I'm confussed!! help me, help me lol

[temple10]

I started the thread asking about how to start account without credit card. Thank you all so much for the replys and help. Now I will be a first time cruiser and I thought everything was included in price, except ahcohol and soda and of course soveiners.Why such a very large deposit?? Could you fill me in on what I might be spending so much money on?? I am going to live it up but what am I not thinking about?? thank you bunches :) you guys are so helpful:D

[Tatka]

Ooops...I am sorry I misread original thread! :eek: :eek:

[wwinfl91]

I didn't see the original thread but some things you will be spending extra money for are shore excursions, which can run as high as $100 or more a person for a high end all day tour. If you are on a 12 to 14 day cruise with 8 to 10 port stops these can add up to almost as much as you paid for the cruise. You can avoid some of this cost by arranging your own shore excursions or doing things on your own. Tips are now being charged directly to your shipboard account, $10 a day per person. On a 12 day cruise this can amount to $240. If you go to the Pinnacle restaurant, it costs $20 a person per dinner again charged to your credit card plus a tip for your waiter. Drinks and wine on the ship get expensive quickly and they know charge a 15% tip on top of their cost automatically. If you buy any of the pictures the ships photographer takes it will be added to your account and they can add up really quickly. Spa or beauty shop treatments are additional extras as are many of the extra exercise classes that require a sign up and a fee. If you have any film or your digital card processed by the ships photo shop those charges will show up also.

 

I'm sure there are things I have forgotten that others will add. We figure a minimum of an additional $500 a week for the above mentioned items and we do a lot of our own shore tours.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[jhannah]

And it is amazing how quickly it all adds up ... even when you're trying to be somewhat conservative.

 

I'm amazed at how some have posted that their shipboard account ended up being in the thousands of dollars -- as wwinfl91 said, as much as the cost of the cruise itself.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hi, I must confess that we tend to be big spenders. Our last two 7 day cruises we spend just over $1200 on our ship board account. Bear in mind we board the ship knowing we will spend this much money. The small dollar items are things like Champagne every night at dinner. I few cocktails here and there and of course a cappacino several times. Tom like his beer at least once a day. Then there is the photos. We have bought less each cruise but we do have a large Holland America album that we add the ship pictures to. The most expensive part is I almost always find some type of jewelery to buy on the ship :eek: no not the "Inch of Gold". Then of course Tom likes to get his golf shirt with the ship's logo. We save every month for our vacations this is just part of our fun. We live in Vegas and DO NOT Gamble so we do not gamble on the cruises.

[Globaliser]

Why such a very large deposit??

Also, I think there is an element of trying to discourage people from paying other than by credit card. It's very easy for the ship to collect payment by credit card as it's all done automatically. Any form of cash payment means that the front desk staff have to spend time taking it - and you don't need a big proportion of the two or three thousand passengers on board to want to do that before you have a major logistical headache at the front desk.

[torybruno]

Don't forget those Bingo cards!

[SharonN]

We had a strange problem with our account on our trip last March. We had purchased all of our Shore Excurions on line before the trip and we don't drink alcohol so had very little to charge to it except a few soft drinks a day. Not normally a problem but because they changed our pre-cruise hotel at the last minute they gave us a $140 credit and then the price of one of the Shore Excursions was reduced giving us another credit and then we got into one port late so they reduced the price of another tour because it was going to be shorter than originally planned. They weren't doing automatic tips at the time so even that couldn't help. We ended up buying a few things in the shops on board that we probably wouldn't have bothered with and did buy more than our normal number of Bingo cards which turned out to be a good thing. Ended up winning $70 in one game and the free cruise in another. I think we still ended up with a credit of about $20 that we didn't get to spend but could have been worse!

[Debi_D]

Don't forget the art auctions, they to can add quiet a lot to your account. I know because my husband has filled every room with some of the art on the ships:eek:

 

We have won Bingo a few times and it has paid down the ship bill a bit, but we tend to always have a big bill at the end. Wine everynight, the excursions (and golf is one of the more expensive one), cocktails (we even bring our own) and yes some of the jewerly (the real thing) gets our bill up there....

 

Debi

[stillfrantic]

When I read the cancellation policy for pre booked shore excursions it talked about credits to shipboard accounts if cancelled onboard. It then went on to say any money not spent onboard would be refunded by the purser. Will he place a credit to the credit card if money is left in the account at the end or do you have to go to the desk in person the final day and get cash?

[Debi_D]

They will credit back your credit card that you have on file at the purser's office. I actually had a $700.00 credit that Princess gave us because of a really bad cruise and I was going to leave it on my account for this next cruise and about two months after my cruise in January they credit my credit card. I did have to call them back and explain to them that this was a credit that was to be used on a future sailing, after that they recharge the card.

 

 

 

Debi

[temple10]

Don't forget those Bingo cards!

So r u telling me on the Statendam 15 day cruise December 21- January 5 I can play bingo on board?? Well this just keeps getting better and better:D Seriously is there bingo??

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Yes BINGO daily. They won't let you forget either because they keep annoucing "Snowball Jackpot" Hourly thru the day