You’ve probably all heard about the travel scams that try to get their foot in your door by offering travel prizes of various types – cruises, hotels, resorts and so on – and then the prize turns out to be very expensive. Here’s how to spot the scams, and where to go to enter valid “free cruise” draws right now.
First, Paul Motter of Cruisemates has posted an excellent article describing a contest scam – it will show you what to look for. The one-sentence summary is that when you win a real contest, nobody will ask for your credit card number!
All draws are held for marketing purposes, and this may be the first aspect of a draw that makes people not enter. Do you have to be subscribed to a newsletter to enter, or is it an option? If you subscribe to a newsletter of any kind, is it easy to unsubscribe if you don’t want to receive it anymore? Does the company have a published privacy policy stating that they don’t sell your contact information to any other company? How much contact information do you have to give them to enter?
Here are the cruise giveaways that I’ve found that are currently valid – I’ve entered most of them to be sure that they’re valid (and because I want a free cruise, of course 
). If you know of others please feel free to post them here. I’m not posting any of the contests where videos, essays, photos or other such things are required to be sent to enter.
- 8-day Danube River cruise from Viking River cruises, open to residents of the US and Canada – enter here. The draw date is August 15, 2009.
- any 7-day InSight Cruise from InSight Cruises, open to anyone – enter here. This is ongoing, with a drawing each quarter.
- 7-night Caribbean cruise from Expedia CruiseShipCenters, open to residents of the US and Canada – enter here. This is an annual draw – the next draw date is November 13, 2009.
- 7-Night Caribbean cruise from LowestCruisePrices.com, open to anyone – enter here. Draws are held twice each year. Be careful of this one: ” Includes airfare expense of up to $300 (U.S. dollars) per person. Airfare to be purchased through LowestCruisePrices.com.”
- Various travel prizes from The Travel Channel, open to residents of the United States – enter here. This is a monthly drawing.
- 8-day scuba diving cruise from AquaCat Cruises, open to anyone – enter here. This is a quarterly drawing.
- any cruise up to $2500 value from MyBestFareFinder.com, open to residents of the US and Canada except travel agents – enter here. The draw will be held on September 30, 2009.
- 2-night Bahamas cruise from Celebration Cruise Line, open to anyone – enter here. Ten cruises are being given away in 2009.
- Mediterranean cruise from Holland America Line, open to residents of the US and Canada – enter here.
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