So, How Much Is Too Much? (Long post)

[erinmarie424]

One of the great things about Cruisecritic is the diversity of the posters.

 

 

 

This has been a fun and very informative thread, again thank you to all who have responded!

 

 

 

I hope it all works out for you! Make sure and come back and tell us how it went!

[sfaaa]

I am cheap and I love deals. Over the years, I've worked out a general all-in pp daily price guideline to gauge if a cruise is indeed a good deal or not. Keep in mind that this is for interior cabin only and net of OBC. $130/day or less - acceptable. $120/day or less - reasonable. $100 or less/day - a very good deal. So far, I manage to cruise at least 2 to 3 times a year by sticking to this budget guideline.

[LMaxwell]

Uber. Have everyone sign up; usually can find codes good for $15-25 off your first ride; which should cover most shorter rides for 2 to 3 people.

[pbsteve]

Beware the baggage fees Alliegent charges as much as 75 for the CARRYON bag.

 

Take a cab instead of renting cars, or better yet, put that money into a hotel with a shuttle that goes to the port and airport.

[R Prim]

Beware the baggage fees Alliegent charges as much as 75 for the CARRYON bag.

 

Take a cab instead of renting cars, or better yet, put that money into a hotel with a shuttle that goes to the port and airport.

 

Is there a hotel in New Orleans that does this (offer a shuttle from the airport and cruiseport)?

[NOLALADY]

Is there a hotel in New Orleans that does this (offer a shuttle from the airport and cruiseport)?

 

There are many that do, but I don't know if any free ones.

[R Prim]

So, we decided to do a "cheap" get away, sailing out of New Orleans in August. My question for you, what is the most "rig-a-mo" you have ever done to do "cheap"? Right now, this is our plan...drive to Cincinnati (about an hour and a half away) and fly Allegient Air ($44.00 per ticket) to N.O. (there are 10 of us); rent two cars; drive to hotel in Gretna then to the ferry station and take the ferry over and walk into the French Quarters for the day; ferry back to cars; cars back to hotel. In the morning drive to cruise port drop off 8 people and drivers take the two rental cars to a drop off point near the ship (1/2 to 1 mile); drop off cars and drivers walk back to port. Following the cruise we will rent two cars to take us back to the airport; drivers will again walk to car rental pick up and drive back to port to pick up other 8 people; drop off cars and fly back to Dayton with points on Southwest. If we can't get drivers to take us to Cincinnati for the Allegient flights we will have to go back the next day to pick up the cars. We are experienced travelers and have done a lot of things to save a dime, but I am smiling as I type this because this is a lot even for us! So, can you beat this or do you just think we are crazy?

 

Well fellow cruisers here is the update and what we actually did (thanks to all the input I received following this post). We did purchase 10 airline tickets through Allegiant (before I read all the negative reviews) but we had a back up plan (which we had to use). Allegiant cancelled our flight so we rented two vehicles and headed to NOLA. After a 15 hour drive we arrived at our hotel, the Hilton Riverside (that's right we cancelled the hotel in Gretna) and chose the Hilton because we could walk to the port. Thanks to Saint Greg we got it on Hotwire for $77! After returning the rental cars to the airport we used Uber to get back to the hotel. Uber had coupons for first time customers (there were 6 of us) which made the trip basically FREE. Most of us were exhausted but a few hopped on the trolly to the French Quarters. The next day we walked through the Riverwalk Mall right on to the ship (no need for a car). Following the cruise we took our luggage back to the hotel and had them locked up ($2 per bag) and took the trolly into the French Quarters. We then took Uber back to the airport (again using coupons). We flew Southwest back to Dayton where family members picked us up. We have spoken to Allegiant and have been assured that we will get a full refund for our cancelled flights. If that is indeed the case it will more than pay for the rental cars, gasoline (which was only $1.75 a gal!), eats, etc. SO, much less hassle then was originally planned. We had an absolutely wonderful cruise! Will we book with Allegiant again? Probably not. Loved Uber and will definitely use them again! The Hilton Riverside was great and only $10 more than the LaQuinta in Gretna (what was I thinking?) We shall chalk this vacation up as another adventure for our family and are again very thankful for our CruiseCritic family and the wealth of information available on this sight.

Edited August 21, 2016 by R Prim

[erinmarie424]

Awesome! Thanks for coming back and letting us know how it went.

 

 

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[ourcruiseyears]

So very happy to hear that everything turned out so well for you all! Thanks for the update!

[sjn911]

Absolutely love the update and the planning learning.

 

I have flown on Allegiant once with a package deal to Vegas. Had to wait hours and hours at my home airport due to it being late...very late..like get to destination on a short one way flight 9 hrs late. They are horrible to contact after the plan. Let us know on the refund.

 

They were however a Godsend on last years Sept. Vegas/concert one week vacation for me. Three major concerts at Ceaser's meant needing a deal and got a great budget hotel with free Ceaser's (spell check not helping) shuttle and I survived. Hotel and air for one week...$800.00. Newly redone budget hotel with some extra restaurants like a Carnival Cruise..not a Vegas fantasy hotel and perfect and quiet with free good in-room coffee ( a rarity in the fancy hotels). Concert tickets...$600.00. And it was soooo worth it. LOL.

Edited August 21, 2016 by sjn911

[TheTravelista]

I love that this was updated. So many never come back and I'm always left wondering what happened!

 

I'm glad everything worked out and you and your family had a wonderful vacation.

 

I've never flown Allegiant and stories like this ensure I never will.

[blainesterrr]

I think Uber will be better

[Cruisin 4 Ever]

I am VERY frugal. I've done crazy stuff like that to save a few bucks, but over the years I've learned to set the bar just a bit higher. It took me years, but I realized that many times I turned a perfectly good vacation into a miserable experience for the sake of saving $20.

 

Yes, I was the guy that would park 2 miles away to save $5/day. The guy that would stay at the Best Western to save $20. The guy that would make lunch out of cereal boxes, bagels, and fruit from the free breakfast at the hotel. The guy that would walk to the public bus stop to pay $1 for a ride, to then walk a mile when I could've taken a cab ride door to door for $10, etc etc.

 

But one day I told myself, what if I spend just a tiny bit more? And that's when I realized that bottom of the barrel cheap was affecting tremendously my enjoyment while on vacation. So now I allow myself to spend an extra $20 here and there. It makes a world of a difference.

 

The most recent example that I have is from my last cruise. We spent the night in Ft. Lauderdale prior to our cruise and I found a Hampton Inn by the airport for $128/night. After a bit more research, I realized that the W Resort right on Ft. Lauderdale Beach was $148/night. True, it was $20 more, and we wouldn't have free parking, free breakfast or free wifi, but the thought of starting our vacation overlooking the ocean at a modern and beautiful resort instead of at a Hampton Inn overlooking a parking lot was hard to pass up. So we booked the W!

 

Long story short, we spent about $70 more, but after spending $2,000 for this cruise, it was a very small price to pay to enhance our vacation tremendously! [emoji41][emoji267]

 

I agree completely. I also like to save money and I shop around and get the very best price but have also learned that sometimes the small difference isn't worth all the effort.

[GranthamMommy]

I try to save money as well but I have some limits.

 

We went on our Dream cruise in April of 2015. We flew in a day early and stayed at the airport and the hotel hooked us up with a driver to go back and forth in to the FQ.

 

Walking on the day of the cruise. Nice if the sun is out, or as least doable.

Our cruise, torrential rains. Traffic was at a stand still. There was a major accident on I10 that backed people up for hours. If I had been driving in I would have had a nervous breakdown.

 

You will love your Dream cruise. Like someone else mentioned, we loved Acme Oyster House.

 

Happy Sailing.

[R Prim]

I did want to add that we stayed at the Hilton Riverside so we could walk through the mall to the port. I was extremely concerned how we would feel doing this (10 people ranging in age from 7 to 75 years of age dragging suitcases). Not only is it completely acceptable, they have signs directing people to the cruise port. There are elevators exclusively for Royal Caribbean and NCL, however if you walk a little further and down the stairs (large staircase) you are right at the Carnival terminal. We will plan to do this every time we sail out of NOLA. Mall is beautiful and air conditioned.

[Weetzie]

I did want to add that we stayed at the Hilton Riverside so we could walk through the mall to the port. I was extremely concerned how we would feel doing this (10 people ranging in age from 7 to 75 years of age dragging suitcases). Not only is it completely acceptable, they have signs directing people to the cruise port. There are elevators exclusively for Royal Caribbean and NCL, however if you walk a little further and down the stairs (large staircase) you are right at the Carnival terminal. We will plan to do this every time we sail out of NOLA. Mall is beautiful and air conditioned.

 

And has a Cafe du Monde so you don't have to go to the FQ to get great beignets and Cafe Au Lait :)

 

When we cruise we like to drop our bags at the port then go into the Riverwalk for breakfast and let the crowd die down. This year will be our first year of having a 'check in' time so it will be interesting to see how the dynamic changes.

[Buckett]

OP thanks for coming back and letting us know how it went! Glad it all worked out for you and hope you get your refund from Allegiant quickly.

[amydresh]

Well fellow cruisers here is the update and what we actually did (thanks to all the input I received following this post). We did purchase 10 airline tickets through Allegiant (before I read all the negative reviews) but we had a back up plan (which we had to use). Allegiant cancelled our flight so we rented two vehicles and headed to NOLA. After a 15 hour drive we arrived at our hotel, the Hilton Riverside (that's right we cancelled the hotel in Gretna) and chose the Hilton because we could walk to the port. Thanks to Saint Greg we got it on Hotwire for $77! After returning the rental cars to the airport we used Uber to get back to the hotel. Uber had coupons for first time customers (there were 6 of us) which made the trip basically FREE. Most of us were exhausted but a few hopped on the trolly to the French Quarters. The next day we walked through the Riverwalk Mall right on to the ship (no need for a car). Following the cruise we took our luggage back to the hotel and had them locked up ($2 per bag) and took the trolly into the French Quarters. We then took Uber back to the airport (again using coupons). We flew Southwest back to Dayton where family members picked us up. We have spoken to Allegiant and have been assured that we will get a full refund for our cancelled flights. If that is indeed the case it will more than pay for the rental cars, gasoline (which was only $1.75 a gal!), eats, etc. SO, much less hassle then was originally planned. We had an absolutely wonderful cruise! Will we book with Allegiant again? Probably not. Loved Uber and will definitely use them again! The Hilton Riverside was great and only $10 more than the LaQuinta in Gretna (what was I thinking?) We shall chalk this vacation up as another adventure for our family and are again very thankful for our CruiseCritic family and the wealth of information available on this sight.

 

How in the world did you get it so cheap? I just looked up Jan 14 for the night before our cruise and it is $239!

[MMastell]

I've found that saving $100, $200 or even $300 can cause more stress and even ruin a vacation rather than biting the bullet and making life easier.

 

We live about 50 miles from MSP airport and if we have a morning flight it can be a 1.5 hour trip. If we are taking a trip of 7 - 10 days I just park the car at an off airport lot rather than having someone haul our butts to and from the airport. My thought is that: "If I wouldn't want to do it I'm not asking someone else to do it." It's also nice, when you return, to just take the shuttle to your car and go home.

 

If it's a longer trip then my son or daughter will take us to a hotel, near the airport, before or after rush hour. We stay there overnight and just hop on their shuttle or take a short taxi ride to the airport. Even when we drive ourselves to the airport we always stay overnight in a hotel, near the airport, if we have a flight before 10:00 a.m. I hate getting up at 3:30 a.m. and feeling rushed the rest of day.

 

A vacation is for destressing and making a stressed out experience isn't worth a couple hundred dollars.

 

I still look for airline deals, book using Priceline bidding and look for cruise deals. I'm not spend crazy but I've had bad experiences trying to save a buck and I've heard and read enough horror stories about people doing it cheap that I'm not going to be penny wise and pound foolish.

 

Take care,

Mike

 

Take care,

Mike

[R Prim]

Weetzie - we did enjoy some Beignets at the Cafe du Monde in the mall. Later when we were walking around the French Quarters we passed the original Cafe and the line was wrapped around the block (we would not have stood in that line so really glad we were able to get some in the mall). Following our cruise we ate lunch in the food court at the mall. I told my family it looked like there were a lot of cruisers eating there. We just look different when we are getting ready to get on the ship.

 

Amydresh - we got the Hilton Riverwalk on Hotwire. Check the Gulf Coast Departures and New Orleans under the Ports of Call. Saint Greg can tell you exactly which hotel to bid on to make sure you get the Hilton Riverwalk (believe it or not it works everytime).

 

MMaster - money is such a relative thing. What would be nothing to spend for one person is a huge amount for another. My husband and I started cruising in the early 1980s. We had 3 children and hardly 2 nickels to rub together. No one we knew had ever taken a cruise but for some reason we really wanted to try one. We got the cheapest room on the Rivera deck (I believe it was bunk beds). We were awed by the experience and 6 months later we took all 3 kids and went again and have been cruising as a family ever since. All of the rooms were once again inside and at the bottom of the ship but we were onboard. This past cruise we booked 3 balcony rooms. So yes, today we have a little more to spend but we will do what it takes to enjoy cruising with our children, grand children and yes, great grandchildren (all have cruised but the youngest who is just 20 months).

[RomanceMama]

So, we decided to do a "cheap" get away, sailing out of New Orleans in August. My question for you, what is the most "rig-a-mo" you have ever done to do "cheap"? Right now, this is our plan...drive to Cincinnati (about an hour and a half away) and fly Allegient Air ($44.00 per ticket) to N.O. (there are 10 of us); rent two cars; drive to hotel in Gretna then to the ferry station and take the ferry over and walk into the French Quarters for the day; ferry back to cars; cars back to hotel. In the morning drive to cruise port drop off 8 people and drivers take the two rental cars to a drop off point near the ship (1/2 to 1 mile); drop off cars and drivers walk back to port. Following the cruise we will rent two cars to take us back to the airport; drivers will again walk to car rental pick up and drive back to port to pick up other 8 people; drop off cars and fly back to Dayton with points on Southwest. If we can't get drivers to take us to Cincinnati for the Allegient flights we will have to go back the next day to pick up the cars. We are experienced travelers and have done a lot of things to save a dime, but I am smiling as I type this because this is a lot even for us! So, can you beat this or do you just think we are crazy?

Ha Love it!! One year my DH and I had friend drive us to LI Railroad station. Took train to NYC. Change to Amtrak to go to Philly. From there friend picked us up and took us to airport. Flew to Detroit. and then flew to Miami. Believe or not cheaper than flying from NY to Miami Spring Break week. Definitely wouldn't have done with three kids in tow. But the two of us had a blast.

[Drazil65]

I would have drove personally but since you already have the plane tix I would adjust the back end per the previous posts. Get taxis from airport to where ever you are staying, many hotels have free shuttles from hotels to the tourist areas like the FQ. Try staying at something like that and save the money on the car rentals, too many headaches with the pickups and returns etc., KISS is our motto!!!!!

Edited August 22, 2016 by Drazil65

[R Prim]

OP thanks for coming back and letting us know how it went! Glad it all worked out for you and hope you get your refund from Allegiant quickly.

 

We were surprised but very happy with how quickly Allegiant refunded our money. We were to fly on August 14th. I called them later that day and a complete refund was back in our account on August 15th!

[erinmarie424]

We were surprised but very happy with how quickly Allegiant refunded our money. We were to fly on August 14th. I called them later that day and a complete refund was back in our account on August 15th!

 

 

 

Glad it worked out for you! [emoji106]

 

 

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