You know, you can find cruises that won’t be mainly full of Americans. And it could always be worse, you could find yourself among thousands of British tourists.
edit: That was completely unfair. It only takes a handful of Brits to ruin a vacation.
Yes
Yes
7 days for me and wife is less than 1/2 your lower estimate
They do an excellent job, and are very friendly and personable so…yes
Nominal amount
It’s also pools, bars, dance clubs, and shows, so yes
Is sex better at sea? Come on you can tell me that much, right?
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It’s great… but great on land too… so if it is better, not a measurable amount
I have been on two cruises and consider them just one of many vacation styles to choose from. I would do it again but I don’t understand people who choose cruises for all their vacations. In a nutshell:
Plus: You get to visit different interesting ports without boarding planes or trains or changing hotels.
Minus: The ship is only so big. After three days I feel cooped up, especially on those “at sea” days. I don’t gamble, and it gets tedious that they are constantly trying to find ways to take nickels and dimes out of your pocket.
Tread, how do you take two people on a seven-day cruise for under $2500?
I’ve been on a cruise once: a Disney cruise in the Caribbean. It was very expensive, but I feel like we got our money’s worth. (As opposed to a Disney theme park, which is expensive and not worth the price paid.)
The excursions were hectic and fun. The rest of the time was peaceful. Being able to grab food and drink at any time, laze about with no responsibilities or schedule, and catching some of the on-board shows made for a great vacation.
On the other hand, I don’t see us going again. While the Disney cruise was well worth what we paid for it, we’ve managed to have great vacations other ways.
Absolutely.
I didn’t think I’d be a cruise guy. But I won some in a corporate contest and really enjoyed them. Enough that I just did a 4 day cruise to the islands and back on my own dime. Cost maybe $1500 with expenses.
I do find them relaxing. Even just to sit on the balcony and watch the ocean roll past. I saw a whale last year.
I’m not much of a gambler, so the casino doesn’t do it for me. But the restaurants are good.
Yes
Its less than some of the other vacations we’ve been on. No $5-$10k doesn’t hurt, our income has supported it.
Yes
No, I don’t gamble, that isn’t the purpose
Shopping malls? No, the cruise ships we’ve been on have been relatively shopping light. Restaurants, yes. Restaurants tend to be a big part of any vacation experience for us.
Sex - we have great sex wherever we are.
Cruise ships have alcohol, they have a spa, they have sitting by the pool. There are excursions where you can go see the local sights or try parasailing. There are shows and activities going on constantly, so if you get board in the sun with a book, you can go listen to dueling pianos or something. They usually have decent kids activities - where they take your kids off your hands for a few hours. They - and all inclusive resorts - tend to be lovely “sit on your ass, eat, drink, read, enjoy the ocean” vacations. This is a different kind of vacation than camping, or visiting a big city and going to museums and sightseeing.
We went on our first cruise in 2013 because we only had a short time in Europe and I didn’t expect to be able to get back in any reasonable time and it was actually a relatively inexpensive way to get to a number of cities in one week.
Much to my surprise my husband loved it. He hates changing hotels on vacation - moving from one room to another annoys him so my desire to see as much as possible while in a particular area has caused some land based vacation conflicts.
Since then we’ve taken 3 more cruises and I have two more scheduled over the next 2 years. The second of those is a 7 day that I booked for Chick Trip 2018 with two friends. We’re going to be paying slightly under $1500/pp for accommodation, all our food, all our drinks (yay drink pkg) and transportation to 5 separate islands. It could have been cheaper still but one of the girls is claustrophobic so no inside cabin or even oceanview. Balcony was a requirement.
I make a point to book trips for places that I either haven’t seen yet or am excited to go back to. We also plan for extra “sea” days in ports that we really don’t care about, making it a much more relaxing vacation.
Cruising is definitely one of the vacations that planning ahead, watching sales and knowing the cycles of the year and how that impacts pricing really pays off. I’m leaving in April on our longest cruise yet - 11 days, and we spend 3 days docked in New Orleans at Jazz Fest. When I booked I did it mostly on impulse since I’ve never been to New Orleans, we both love Jazz and I’ve never been on a cruise that stayed docked this long. I paid a little more than I normally would be comfortable with but the price has actually doubled since I booked it so it was a good time and I’m really looking forward to this trip so I think it’s worth the little extra this time.
A good thing to know is, just because you’ve already booked you should still keep an eye on prices. Up to 91 days before you leave there is no penalty (in Canada and the US, UK laws are very different) for canceling so if a better deal comes along you can either cancel and rebook, or often, just call the cruise line and have them apply the new special to your booking. After that date, when penalties kick in they might not, but some times they do and it’s still worth calling. Depends on how empty the ship currently is.
My mom is a hard-core cruiser. She cruised with Dad before he died, and since then, she’s cruised with friends, my sister, me, her grandkids, and several church groups. Speaking for her:
Do they enjoy them that much? YES YES YES YES
Do they really give you a rest? Definitely - no cooking, no cleaning, no nothing.
*
Does the 5k to 10k missing in your bank account hurt?* Her cruises rarely cost that much. She and I did 28 days: British Isles/Transatlantic with a balcony cabin and even that didn’t hit 10K each. Had I not been with her, I’d have had an interior cabin and saved a bunch! For Mom, this is a budgetary priority, and fortunately, my dad left her provided for so that she has been able to do several cruises a year. In fact, next month, she and my sister are making their annual trek to the Caribbean, because they like to.
Do you like the staff waiting on you? Definitely - no cooking, no cleaning, no nothing.
*
Do you lose money in the casino?* She only goes into the casino when she’s bored and wants to look around. But it’s usually a smoking area, so she mostly avoids it.
*
Do you really enjoy the modern huge cruise ship experience with it’s shopping malls and restaurants?* She’s never gone on one of the super-mega-gigantic ships, but I think she’d like it. Me, I’d hate it, altho I’d like to tour one.
Is sex better at sea? Come on you can tell me that much, right? I couldn’t even ask her that question. For myself - unless the sea is rough, you don’t even know you’re not just in a nice hotel room, which I don’t see as a big mood-enhancer.
Now, speaking just for me, cruising can be a cheap way to vacation. If you shop and time things right, and if you don’t mind an interior cabin, you can go for around $100/day per person. That covers your cabin, your meals, snacks, entertainment galore, pools hot tubs, gym… We don’t drink, so we’re spared that expense.
Usually when we stop in a port, we explore on our own, so there’s no cost for the guided tours. Almost without exception, the staff go out of their way to make sure you’re having a good time. I think all ships have libraries where you can find in interesting variety of books if you don’t bring your own. You can do trivia or karaoke or dance lessons or towel-folding lessons or go to lectures or see movies or just find a quiet spot to sit and watch the ocean go by. I just wish my husband liked cruising as much as I do.
I am really intrigued by some of the pricing that people are quoting. I have spent a lot of time comparing prices when I have booked a cruise and never see anything that cheap.
I would love to know what cruise you are taking where you can get a balcony cabin for under $1500. What cruise line, departure date, destinations? Because I’m going too.
Was this a repositioning cruise?
Frequent cruiser here.
The good:
Able to visit many destinations without unpacking.
Cost is actually reasonable if you weigh against cost of hotel + decent / fine dining on vacation.
Food always available.
I enjoy being on the water.
Free entertainment nightly (again, a cost comparison opportunity).
Nice workout facilities included.
Meeting new people.
The maybe not so good:
Large crowds on big boats (so, don’t go on the big boats, duh.)
Shore excursions packages are costly and stoopid with the coaches full of people following the lady with the number on the paddle held up in the air. (so, book independently - still costly - or just jump off and explore!)
Buffet food quality and hoards of people at the buffet (so, go to the sit-down places, duh.)
Entertainment quality can be dodgy.
Don’t even think about trying to find a chair by the pool after 5:00 AM, they will all be taken by people who put their towel out and never show up all day, putzes.
No thanks, I don’t care to shop for art and jewelry, or to gamble.
Meeting new people (I’m rather shy).
Do they have dedicated rooms for long term occupancy? Like a little neighborhood on the ship for the permanent residents?
I’ll admit my first thought of a cruise ship room is derived from popular culture where it’s always depicted in ways that made my old dorm room look lavish. Beds the size of a park bench, closet barely large enough to hold a broom, that sort of thing.
The Transatlantic portion was, but it included stops in Norway, Shetland Islands, Iceland, and Newfoundland before arriving in NYC. If they ever offer that cruise again, I’ll seriously consider it.
Amen on the occasionally dodgy entertainment. One time, we were “entertained” by a musician/comic/yo-yo trickster - OMG did he suck mightily!!! He’d have been gonged on the Gong Show.
On the other hand, I’ve seen some incredible performers. So it can be hit or miss.
I’ve mostly cruised Royal Caribbean, and I’ve never had a problem finding chairs near the pool - tho I prefer quieter places to sit. They have signs saying that you can’t save chairs, and I don’t know if they really enforce it or if the passengers abide by the rule.
Some great posting’s here … this one is my favorite
When I quoted 5k to 10k I meant for two people per stateroom not per person, plus the port taxes and tips and the credit cards for shopping and fine dinning and bar bill’s and extra’s for shore excursions, plus the airfare to get to the port of departure, plus the taxi or rental care, plus the hotel or motel the night before you leave.
I’m too busy to search for it right now, but some people live full time on cruise ships to the tune of $250,000 a year includes all the meals and everything, but they have to get off for dry docking and maintence.
How can they keep you from bringing your own booze?
An old but fun book about a SF to (then) Leningrad cruise.
My wife and I have done several cruises: 2 with my side of the family, one with her parents, and one by ourselves. We have always had a window cabin because my wife would get claustrophobic without one. We have only paid about $3-4,000 for the cruises. I think we plan for something like $2,000 per person.
I think the huge costs for cruises would be in the alcohol, the casinos, the duty-free shops, the spa, the excursions, the pictures, and all the other things that you can do.
If you don’t drink (or limit yourself to a very low drinking regimen), don’t play in the casinos, don’t buy a lot of crap in the shops, or pay the premiums for the excursions, you won’t spend a lot of money.
I’m pretty cheap and don’t do a lot of the aforementioned activities, but I still have a great time on cruises.
On one cruise, we had had about 8-10 inches of snow the day before we were supposed to fly to Miami for the cruise, and we were pretty scared we were going to miss the boat (literally). Because of the aggravation, I splurged and gave my wife and daughter a gift of a massage during the cruise, at $100 or so apiece. Money well spent!
For excursions, I have found that booking your own excursion away from the ship can be both fun and slightly scary, depending on how regimented you want things to be. Ship-endorsed excursions will be fairly expensive, but you are pretty much guaranteed a safe and predictable experience, and will get back to the ship before it leaves. Finding your own excursions can be cheaper, but you have to be aware of your surroundings and not stray too far off the beaten trail.
Case in point: when we went to Cabo san Lucas on a family cruise, my brother had brought 5 sets of snorkel gear with him. (They used to live in Hawaii, so they already had the gear.) I think the snorkeling excursion from the ship was something like $150/person, or thereabouts. We went to Cabo on the tender, got off at the dock, found a guy in a motorboat, and paid him $20 to take us over to the dive spot, with a promise of another $30 if he would pick us up later. Perhaps a little dicey, but it worked. So, instead of dropping nearly $1,000 on an excursion, we paid $50.
Later in that trip, my mom, wife, two daughters, a niece, and I did our own little excursion through Mazatlan. We went to a marketplace, and had a wonderful lunch and beach experience, all on our own. I speak a little Spanish, but was totally amazed that everyone we met spoke passable English. Had a great time for less than $100 in total, including souvenirs.
During the at-sea days, I always find something fun to do that is free. I love watching the art auctions, and they served free champagne.
I met a new group of people and we hung out together several days, just swapping stories and telling jokes.
The mealtimes are wonderful, and being treated as royalty by the crew is part of the experience. I liked the Royal Caribbean, because we had the same waiter for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On Carnival, though, it was assigned seating only at dinner. But, I enjoy the fact that the waiters knew our names by the second mealtime, and by the third day, they were anticipating our orders. Of course, eating at all times of the day and night in the other eateries is a lot of fun, too.
We’ve never done an all-inclusive, but hope to do that soon, so we can have a true comparison.
Herein lies the rub. I’ve found most people who enjoy the cruising lifestyle, especially the older ones, tend to be highly gregarious and at least somewhat outgoing. Going with large groups of friends or meeting a new set of acquaintances is part of the charm.
For others being trapped on a boat with hundreds of strangers would be their idea of hell :D.
Royal Caribbean screens all luggage, so if you’ve got booze, chances are, they’ll find it. I assume it goes thru xray machines, just like carry-on does. And they know to check your mouthwash to see if it’s actually vodka with a little food coloring. If you buy alcohol in port, they take it from you, mark it with your cabin number, and return it to you the night before you debark.
I suppose some folks manage to sneak stuff aboard, but I also expect it’s the exception. RC won’t even let you bring soda aboard - you gotta buy theirs. I imagine all cruise lines do the same.
Honor system. Really, they can’t.
I bring all the booze I can carry in my bags, and at every port stop tote a case or two of beer on board. Never had a problem.