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Learn how to use Cruise Fare Tracker effectively

What is Cruise Fare Tracker?

Cruise Fare Tracker automatically tracks cruise prices from VacationsToGo.com, helping you find the best deals. It scrapes prices daily, shows price history charts, and calculates total costs including gratuities and drinks. Multiple users can track the same cruises, and data is shared automatically.

How to Find Cruise Deal IDs

To track a cruise, you need its Deal ID from VacationsToGo. Here's how to find it:

1

Go to VacationsToGo

Visit vacationstogo.com and use their search to find cruises that interest you.

2

Click on a Cruise

Browse through the listings and click on any cruise to see its full details page.

3

Copy the Deal ID from the URL

Look at the URL in your browser's address bar. It will look like:

https://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=15335

The number after deal= is the Deal ID (15335 in this example).

Tips

  • The Deal ID is unique to each specific sailing
  • VacationsToGo reuses Deal IDs after cruises depart - we handle this automatically
  • You only need to enter the number, not the full URL
  • If another user is already tracking the same cruise, you'll automatically share data

VacationsToGo Email

VacationsToGo **requires** a registered email address to display any pricing. Without it, the app cannot fetch price updates or exclusive Resident Rates.

How it works:

  • Create a free account at vacationstogo.com if you haven't already
  • Enter that email address in your Settings or during onboarding
  • The app will verify your email and then start fetching daily price updates

**Note:** Price tracking is disabled until a valid VTG email is added.

Understanding Cruise Status

Active

Actively tracked cruises

These cruises are monitored daily. The scraper fetches the latest prices from VacationsToGo and updates the price history chart. Active cruises appear on the main dashboard.

Departed

Cruises that have sailed

When a cruise's departure date passes, it's automatically marked as "departed". The scraper stops tracking these cruises, but all historical price data is preserved. Departed cruises are hidden from the main dashboard but viewable via the "Departed" tab.

Archived

Manually archived cruises

You can manually archive a cruise if you're no longer interested in it but want to keep the data. Archived cruises are hidden from your dashboard but you can reactivate them anytime. Note: Archiving is per-user. If you archive a cruise that other users are tracking, it will continue to be scraped for them.

Archive vs Delete: What's the Difference?

Archive

  • Preserves all price history data
  • Can be reactivated later
  • Stops daily price scraping
  • Good for cruises you might reconsider

Use archive when you want to pause tracking without losing data.

Delete

  • Removes the cruise from your tracking list
  • Cannot be undone
  • If others track the same cruise, data is preserved for them
  • If you're the only user tracking it, all data is deleted

Use delete only when you no longer want to track a cruise.

Deal ID Recycling

VacationsToGo reuses deal IDs after cruises have departed. Cruise Fare Tracker handles this automatically:

  • 1. When the scraper detects a deal ID now refers to a different cruise (different departure date), the old cruise is automatically archived as "departed".
  • 2. A new cruise record is created for the recycled deal ID with fresh price tracking.
  • 3. All historical data for the old cruise is preserved in the departed cruises view.

Understanding Total Cost Breakdown

The "All-In Total" cost shown on cruise cards and detail pages includes:

Base Fare The cruise price from VacationsToGo
Gratuities Calculated per day, based on cruise line rates you configure in "Manage Extras"
Drinks Estimate Based on 3 drinks per day (configurable in .env) times beer price per cruise line

Configure gratuity and drink prices per cruise line in Manage Extras.

Automatic Price Scraping

  • Each user gets a random overnight scrape time (00:00-07:59 UTC)
  • Your scrape time is shown in Settings
  • Only active cruises are scraped (not departed or archived)
  • Use the "Update Prices" button in the navigation to run manually
  • Both GBP and USD prices are captured for each cruise

Shared Cruise Tracking

If multiple users track the same cruise, it's only scraped once per day. When any user's scheduled scrape runs and fetches a cruise, all users tracking that cruise see the updated prices. This reduces load on VacationsToGo and keeps data consistent for everyone.

Getting Started

  1. 1 Sign in with your Google account
  2. 2 Add your VacationsToGo email in Settings to enable scraping
  3. 3 Find a cruise on VacationsToGo.com and copy the deal ID from the URL
  4. 4 Go to Add Cruise and enter the deal ID and ports
  5. 5 Click "Update Prices" to fetch the initial cruise details and price
  6. 6 Configure gratuity and drink prices for the cruise line in Manage Extras
  7. 7 Check back daily to see price changes in the dashboard and charts
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