Tips for a frugal cruise experience?

[MonkeyMama]

I Was just curious from experienced cruisers if they had any tips on how to have a frugal experience on a cruise ship? (Frugal cruise? Oxymoron?)

My MIL is very sweet and gave us a cruise, and though I look VERY forward to it, living on a tight budget I kind of wondered, oh lord, how much is this really going to cost, when she first told us.

Anyway, we just got our papers for the cruise and I can already see it adding up - gas,parking (since we're driving to the ship), expected tips, drinks, etc. Looks like a lot of nickel and diming. I don't expect we will pay for any of the excursions as we will be happy to stay on the boat and/or arrange or own frugal excursions (like walks around the towns, I am sure anything would be cheaper not going through the cruise line - like renting bikes and snorkeling and such - but tell me if I am wrong).

But since I have never been on a cruise any insight would be great. You all are so great at frugal ideas and I am sure some of you know some of the ins and outs how not to get too nickel and dimed on a cruise ship.

We're doing the SoCal-Ensenada trip. Since we live in cali and go to So Cal so much I think the only think that really interests us is MExico, maybe Catalina Island. I think we are going to stay on the ship and just be lazy the other days in california.

TIA!

[Ima saver]

Well, I enjoyed all the planned trips to visit the cities, but it was expensive. Just walking around on your own, is much cheaper.
Plan to eat all your meals on the ship.
What we did to save money was to take our own liquor and make drinks in our room to carry around the ship.
We learned (finally) not to buy all the souvenier stuff!
When we played the slot machines, we limited ourselves to $10 worth of dimes and then we quit.

Have fun!!

[disneysteve]

First, go to cruisecritic.com. It is a great discussion forum, like this, with a lot of people who will be happy to answer your every question. They can suggest budget shore excursions, tell you how to book them yourself, and anything else you would want to know.

You are correct that booking excursions on board is the most expensive way to go. You can almost always do the same activity for a lot less money. Just be aware that when you are on an excursion through the ship, they will hold the ship for you if your group is late getting back. If you go off on your own, the ship is not obligated to wait for you, so you could find yourself stranded if something happened to delay your return.

As for tips onboard, depends on the cruise line but Carnival bills tips to your cabin automatically, $10/person/day. That is the suggested amount, but you can raise or lower it by going to the info desk and adjusting it. Don't feel obligated to give their recommended amount (but please respect the fact that most ship employees live entirely on tips. They are paid virutally nothing in wages.).

Drinks are not included onboard and that can rack up quickly, so stick to water, juice, coffee/tea, iced tea which are all free. There will be other activities on board that have a fee, like bingo, art auction, casino, spa etc. Just skip those things and you'll find there is plenty to do that is included in your fare.

[scfr]

I've only been on one cruise, so I'm far from an expert, but these are the things we did to save money:
- We were a fairly big group. We brought our own wine (everyone brought a couple bottles) and some games, and before dinner we'd get together in one of the rooms for a glass of wine and games or ocean gazing. In the dining room, we just drank the free stuff.
- See if you can get a friend to drive you to the terminal and pick you up, to save on parking.
- In-town excursions you can arrange on your own. But since you are going to be someplace you will never go again, perhaps splurge on one of the offered excursions away from the port. I went to on an Alaskan cruise, so I "splurged" on a nature hike through the woods with a naturalist; cost about $40 and I know it's something I'll never have the opportunity to do again so I thought it was definitely worth it. The physical activity excursions tend to be less expensive, and after all of the on-board eating you will be happy for the exercise!
- Just say "NO" when they offer to take your picture! I swear they take them every time you get on or off the boat, and then they try to sell you the pictures.

Have a blast!

[disneysteve]

Just say "NO" when they offer to take your picture!

LOL! Where were you on our last cruise? Seriously, on our first 2 cruises we bought a couple of photos as nice souvenirs and I'm glad we did, but last cruise got out of hand. They just happened to have some really great photographers and they took some absolutely beautiful photos, particularly on formal night. One of my daughter and I, me seated at a grand piano in my tux and her standing next to me in a colorful dress, another of the 3 of us against a Tuscan village background, etc. We bought quite a few and I don't regret a penny of it. In fact, the photos are not terribly expensive. When we got home, I contacted the cruise line and got a copyright release allowing me to make duplicates to distribute to friends and family (which I did at Wal-Mart for a lot less then the original print cost).

[Tree0164]

Stay away from the acoholic drinks-they are not included and are often alot of money on cruise ships. Most ships have free ice tea, coffee, tea and water.

There is a ton of free stuff on the ship to do. Take advantage of it. I have taken dance lessons, learned a new craft.

Treat yourself to 1 shore excursion-some of them are nice but most are not worth it.

[disneysteve]

Treat yourself to 1 shore excursion-some of them are nice but most are not worth it.

I think a lot of the excursions are worthwhile, but not necessarily worth what is being charged because you can often do something identical or pretty similar on your own.

Two examples:

In San Juan, we wanted to tour the Bacardi factory. The ship was charging $30/person for a trip there. We got off the ship, took a commuter ferry across the bay ($.50/person each way). On the other side of the bay, a taxi charged us $5/person roundtrip to take us to and from the factory. The tour was free (and included 2 drinks). So the 4 of us spent $24 instead of $120. The ship's tour included a narrated tour around the city on the way there, but we were willing to pass that up to save nearly $100.

In Nassau, we wanted to visit Atlantis. I don't recall the price of the ship's tour, but I'm sure it was at least $20/person. We took a water taxi over for $6/person and took a land taxi back for $3/person, saving us well over $40 for the 4 of us.

On the other hand, in La Romana, Dominican Republic, we took a jeep tour that took us on a guided tour, stopped at a sugarcane plantation where we saw the facility and got some samples of sugarcane and rum, took us to a private compound where we sampled various local fruits, coffee and more, took us to a local shopping area with beautiful local art and crafts and took us to lunch at a riverside cafe. I don't recall what we paid for the tour, but we all thought it was worth every penny. Now I'm sure we could have contacted the same tour company on our own and set up that trip, but I would have felt somewhat uncomfortable doing that. I preferred to pay the ship's premium and know it was all done for me.

[zakity]

When my sister and I went on a cruise, we had two "shore" days. One of the days, we did a ship tour only because we wanted to do the things on it and we wanted to make sure that we got back to the ship. The other day, we took a taxi to a beach and played for the first half of the day. The second half, we went shopping. We tried to make sure that we were back to the ship an hour before we were supposed to be (which made us be back about a half hour before we were supposed to be because you know how shopping is....).

[FrugalTexan75]

One other thing to watch out for are the drinks that are provided in your rooms. If you take even ONE can/bottle they will charge you for ALL of the provided drinks. And they are *expensive*!

Also, as far as parking costs. Check and see it there are any hotels nearby that will let you park there for free if you spend the night before the cruise. In 2003 my family went on a cruise ( a friend of mine was getting married in Cozmel and we were part of her bridal party.) We stayed at a hotel in Galveston the night before, and were able to park free, plus there was a free shuttle from the hotel to the ship.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

DON'T DRINK! That is the biggest money saver, sometimes when you bring wines they charge a fee for corkage, which is cheap compared to buying wine if that's what you want to do.

Also tips will be pricy, because there are 4 of you.

[jodi]

Tips are definitely the biggest expense, but I don't skimp there as the service is always unbelievable and everyone lives off the tips, not wages.
We bought a soda pass on the first day of our cruise - one price for soda for the week. This isn't the most ethical confession I have to make, but we bought clear liquor on shore and brought it on to the ship in water bottles. We would make our own drinks with the soda pass. We just couldn't swing the ships prices for drinks.
We skipped a lot of the extras, like the spa. We did a lot of walking around instead of booking the excursions, but I have second thoughts about that now, after hearing stories of kidnappings/robberies in some countries. If you elect to do your own thing, make sure you are in a safe area! Saving money is not worth jeopardizing your safety. When I traveled to Mexico and other areas, I shudder now to think of some of the places we wandered as naive young travelers (like when me made a wrong turn and wound up walking a mile of near-deserted highway in Cancun). The excursions are expensive, but they might be safer too. Just do your homework.
There's a lot of free entertainment, like the shuffleboard and ping pong tournaments, shows most nights, midnight buffets, swimming, lessons, etc. Read the brochure to know what's offered and check out the schedule of activities each day on the ship.
Ditto on eating all meals aboard the cruise ship. The food is already paid for - no sense in paying for it elsewhere, unless you want to get a taste of local cuisine.
Have fun! Some of our best times on cruises were getting a book from the library and reading by the pool, or playing cards together in the rec room.