First Time Cruiser - Looking for Money Saving Tips

I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some resources to help me save money as I plan out my first cruise. I'm interested in saving money while on the cruise, finding the best cruise deal, location, etc.

Thanks for your help. This looks like a great community. Looking forward to it.

older ship

inside cabin

don't drink alcohol, visit the casino, pay for shore excursions or visit the spa

How you save money depends on what type of itinerary you want to do. Caribbean is quite different from Alaska which is very different from Europe. Cheapest cruises are probably Caribbean for most Americans, followed by Alaska.

Before you go practice saying "NO".

Without knowing where you are from, we can not give more specific recommendations.

Also, No soda, No specialty coffees, No Specialty dinners, etc.

Thanks for the tips so far. I don't drink alcohol but do love my lattes and fine dining.

Go at non-peak times (when demand is down). If you can do last minute cruises and you live by a port, you can sign up with the various cruiselines to be notified if there's a last minute sale. If you don't live near a port, if you take advantage of last minute cruises, any savings could be eaten up by flights.

Be aware that sometimes trying to do things on the cheap may not be the best thing. For example, if you aren't within driving distance of a port, don't try to fly in on the day of a cruise (to avoid a hotel stay). If your flight gets delayed (many reasons why nowadays), and can't make the cruise, you won't get a refund of your cruise fare.

If you're on a budget, consider just eating in the no-charge dining venues. Meals in the main dining rooms are considered part of your fare. You may be happy with not paying extra for a specialty restaurant.

For port days, you don't need to book an excursion. Check out tourism sites online for your ports and read some guidebooks. Sightseeing can often be done inexpensively.

Thanks for the tips so far. I don't drink alcohol but do love my lattes and fine dining.

Think about an inclusive premium line like Oceania. Alcohol and excursions are the only extras. Air fare, specialty restaurants etc are included and the food is superior to what you'll generally find in the mass market lines.

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Your biggest money-saving day is the day you book. On that day you can choose a modest cabin and an off-season date; those things will save you more than any other choices that come later.

Decide how much you're willing to spend, and don't exceed it. You can have a great time on the ship without spending much -- except for tips, everything that's required is included in your ticket price. You will CONSTANTLY have opportunities to spend on drinks, fancier foods, etc., but that's always a choice.

Look at the cheapest lines (Carnival is often the cheapest but this isnt always true when you look)

Use these forums to find secret cabins on different ships such as insides that really have porthole windows, oceanviews that actually have a whole wall of glass and wrap balconies that offer double the space. That way you get more value.

Research the ship and line. If your worried about temptation choose ships with less pay for dining options and pay for activities.

If you want to do excursions book your own (instead of the cruise lines) as they are often cheaper.

Also, some people like to sneak on the drink using cheeky ways in their luggage so if thats how you roll you can try that.

Once you book, monitor the price of your cabin regularly or get on one of those price monitoring sites to see if the cabin cost has gone down. CC will send you an e-mail on Friday listing the biggest price drops and you can also monitor your specific cruise -

http://www.cruisecritic.com/price-drop/?src=nav

DON

Assuming you have some extra money, you need to decide what YOU want to do. Plan in advance. If you want a latte, go for it.

As an upcoming "first timer" 15 day Hawaii cruise (March '15), my approach is a bit different. I certainly don't want to break the bank, but at our ages, we may never get to do this again !!

So, the last thing that we want to do is miss out on the things that look interesting on our cruise just to save a few bucks. Things like the Ultimate Ships Tour, Ultimate Balcony Dinner, maybe a specialty restaurant or two, etc. However, a couple of drinks here or there instead of a $50.00/day drink package, our own balcony chair or public deck chair instead of a private "sanctuary" chair, and the forgoing of a multitude of professional photo "memories" will hopefully keep the overall budget under control :D

We did splurge on a couple of Hawaiian island shore excursions, but by comparison shopping (Cruise line versus private excursion companies), we did save a few bucks there.

...VTX-Al

Get a guidebook on your ports. There's seldom a reason to do "excursions"...if you have the info, you can have a cheap, fabulous time ashore. You need to read up on where you're going, tho....if you know nothing, you'll pay thru the nose.

In addition to the tips you'll get here and with a search, there's a specific sub-forum for saving money on cruises here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=71

I don't drink alcohol but do love my lattes and fine dining.

You're finely-developed palate could get you into some trouble. Many lines offer packages where you can get all the coffee (and other non-alcoholic beverages) for one price. Some ships have a coffee shop for your caffeinated needs, but those may cost extra.

In the fine dining department, ships these days are finding space for more and more extra-cost restaurants. In addition, there may be a "Chef's Table" or similar, where you get a galley tour and a super-special menu. As you might imagine, this is not an inexpensive experience.

I could give a lot of tips, but SuiteTraveler covered the basics in the post above. You can also ask specific questions on your cruise line in those sub-threads. I will say, on the other side, that life is short, and it's worth spending money on things and experiences that you will truly enjoy. How many cruises are you going to go on anyway?

I understand your love of Latte's and the "need" to have them. I am not the same person w/o my preferred coffee beverages!

Depending on how many you want to drink a day, it can be a real added cost at about $4 each on the ship. I drink iced latte's all day long at home, adding $60 to my vacation budget for 2 a day.. isn't acceptable to me! Instead I bring a bottle of flavored syrup and make my own. Are the exactly the same as you would get at say Starbucks? No, but they are free!

Since you are new to cruising, there are a lot of good places to look for information. CC here being great. Like was mentioned there are a TON of great tips in the "Saving Money" forum.

What I haven't seen on there in awhile is if you are okay booking threw a TA, when you have narrowed your choices down there is a website that COMPETES for your CRUISE business. (google the caps words) Kinda like a price line where different TA's compete for your business. Offers vary from no bonus, to a bunch of OBC, I even got one recently who offered OBC + the priority boarding program ($50) for a Carnival cruise.

If you really want to save money, don't book during the summer/spring when schools are out, and don't think about going over a holiday (unless it's U.S. Thanksgiving for some reason...). Even Valentines Day week can be a significant cost jump.

I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some resources to help me save money as I plan out my first cruise. I'm interested in saving money while on the cruise, finding the best cruise deal, location, etc.

 

Thanks for your help. This looks like a great community. Looking forward to it.

You have found the source.

It is called Cruise Critic.

Spend some time here before spending money.

Some tips to save money??

1 - stay home

Seriously, if you drink sodas, invest in a bottomless soda card. The break even point seems to be about 3 cans per day. See if you can tolerate the free regular coffee and iced tea. Lower your dining expectations and eat dinners in the dining room, but realize that the meals served are banquet fare, and not cooked to order. Specialty dining can run upwards of $25-$35 or more per person per meal, but will be closer to fine dining. Remember that most meats and seafood onboard have either been previously frozen or are stored frozen onboard. Produce is fresh, but obviously purchased by the pallet load, and likely will not be as fresh as what you might find at local stores, and may or may not be organic, if that's important to you.

Skip the ship sponsored shore excursions and book your own, or walk the area near the port, if safe to do so.

Also skip the bingo and shopping talks. The shopping talks are intended to lead you to stores that give kickbacks to the cruise lines. However, you can sometimes find some good deals on jewelry or electronics, but you need to know your prices before you cruise.

Avoid the spa services--their treatments are generally nearly twice what a spa on land charges.

Avoid the $10 watch and gold by the inch sales--when the prices sound too good to be true, it's because they're trying to pawn off cheap crap.

Choose an inside or promenade cabin (RCI) to save some money. You likely will not spend a ton of time in your cabin, but some people do.

One area to NOT try and save money--tipping. These workers depend on your tips to make a living. Stiffing the crew to save a few bucks is not cool, and a major bone of contention here, and for good reason.

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If and only if you have good credit, are good at managing your bills, and pay off your credit card bills on time every month, then try paying for your cruise on credit card points. My wife and I are traveling on Carnival Triumph in two weeks for free. We are using Barclays points to pay for it.

Barclays Arrival plus usually has a 40,000 sign-up bonus after spending 3K in the first month and 2X points on every dollar spent. The Chase Sapphire also is good to use and you can book through their portal and you get a 20% bonus on points spent. Flyer Talk has a lot of information on this if you want to look into it and they have a cruising forum. I can go into further details if you want.

This isn't for everyone, but if you are responsible, then you can save a lot.

If you plan to use the ship's internet service, to make your purchased internet package minutes last throughout your cruise, do your composing of emails in a program like Word offline, and then copy and paste the message to an email after logging into the internet.

I have done this for years and have never run out of internet minutes no matter how long my cruise is.

To save money on a cruise, act as though you are on a cruise and not at home.

Buy the most reasonably priced cabin you will find comfortable. Your first cruise will be enough of an adventure - book an inside cabin unless you think you would feel claustrophobic - certainly only an outside, not a balcony. That should save a couple about $500 in a week.

Forget your lattes - they're for at home - save close to $100 a week.

Forget being a foodie, eat in the MDR rather than a premium restaurant - save $60 each evening you eat with the folks.

Try to break you un-necessary internet habit - only go on line when you really need to, not when you feel like it - save probably $200 in a week.

Don't buy souvenirs you will wonder about when you get home - $100 in a week.

Visit ports on your own rather than on ship's tours - say $80 per port call.

Just this level of discipline - focussing on the new experience of cruising, which for a first-timer should be plenty, will easily make a difference of $1,000 in a week.

If you regularly buy lattes and cappuccinos at home, then budget the same amount for your cruise. There's no need to deprive yourself on vacation.

It's easy to be tempted by wanting to try new things on a cruise. Try to decide ahead of time which things you want to do and which ones you can skip. Plan an activity for each port by reading about them ahead of time. For instance, in the Caribbean it's usually inexpensive to go to a beach for the day on your own--a lot less than booking an excursion through the cruise line.

Eat your meals onboard, you've already paid for them.

You can take prepackaged foods - cereal bars, cereal boxes, cheese and crackers packages etc off the ship with you.

Most lines allow soda/water to be brought onboard at any time, a wine bottle at embarkation. Bring a refillable water bottle, ship's water is usually very good. (fill it with a cup not directly from the dispenser ;)) Water and soda can be brought onshore.

YOU CANNOT take fresh produce or meat off with you. Many ports have AG dogs. You do not want the cute Labrador sitting next to you.

This is to avoid invasive species, for more info google Mediterrean Fruit Fly, Red Palm Mite and Asian Psylliad. On Princess I had a miniscule bug crawl out of my asparagus from the salad bar.

Navybankerteacher has some good advice, especially about onboard expenses. (I wish I could ask about some tips for transatlantic since I saw experience there!) :confused:

One place I would encourage you NOT to save money is on gratuities at the end of the cruise. Plan for those expenses ahead of time so that those who have served you will be rewarded. On all the cruises and cruise lines I've experienced, there have only been a couple of times that I considered reducing the suggested tip. Usually I add a little because those are the people that often can make a good trip GREAT!

Consider signing into that ship and date's "Cruise Call" on Cruise Critic. People there may also have some good advice (including how to save some cash) and it's fun to know others on board.

Best wishes on your first cruise! - Sam :)

Most lines will let you bring water and soda.....as they say on cc....just slap a luggage tag on it...you can drink the ship's water but some people have their likes....you can buy a punch card for fun coffee drinks and brewed coffee all day...much of the coffee elsewhere is a yucky liquid mix that is awful...I agree that when you book is important...some sales are better than other....do a lot of research here....don't be afraid about asking questions.....tipping,formal wear and no promenade deck are red flags here but once the sputtering is over you will get your questions answered...and no one cares what you wear....keep your jewels,your designer handbags and other adornments home....the more you pack the more depressing it is to repack!

You can sign up on the Cruise Critic's Price Drop page. Then, if the price of your cruise goes down, speak to your travel agent (or with the cruise line, if you booked directly with them) to see if you can also get the discount.:)

To learn more about "Price Drop", do a search for it and read the blurb called,

"How Does Price Drop Work?"

 

Use these forums to find secret cabins on different ships such as insides that really have porthole windows, oceanviews that actually have a whole wall of glass and wrap balconies that offer double the space. That way you get more value.

 

Without wishing to 'hijack' this thread, I didn't know about the above (thought I knew my way round CC, obviously not). Are you allowed to tell me (and possibly others) where to find these?