New to cruising. Random questions

Hello people,

I want to go on a Seattle-Alaska round trip cruise within the next month.

I've done a lot of research on price and am finding that the room with no windows costs about $1,500 for 2 people / 7 nights. A balcony costs more like $2,800.

It seems like booking way in advance isn't much cheaper than what I listed above. Why? You would think it would be a lot cheaper when you book one/two weeks in advance because they are trying to fill rooms that are still available? Or? I'm hoping to use my flexibility to my advantage.

Also, based on what I have read, there are a lot of additional costs that come with cruising. It sounds like water isn't free? What does that mean? Is it not safe to order a non bottled water at the bar/restaurant or drink out of your bathroom sink?

What are you spending on average on top of the room costs? My budget is about $2,500. Do you all think I can get away with the $1,500.00 closet and less than $1,000 on alcohol etc on the trip? We aren't high maintenance and we don't gamble. We just want to eat the included food, have drinks at night and look at the scenery.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I did search but wasn't able to find the answers I was looking for.

PS. Does anyone have any tips for drinking alcohol fairly cheaply? I read we can bring a couple bottles of wine. I also saw you can pre-order alcohol at a 3X inflated price.. Are there any other options? You can't buy a bottle of liquor on board and bring back to room, right?

Alaska is a popular cruise hence the higher price.

Water is safe and fine to drink.

You can get a package to cover your alcohol costs.

I'll try to help on some bits.

You don't have to spend a lot more. I have never spent a penny on water, for example. The tap water is fine for us, and you can always get ice water from a bar. Some people just prefer to drink bottled water and there is a charge for that.

For a couple $1,000 should be a decent budget, unless you are planning on spending a lot on excursions. We spent about less than $800 on our last cruise (for 2 adults and a child), which included our drinks and a couple of meals at the speciality restaurants (which you don't need to use).

With regard to keeping the cost of drinks down, there are options depending on what you drink, and how much of it. There is the ultimate beverage package, which includes most drinks onboard and costs $54 (I think) a day, so that would be $756 for the week (plus a 15% gratuity). We drink a reasonable amount, but never spend that much because we drink beer and wine and we use other packages. You can get bottles of wine from $22 a bottle (plus the 15%) as long as you buy 4 bottles. You also get 6 bottles of beer for the cost of 5.

One thing to remember is there is a $12 a day per person service charge to add in.

Hope that helps.

Don't forget to budget the $12 per person per day service charge, tip or whatever you want to call it. As some people will be quick to point out, you can have it reduced or taken off your bill, but that isn't fair to all the crew service people who it goes to.

Great. Thanks Keith and Gooch. I think that's all I needed!

Edit: WOW Gooch... You have done some cruising. I would love to have a drink with you and learn from all your experiences! ;)

Yes, we have. Been all over the world except Africa and Antarctica. I love to talk about it but fear it comes across as bragging.

Great. Thanks Keith and Gooch. I think that's all I needed!

 

Edit: WOW Gooch... You have done some cruising. I would love to have a drink with you and learn from all your experiences! ;)

In case you do not catch up with Keith, here are some real good ideas to learn.

1 - visit the ALASKA PORTS OF CALL boards here

2 - visit the Roll Call for your cruise, once you select it

3 - Read the review section here of people that have done this cruise

4 - Scroll down through posts from the past few weeks or more. You will find answers to questions you did not even know you had.

5 - Do a search here on ALASKA - you will be swamped with information

Hello people,

 

I want to go on a Seattle-Alaska round trip cruise within the next month.

 

I've done a lot of research on price and am finding that the room with no windows costs about $1,500 for 2 people / 7 nights. A balcony costs more like $2,800.

 

It seems like booking way in advance isn't much cheaper than what I listed above. Why? You would think it would be a lot cheaper when you book one/two weeks in advance because they are trying to fill rooms that are still available? Or? I'm hoping to use my flexibility to my advantage.

 

Also, based on what I have read, there are a lot of additional costs that come with cruising. It sounds like water isn't free? What does that mean? Is it not safe to order a non bottled water at the bar/restaurant or drink out of your bathroom sink?

 

What are you spending on average on top of the room costs? My budget is about $2,500. Do you all think I can get away with the $1,500.00 closet and less than $1,000 on alcohol etc on the trip? We aren't high maintenance and we don't gamble. We just want to eat the included food, have drinks at night and look at the scenery.

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I did search but wasn't able to find the answers I was looking for.

 

 

PS. Does anyone have any tips for drinking alcohol fairly cheaply? I read we can bring a couple bottles of wine. I also saw you can pre-order alcohol at a 3X inflated price.. Are there any other options? You can't buy a bottle of liquor on board and bring back to room, right?

Never went to Alaska, so can't answer that.

Type of room you want to be in is entirely up to you. I only book balcony if I can get a great price. To me it's just not worth it. We are very active and usually are out and about. It is very unlikely that I will spend more than 10 minutes a day on a balcony. But everyone's different in that respect.

There are additional costs. You can be an ultimate penny pincher and walk away with $0 in cruise charges. But this means stiffing the crew on tips, not using ship's excursions, etc. Last cruise I did (West Mediterranean, NCL Epic), my ship charges were very low, since we did all tours ourselves. For example, Rome tour through NCL is $299/pp. We took a 17 Euro bus to Rome and explored on our own.

Water (non bottled) is free. There's always free food. You can go to specialty restaurant and pay a very reasonable cover charge. Water is very safe to drink. Ship generates it's own water only when in the sea, and stores it, or gets potable water from the shore if in port. It is basically a sea water that was desalinated and filtered gazillion times. Tastes no different from Poland Spring.

If you bring wine on board, you will be charged $15 corkage fee per bottle. It does not matter if you are going to drink it in your room or anywhere else. Alcohol is fairly reasonably priced. Beer is about $6, mixed drinks are $8 or so. You can get drink package, but you need to be a fairly big drinker to make it worth it.

On an Alaska cruise, we do spend a lot more time on the balcony enjoying the scenery.

On an Alaska cruise, we do spend a lot more time on the balcony enjoying the scenery.

I booked a balcony for this cruise just because it's Alaska and I want to be sure to see as much of the scenery as possible! On other cruises I don't mind inside because we don't spend a lot of time in the cabin.

As someone else said, Alaska is one of the more expensive cruises. One reason being the shorter season. We booked for August last December and the price has gone up to nearly double since then.

My wife and I are going in August on the Jewel. I originally booked in December through a Kirkland Washington based warehouse chain's travel service. The price was $1581 per person (which includes tax, fees and prepaid daily service charge) for a category BC balcony. I watched prices and at the end of January rebooked for $1430 per person. Prices then started to rise. Today the same room $2550 per person. A balcony guarantee (BX) is $1650 per person for the same cruise.

If you want, you can bring a reasonable amount of bottled water and soda on to the ship with you.