Cruises - any advice appreciated!

oldmillgal

Hi. I hope i am posting this in the right place - mods please move if it is not!-

I was wondering if anyone has advice on cruises. In particular about what happens money wise on the cruise itself. Is everything included in the price or do you pay for drinks on board etc. Also any advice on cruise companies?
I am confused about the all-inclusive bit as I am hearing varying stories regarding food and drinks etc. I was advised to come on here as this is THE spot to put me on the right track! Thanks in advance!:)

Bannerman7

Hi oldmillgal
I have been on 5 Caribbean cruises with Royal Caribbean who are regarded as very good and a 4 star cruise line.

The following is with Royal Caribbean & most major cruise lines
You check in same as airline check in desk.
Normally all your food & accommadition is included including room service. You get to chose what time you want to dine for evening meal in main dining room. You can request your own table, if not you may be at a table with 8/10 all speaking english.
Major cruise lines have specialty restaurants ie steak / Italian etc where you must pre book & pay a cover charge ie $20
Money wise its cashless on board, you use your ID card you get at check inn when buying anything. As its cashless onboard you must provide at checkin a credit card or traverlers checks or cash to cover what you spend on drinks etc. Most use credit card and payment is taken just before end of your cruise, you get a print out of what you bought on board in your room early morning of departure
I'm including a link to check out where hopefully you can find everything about cruising.



http://www.cruisecritic.com/ftc/

unklerosco

Regarding eating on the ships... You don't have to eat at the dining room, there's huge Buffets each night, pizza n burger bars etc. Last cruise I was on (7 nights) I ate at the dining room twice, used the buffet the rest of the time... Much prefered it.
The two nights we did eat in the dining room we'd no problem getting a table for two, although to be honest we ended up chatting away to the people at the table next to us all night...

Cruisecritic is a great site..

My best recommendation is to research the cruise and book all of your own excursions, you'll save a fortune that way and have a much better selection. Our biggest expense was booking the excursions on the ship, some where good and some where absolutely crap. One was a Safari tour, we saw a donkey and a cow on our travels.. Cost us $350!!

Drink on the ships is cheap enough. There's restrictions regarding bringing drink on board, we met some friendly americans that had 5 ltr bottles of water full of vodka, they bought a soft drink card(about $20 for unlimited coke, sprite etc) at the beginning of the cruise and that was them sorted for the week... Genius idea..

Anyways, I'd highly recommend a cruise.. It's the ultimate way to relax, switch ur brain of and let them do the thinking for you.. Just eat, drink and soak up the sun!!

One last tip, check the prices in the US for the cruises. I got my cousin to pay for mine and saved €750 compared to the prices I was quoted here and in the uk..

oldmillgal

Bannerman7 and Unklerosco thank you very much. This is excatly what i needed to find out about. I am researching cruise for our honeymoon and it was a royal carribean one which caught my eye. However in these times I was wondering about the finances as it is working out about 3200 for us excluding flights and transfers etc so to know about life on board and the costs involved is really helpful.

I appreciate any advice at the moment! Thank you so much again:)

unklerosco

Ouch.. pricey, how long are you going for?

I saw tour america where doing a 3 nights miami, 7 night cruise for €699pp the other day.. Half tempted to book it myself..

For me 7 nights is enough, I don't think I'd be able to hack a longer cruise. Thats just me, my aunt does about 3 cruise a year.. anything from 3 - 21 days. She loves them.. But she is over twice my age.. ;-p

stargazer 68

oldmillgal wrote: »

However in these times I was wondering about the finances as it is working out about 3200 for us excluding flights and transfers etc so to know about life on board and the costs involved is really helpful.

Thats expensive! Although depends on where and how long you are going. My sis is doing a caribbean one with royal caribbean and didnt pay that much including flights!

Royal Caribbean are doing a trial run of being able to pay for your drinks package before you go. They do it for juice and water anyway but 3 ships are trialling the alcohol packages. Cant remember which ships but their website has the details.

unklerosco

Oh, just to note.. I went with Princess cruises.. Found them great.

oldmillgal

This is with RCL its a 12 night scandinavia and russia one departing from Harwich. Now that is the price I got from RCL themselves. I did come across another website called viva voyage who were quoting the same one for 2600 but thought that must have been too good to be true. Thanks for all the advice guys- excuse the pun but I am "all at sea" in trying to make sure i get something that we are not going to end up paying hidden charges on if you know what i mean. 14-JulHarwich, England 15-JulCruising 16-JulCopenhagen, Denmark 17-JulCruising 18-JulStockholm, Sweden 19-JulHelsinki, Finland 20-JulSt Petersburg, Russia 21-JulSt Petersburg, Russia 22-JulTallinn, Estonia 23-JulCruising 24-JulGothenburg, Sweden 25-JulCruising 26-JulHarwich, England

oldmillgal

Should have mentioned it is on Jewel of the seas. Thanks bannerman for the link to cruise critic it is very helpful

Bannerman7

Hi oldmillgal
I know what you mean when you say all at see.:D
Are you planning on going next week or next year on Jewel of the Sea ?
One word about hidden charges.
If you book on www.rccl.com you will get a 5% online discount. You can also make a booking where you dont pay anything & the booking is held for a few days. If booking for next year you will only need to pay a deposit of around €320. You will also get the option to prepay ship gratuities & will be able to access you account online at www.rccl.com From there you can book spa treatments, speciailty restaurant or excursions etc.
www.cruisecritic.com is a great site and if you book a cruise you can register to join the forums like here . If you were interested you can find the sailing your going on ie Royal Caribbean meet & mingle and chat with people on your sailing before you cruise.
I am sending you a private message if you want to ask anything you are not clear on.

oldmillgal

Thanks again. RCl seem to be popular. What about celebrity cruises? any feedback on them. They have a similar cruise taking in st petersberg etc leaving that week also. Thanks in advance

oldmillgal

Thanks again. RCl seem to be popular. What about celebrity cruises? any feedback on them. They have a similar cruise taking in st petersberg etc leaving that week also. Thanks in advance

oldmillgal

Also has anybody been on a cruise with crystal cruises? Thanks

JJRocket

Hi everyone, im about to book a Med cruise with NCL Cruises, the ship is Norwegian Epic. Has anyone any experiences with this cruise company? Im also planning to book it online via a travel website, and the best rate Iv found is ebookers.ie , if anyone has good or bad reviews of this booking site Id love to hear them. Thanks in advance.

izzyod

i just booked my first cruise for nov on the Epic going out of Miami. Am excited and nervous. reading lots of reviews helped me choose as Im travelling alone and like the idea of Epic's single cabins (studios) that also give you access to a lounge geared toward single travellers to help you meet other single travellers. got lots of peoples opinions & searched lots of different travel agents - prices vary quite a bit over €300 difference between agents. Final price including flights, hotel in Miam and no transferes about €1500 for a week. I looked at the option of booking thru the US but wasn't very sucessful as I wanted to do it all by email and agents there wanted to call me and sell my the product which wasn't an option while busy at work. One of the few I did deal with by email was still coming in the same price. Not that there arent lots of better deals than I got.

jhegarty

izzyod wrote: »

i just booked my first cruise for nov on the Epic going out of Miami. Am excited and nervous. reading lots of reviews helped me choose as Im travelling alone and like the idea of Epic's single cabins (studios) that also give you access to a lounge geared toward single travellers to help you meet other single travellers. got lots of peoples opinions & searched lots of different travel agents - prices vary quite a bit over €300 difference between agents. Final price including flights, hotel in Miam and no transferes about €1500 for a week. I looked at the option of booking thru the US but wasn't very sucessful as I wanted to do it all by email and agents there wanted to call me and sell my the product which wasn't an option while busy at work. One of the few I did deal with by email was still coming in the same price. Not that there arent lots of better deals than I got.

Have a look at www.cruisecompete.com

You put up the cruise you want, and lots of travel agents quote for the details.

Most will allow online booking.

Then book your own flights and hotels separately. It will always be cheaper that way. Just make sure you have insurance in case of issues.

Scotia Major

jhegarty wrote: »

Have a look at www.cruisecompete.com

You put up the cruise you want, and lots of travel agents quote for the details.

Most will allow online booking.

Then book your own flights and hotels separately. It will always be cheaper that way. Just make sure you have insurance in case of issues.

Cool, Do you have to pretend to be from the US with cruisecomplete.com?
We'r thinking of heading to the Caribbean next june on Oasis of the Seas.
Anybody been?

jhegarty

Scotia Major wrote: »

Cool, Do you have to pretend to be from the US with cruisecomplete.com?
We'r thinking of heading to the Caribbean next june on Oasis of the Seas.
Anybody been?

No , don't pretend to be from the US. You may find yourself left on the pier when the ship sales.

The travel agents will either take non-us booking , or they won't.

I don't know the rules for RCCL myself , but the travel agents page will make it clear if it's not allowed.