is a deal discovery app. You browse what is on sale and decide whether one of those sailings suits you.
What CruiseSignal does
CruiseSignal starts after you have booked. You add the exact ship, sail date, cabin category and guest count, and it watches the public price of that configuration around the clock on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian and Celebrity.
When your fare drops, it sends a push notification with the amount, the price protection program that applies on your line and the deadline to act. Lines such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival publish programs that can give you something back when the price falls, but only if somebody asks, and only within their own window.
It never asks for your cruise line password, and it cannot file a claim for you. The booking holder or their travel agent contacts the line. It covers travellers in the US and Canada, and it is free to download with a subscription for continuous tracking.
The difference in one line
CruiseSlash looks across many sailings for a price worth booking. CruiseSignal looks at one sailing, yours, for a price worth claiming.
| Compared | CruiseSlash | CruiseSignal |
|---|---|---|
| When you use it | Before you book | After you book |
| What it watches | Deals across 20+ cruise lines | Your exact ship, date, category and guests |
| What you get | Last-minute offers to browse | An alert with the amount, program and deadline |
| Cruise lines | 20+, as stated on its listing | Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, Celebrity |
| Books or claims for you | No | No |
| Platform | iPhone | iPhone |
When CruiseSlash is the better choice
If you have not booked yet and your dates and ship are flexible, CruiseSlash is built for you and CruiseSignal is not. CruiseSignal has nothing to watch until a booking exists, and it does not suggest sailings. Last-minute sailings suit people who can travel on short notice, and an app that gathers offers from many lines in one place saves a lot of tab switching.
It also reaches more cruise lines than the four CruiseSignal tracks today, so if your shortlist includes a line outside those four, it is the one of the two that can show you something.
When you already have a booking
Once you have booked, a new deal on a different sailing is not much use. What matters is whether the fare on your sailing, in your category, fell before the line's deadline. That is often before final payment, and on some fares it runs closer to departure. If nobody checks, the difference stays with the line.
That is the job CruiseSignal does. When it finds a drop, our guide on how to get a price drop on a cruise covers the call or form that follows. The two apps can sit side by side: one to find the cruise, the other to watch it once it is yours. More on how tracking works is on the cruise price tracker page.
