Going on a cruise next week

I did it once and had a fun time. I'll echo what others say about the eating, although also, leave plenty of time if it's buffet-style. The lines are super-long.

I did a bit of gambling, but nothing major, maybe lost $30 or so. I'm not much of a gambler, though. I did hear that the best time to gamble is usually the first night or the last night of the cruise, because it's a little easier to win. The first night is to entice people to gamble, and the last night is to make them feel a little better leaving the ship.

The nightly shows were very good, professional quality. They even had a Ship Idol event in which passengers signed up for. They were able to practice for the week with the ship's band, and performed on the final night. Some very talented people.

We did some port excursions, but nothing too expensive. Just to get off the ship and see another part of the world.

I also did enter several contests, and won a little trophy (no orange slices, though).

All in all, it was fun, and I'd do it again.

 

And don't go to back the blackjack table if you're up some cash and have been drinking all day. Found that out the hard way.

 

One thing I've heard from several people is to pay the extra money to get a room with a balcony instead of an inside room.

Obviously you probably won't be in either room a whole lot but the balcony is likely worth it.

 

I entered a putt putt contest. Was the only person to show up on time. So hung out with the cute cruise director assistant. Then an elderly couple showed up to play, with gold, silver and bronze medals on the line. I said ok, you're ON old fuckers.

Won by two strokes. Old bastard made me work for it.

No orange slices.

 

Meaning they both had strokes so you won by default?

 

Lol. No one got sick or died. Lol.

 

Riiiiiight.

 

Exactly why I preferred to stay on deck when everyone else went ashore.

 

We need an sj outing cruise, and make sure we get Rick Stain out there too.

 

I've been on a cruise once and she's been at least a dozen times.

Some random bits.

Always eat in the formal dining room. Food seems better and getting waited on is part of the experience. Pack some Cokes or the soda of your choice, pop costs extra. Also handy is bring a travel cup for morning coffee.

She doesn't think a balcony room is worth the extra cost since you spend so little time there. The exception being Alaskan cruises where the scenery is so critical.

I would not get the cruise ship cell phone coverage. Part of the joy of a cruise is completely unplugging. You can't do that if you have coverage since you'll have the urge to check Facebook/twitter/email/work email/work calls/etc.

We enjoyed the excursions and stops in port but if you stay on the ship, you'll have run of the place. On our cruise we had a morning excursion to snorkel and came back for lunch. The ship was practically vacant.

If you buy anything in port, have plenty of small bills and get the change back in local currency. An easy souvenir and also call your bank and or credit card companies me fill them on your travel plans.

If you do use your card in say Belize on a Wednesday the bank will now and not allow transactions on. Thursday or later.

Cruises are crazy cheap now and you can get some amazing deals. Dollar for dollar they're the best travel value. Where you get hammered is the booze bill and if you gamble.

 

I would agree with these good points, although my tendency is to go to the more-casual, buffet café (since I am more of a buffet-type person, anyway) for lunch and just go to the formal dining room for dinner.

I definitely agree about the balcony. I've never had one, so maybe I shouldn't talk, but that extra is pretty expensive for as little as you're likely to really use it (when there is all kinds of deck space to lay out and lounge on, anyway).

What I would recommend, and what I always do pay for, is a room with a window, getting away from an inside room that way. Inside rooms are considerably cheaper, but it really is nice having some kind of view on trips such as this, and it also really helps make the room more light and airy.

Balcony rooms can be $400-$600 more expensive than an inside, windowless room. Non-balcony-but-outside rooms with a porthole are usually $200 or so more than the inner rooms. That amount of extra expense is worth it to me for the window, all the time. The balcony expense is not, although I've always thought I would like to get a balcony room once just to try it, maybe as Jay says, whenever I go to Alaska, or someplace particularly scenic like that.

I completely agree regarding cell-phone coverage. Being that far out on the ocean really can be like being in another world -- a wonderful, care-free world -- and you should let yourself enjoy it. Besides, even without a phone, you don't have to be totally out of touch if you don't want to be. All cruise ships I've been on have pretty impressive libraries/computer rooms, where you can sign up for a short-term user plan for a pre-determined number of minutes on a computer, or else get a pay-as-you-use plan, so you can go online and/or check email for at least a few minutes at a time if you'd like. (So I wouldn't bother bringing your own portable computer, either, because you may not have coverage on it without paying, anyway. Just use the ship-board ones). Regardless, I would not recommend pre-paying for too many minutes, though, because otherwise you'll tend to sit on the computer all day, just like you do at home, and that's not what cruises should be about. Just look out the windows and you'll see what I mean.

 

Speaking of phones. The cruise I went on furnished every berth with a couple of phones to allow people to stay in touch with each other on board (don't know if they worked off the boat), it helped when you wanted to meet up.