Cruise Vacation Advice

In My Humble Opinion
21

If I may also add…there’s also the tax-free shopping thing. If you want a nice watch or wanted to buy your wife some nice jewelry, there are some pretty nice deals to be had at some of the reputable places that the cruise line recommends (Disney guaranteed the products sold at some of them…i.e. the warranty was through Disney and not the little shop in a foreign country).

The ships bursar (no, not Lauren Tewes…) on some lines gives a speech in one of the conference rooms about places they recommend as well as places to avoid and why. Many of their recommendations make sense and it’s about an hour of your time that may well be worth it.

My personal experience was buying my wife a 2kt sapphire pendant for about half of what a half-carat sapphire pendant was going to cost me at a local jeweler. (It’s the only hokey ‘Titanic’ thing we’ve ever done and I made damn sure she didn’t throw it overboard.)

22

The drink prices didn’t phase me much - if anything I expected them to be more expensive than what I am used to. But I am from NYC, so I’m used to overpriced drinks.

Is this like the Jenna Jameson Cruise Line? Where do I sign up! :cool:

23

Do not buy the unlimited soda/juice card.
Take advantage of the laundry services.
Only book those shore excurisions that take you far from the ship.
Book a cabin with a window/ balcony if you’re a morning person.
Buy one of the 20 posed pictures they will take of you, especially if it is flattering.

Dress for dinner every night because it’s better than the buffet, you can have 3 entrees and 2 desserts if you feel like it and because dressing for dinner is fun.
Take pictures of the Chocolate Buffet but don’t each much—it’s not quality chocolate.
Go play the silly Trvia/ Treasure Hunt games because they are silly and fun and no one you know will see you.

24

Cyn and Drachillix on cruise

25

Why not? :confused: I drink a lot of soda. Or Iced tea.

26

Several reasons:

  1. The iced tea is free
  2. You get your soda one 8 oz. glass at a time and you have to show your soda card each and every time.
  3. You usually have to go to a bar and get your soda yourself
  4. The bartender gets to take a tip out of every drink he pours and the tip from a soda is tiny, so your soda is lowest priority
  5. The soda cards/cups run about 25 bucks
  6. You can get soda on the shore excursions
  7. You can bring a six pack of soda in your luggage to carry you through to your first shore excursion
    Cyn, addicted to Diet Pepsi since 1986
27

I’ve been on two cruises, one when I was a kid (I was a wicked bastard, just not publicly), and one a few years ago.

The most recent was on Royal Carribean, and was quite enjoyable. On night one they had a sale on booze in the “sales room” or whatever. I bought a regular sized bottle of Absolut blue, and got a free bottle of Bahamanian rum, both cost me about $20. Not a bad deal. I bought cheap mixers in the Bahamas for a few bucks, and stayed nicely toasted the whole cruise, while my friends spent tons of cash for watered down drinks.

We were lucky enough to not have a ton of kids on our boat. We avoided almost all of them by being night people, this avoided all the crowds as well.

We “entered customs” in Key West FL, and there was no search of any kind. Yes, this was post 9-11. Maybe they had drug dogs go into each cabin, but when we left the boat in Miami, there was nary a person in sight to even glance at our bags, much less check us for our “limit” of bottles of booze. Had I bought a few pounds of pot in Key West, I would have just walked off the boat with it. Slightly disturbing if you ask me.

As far as the meals go, ours were pretty good. If you wanted steak instead of what they were serving, it was always an option, same with multiple servings if you like that sort of thing. A girl at our table refused desert one night, and our waiter said “you want nothing?” She said yes, and received a plate with “nothing” written in chocolate sauce on it. The servers can make your experience much more memorable, if you get a good one, most of them know the deal.

The only other major lesson I learned was in regard to the “booze cruise” outing. There was a boat trip to an island that was supposed to feature rum punch, then games on the island and more punch on the way back. Our group was interested in getting inebriated, and once we were on the boat, we got a round of drinks. You could have fed this stuff to a baby, almost zero alcohol in it. We thought we were getting shafted. We drank until our stomachs hurt, and had almost zero buzz.

On the way back, we decided to try to tip the bartenders in order to get them to pour stronger drinks. It worked. Most of us were rip-roaring drunk by the time we got back to port. A few of the guys didn’t even make it to the formal dinner.

I guess it depends on your goal. Relaxing seems to necessitate a balcony, boozing seems to need an angle on getting it cheap, and sightseeing seems to require inside knowledge and a frugal plan.

Once you pick a cruise, research the hell out of it, you will thank yourself in the end.

28

Hi Harriet,

Write me off as a raving greenie if you like, but please consider the environment before deciding on taking a cruise. Even a cursory Google will bring up plenty of scary reports and stats on the unsustainable and highly polluting practices. I worked on a cruise ship for six months in 2005, and was horrified by the waste management, overt consumerism… rave, rave.

29

Yes tea is usually free but I disagree with not buying the soda card. I always buy them for the kids and on recent cruises my SO bought one for himself. It is well worth it when the fam drinks two or three sodas just at dinner! Because I don’t allow the kids to drink it other than vacation, believe me, I more than get my moneys worth. I guess it depends on how much you drink. Personally, I wouldn’t buy it for myself as it wouldn’t be worth it.

Also, another tid bit that I didn’t see mentioned before. If you buy wine with dinner, they will recork it and serve it the next night so it is worth it rather than purchasing it by the glass.

30

Well, it’s already been said but …

Don’t go jumping off the ship just because everybody is doing it now!
Be sure to take some motion sickness medicine, even if you don’t think you get sea sick. I have been on small crafts in pitching waves yelling “wheee!” and not gotten seasick but I got on a small cruise ship and the vibrations of the engine gave me a bad headache and nausea. Thankfully, it was only for a few hours to the Bahamas and back. A larger ship may not have this problem but it’s a good idea to be prepared. Thankfully, my sister had brought some dramamine.

31

I bought the soda card and it was worth it to me. If I had known about soda before I went I would have brought soda with me, but I didn’t. Since I don’t drink and the only thing I drank in the evening was soda it was well worth it to me.

If your a coffee drinker, bring a small coffee maker with you. I hated the coffee.
The coffee in the cafe was good but that wasn’t free.

32

I’ve never been on a cruise, and my ignorance is certainly taking a hit from reading this thread. I thought unlimited food and drink were par for the course.

Do I understand that you have to pay to be served soft drinks with meals? That drinks cost more than ripoff airport prices? That you’re inspected when you come on board, and not allowed to take booze you’ve purchased into your expensive private room?

Sheesh.

33

I went with Disney, and free soda is included*. They have a bank of soda machines on the main deck near the kids’ pool with to-go cups and lids. You just walk up and serve yourself. Very convinient. If it’s optional on whatever line you choose, think of how much you think you’d use it.

*:Actually, everything but alcohol is included, but the topic at hand is soda.

34

Ok thanks. I was also addicted to DP but recently I have made the change to Iced tea 90% of the time.

35

Maybe there are cruises like that but the one I was on wasn’t. I’m not an experienced cruiser like most of the people here so they may know.

I’ve been on two and they were both Norwegian Cruise Lines. They were free style cruises.
There was no formal seating for dinner, you could go to any of the restaurants at any time.
Iced tea, juice, coffee & tea were free. Soda and mixed drinks you paid for.

As far as I know you can’t bring booze with you. I’m not 100% sure on that because I didn’t try. It makes sense that they wouldn’t considering they sell booze, so why would they let you bring your own? Maybe the more expensive lines let you. All things considered it’s a pretty inexpensive way to vacation.

36

Honestly, the entertainment aboard Carnival was a mixed bag. The first night, it was a Christmas show. Far lamer than you’re now imagining. The second night it was show tunes, and I completely avoided it. My parents loved it, though. The third night was a magician and a comic. They rocked. Fourth night was amateur night, and it was pretty good. Some real talent. The last night was country night. I only saw about 3 seconds of it. A bunch of Daisy Dukes sitting around a replica of a rusty old pickup, singing twangy cuuuuuntry musik under a strobe light. I could not get out of there fast enough.

The windowless cabin was fine, but a bit unnerving. I couldn’t tell day from night.

The food was a real mixed bag as well. On formal night, all three entrees were fabulous. On other nights, it was attrocious. My mother sent hers back twice one night. And what she ended up with made her feel a bit sick. The onion soup was nothing but brown water.

General advice for going ashore. If you’re in a large group, don’t feel compelled to stick together. I was with a group of 13. GF and I struck out on our own. We went to the beach and ate some fantastic local foods. Eggs benedict with crabcakes and key lime hollandaise sauce, conch fritters, and key lime pie. The other 11 people stood in one place the entire time, trying to come to a concensus as to what to do. They ended up getting pizza for lunch.

Even if you’re just a couple going on the cruise, you don’t have to be jined at the hip the whole time.

37

Carnival lets you, as long as it’s not excessive. They don’t define excessive. My family smuggled what must have been 2 gallons of scotch aboard.

38

As yes, the memories. The coffee was the worst. I think they made it from the same stuff they made the onion soup from.

39

Our complaint with it was that the staff pouring them usually didn’t like it much. I know tips are a hefty portion of their income so taking time to fill a free soda vs serving a tipping customer can get a bit trying at times. IIRC it was $20-$25 for the card, thats quite a few 20oz bottles at grocery store prices, you can also easily pick them up in any port for less than the ship charges.

40

Tip!

I tipped pretty well where I got the soda the first couple times and never had a problem. I’d usually go to the same place. I did the same thing in the cafe with coffee and half the time after that they’d give me free refills. A few bucks tip really goes a long way on a cruise.

I tipped the maid when we first got there because I knew we’d be a pain and after that they couldn’t do enough for us.