swanmark

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Really? You don't know why? Kind of obvious!</p><br><p><br>

<br> Well its not obvious to me as I am a first time cruiser, I was looking for advice not a sarcastic reply, luckily others on this list are a bit more helpful.<br>

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Can someone answer this dilemma, if your on an all inclusive drinks package, why can't you order a bottle of wine to take to your room without being charged for it. And I can never understand why you can't use the drinks in the mini bar without being charged, it doesn't make sense if your on an all inclusive drinks package.

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Hi Guys, would anyone happen to know the cost of upgrading my internet minutes from 250 to unlimited, on the Epic haven suites ?

I am in the uk, we booked through cruise 1st

I notice there is a seafood buffet with lobster one night on the Epic, does anybody know what night they have it on, on the western med cruise

Thank you guys for all your help, I am going out of Barcelona on the 14th May

Hi Guys excuse me if I am asking to many questions on here, but its my first ever cruise and I have hundreds of things I want to know. We are going on the Epic in May from Barcelona, I am wondering about disembarking at the nd of the cruise and how long it takes. I think the ship docks at 5.am, our flight out of Barcelona is at 10.50 am, will we have enough time to catch this flight. as we are in an Haven suite we do have priority disembarking, thanks in advance for your help.

Hi guys a quick question, We are booked on the epic in May, we have a suite in the haven, it has a mini bar, my question is I have an ultimate drinks package, does that mean the drinks in the mini bar are free or are they separate and have to be paid for.

Just spent my birthday on the Epic in the Haven. It was wonderful. The drink package covers just about everything except bottles of water and some special coffees. We never used the special restaurants. They were booked up very early and we ate most meals in the Haven dinning room, which was excellent.

Are the coffees and water free in the Haven bars ?

Just spent my birthday on the Epic in the Haven. It was wonderful. The drink package covers just about everything except bottles of water and some special coffees. We never used the special restaurants. They were booked up very early and we ate most meals in the Haven dinning room, which was excellent.

Are the coffees and water free in the Haven bars etc ?

Hi Guys, we have decided to take the plunge and go on our first ever cruise. As its my wife`s special birthday we have booked a Haven suite on the NCL Epic, out of Barcelona in May. We have been given some free bonuses which are Free ultimate drinks package, free specialty dining, 250 free internet minutes, Free gratuities, and $400 cabin spend. As its our first ever cruise, we are not sure what these offers include, so if anyone can give us further advice I would be very grateful.

Q1. Free drinks package, doe this mean we can drink what we like without paying any supplements.

Q 2. The specialty dining package, does this mean we can eat in any of the ships restaurants without paying any supplements.

Q 3. I presume that free gratuities means we don't have o tip anyone unless we want to.

Q 4. $400 cabin spend, What can we actually spend this on ?.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Guys, we decided to take the plunge and try our very first cruise, as its my wife's special birthday, we booked a suite in the Haven Class. We have been given free ultimate drinks package, free specialty dining package, 250 internet minutes, and $400 cabin spend and free gratuities. But as this is our first cruise, we are not sure what the details are, so if anyone can help answering these questions I would very grateful.

Q 1. ultimate drinks package ?. Does this mean we can drink whatever we like free of charge?

Q 2. The specialty dining package, does that mean we can eat in any of the restaurants without paying a supplement.

Q 3. What can we actually spend the Cabin spend on ?

Thanks in advance for the help guys.

Hi again, Swanmark,

 

First of all, ignore the above remarks by CB at Sea about "no hidden charges" and tips. CB seems to have tunnel vision and despite being involved in threads on those subjects still protests that what's normal for Americans is normal for everyone else. :rolleyes:

Here's an example of how new cruisers got a shock about costs, it also gives a lot of useful info to a first-timer on a US ship.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2328270

 

And, to CB ..........

Yes, in the UK most of us leave something for waiting staff. But at nowhere near the levels expected in the US or on a US ship - they're tips, not wages - and you know as well as most on Cruise Critic, that crew rely on tips as their primary income.

 

No, we don't tip bartenders.

Some tip housekeepers, some don't - all very hit-and-miss. Those who tip usually leave the equivalent of only a few dollars per room - and I get the impression that's the same in the States.

 

We don't tip in fast-food places or self-service buffets, we don't tip chefs or bottle-washers or laundry staff or folk who re-fill coffee urn or sweep the floors or all the other unseen background staff.

And neither do you in the US.

Yet on cruise ships they're all in the pool for those "tips" to supplement their reported $50 per month "wages".

Hellfire, that's not even the American way.

 

And even in the US, "service" isn't put on the check even before the customer has sat down to eat.

 

There's a no-tipping culture in Australia, Japan & many other countries.

 

So do us all a favour, CB, and open your eyes to the lands beyond the US coast.

 

 

 

Rant over, back to the meat of the thread.............

 

Swanmark - CB at Sea has at least demonstrated one of the financial pitfalls of sailing a US ship, and why I usually suggest a Brit ship like P&O, Thomson or Fred Olsen for a Brit's first cruise.

The "daily charge", often referred to as tips or gratuities, on US & Italian ships is around $13 per person per day, even for kids.

Most drinks are significantly more expensive on US ships, plus a 15% to 18% service charge - even if you buy at the bar. The chit that you sign for your drinks thoughtfully has an empty line in case you want to add a tip as well as the mandatory service charge!! Life would be simpler if the service charge were rolled into the bar prices, but that's not the American way.

There's no drinks service charge Brit ships.

There are no daily charges on Thomson ships. Since being incorporated into the Carnival empire, P&O has introduced daily charges but at £4 per person per day they're less than half the level on US ships.

On P&O you can take aboard any reasonable quantity of any drink (wines, beers, spirits, etc) for consumption in your cabin or on your balcony. Other cruise lines impose serious limitations on what drinks you can take aboard.

Bear in mind that currency on US ships is US dollars. You don't need any dollars on-board, you sign for everything & your credit card is charged at the end of the cruise - all very simple & convenient, but bear in mind that you'll lose out a little on exchange charges.

 

Don't let the above put you off US ships. There's a wide choice of US cruise lines & itineraries, US ships tend to be more lively, more glitzy, more cosmopolitan, have more "toys", and crew tend to be more inter-active.

But do bear in mind those costs when choosing a cruise. I usually reckon our on-board costs to be around £100 to £150 pppw more than UK ships, and factor this extra cost into my choice.

 

Note how many folk have advised you to talk to cruise specialist travel agents. If you read the thread that I've linked you'll see some of the reasons why that's excellent advice. Google "cruise travel agents" - most have "cruise" somewhere in their name. Talk to a few, figure who seems most knowledgeable, helpful & up-front. Get the best deal you can from all, then give that helpful one the opportunity to match the best quote. It'll pay dividends in good simple advice on a range of matters such as cabin location and dining choices.

 

A major drawback to cruising is the limited time you have in each port, especially when the port is some distance from the attractions. For instance you'd actually have no more than about 5 hours in Rome, a city which is worth more like 5 days. And there are half-a-dozen very worthy places to visit from Naples - Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri, the Amalfi coast, Sorrento, Vesuvius, but you'll only have the chance to visit one, mebbe two.

So for many places on a Med itinerary, treat your port-of-call day as simply an opportunity to get an overview - it's not a million miles to fly back there sometime in the future for a proper visit.

Mid-September is an ideal time for the Med - not too hot, less-crowded, kids back at school, decent choice of ships.

Choice of flying to a Med embarkation port or sailing from the UK. Sailing is simpler & more convenient (no luggage limits, no airport zoos or flight delays) but involve a number of sea days to get to & from the Med.

 

That limited time ashore is actually an advantage for the Caribbean. A different island state each day, all of them worth a day visit but unless you like to laze on beaches few are worth longer than a day. So the Caribbean is made for cruising, and it'd be my choice for a first cruise. :cool:

On-shore costs are way lower than in the Med, and surprisingly cruises are better value than in the Med and currency everywhere is the US dollar.

But it's a long way to go for less than a couple of weeks.

And September's not a great time to go. It's still in the hurricane season - doesn't mean you'll be sailing through a hurricane, but itineraries are sometimes changed in order to avoid them so some ports may be different to those in the brochure.

If you can easily switch to a fortnight around late November to early March, that's an ideal time to be in the Caribbean - and a ideal time not to be in the UK. ;)

If you plump for the Caribbean, definitely choose a UK ship. These are chartered flights (everyone is on the cruise) from a range of UK airports direct to Barbados or Jamaica rather than via a US airport and sea-days out of Florida. Transfers are super-easy - from aircraft to bus to ship, no immigration, no luggage carousel, the bags you checked in at your UK airport you'll next see outside your cabin door.

 

The Med, the Canaries and the Caribbean are popular with kids, so keep away from school holidays. The Baltic is made for cruising, and attracts virtually no kids.

But be wary of "adults only" ships, such as P&O's smaller ships - they appeal to folk "of a certain age" and the ship will be sleeping by 10pm.

 

I've got no direct experience of Fred Olsen, but Fred doesn't appeal to kids. However the clientele seems to be quite active recently-retireds, so not a rest-home at sea.

 

Very verbose post :rolleyes: but hopefully you can glean some useful info.

 

JB :)

Thank you John some great advise, to be honest I found CBs remarks quite condescending, as if I had some sort of moral obligation to tip all and sundry for anything and be grateful about it Lol

Thanks for all the tips guys especially Ms Poppadom, good sound advise

Hi, Swanmark, & welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

To be able to best advise you, and more especially to avoid giving totally wrong advice, we need to know a little more about you.

 

Like........

 

What part of the world you live in (Brits or Aussies can get caught out by "hidden charges" & costs that are normal add-ons for Americans)

 

What time of the year you can / want to cruise. For instance "full of kids" depends on the time of year & cruise itinerary as well as what ship, and winter in the Med means a limited choice of ships & not the best weather.

 

How long a cruise do you anticipate? A week? A fortnight? Til the money runs out? ;)

 

Happy to fly?

 

There's no such thing as "all-inclusive" except with premium lines. But most offer optional (or sometimes included) drinks packages, and you can go ashore on ship's excursions, private excursions, shared excursions, or under your own steam using shanks's, train, bus, taxi, ferry, hop-on bus etc.

 

There are various dining choices, on very few ships is sharing a table the only option.

 

The more we know about you, the more we can suggest

 

JB :)

I am in the UK, we were thinking about mid September this year for a week or 10 days, also cant decide if the Med or the Caribbean would be best for our first cruise

Hi Guys, we are a couple in our early sixties and we are considering taking our first cruise, We have thought about it for many years, but never done anything about it because of various reasons, like will we get sea sick. its very expensive especially the tipping etc and do we have to eat at a table full of strangers etc. But this year we are seriously considering a cruise. We thought the best place to take our first cruise would be the Med, on an all inclusive cruise. We think an outside cabin would be a better choice than an inside. So I have a few questions, which is the best cruise line for all inclusive med deals, which ships have the best cabins, don't really want a ship that's full of kids etc and what hidden charges should we look out for, anyway if anyone can give us some advise It would be most helpful, thank you in advance.