New answers tagged cruising
3
It may be possible; I would certainly try. But you will have to sue them in the small claims court. You would represent yourself, the fee is small ($30 or so), and it becomes part of judgment if you win the case.
What you could argue is that the "we charge you automatic gratuities which you have to jump through multiple hoops to cancel" was not part of the ...
7
Others explained the ways you can end up paying more cash.
You can definitely find ways to cheap out on the cruise. EG: only eat at the free restaurants, tip only what's expected, avoid gambling, avoid video arcades (mostly for kids, b/c they're like $1/play), etc.
But, if it's your first cruise... I would argue to just spend cash like you're James Bond ...
2
It could depends on where you book the cruise. e.g. in Europe you may find more "transparent" costs (and protection), but with higher rates, compared to US travel agencies. Tickets sold (from some countries/ and some cruise lines (on some countries) add separately port fees (and maybe fuel supplements).
The gratuities are the most important hidden fee (but ...
2
BLUF: You will have a $15/day service fee at the end. I have heard you can get out of this by filing paperwork. That's it! The rest is up to you. (Ok, for some reason, they charge you taxes on drinks you have while in American ports. Wild, huh?)
I just took my 1st cruise (fyi, I was solo, 7 days) ever on NCL Escape in December 2019 on the cheap in one ...
1
There are 4 big expenses that your ticket price doesn’t cover: gratuities, food & drink, at sea days and excursions. The at sea days catch you because you are on the ship all day and will want something to do, other than sitting round the pool almost everything there to do can cost you money.
Gratuities: The recommended gratuity will be automatically ...
15
As an experienced cruiser, who tips well, I find cruises to be an extra ordinary value. In fact your cruise might cost a bit less than what you actually paid! You could be refunded part of your port fees if the boat leaves a bit early. However, you will likely spend more than that.
Deferring to other answers I will give my insights.
I prepay my tips and ...
1
I've found the answer here to be
Mid to late January. Typically starts a week or two after the New Year's rush ends. Weather might not be great, however.
Mid to late September. Most people are back in school by now (people seem less likely to skip that first week). Still warm (and hurricane season) but it seems that prices are rebounded by the first week of ...
11
Alcohol
Packages vary from line-to-line. Some come with simpler beer packages and some offer wine packages. All have bars and most offer mixed drinks on a per-drink basis.
Premium coffee
While basic coffee is generally free on most lines, expect to pay for Starbucks-like fare (like lattes, etc). Remember to tip your barista!
Rides
Depends on the ship. ...
33
There are significant expectations for tips, for at least a dozen people/roles, with 'recommended daily' amounts.
For a seven-day cruise, you are expected to drop around $ 300 in tips (per person), and although can of course ignore that and give nothing (or less), they are pretty good in making you feel obliged, and they often make it cumbersome to even ...
69
The cruise line will try to sell you excursions at the ports you visit at a high price, sell you extras like portrait photographs, tempt you to gamble in their casino and shop in their stores selling jewellery, watches etc. You can of course choose not to spend any money on things like these.
Cruise line often come with the guarantee they will wait for you ...
4
It is a sort of art.
On cruise search engines, you could use as "cruise region/destination": "transatlantic", "transpacific". One of the most used site is CruiseCritics, but you may have seen much more sites. i think I once saw also a site which were specialized on repositioning cruises, but I do not think I could find it again quickly.
In this manner, ...
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