Legitimate Ways to Save on Carnival

[mjl1960]

As far as the towel issue...I would never venture to even take one of "theirs" off the ship, or let it out of my sight. I always bring my own. Not sure what the towel is for really though, on the ship anyway...because I would never step foot into one of their hot tubs or pools with all the drunks and kids in them - you just know they are taking a leak in them...the lazy ba*tards...

[Swampbaby]

DON'T buy every picture they take. If you can do without any pictures then even better. But if your fall into the trap of buying one from each port, one or two from formal night..etc etc.. you end up having 10 pictures at $14 a piece....

 

The photos that almost all of them take are the 8 x 10's and they were $21.95 EACH on the Freedom. At the same time, we don't have pictures done during the year and that was my "spurge" on our cruise.

[muffin]

When you get tired of the freebies at the lido...lemonade, tea, coffee water,iced tea, punch..... you can start making your own concoctions. My favourite is a half glass of coffee, fill to 3/4 with ice, and add milk for a wonderful iced coffee. On an alaska trip use coffee, , milk and hot chocolate mix for a mocha. Some folks also add a dollop of ice cream,,,I don't care for that, but can see it has some merit for variety.

[LiveLAUGHLove21]

My tip would be to book early saver and make it a habit to check your rates.

 

At this time, with several price drops, we are paying $59 a night w/ tax, per person for a five day cruise to the Bahamas. In my opinion- eating, entertainment and board for $59 a day is AMAZING!!

[simplelife]

It amazes me how much alcohol people try to sneak onboard. When I book a cruise, I factor in all the ancillary items I need to expense for, i.e., gambling, alcoholic beverages, tips. My cruise doesn't revolve around how much alcohol I can drink...too many other great things to do. I can drink anytime at home, I can't enjoy the total cruise experience if I'm planning where my next drink is coming from and how much it's going to cost me. .

Tattoos, you hit the nail on the head with this one. :) I just can't fathom how one can drink the amount some posters refer to and enjoy any of the other aspects of the cruise. Seems one could spend several days in a stupor (or sick or passed out) far more cheaply at home.

[simplelife]

one should not cut corners when they vacation, nor sacrifice what they do freely.

In a perfect world.:D For most of us, cutting corners beats not being able to afford a vacation at all.

[simplelife]

On port days, we do most of our drinking on shore. It's often quite a bit cheaper.

 

You guys are doing the right thing though. Lot's of pre-cruise research means that you get the most out of your vacation.

Good tip:)

"Eat on board, drink in port"

[simplelife]

Bring your own over the counter meds; aspirin, cold med, sunscreen, anti

diarrea, exlax, femine hygene prod etc. These are very expensive in the ships store.

I second that - these items take up very little space and weight. Plus you can get the type and brand you prefer when you bring your own (very important concerm for most ladies when it comes to feminine hygiene products).

[simplelife]

I only read the first page & did not see what we do so...

 

Buy fun ship dollars before your cruise. (You can also buy drink coupons.) After we finished paying for the actual cruise (incl. gratuities) we started to buy fun ship dollars - now we have several hundred, hopefully when we leave the ship, we will not owe anything on our s&s card - because we pre-paid through fun ship dollars.

So nice not to have that big bill at the end!:)

[RuthlessBoss]

When you get tired of the freebies at the lido...lemonade, tea, coffee water,iced tea, punch..... you can start making your own concoctions. My favourite is a half glass of coffee, fill to 3/4 with ice, and add milk for a wonderful iced coffee. On an alaska trip use coffee, , milk and hot chocolate mix for a mocha. Some folks also add a dollop of ice cream,,,I don't care for that, but can see it has some merit for variety.

In hot weather, I bring my own large disposable plastic glasses, put in the hot cofee, then instant cappaccino mix(from Walmart) to dissolve, then ice and sometimes extra creamer. People have eyed this and wanted to know where I got it!

[nessz79]

I second that - these items take up very little space and weight. Plus you can get the type and brand you prefer when you bring your own (very important concerm for most ladies when it comes to feminine hygiene products).

 

Plus, bringing your own medications avoids the problem of having to go to the ship's clinic and brining about the possibility of being quarantined when you only have digestion problems ;).

[kadfuninsun]

Go to your local big box store and look for a water bottle with a built in filter. You can bring it through airport security empty, and have water while you wait, then on board ship just fill in you room or at the dispenser take on excursions and save a bunch...

[realmccoy]

We enjoy trying to see how low we can get our sail and sign down to. We do not drink on-board...we drink in port and on any nights there are free drinks. We bring a case of diet pepsi on board to avoid the soda card. We bring our own "Carnival" insulated cups to fill up with ice tea and arnold palmers for the day...all free. We then always buy a FCC so we end up with $100 OBC. Minus the tips...our cheapest bill was $37.00...which was for a few trinkets and a photo. We usually spend less than $100 on board not counting the tips so it can be done.

[scooterpopsnana]

Take your own pictures and avoid the ship photographers.

 

Buy souvenirs in port, rather than on the ship.

 

Book your own excursions, but do a lot of research, and leave yourself plenty of time to return to the ship before departure.

 

If you're happy with water, iced tea, and lemonade, there's really no need for a soda card. You also get juices in the a.m.

 

Make sure the souvenirs' label does not say "Made in China"

 

Use juices, yogart, milk from the lido deck to make smoothies for the kids and ice cream from the bar to make milk shakes. We just pick up what we need at breakfast and keep it on ice in the room until we make the drink for the kids.

[GloriaF]

Love these tips - keep 'em coming!!

[durdenpb]

I'm not sure, but it seems to be a big concern with some people on this board. We aren't veteran cruisers, and we're traveling with children. I honestly don't know what to expect. From what I read here, I have the idea keeping up with the ship's towels was a headache I don't need to have. You must have another perspective?

 

 

Question??? whats the difference with keeping up with the ship towels and your own? you gotta come back to the ship.. well that is if you wanna come home.. bring the towels back.. pile them up steward will take them away for you.. or if you bring your own, look forward to having lots of sand in your suitcase and the sour smell of wet towels.

[boltnut55]

On our last cruise, they had a free scrapbooking event and I attended, even though I don't scrapbook. They were giving away pages and stickers for photos and I used those to display photos of our daughters from the cruise - after making the pages, I framed them.

I'm a scrapbooker, so I would have loved this :D

Now I want to bring a towel home with me even though I'll get charged for it. Great memento of the towel discussion I inadvertently started on CC.

That's the spirit, but as someone else suggested, get a brand new one if you're going to pay!

Take the maximum permitted soda or water. FONT]

I know someone said the limit is one 12-pack per person. Can anyone confirm/second that? I guess I could check on their website as well. I think 12 cans total should be enough soda for all three of us (from a "diet" standpoint anyway) in case we get bored of juice, iced tea, hot chocolate, chocolate milk... :D

 

Thanks.