Cruise!!

lilg058

I'm at work tonight and I got a text from my boyfriend... it says that his parents had booked a cruise and can't go, so they offered it to us. The cruise itself is paid for but we have to pay for "the other stuff" (flight & I'm not sure what else). I'm super excited - and it just might be the perfect proposal, if he decides to do it. I'm sure many of you have been on cruises...what sort of costs are we looking to incur? 

AudgiePodge

Drinks, anything you purchase on the ship, meals in the specialty restaurants, excursions, travel to and from the ship. Last cruise, on the ship alone, FI and I each spent about $750. We're taking one for our honeymoon and were budgeting around $1000 for each of us including my sister that we're taking along. Much less for DD, of course. Things are also much more pricier than it would be somewhere else. I forgot my shampoo and conditioner on the last one. It was about $7 each for some cheap-o brand. Have fun on the cruise.

NurseyK

Not including flights, the last three day cruise that I went on, we spent about $150 each on alcohol and pictures. Another $100 for tipping.  It was fun though!

sparkles88

The cruise line will probably charge $11/day for tips. Alcoholic drinks and soda are not free. I think they're ~$3 for nonalcoholic and $6-$9 for alcohol. If you eat at a "premium" restaurant there is usually a $20 charge. I'm cheap so on my cruise I don't think I spent more than $100 extra including gratuity. I don't drink much either so that helps. Alcohol is where they make their money. You can also pay extra for optional shore excursions. I think those start at $50 per person.

aah009

Ask Seatea! She leaves tomorrow for a Carribean Cruise for the next week:) I know she is swimming with dolphins.

stemms8810

I think our bill at the end was around $300 for alcoholic drinks and pictures.  From what I can remember anything on the ship you can charge to your cruise line card.  So you may want to keep a mental note of how much you are spending, it adds up quickly!  Also, like others have said flight, excursions, food while on excursions, and any souvenirs will be an additional cost as well.  You can keep it to a minimum though if needed.  Have fun!

mookow86

You can spend as much or as little as you want- If you want to go the cheap route, you can sneak alcohol on the ship in rum runners (<< clicky) and get free juices from the buffet. Also, instead of booking excursions with the cruise ship, you can look for external companies. This can save you up to 50% on some things. Just be aware if you do the external companies, they don't wait for you if you're late getting back to the ship at night. For this reason, make sure to check reviews of the companies on Cruise Critic.

cu97tiger

My BF and I spent about $2,000 on our one week cruise, but we also spared no expense (and weren't smart enough to sneak alcohol on board). My BF also loves jagermeister shots, so that was probably $500 easily. 

Another option besides the rum runner things above is those plastic to-go shampoo/conditioner bottles you can get at Target or the Dollar store. You can put lots of alcohol in those and they won't question you. If you aren't big drinkers, you can definitely get by on a lot less. Ditto what mmokow said about excursions. We booked almost all of ours before we went, paid less, and had just as much (if not more) fun!

Beads921

PPs have covered pretty much everything. BF and I really wanted to cruise, but it's not affordable right now because of all the extra costs. Costs we were worried about:
- Excursions (plus any on-shore meals)
- Alcohol (and drinks in general; often juice and water are the only ones included)
- Meals at special restaurants
- Certain on-board activities (ie the spa)
- Souvenirs (both on-board and on-shore)
- On-board pictures
- Gratuities

dancinditzcoley

It really depends which cruise line you're going on.
We did a Disney Cruise.
We were allowed to bring alcohol (we flew down though and didn't really take advantage of that but bought some on our first stop)
They had an area were soda was free, as well as during meals.
Special drinks of the day for reduced prices
Lots of free acitvities, we only paid for one on ship wine tasting
You don't always have to do excursions, we came back early from one of ours and loved how empty the ship was.
Pictures are expensive, have crew members take pictures of you if possible
and pack plastic baggies. We had free room service, so order a sandwhich and take it with you on your excursion!

dancinditzcoley

Oh! my most important part, our cruise is where FI proposed, and we're going on another one for the honeymoon lol

So good luck!