Re: Free Cruise........
Mikeandronda,<br />I've been on at least 12 cruises before and here are a couple of things you'll want to watch out for:<br />1. when you board the ship, you will be issued a credit card/room key. All shipboard transactions are done via your room key credit card. Everything gets billed to your room. When you board, you will have to provide a major credit card to secure your "line of credit". This is for 2 reasons: 1, they dont have to worry about employees skimming money and 2, and most important, you never really know how much you've spent. The night before the cruise ends, you will get your "final" bill. This is where it hurts. Most shipboard drinks are around $5 each. Plus they automatically add a 18% gratuity to all alcohol purchases (might be 15%, I'm not sure of the exact figure they are charging now) The typical person may have 11 drinks a day(4 in the hot sun out by the pool, 2 at lunch, 2 at dinner, and 3 during the evening and at the shows)<br />Thats 11 drinks, assuming you dont buy drinks for others. Thats per person. So take that 22 drinks per day, multiplied by 7 days and your bar tab at the end is almost $909.(7 x(22 x 5) x 18% = 908.60)<br />Carnival is counting on you doing this. Its how they make their money. You may think 11 drinks a day is alot, but I've been with friends who run up a 2k tab.<br />2. Tipping - Its usually $14 per person per day. Thats another $196 you'll need in CASH on the last day. The room stewards and wait staff do not get paid. They work for tips only. They do not share in the bar tab tip, that is for the cruise line. Not tipping is considered rude. Believe me, the ones who work for tips will bend over backwards for you.<br />3. Shore excursions - This is another area where the cruise line makes out like a bandit. A lot of the excursions will cost you upwards of $75 per person, some more, some less. If you stop at 3 ports and took 3 excursions apiece, you'll have another $450 on your room tab. Most excursions can be booked right on the dock with the locals. They will typically run around 30% less (that the cut of the cruise line) The cruise line will warn you to "only take ship sponsored trips" as a scare tactic. In all my years, I've never had a problem with unscrupulous vendors.<br />4.Other expenses...If you plan on driving to the port, plan to pay around $10-15 per day for parking. Cash only, no credit card. This is the going rate for cruise port parking.<br /><br />I dont mean to scare you, but I did want to let you see the "real numbers" that you could accidentially incur. What we always do is 1. skip the alcohol. My wife and I dont drink and they always have Ice tea available for free. 2.We may do 1 shore excursion if it really looks interesting. Usually we will set out on our own. For example, in St Croix, the ship offered a $20 per person to the far side of the island for shopping. We walked to the local bus stop which is 100ft from the port, and rode to the same place for the grand total of $1 per person. We also got to see the island via the backroads and not the main expressway. Yes it took an hour and a half to get there, but we got a wonderful view of the island and met some interesting characters on the way. When it was time to go home, instead of the bus, we went to one of the tour operators who were all lined up in a row. We offered them $3 per person to take us back. They wanted $15. When we told them "thats OK, I'll as the next van behind you", their tone changes and they said "Get on board" The shopping tours did not have set times so there was a good chance that the vans would ahve to go back empty. If you keep a friendly attitude, you can work great deals with the locals.<br /><br />Cruises can be very inexpensive or they can break you. As long as you contain your expenditures and track your bills, it will be very enjoyable. (They can always give you your current tab amount at the Pursers desk 24 hours a day)<br /><br />We too are heading down to the Caribbean in mid march. Rack up number 13 for us.<br />Enjoy...<br />Nav
