I have done many cruises over the years, although I have only traveled on 3 different lines: Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Celebrity. There are certain things I would recommend other travelers to sav
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Cat:Tips Tools and DealsForum:0EE709C0
Cat:Tips Tools and DealsForum:0EE709C0Discussion:89d682a1-bfce-4b4e-832c-7a63d2415732
I have done many cruises over the years, although I have only traveled on 3 different lines: Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Celebrity. There are certain things I would recommend other travelers to save money.
Rule #1-- NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, book a spa (massage, etc, etc) treatment on board. The amount of money you are going to be paying is many times double what you would end up paying around your neighborhood and it is done by complete strangers who you know nothing about their skills and training. At the end of every treatment, you will get trapped in a product selling session which will double or triple the amount you paid for the treatment per se. DON'T DO THIS! If you need a massage, schedule it the day after you return home. You won't be carrying luggage or all those unnecessary things you bought in every single port.
Rule #2-- If you are not afraid to wander by yourself (in a group preferably) then skip the cookie-cutter tours. Rent a local taxi driver and have them drive you around the island, take you to the local and best 'hole in the wall' spots; eat their traditional foods, learn about them and you will discover another great world besides just getting drunk at the local Margaritaville in the port.
Locals are friendly and like to share their customs and traditions. This is a true treasure that no tour organized by the cruise ship will ever provide you. Best of all, for the price of 1 for a regularly priced cruise tour, you can get more for 4-5 people. Remember, you are paying your personal guide only a fraction of the cruise tour cost and he will make sure you get the best and personalized treatment. They depend on the tourist for their livelihood, they won't do you wrong.
I'll be writing some more on my personal rules for cruising in the near future. If you have more ideas, please share them here.
I concur, also carry on your water and cokes, they don't confisgate them only liquor but you could smuggle that somehow. I think cruises are rip off anyway if you buy all that stuff, but if you don't you can get a good vacation at a very resonable price. Don't buy the pictures either, I take a picture of the picture, boy I'm cheap. I'm going on my 7th cruise this Feb, and it will be cheaper than ever!
Avoid Bingo and the casino. These are huge profit centers for the ship. Unlike land-based casinos, they have no nearby compeititon so no incentive to do anything in your favor. Plus, they don't even give you free drinks!
Agree about not buying the photos -- unless one is awesome. Then just buy the one. You can scan and print copies at home. We have found the Carnival phtographers to be the best. Don't know why. But we got a picture on a Carnival crsuise that is hands down better than any picture we've had ever by anybody.
I don't see any point in paying for exercise classes either. Go ahead and use the gym, but why pay $ for a spinning class on vacation?
If you drink, look for specials They often exist but are kept kinda quiet. On Holland America there was happy hour in the Crow's Nest. Ask the servers in the bars -- they'll gladly tell you.
Book with a cruise specialist and ask if there is group space--usually resulting in nice shipboard credits, wine, specialty dinners, etc. being thrown in gratis. If you like the cruiseline you are sailing on, book a future cruise or a "future cruise credit" if you are not sure what your next cruise will be. This will also give you a really nice shipboard credit and usually a deposit of only $100 pp--and the booking still goes back to your travel agent so that he or she can take good care of you and your booking.
Book an "inside guaranteed" cabin unless you tend to feel claustrophobic (then you need a window) or tend to get seasick - in which case you need to choose an inside cabin midship on the lowest deck. Half the time we're upgraded, even (once) to a balcony. We don't spend much time in the cabin unless we're sleeping, and then we're glad to have absolute darkness. We never pay for a photograph (we tell the photographer we're not married to each other). We never pay for a spa or beauty treatment. Once I priced a pedicure and was told it would cost 4 times what I pay at home! We do our own laundry on the ship - don't laugh but we carry a bucket (bought at a dollar store in port) to wash all our clothes when there's no self-serve laundry. We never gamble. We smuggle our own wine onto the ship and look for the ship's 2-for-1 wine bargains. Only if we can't figure out how to use our shipboard credit do we buy a bottle of wine in the dining room! We get $100-250 shipboard credit on every cruise by owning corporate stock in both Carnival and Royal Caribbean. We never eat in the specialty restaurants; we enjoy the food in the main dining room and place a standing order for blueberries at breakfast and raspberries at dinner. We don't pay for the pilates or yoga classes; instead we use the gym machines and attend the free stretch and abs classes. We don't buy the overpriced ship's tours but instead pack a guidebook from the library at home and plan ahead to see the important sights on our own. In port we try to act like locals, eat where there's no English menu, take the bus or subway or rent a car (no taxis). We buy $20 worth of local currency in advance from our bank, to make sure we can start touring right away; sometimes ATMs are not in the port. For a special day of sightseeing, someplace like Alexandria, we either book a well-reviewed tour online before we sail, or we join the roll call for our cruise on CruiseCritic.com and look for announcements of cheap private tours organized by other members. We thoroughly enjoy every cruise and last year went on 7 cruises - we don't miss the costly extras.
You people sound like a barrel of laughs! Do you carry your own water when you go out to eat? Please! If you want to have a vacation, do what makes you happy. I love the photos on the cruise, and have the best photos with my family from the cruises we've taken. I like the spa treatments, too- it's about the only time I can take the time to be pampered a little. Spring a couple of bucks for the laundry- it's better than having dripping clothes in the bathroom all the time.
I am, however, in agreement with not taking the ship's excursions, unless they involve snorkeling or sailboats. In most ports, you can do better on your own, and I don't like being isolated from the local culture. But we did a snorkeling tour off a cruise to Bermuda that included a stop by an old shipwreck, and it was one of the highlights for my granddaughter. And the snorkeling off a catamaran in Bermuda was spectacular. Those memories are a lot more precious to me than the couple of hundred dollars that would be gone by now anyway!
You people sound like a barrel of laughs! Do you carry your own water when you go out to eat? Please! If you want to have a vacation, do what makes you happy. I love the photos on the cruise, and have the best photos with my family from the cruises we've taken. I like the spa treatments, too- it's about the only time I can take the time to be pampered a little. Spring a couple of bucks for the laundry- it's better than having dripping clothes in the bathroom all the time. I am, however, in agreement with not taking the ship's excursions, unless they involve snorkeling or sailboats. In most ports, you can do better on your own, and I don't like being isolated from the local culture. But we did a snorkeling tour off a cruise to Bermuda that included a stop by an old shipwreck, and it was one of the highlights for my granddaughter. And the snorkeling off a catamaran in Bermuda was spectacular. Those memories are a lot more precious to me than the couple of hundred dollars that would be gone by now anyway! Posted by ethrush
I absolutely agree! The excellent spa and accupuncture treatments aboard ship were one of THE highlights of our cruises! Wine with dinner is a must! And so is going to the salon/barber before formal nights- the whole point of it (for us) is to look as great as we can for each other, gowns and tuxes, etc! And great aventure excursions are THE main reason we cruise! And we ususally buy a great photo or two, too! We don't do the "duty free shopping thing" & we aren't big gamblers, but we do everything else! We would like to bring wine/booze aboard, but we've been repeatedly told they will confiscate it, and so we haven't... Bottom line is that we save up for for our cruises, and we save enough so that we won't have to skimp on the things we love doing that make cruising fun for us!
