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I'd like to book a cruise. First time.


supertrucker
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What should I book? I will be driving from Oklahoma to Galveston. I would like my cruise to be 7 days or less. Is 7 days too long? I am not the wealthiest person so how can I stretch my money and get the best value and yet entertain myself and my wife. Will my wife enjoy it? I was thinking about temporarily owning some stock for on board credit. Is that worth it?

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I would talk to a travel agent that specializes in cruises. They can help you select the right cruise for you.

 

For most people 7 days is not too long. It is a nice length for a cruise.

To stretch your money, you will need to show restraint. There are many 'opportunities" to spend money on a cruise. You and your wife will have to agree to say NO often. Make up a budget. What if anything will you spend for drinks? excursions? bingo & other gambling? souvenirs? etc?

 

If you are just buying the stock for one cruise, planning to sell it, it is probably better to skip it. For Carnival Corporation, it would now cost you about $7,000 investment to get $50 or $100 On Board Credit. That benefit could easily be wiped out just by daily fluctuation in the stock price.

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We love to cruise and we love to save money. When you think of it, cruising is way cheaper than booking a hotel, paying for the gas, paying for the meals, and paying for all the entertainment you'd get on a cruise. If you don't want to spend extra money you don't have to. The extras are alcohol, soda, and restaurants that aren't included in your fare. We always eat in the main dining room or buffet, so it doesn't cost us anything extra to eat. We've always been happy with the food. We will maybe buy one drink per cruise, we're not big drinkers. We don't buy the soda package, we are happy with the ice tea, coffee, and juice that's included in the cost. We do excursions sometimes, but we have found some local excursion companies at some of the ports that cost less. Just check out all the reviews online first. We do buy souvenirs at port, but we really don't spend a lot. I don't fall for all of the jewelry hype that the ship will give. We never play Bingo, too expensive for me. And we don't gamble in the Casino. And we still have a wonderful time on each cruise. There is so much entertainment onboard. And I'm sure your wife will love it. Seven days is perfect. We have booked on Carnival the most often because it is the cheapest, but Royal Caribbean is better, and isn't all that much more expensive than Carnival.

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An easy way to save money is to buy 10% discount gift cards via AARP or other outlets - these work for any expense on Carnival and initial bookings on RCCL. A $3,000 cruise now costs you $2,700.

Look for sales and dates that aren't mainstream so fares are lower then - After Thanksgiving to Dec 15 are some of the lowest prices of the year with warm weather in the Caribbean if that's where you're heading.

Use a travel agent to navigate, you may get some perks from them for booking.

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I think a 7 day cruise is a great length. As far as getting the best value - how much do you like to drink on vacation. Because the drink budget can be a significant add on expense. Typically, carnival has the cheapest base rate for many cruises. However, celebrity and Norwegian usually include ‘perks’ such as an alcohol drink package or a specialty dining package with your booking, which can make the rates equally competitive. Personally, Norwegian and celebrity are my preferred cruise lines but I’d do a budget cruise on carnival if needed. I wouldn’t buy stock for onboard credit. Stock is a big investment decision and gets a token amount of credit. Between when you buy and when you sail you could easily lose the cash amount of the OBC in volatility. Instead, look around on the internet. Many sites offer onboard credit if you book with them. You can also check with local TAs in your area.

 

Honestly, the best value for me comes with when you cruise. Anytime schools are out - summer, holidays, etc, rates will be high. We prefer to cruise in December and January (outside of holidays of course) and find those rates good.

 

 

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Galveston - you don't have that many options so this is an easy one to figure out and no, you don't need a travel agent! The lines that sail from Galveston are Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Here are the ships from March through August:

 

Carnival:

Freedom - 2007 Carnival ship doing 7 day cruises

Breeze - 2012 Carnival ship doing 7 day cruises

Valor- 2004 Carnival ship doing 4 -5 day cruises

 

Royal Caribbean:

Liberty of the Seas - 2007 RCCL ship doing 7 day cruises

Vision of the Seas - 1998 RCCL ship doing 5 day cruises

 

So right there, that eliminates Valor and Vision of the Seas.

 

Of the remaining ships, I have been on Breeze and it is a beautiful newer ship with all the bells and whistles. It has a lot to offer and runs about $150 less per person for an inside than Liberty of the Seas. Carnival Freedom runs around $9 less per person than Breeze. For the money, I like Breeze better. JMO. Hope that helps! PS: If you are staying overnight before your cruise, it is cheaper to stay in Texas City as the Galveston hotels jack up their prices big time on the night before a cruise. Be sure and make a parking reservation somewhere for the duration of your cruise. There are a lot of options. If you decide to park in the Port Parking, then drop off your bags at the port BEFORE proceeding to port parking so you can get on the bus for people without bags. Otherwise you are stuck in a huge long line of 500 people or more with bags waiting for the bus for people with bags for hours out in the hot sun.

 

You might buy your wife a pass to the thermal suite (and yourself as well). There is lots of music onboard, a piano bar - really fun and also lots of comedy shows. Their production shows are about like what you would see at an amusement park like Six Flags - meh. But there is dancing and in the atrium they have a lot of music. People hang out by the pool a lot and there is always stuff to eat, Karaoke, trivia contests, bingo and stuff like that. They usually show movies on the big screen by the pool at night as well. If you go on Breeze they have some additional cost restaurants: sushi, steak house, Italian. There is a casino and a 3D movie theater (costs extra but is fun). Really,on our first cruise we got a balcony cabin and hung out there a ton. Even if you get an inside, there are lots of places to walk around the ship and view the ocean, it's really lovely!

Edited by SuiteTraveler
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Personally I prefer short duration cruises because you can usually get a low priced room if you don't care where or when you go. Per night is usually about the same or less as a 7 day and you can find some great deals on off season sailings. 7 days can be too little or too much depending on the cruise but if you are looking to save there are deals to be found on 3-5 day cruises. Depending on where in OK you are driving from, New Orleans might not be that much farther and then you would also have the choice of an NCL cruise. The cruise critic finder works well to compare pricing and ports and the price drop tool is handy also. Not sure about the stock thing but most cruise lines have rewards/loyalty programs or will give you bonus points if you sign up for their credit card and you can use the points for OBC or room upgrades. The CC's usually have a high interest rate but if you pay them off quickly the rewards points are worth it and you will usually get at least triple points for any purchases you make with the cruise line.

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If you are just buying the stock for one cruise, planning to sell it, it is probably better to skip it. For Carnival Corporation, it would now cost you about $7,000 investment to get $50 or $100 On Board Credit. That benefit could easily be wiped out just by daily fluctuation in the stock price.

 

I agree, and would like to add that even when the stock price doesn't change, buying, having and selling shares also cost money. Probably even more than the OBC you'd earn. And there's some paperwork to do, all for a few "free" cocktails.

 

The best way to keep costs down is getting a cheap inside cabin instead of paying a lot more for a balcony where you'd sit a few hours during the entire cruise, and simply turning down the zillion of offers you'll get on the ship. Skip the lotteries, spa, T-shirts, specialty restaurants and alcoves, they add very little to your first cruise. You'll still love cruising without those.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We just cruised out of Galveston last year with Royal Caribbean and drove there. We stayed at a hotel that offered a cruise and park rate. They let you park there for the duration of the cruise. Parking at the port is expensive. There are many hotels that offer cruise and park means you are rested for the cruise, they often offer a shuttle to the port and it sometimes just as cheap as port parking so it's like a"free" night pre-cruise. Many of them also offer a free breakfast. Factor in tips/gratuities. Each cruise line is somewhat different but it amounts to about $13.50 pp per day. We have to cruise when school is out, but if you can cruise when school is in session, you can get a better rate. Even on the cusp of high summer season (think May) the rates are better than June. Use a CLIO certified travel agent. They know the cruise lines and they have standards they have to adhere to. It doesn't cost any more to use a travel agent and they can help you find a cabin that suits your needs. They will most likely have a "perk" such as on-board credit, wine, etc for booking for you.The first question they will ask you is (1) When do you want to cruise? Without a date (at least a month), you can't compare and the travel agent is looking at too many options. We always say, we're looking to cruise between X date and X date. Since there are only two lines that cruise, ask if they can compare the same week on both. The itinerary doesn't really matter, in my opinion, since it's your first cruise and all of the ports will be new and exciting for you. Places you can save, without missing out on any of the experience of the cruise: Specialty restaurants, Photos, Bingo, Casino, alcohol. In about 15-16 cruises, we've never felt the need to go to the Specialty restaurants. We accumulated a box box of expensive photos before discovering that our favorite photos were the ones we took or had a fellow passenger snap of us. We do a Shutterfly book after the cruise as a commemorative of the cruise for practically nothing. Bingo is too expensive. We've gone to the casino on occasion but after about a $20 "contribution, we leave. We occasionally have a drink on the cruise but certainly not enough to justify buying the drink package. On Royal, you can bring 2 bottles of wine onboard and even though it says you can't, you can bring a few soft drinks and/or water without them saying anything. Just bring them in your carry-on with the wine. There are plenty of things you can enjoy in the ports that are free or only cost you the taxi fare. Check the ports section for easy ways to do a port on your own.

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You should price out all of your options. Look at what is available as far as dates, cruise lines, and itineraries. Depending what interests you may help steer you into a different cruise line. Are you just looking to try something different and explore new ports? Do you need grand ships? Do you want 5-star dining? Do you drink a lot? Do you want smaller crowds? I believe Carnival is a good starting point for most, especially if you want to keep it cost-effective. Then you can determine if you liked cruising, or what you felt was missing.

 

I would not keep the stock temporarily. I would either keep it long-term, or forget it. There are pros and cons to both, but I think it is a fantastic investment especially if you cruise a lot. Let's take Carnival stock as an example: it has traditionally performed well, they have many growth plans on the Horizon (no pun intended), it pays dividends, and another thing people don't think of. In the end, having a stock is better than paying for drinks that gets no return. Some may be quick to tell you that other investments have gotten better returns. You can never predict the future. Being a stock holder on a 7 day cruise saves you $100 in drinks. Take that money and invest it, and the returns game is different.

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What should I book? I will be driving from Oklahoma to Galveston. I would like my cruise to be 7 days or less. Is 7 days too long? I am not the wealthiest person so how can I stretch my money and get the best value and yet entertain myself and my wife. Will my wife enjoy it? I was thinking about temporarily owning some stock for on board credit. Is that worth it?

 

 

7 days is the perfect length. anything shorter and you settle in only to turn right around and get off.

 

98% of all on board amenities are included in the fare. only alcohol, specialty dining and things like the Spa and internet are not and incur extra fees.

 

cheapest category cabin is an inside. but honestly, try and stretch the budget for a balcony. the private area to sit outside and enjoy the sunset is worth more than money.

 

stock is useless for OBC. and don't worry about having it.. concentrate on the bottom line. drink packages will sometimes go on sale. or they will run specials where you can get 30-50% off the second person in a cabin, saving you enough that you can afford to buy a drink package.

 

I am partial to Royal, and the Liberty out of Galveston is one of our favorite ships. in fact a good compromise in cabin style on LIB is the Promenade cabins.. window seat that looks down onto the Promenade where you can people watch all day long.

 

we do not know your wife so have no clue what she will enjoy.

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1) 7 days is perfect. Shoot, once you're onboard, the day becomes 12 hours instead of 24...

 

2) I second the others in seeing a travel agent. They can do things for you that you won't be able to do yourself.

 

3) The best financial value is always the inside cabin. Obviously, you'll have to consider the "cost" of not sitting on a balcony. I have done inside, oceanview, and balcony. For me personally, I'm in the "once you go balcony, you can't go back" crowd. The reality however, is that you'll be spend maybe an hour each day on the balcony. There's just so much ship and activities to take in that you won't want to miss. From that perspective, that 1 hour a day on the balcony suddenly becomes expensive when you calculate the cost difference over that hour..

 

4) There are far more people who enjoy cruising than those who don't. On my very first cruise with my family those 20 something years ago, I thought that was the dumbest thing I ever heard. I thought I'd be miserable. Next thing you know, you're waiting for your 7th cruise... Personally, I get motion sickness on most things. Small boats, small planes, helicopters, sitting in the passenger seat in the car... But I've never been seasick on a cruise ship. I'm a low maintenance guy that enjoys a chicken sandwich from burger king as well as a steak from Longhorn. Cruises cater to the tastes of a very wide scope of people, so chances are extremely likely that you'll find something for you.

 

5) Owning stock for onboard credit - absolutely not worth it. You'll get like $100 OBC, but OBC isn't hard to come by. If you have the money to purchase that much stock to get OBC, then you have the money to pay off the balance of the minimum spending required for a credit card sign up to get at least a few free flights. Also mentioned above, a travel agent can get you OBC. A fantastic TA will monitor the cruise fare, and capture the price dips via OBC.

 

Those are just my opinions. Enjoy the pre-cruise planning process!

 

 

 

What should I book? I will be driving from Oklahoma to Galveston. I would like my cruise to be 7 days or less. Is 7 days too long? I am not the wealthiest person so how can I stretch my money and get the best value and yet entertain myself and my wife. Will my wife enjoy it? I was thinking about temporarily owning some stock for on board credit. Is that worth it?
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3-4 day cruises are more party cruises (think Stag/Bachelorette parties) so you won't really get that "cruise" feel. I suggest a 7 day to start out. Since you are limiting yourself to the port of Galveston you won't get a lot of choice in port stops.

 

To save money..... do excursions on your own, or just walk around the port towns. Stay on the ship and enjoy what it has to offer while the majority of people are not on board.

 

Good luck!!

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I actually disagree with the people telling you to go look for a travel agent outside. They can be really hard to find.

 

It makes a LOT more sense to me to ask people who care about cruising enough to spend time on an internet message board. Many of whom have gone on tons of cruises and have a ton of experience. Moreso than many (most?) "cruise" travel agents.

 

Give us enough info on here, and we can help you narrow things down. You've already found your cruise experts.

 

After you've narrowed things down, then I'd go try and find a travel agent to book because then you have someone to hold accountable if anything weird pops up while on your cruise.

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