Budget Cruising

There are lots of ways to cruise on a budget.  Yesterday I talked about an inside cabin as opposed to a balcony or even oceanview.  Of course the cabin is going to be the biggest expense.  But the flight can sometimes rival the cabin expense.  In fact, if you are cruising in Europe, the flight can double your cabin expense.  But if you are attempting to cruise on a budget, chances are that you aren't going to Europe to do it.  Flight expenses are one of the reasons I cruise out of Galveston so often.

However, during the summer months, unless you want to get on a "sewage boat", that is not possible.  So then the options are to drive to New Orleans or Florida.  Florida can become an expensive drive.  So you have to start weighing the cost of the drive including gas, meals, and a hotel vs. the cost of flying and ground transportation.  I know that when I fly in, I still want to arrive the night before just in case there are any weather issues or anything that might delay the flight.  So, I'd still have to pay for a night in a hotel.  So I also have to add that into the flying expense.  Additionally, since I don't have anyone local who can drop me off at the airport, I have to pay for airport parking for 8 days.  So you can see how quickly the dollars add up if I have to fly in for a cruise.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind that will help lower the price of your cruise vacation.  The first thing and the biggest thing is if you don't have someone to travel with, get someone.  Cruise lines count on having at least two people in each room.  So, if you cruise alone, you will pay more.  I cruised alone once on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas and paid for myself plus 80% of another person who wasn't there.  While it was really nice having 100% of the cabin to myself and doing whatever I wanted without worrying about what anybody else wanted to do, I still felt like I had massively overpaid for the cruise.

If you are desperate for someone to travel with you and you can't seem to get any of your friends to do it, there are websites out there where you can find someone who wants to travel with you.  You could try www.travbuddy.com.  While I am sure there are a lot of people who are completely comfortable with finding a travel buddy this way, I'm just not sure I could do it.  I would just worry about pissing this person who I didn't meet until we boarded the ship off and waking up the next morning dead.  I mean, let's face it.  It's not that hard for me to piss anyone off.  I can practically do it without saying a word.

If you already have a travel buddy there are still things you can do to keep the price of your cruise down.  The one thing that always amazes me during a cruise is the number of people constantly in line at the pursers desk.  If you walk by you'll notice a lot of them moaning and groaning about the expenses that have been charged to them on their sea pass card.  Okay I get that if a family of four is all traveling on one account you might get a little surprise at the end of your cruise when you look at that bill.  But some of the expenses can be kept in check.

For instance, I always book and pay for my excursions before I get on board the ship.  This helps me in a number of ways.  First, I am assured that the excursions I want to do won't fill up before I figure out that I want to do them. Second, excursions then become part of my vacation package in my mind.  They aren't one of the expenses during the trip since they have already been paid for.  Third, if I am on a tight budget, I plan carefully only allowing myself one excursion for over $50, one for less than $50 and then at the third stop,  I don't do an excursion at all.  This is where I do all of my shopping for that trip.  If you are on a ship going to Costa Maya, I find that this is the best place to do no excursion.  The ship is docked there, the market area is just off of the dock.  There are lots of places to sit and relax and people watch and the weather is always great there for spending a day at the pool.  After booking and paying for my excursions up front the only things on my sea pass account are whatever I purchase on board in the shops which is very little, drinks, any wine tastings or other activities that require a fee, and tips.

Tips seem to be a very big deal for some people.  I don't really understand it.  Since I heard so many people complaining about it, I always assumed they would be much higher prior to taking my first cruise.  The standard tip has just gone up to $12 a day.  This covers your wait staff in the dining rooms and buffets, your cabin steward, and all the other people who clean and take care of the ship.  To me, that doesn't seem like a lot of money to pay people who keep your room constantly clean, bring you fresh towels all the time, fill your ice bucket a couple of times a day, serve your meals, call you by name when you walk in, and cater to your every need.  On a number of occasions I have had a crew member bring me a drink before I told them what I wanted.  If you want you can even prepay your gratuities so that it doesn't appear on your sea pass account either.  Of course if you are a family of four, then you are looking at $48 a day and I could see that adding up quickly.  I think in that case, I would add the gratuities on to the price of the vacation in order to determine if it pushes the price out of my budget.  For me, I let the gratuities go onto my sea pass card and then if I feel that I have received exceptional service from anyone during the cruise I give them an additional cash tip.

A lot of people buy those Coke packages on the first day of the cruise.  If you are a big Coke drinker this might be right for you.  But you do have to drink a lot of Coke to make it pay for itself.  Tea, coffee and juice are free.  I generally just stick to the free non-alcoholic drinks and save my money for adult beverages. Sometimes you'll see people coming on board with their own case of Cokes.  If you are a big Coke drinker, I think this is probably a way to save a little money during your trip.  I like to bring a reusable water bottle on the ship with me.  You don't need it while on board necessarily.  But when you go into port you usually need bottled water and the water that they sell as you leave the ship can add up.  Plus with my reusable water bottle, it clips onto my backpack so I don't have to lug around a bottle of water.

I hope you will find some of these tips helpful.  Have a good weekend.  I'll talk to you on Monday if I can think of anything to say.