Today I wanted to write about what can ruin a cruise vacation and the best ways to avoid having any of these things happen to you.
1. Norovirus - I've never experienced this personally, but during my last cruise two of the six people in our traveling party came down with it. There are several rules to follow to help avoid coming down with the dreaded virus but none of them will protect you 100%. First, there are hand sanitizer dispensers all over ships this days, USE THEM! Even if you've just washed your hands, unless you've been walking around with your hands held up in the air like a surgeon waiting to cut open a chest, you have probably gotten a germ or two back on them. I know, I get it, your hands are going to be so dry that they may crack and fall off the ends of your arms by the end of the cruise, but dry hands are better than a stomach bug on vacation. Just carry plenty of strong hand lotion on the cruise with you to soak your hands in at night.
Also drink lots of water and limit how many meals you eat in those buffets. If there is an option to be served by a cruise ship employee or to serve yourself, choose to be served by an employee. They wash and sanitize their hands regularly, but you never know what the person who picked up the spoon just ahead of you in the buffet line has done since the last time he washed his hands. Scary! During that last cruise I was on, once the outbreak began, they closed the buffet temporarily and when they reopened it, they were switching the spoons on the buffet every few minutes and had more people there to serve so that not so many people were touching the utensils. They also closed all public restrooms on board forcing guests to only use their own cabins restrooms which tells me, that you're probably safer limiting yourself to your cabins bathroom. Also, if you reported the illness, they treated you free of charge and quarantined you to your cabin so that you were less likely to infect others. There wasn't a huge outbreak on our ship but there were workers sanitizing tables, chairs and other surfaces all over the place.
2. Missing your Ship - If you have to fly to get to your port of embarkation, it is best to book your flight through your cruise line or to arrive a day early and spend the night in a hotel the night before to be safe. If you book your flight through the cruise line and the flight is delayed or canceled, the cruise line will get you to the ship's first stop so that you can board there. If you fly in a day early, it obviously just gives you more time to maneuver in the event that a flight is delayed or canceled. A lot of people want to use frequent flyer miles to book the flight, but you'll have to weigh in the price of the hotel room to determine if using those miles is cheaper than booking the flight through the cruise line so that you can safely fly in on the day of embarkation.
You can also be left in a foreign port while you're out enjoying the beach and time gets away from you. For this reason, I almost ALWAYS go on excursions that are provided by the cruise line rather than private excursions. The ship has a schedule to maintain and they are required to pay additional port fees if they stay longer than planned. With that in mind, they aren't going to wait for someone who went out on their own for very long. However, if you are on a ship sponsored excursion, they will either wait for you to return, or fly you to the next port to pick you up. And with that in mind I also think it's a good idea to take a copy of your passport with you when you go ashore. After all, you wouldn't want to be stuck in Jamaica with no passport and no cruise line representative to help you while trying to fly to Grand Cayman. You won't make it far.
3. An Out of Control SeaPass Bill - After years of cruising I think this is the one that I have seen the most. On every cruise I've ever been on, during the last day at sea there is a long constant line of passengers at the guest services desk disputing their bill. Generally the line is filled with dads / husbands who have just seen a copy of their bill containing all their on board expenses and they are livid. I try to avoid even walking past that area on the last day of a cruise. It's just too sad and stressful! Here are a few things you can do to avoid that long line and the $1,000 SeaPass bill.
- Include gratuities when you book your cruise so that they are paid for with your reservation before you leave home.
- Book and pay for your excursions at least two weeks before you leave home (This also helps to insure that you get all the excursions you want before they get booked up.)
- With most cruise lines these days you can view your bill through your TV at anytime during the cruise. Look at it daily to see what your spouse and children are charging and how much those drinks last night cost so that you don't get any last minute surprises.
- If you plan to have wine every night with dinner, buy a wine package while you're booking those excursions prior to leaving. Your wine's cheaper this way and it's already paid for before you leave home.
- If you are a big soda drinker, buy a soda package before leaving home.
- Several cruise lines are starting to sell alcohol packages which include mixed drinks, beer, wine, etc... If you think you will drink a lot, check it out while you are booking your excursions. Alcohol is usually one of the biggest ship board expenses for most people.
I pay for whatever I can up front so that I can leave knowing exactly how much I am spending on my vacation and that allows me to know how much I'll be able to spend on t-shirts and souvenirs during the trip.
4. Weather - You can't control the weather and neither can the cruise line. But you can minimize your chances of running into bad weather by really thinking about when and where you travel. The Caribbean during hurricane season (June - October) is always a risk. Even if there is a storm most of the time, the ship will sail anyway. You might end up just cruising around in circles or missing a few stops. Sometimes, they'll arrange to change ports of call to avoid the storm. But last year during hurricane Sandy, most of the cruise ships just sat off shore while passengers took mega doses of Dramamine and had a miserable time. Even if you have travel protection if the cruise line chooses to sail, you can't cancel at the last minute and get your money back if your cancellation is weather related. This is why Christmas, Thanksgiving and Spring Break cruises are so expensive. It allows people with children to cruise the Caribbean during the time of the year when the weather is best in the Caribbean. The time that the kiddos are out of school is limited and they know that people will pay the price to get on a ship then.
On the other hand, if you want to take a Mediterranean cruise, Thanksgiving is the perfect time price wise. Sure, it won't be beach weather in the Mediterranean in November, but it is the off season so everything is cheaper, the crowds are practically non-existent and Rome and the Amalfi Coast are always beautiful!
If you are looking at taking an Alaskan cruise and have noticed how inexpensive it is in May and September, keep in mind that the price drops during those months because the weather becomes questionable. For the best weather you'll want to do an Alaskan cruise June - August. With those early Alaskan cruises, ice can sometimes be too thick to get to some of the really great glacial viewing.
If it is just going to be you and the spouse sailing and you want to go to the Caribbean, go between November and March but avoiding the holidays. This is when Caribbean fares are the cheapest and the weather is the best. There is nothing in the world better than leaving Galveston on a rainy 50 degree day in January and waking up the next morning and walking out on your balcony to 80 degrees and sunny.
5. Injuries and Other Medical Issues- I'm accident prone. So, I almost always buy trip protection. Sure I have medical insurance, but it doesn't cover being medivac'd off of a ship in the middle of the Caribbean. Cruise protection does. I've been on cruises where people got injured during an excursion and had to be left behind in a port for medical attention. I've also been on a cruise where a child needed an emergency appendectomy and he had to be picked up by a Coast Guard helicopter while we were at sea. You almost always see at least one person leaving the ship via ambulance on the day of disembarkation. I just think it's smart to get trip protection because you don't even KNOW about "out of network" until you have a medical emergency in the middle of an ocean.
6. Know Your Travel Companion - Cabins on cruise ships can be VERY small especially if you are traveling with someone you don't like very much. Make sure before you leave that you will be compatible and it never hurts to lay a few rules down prior to booking the trip. If you are a morning person and your travel companion isn't, it's just smart to know that ahead of time. After all, you don't want your sunny disposition to be dulled by an alarm clock being thrown across the room at your head. Likewise, if you spend all night in the lounge on the top deck waiting for your turn to sing Too Drunk to Karaoke and your travel companion heads to the room right after dinner to hit the sack, things are probably going to get a little tense when you stumble into the cabin at 3 AM still singing at the top of your lungs.
I hope some of these tips will help you as you prepare for your next cruise. If you choose to ignore them don't say I didn't warn you. Have a happy Labor Day and enjoy the rain!
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