Sharon1225

The crowdedness of my recent cruise wasn't caused just by all rooms being filled but by the majority of the ship being herded into the same areas on the ship at the same times. I've been on some ships that had lots of different activities going on all over the ship which caused the population to be spread out around the ship. Other cruise ships had the main dining room open for lunch during sea day and some had more than one buffet restaurant. This ship closed it's bars during the day and it's main dining room for lunch. There was just one buffet. There was an art auction but not much else going on. That put everyone in the pool or buffet cafe. In other words, most of the ship was in the same areas. On one port day, it rained causing a lot of people to go back to the ship. On top of that, more people were in the covered pool area than the open one. We only had 3 bars open which caused the bartenders to be rushed. No, make that 4. The casino was open. Some of the passengers were in the casino.

There's probably some ships that even though they are full manage to spread out the ship population.

That was one freak occurrence -- to have the beverage package included! Not to say there will NEVER be another freak, but you might miss the ideal cruise if you "insist" on that feature... The cruises sell the UBP because it MAKES them money. So if you are on a budget, really really consider if $49 a day APIECE is economically sound. This means embarkation (but not disembarkation) day and every other day including port days when you may be off ship having your fill of $1 beers under a palapa!

 

I suggest multiplying $49 by the days by the two (?) of you and budgeting that much for non-included beverages. I'm pretty sure you will come out ahead!

 

Also, look into whether your cruise line of choice sells pre-cruise bar setup in room. On NCL it is US$80/liter bottle for the 'house' brands ($100/120 for premium brands) plus $3 service fee, no tax, no gratuity, and you get some mixers and/or garnishes for the price. You may have to ask on the specific line's CC board or your roll call, as the lines don't seem to publicize it much (Hint -- it's a good deal compared to by the drink prices IF YOU DRINK THAT MUCH OF ONE LIQUOR). A liter is equivalent to ~22 1.5oz jiggers. You can pour/mix the drink in your cabin and take it anywhere on board.

Celebrity does that often. I don't know how long they will continue, but they offer that package as a perk frequently. The offer is going on right now. We can't book right now, but it's available. I don't know of any other cruise line that has such offer.

Those are some good suggestions. Thank you.

I want them to follow my rules; I expect them to find ways around them.

Good point, Traveler Thom. A rule established by a business is not quite the same as one established by a parent. Businesses establish rules to promote their own profit. Parents are supposed to establish rules based on what is good for the child.

I thought I unsubscribed to this thread.

Have you considered a river cruise? Granted most are longer (I'd not want to fly all that way only to be on a short cruise). But they certainly don't have 1000+ people on them.

 

I doubt you'll find a cruise that will take you somewhere, drop you off and at some future time come and get you.

You're right that a cruise won't come back and get you....at least not without charging you for another cruise and that would be expensive. Actually, Alaskan cruises start in Canada and go to Anchorage. They have some that do it in reverse. One could stay awhile and take another cruise back but there wouldn't be much point since most people have to fly home, anyway. There are cruise and land tours in Alaska. There may be for other destinations, too.

There's repositioning cruises that one can get at a discount. Some goes overseas and that would result in having to fly back from that country.

Its a great vacation style and perhaps we will meet on board some day. Regardless enjoy!

Thank you, Gunner. You've given me some ideas. We might want to save our cruise dollars until my husband retires and take a trans-Atlantic cruise. Then we can stay awhile in a Marriott timeshare or resort. Right now, we're taking all our kids and grand kids to the beach. That eats up a lot of timeshare points, so we keep purchasing more. I think we're going to purchase another batch of points this year to boost us to another level. That will raise the cost of our annual time share maintenance fees.

Perhaps before the long cruise, we might take a short on in November. I heard there's less children that time of year. You're probably right, though, that they manage to fill their boats one way or another.

Sounds like they are addicted lol. Again, rules are in place for a reason. We teach our kids to follow rules so we should too no matter if you agree with the rules or not.

Businesses can make any rule they want. That doesn't mean all their customers are going to follow it.

if putting alcohol in a few bags and putting them in your luggage is a hassle, then i understand why you would spend $50 x however many days the cruise is.

I enjoy having drinks in the public areas and trying to sneak alcohol in the dining room or a bar would detract from the enjoyment. $50 per day is not a lot for being able to have a drink whenever you want. If I've already paid for all the drinks I want, I would prefer to take a drink from a bar to my room. It's not that I pay the $50 just to avoid the trouble of sneaking it in. It's that I have the package, anyway, so why bother with bringing my own.

Which ports do you love the most? What do you do there?

I have my doubts as to whether $50+ per day packages have eliminated the issue of people bringing their own bottle for personal stateroom consumption.

It's probably eliminated the issue of the cruise line caring. If someone buys a beverage package, they can drink all the ship's alcohol they want. It would actually cost the ship less money if passengers who bought the beverage package drank some of their own alcohol.

I wonder if there's a way to stop messages from this thread from coming to my email box without blocking all messages from Cruise Critic.

I do not drink at all, and my wife would probably drink two glasses of wine an entire cruise, so I have no need to smuggle alcohol onboard. So from my viewpoint, I fail to see the need to have a large quantity of cheap alcohol available to you.

 

OTOH, if the soda package were more expensive, I might smuggle soda onboard.

 

Everyone has their vice.

You obviously have no need to smuggle alcohol on board. Some people are in the habit of having before dinner cocktails every night when they get home from work. If they were deprived of that, they would be uncomfortable just as a coffee denied their morning coffee. If cruise ships started selling coffee at $10 per glass, we'd likely be seeing coffee smuggled aboard.

With the beverage plans which most ships now have, smuggling is no longer an issue.

My husband and I don't cruise often. We're very locked into Marriott's time share and reward program. He travels a lot on business and has built up a lot of points and we've bought time share points. We're seniors, so it's not likely we would reach elite status on a cruise line even if we weren't locked into Marriott. Nevertheless, we would like to take a cruise ever now and then. It's nice to have all the meals paid for and fun to relax while looking out at the ocean.

Since we're already spending a lot on timeshare maintenance fees, any cruise we add would need to be low budget. A beverage package is a must. It'd be preferable for the cruise to be fairly short since my husband is still working. We like ships that are not crowded, have few children, and have good food in the main dining room.

We recently got back from a Celebrity Cruise (Constellation). The price was right. They even threw in the beverage package as a perk. What we didn't like was that it was crowded, there wasn't much to do on sea days, and the food in the main dining room was not good. We also don't like the Bahamas.

I think a perfect cruise for us would be one that would take us to a vacation area where we could stay a few days at a Marriott timeshare or hotel. I don't think that's available so I guess we're looking for an inexpensive cruise with a beverage package that's not crowded, has good food, and goes anywhere except the Bahamas or Mexico.

Any suggestions?

My husband and I don't cruise much. We've only been on 5 cruises, 3 Carnival, 1 Royal, and the most recent one Celebrity. The ship I liked the least was Celebrity because the ship was old, small, and crowded and because the food in the dining room wasn't good. We enjoyed it, though, and are glad we went on the cruise because we got a free beverage package as a perk and our friends were on the ship.

I liked the Carnival ships we were on. The Spirit was beautiful. I was a teacher, so until I retired, I had to travel when ships were most full of children. That's the only thing I didn't like about the first 2 Carnival cruises. The food was very good in the dining rooms and the entertainment was great. My husband and I were much younger then. I don't know if we'd like the same entertainment today as much as then.

The Royal ship was very pretty. The promenade was impressive but I liked the way the Carnival ships were laid out better because you could always see the ocean in public areas on Carnival. The promenade was like a beautiful city street and you didn't even know you were on a ship when you were there. That's just a matter of preference. Possibly today I might prefer the promenade over the Carnival design. Now looking over a rail to the ocean at night makes me a little nervous whereas it was romantic years ago.

I think smuggling brings prices down if anything, supply and demand.

 

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I think you are right. That is what prompted cruise lines to come up with the beverage packages. They couldn't control people bringing liquor on board and they knew it. Now they know they get at least $50 per day out of most drinkers. It's not likely that very many people are going to try to drink their on liquor in public places. It's too inconvenient and the beverage packages are both convenient and affordable.

Now, if someone buys a beverage package (and most heavy drinkers do), they do the cruise line a favor by drinking some of their own liquor instead of the ships liquor.

so is that your opinion or a fact? please prove it.

You are entitled to your opinion. I also have an opinion. I don't smuggle alcohol because I buy the beverage package or go on Celebrity cruises which throw in the beverage package as a perk. Sneaking alcohol is not necessary.

I also have an opinion and if I were to have to share a boat with someone who smuggles alcohol on board or someone who calls someone cheap for doing it, I would much rather share a ship with the smugglers than the rude folks.

I drink club soda with a twist of lemon. No booze. It's refreshing.

I often drink that myself, especially on airplanes, except I prefer lime. My husband has club soda with bitters at night. It helps with indigestion.

why? i like drinking club soda straight from the can :)

 

they take our bags right as we park the car, is that how it is for everyone? (sry friends parents are platinum) before we get to security. they dont see what im carrying on.

 

i drink vodka water or vodka soda so whats the difference? my friends drink rum n coke so they bring coke. theres absolutely no chance you can get caught pre-cruise. works like a charm!! try it!!

I suppose if carry on the coke and club soda and put the rum and vodka in your luggage, you would not get an extra check on your luggage. I think if you put the mixers in the luggage that would see it in the Xray and open the luggage to look for liquor. Sounds like carrying the mixers on separately works.

Does anyone know if they offer a hard cider option in the classic package?

I did not notice a hard cider at the bar, but I wasn't looking for it. You could probably find out from the cruise line.

Do you bring your own burgers to McDonald's? Do you bring your own alcohol to restaurants?

LOL If I were going to have to spend a week or even several days inside a McDonald's, you bet I would bring in food from the outside.

i dont remember anyone ever saying theyve been caught when putting rum runners in their check in luggage.

 

http://www.rumrunnerflasks.com/

 

it takes 2 minutes and very simple.

 

you call it cheap, i call it smart. you hate me for it, i laugh at you for stressing out of what other people do when it doesnt effect you.

 

i bring my mixer with me. 12 cans of club soda. legal to bring. a water bottle to bring the vodka around the ship.

 

keep hating, i like it. $40 and ill drink when i want, how i want and where i want. :)

I agree with you about the rude people calling others cheap. I'm puzzled though about the mixers. It sees that would catch the attention of the cruise line and they would look for the rum runners.

We have or vacations invested with Marriott. We've built up reward points and bought time share points. That's our main vacation. We don't enjoy cruises as much as we do land trips, but ever once in awhile we like to take a short cruise. I find it interesting to see people here calling others cheap. I will try to save as much money as I can on cruises.

Us as well. For our first cruise from the US we spent half of the morning going to Total Wines in Ft. Lauderdale and carrying on a case of wine for the four adults to drink on our balconies. Toward the end of the 12 days we were pushing to finish the last few bottles rather than carry them back off.

 

Once we discovered how economical it was to simply purchase full bottles of liquor from the ship and have it delivered to our room we no longer bother with carrying anything on. The small increase in price to purchase it from the ship (vs. the local liquor store) seemed small vs. the hassle of trying to sneak it on. Now we drink mixed drinks in the cabin rather than wine, and just purchase mixers from the bar.

That's interesting. The ships I've been on will sell you bottles of alcohol, but they hold it for you until you get off. Then if you are flying home, you have a problem. I wasn't aware any ships would let you buy a bottle and drink it in your room.

The issue of smuggling really is history since just about all cruise lines are offering beverage packages. They takes away the need to smuggle.

I love that they've gone to the drink packages. I can pre-pay all my alcohol purchases months in advance of actually boarding the ship, and never worry about it. I have friends who smuggle alcohol and I've never understood it. It's just not worth it to me.

The beverage packages are better than smuggling. Unless you like drinks mixed with water or straight up, it's easier to just go up to the bar and get a drink to take to your room. We didn't get ice delivered to the room on our recent cruise. Mixers are difficult to smuggle. It's also cheaper to run to a bar for a drink on your beverage package than to use liquor you had to pay for.

With the beverage packages, the cruise lines are not likely to go to a whole lot of effort to catch people smuggling. If the person buys a beverage package, and most do, why should they care that they use their own alcohol instead of the ship's?

I have no problem with people sneaking alcohol onto ships. I don't cruise much and the no alcohol policy is one reason. It's the only vacation in which you are not allowed to take your own spirits. If you stay in a resort hotel, you can purchase drinks in their bars and dining rooms and also have your own in your room. You're pretty much captive while on the ship. I like Celebrity's drink packages. We recently went on a celebrity cruise. Without the package, we would not have considered it.

We both got the premium upgrade before we got on the ship. If you get it before you board, it's written on your card. If you wait until you're on board, you get a sticker. I don't think they have any rot gut house liquors. To give you an idea, the house vodka is Absolute. I saw a bottle of Gordon gin at one bar, but not at all bars.

We just finished a cruise on the Celebrity Constellation which included a beverage package as a perk. We didn't like the food on the ship and weren't very pleased with the ship but we sure liked the perk. I think Celebrity always sells the beverage packages. I'd like to be able to find out which cruise lines offer that and be able to find which ones are offering them free as an incentive perk. Does anyone know how to do that?