Here are a few more tips and notes. I used to work for one of the big cruise ship companies, and have spent a lot of time on the ships.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator. The elevators on the ships are often slow, and people who need to take the elevators everywhere often make them even slower. There are stairs everywhere, and you’ll get exercise and save time getting around the ship.
Read the shipboard newsletters and communications. There are always special activities, promotions and drink specials, and reading these gives you good information.
Be friendly and personable with the shipboard staff, especially your hotel and dining staff. They have to face mean, demanding people all the time with a smile, so being friendly, having conversations with them, etc. often results in perks and extras since they like to reward their ‘favorite’ passengers. If you’re dining in the sit-down dining rooms, the dining staff often prepares special things for selected passengers.
Don’t be afraid to ask for pretty much anything, but ask nicely. If you like a particular menu item, drink, activity, the ships’ staff has resources available to help you enjoy your stay that much more.
Make an event of it - I always loved getting dressed up for Formal Nights and really enjoying the elegance of the cruise. Get formal portraits taken looking all dressed up.
Take advantage of port specials if there’s nothing on shore that appeals too much - if the ship’s in port, but you’re not especially into debarking, or you get done early and you are sick of the touristy stuff, come back onto the ship and see if the bars, dining rooms, salons or spas are running a port-day special. Chances are they are half price for many things.
Behave yourself - ship security guards are usually highly trained professionals. On most ships the guards were all Gurkhas, very serious business.
Pack your own toiletries and any meds you think you might want. Shipboard sundries are ridiculously overpriced. If you are only mildly seasick or queasy, try drinking ginger ale or get some ginger pills before you sail. Gentler than most seasickness pills, and just as effective.
It doesn’t always work, but if you’re nice about it, when you check in, ask if they have any cabin upgrades. A ship always wants to fill all of its cabins - any vacant cabins are a financial drag on the voyage. If they have any cancellations last minute, or any unsold suite/balcony cabins, you should be able to upgrade without spending too much.
Come to think of it, I’ve never noticed an unpleasantly smashed person on any of the five cruises I’ve been on. All they need is for some bozo to get drunk and fall off the side, or worse, screw up the enjoyment of others. Pretty much the same reason airlines don’t let you take your own booze onboard.
Our last cruise was with my parents. My Dad didn’t realize that a tip was already added into the bar tab, so tipped twice - he kept commenting on how stiff the drinks were mixed - word got around fast that my father tipped
Most people think cruise drinks are pretty watered down. If you are drinking for the alcohol, drink drinks with ALCOHOL in them and no mixer - not Rum and Cokes or the frou frou ice cream drinks (you’ll get fat before you get drunk). A cosmo on a cruise is often a lot pinker and more cranberry flavored than I tend to make them at home.
Cool! I’ve never seen any on a cruise, only as part of the Indian UN contingent in the Congo. In fact I’ve never noticed any obvious shipboard security, but I haven’t been close to any incidents.
Sounds like it’s pretty clearly not done in the interest of safety for all - if that were so, there’d be comparable tight restriction on what you could buy on board (something I’ve never heard of).
I’d suspect that any person causing trouble would soon find that he couldn’t buy any more alcohol - and he could have what he has in his cabin confiscated for the duration of the trip. Just a guess, but I doubt they’d fool around.
We spent plenty of money on alcohol at cruise ship prices. One of the main reasons we smuggled some onboard was so we could have a drink or two in our cabin (say, before dinner or before one of the shows) without going to one of the bars.
Dangerosa mentioned onboard communications and the high cost of cell phone use or texting. A good way to stay in touch with other members of your party is to get a set of walkie-talkies.
just want to + 3 or 4 or whatever on the getting back to the ship on time issue. if you are on an excursion booked through the cruise line, and it runs over, they’ll hold the ship. however, they do not:
they will leave on time, and if you’re wandering around and lose track of time, you will get left. i think the closest i ever cut it was getting back on board 20 minutes before depature, and that was at a port where the ship docked at a pier that was a 5 minute walk from the margaritaville we spent the day at. and i would never count on there being late-running excursions, because IME that tends to be the exception, not the rule.
anyways, i know other posters have pointed this out already, but i wanted to reiterate because i don’t understand why anyone would tell a first time cruiser otherwise.
All our cruises have been on princess cruises, so I write from that experience. A very high percentage of the waiting and cabin staff are Filipino’s, as is my wife. She always chats to them and after a few days practically knows their life story. As a result we get treated like royalty with lots of added perks, such as free drinks, special cooked meals, extra stuff in our cabin etc. We try and be as pleasant as possible to all staff regardless of nationality and it pays off big time. People miss out on so much by being rude and impatient to crew members.
When we sailed around the Suez canal area there was a lot of security staff on pirate watch. They say they don’t have guns on board and were planning to fight off pirates with fire hoses. All of the security were from the Philippines, definitely not Gurkha’s, although I must admit I would feel safer with Gurkha’s around.
It was said that the speed of the ship and its maneuverability made it a difficult target for pirates.
The group I’m traveling with is the kind that always chats up waiters and servers. We’ve spent our time in customer service and know what it means to Just Be Nice. I have no doubt we’ll be chumming it up with the staff. That’s how we roll.
As for liquor…we’ve got that part taken care of with what we plan to bring on board. Personally, it doesn’t take much for me to get tipsy so I can have a drink or two in the room and probably not spend much on the ship.
I’ve been on boats before and never had seasickness, but what I’m hearing from people is that being on a cruise ship is different feeling altogether. Is Dramamine a good investment just in case?
We discovered that there were so many walkie talkies that it was fairly useless, lots of people on every frequency - and since we cruised with Disney, lots of kids who took it upon themselves to make sure that you couldn’t talk. We gave up - but it might have been our cruise
Disney gives you room phones - wave phones - now to call each other. I think a few lines do this. They are short range “cell” phones. Two per room are standard, more can be rented.
Another thing…the last trip I went on, I packed a small scissor in my bag. I had it for medical reasons - I had a knee problem, and wanted to be able to tape it up to exercise. It was considered a dangerous blade, and resulted in my bag not being delivered to my room. I had to go pick up the bag, and sign a form so I could get the scissor back at the end of the trip.
So check your cruise line’s policy for what you’re allowed to bring on board.
ETA: Dramamine - for me, it’s a must. I get sea sick very easily, including on the worlds largest cruise ship. It’s cheap, so I’d say it’s a good investment.
On princess cruises they add about $11.50 per day for tips, except on cruises from Australia ( but they increase their charges on board so it works out the same)
If we are on a cruise with added tips we will tip our cabin steward about $5 per day and if no tip added we tip around $10 per day. If we have a lot of contact with our restaurant waiters then we tip them $3-4 per day each. This can vary with the quality of service.
Yeah, as far as the booze thing goes, I really think its dependent on cruise line/ship. I know its against the rules but, the last cruise I went on, I plopped about 4 bottles of various alcohol in my bag. On and off ship no problems. In fact I did the early “get off the boat yourself and take your own damn bags with you” thing at the end and my bag wasn’t even checked.
I will say on the way in I wasn’t allowed to bring my opened water bottle with me. Go figure.
I travel badly (motion sick) and dramamine doesn’t cut it for water. I had to go down to the med center for stronger pills. The crew are lifesavers. I almost gave up rights to my first born to the lovely nurse. Anything to temper that horrible nausea.
The last cruise ended last July and ran for 53 days.Tips were not included. We gave the cabin steward $250 and gave $150 each to our table waiters. So that works out at $10.53 per day. We thought they did a terrific job and made the cruise a lot more enjoyable, so we don’t really care about a few dollars here or there.
I’ve never had a problem. New cruise ships are designed to be stable, though you will feel rough seas. (It is quite a lot of fun seeing jugglers working during this kind of thing.)
Also, the higher you are the more you’ll feel it. When we did a transAtlantic crossing on the QE2 we went to a cocktail party in the chief engineer’s quarters, which are way high, and there was more motion up there than we ever felt.
You’ll probably be fine, but a little Dramamine never hurt. Just in case.
If you have no medical problems ask your doctor for a scopalamine patch. You stick one behind your ear every 3 days and it prevents motion sickness and you don’t have to deal with taking pills when you’re already nauseated. In addition, it doesn’t make you sleepy like the pills can.
