Cruising on a Budget

[PaulfromPA]

Hi Sexy:

 

Just happened to catch your post on this thread. (By the way, I sent you an e-mail just a bit ago!)

 

Now, about this "inside" question. Personally, I prefer an inside. To me, the cabin feels cozy - like my little private den. Yeah, I suppose a balcony could be nice if one has romantic ideas about lingering out there with a glass of wine, a good book, and the possibility of getting a "gift" from a passing sea gull. But hey, is it really worth it to pay all that extra? Not for me! As far as I am concerned, anyone who needs to pay to feel superior to others is not getting their money's worth.

 

Cheers!

 

Paul

[PaulfromPA]

We are also booked in a "guarantee' inside. I was wondering the chances of actually getting some sort of upgrade and when can we find out what are cabin assignment is? We're crusing April 2008.

 

Hi Dee:

 

When you book an inside guarantee you have good chance of getting an upgrade to a higher category, but probably only to a higher category of inside cabin. In other words, it is very unlikely that you will get upgraded to an oceanview, let alone a balcony. As for when you will get your cabin assignment, it mainly depends on the line. On some cruises you will not know your cabin number until you check in at the pier. On some (like NCL) you will probably know your cabin number when you get your cruise documents (which usually arrive 30-60 days in advance.) If this is really of concern, you may want to check out the threads where people ask questions about specific lines and specific ships. If you use the "search" feature you may even find past posts in which people have discussed their cabin assignment experiences for the specific line or ship you have booked.

 

Take care,

 

Paul

[chasetf]

Lots of budget cruisers out there..... We are ones too. We have splurged for that special cruise when the price is right. Our Tahiti cruise had a great price on a balcony so we jumped on it. But otherwise, insides or outside window is fine.

 

I look at it as those paying twice the price for the minis and suites are subsidizing the rest of us sailing inside. :D

[RuthlessBoss]

We too are cheapos. The only splurge was in Alaska for a one in a lifetime experience of walking on a glacier. Otherwise, we enjoy the ammenities offered by the ship and doing local shopping. Our trip in a few days is in a balcony only because they were not sold out and got a cheap upgrade yesterday.

[Nauticlue]

Doesn't matter where you stay, no one else knows what cabin you have, (unless of course you tell them), and who cares anyway?? Life is too short to waste time worrying about what other people think......... cabin choice is personal preference.....go on your cruise and have a ball !!!!!! :D

[LHP]

My motto is just "get me on the ship"!

 

When you are a family of four, budgeting is very important. If it is a 5 day or less, we do inside. A 7 day, I do like a window or a 5A (french doors on the Spirit class ships). We have only done 1 balcony and that was Alaska (where it was definately worth the extra bucks).

 

Sometimes when we do an inside we can get 2 cabins for the same price as 4 people in one and we take advantage of that.

 

We always do our own thing in ports. We are usually back on the ship for lunch. (youngest son is autistic and won't eat just anything). But it also saves us money.

 

We don't gamble and are not big drinkers....so that helps with the budget as well.

 

Find a TA or PVP that will knows what you want and what your budget is and will watch those specials for you. I also keep VTG on speed dial to watch the prices. I have never booked through them...since I have a PVP.

 

As I tell our sons...the person in an inside cabin on Riveria eats the same food, enjoys the same entertainment and goes to the same ports as the person in the Owners Suite!!!

[nimbex1970]

We are lucky to be flexable in the dates for most of our cruises, so we tend to book the cheapest week in the month we want.

 

exception is the spring break ones with the kids. Conquest over $800 for the week and the Mariner is over $900.

 

All others with gov't fees and taxes are less than $100 per day or we wait for a sale. That's how I have so many in so few years with 3 kids, cars and college costs... okay I hit the OT too for that must have cruise. But all ours are paid for with all our spending money saved before we go and we over budget $500 for just us and $1000 for with the kids..... It's great going home with $$$ not worrying about the bill. I tend to be more frugal with saved cash than plastic.... we would only use the plastic in an emergency.

 

Also, with two exceptions, all rooms have been inside guar's.. both balcony trips were past guest perks for a small fee on a super sail thursday..... One was a grandeur repo which had 12 hrs in Aruba for 7 nights $400 and we watched airfare daily for months.

 

Inside is the way to go to cruise more often, you're never in the room, plus I've just done 3 short bahamas cruises all for $80/night last minute deals. (but I drive to the port)

 

happy cruising, (no one asks you what TYPE of room, people you meet ask where your room is to catch you later and spend time together).;)

[DeeT]

Hi Dee:

 

When you book an inside guarantee you have good chance of getting an upgrade to a higher category, but probably only to a higher category of inside cabin. In other words, it is very unlikely that you will get upgraded to an oceanview, let alone a balcony. As for when you will get your cabin assignment, it mainly depends on the line. On some cruises you will not know your cabin number until you check in at the pier. On some (like NCL) you will probably know your cabin number when you get your cruise documents (which usually arrive 30-60 days in advance.) If this is really of concern, you may want to check out the threads where people ask questions about specific lines and specific ships. If you use the "search" feature you may even find past posts in which people have discussed their cabin assignment experiences for the specific line or ship you have booked.

 

Take care,

 

Paul

 

Thanks for all the info Paul. We're sailing on Carnival so I'll take your advice and check out the threads. It doesn't really matter all that much what cabin we have, as long as I'm going!

[paul929207]

There are lots of budget cruisers. That is why the mainstream lines offer inside cabins.

 

Just set yourself an amount to spend & monitor your onboard account to make sure your spending is reasonable for your wallet/purse. You can go to the purser's desk any time and get a printout of your charges.

 

Paul

[letscruisegd]

At one point I would not book an inside room because I thought I would feel kind of closed in and I thought that would freak me out. Well thanks to my darling DD, I've learned to truly love the inside rooms. When I finally convinced her to go on her first cruise she asked if I would please get an inside room. Since I knew she was a little nervous about being the ship (she initially said that's way too much water for her - now she loves cruising), I got past my inside room phobia and ended up loving it. Now an inside room is my preference. I’m also able to take more frequent solo cruises by booking the category 1A rooms. It’s such a cozy little room and it’s perfect for solo cruisers.

 

I have a “friend” who happens to be one of those people who think people who don’t book a family suite are beneath him. We happen to be talking one day after I had recently come back from a cruise and he made the comment that I cruise so much because I stay on the bottom of the ship. I’ve had rooms all over the ship and had no issues with any of them. I had to rub in his face though that I had a room on the Lido deck for my upcoming cruise (that certainly shut him up). I didn’t bother to tell him that I booked the Riviera deck and got a free upgrade to the Lido (he didn’t need to know all of that :D ). He even went so far as to say he felt sorry for the people on the starboard side because they didn’t have the view he had on the port side. Well Mr. high and mighty spent more on 1 cruise (with 2 sons) than I’ve spent on all 11 that I’ve been on. Like several of the other posters already stated, the people with an inside room on the Riviera deck get exactly the same things on a cruise that the people in the Owners Suite gets.

[RedDaisy]

A good tip to save some SERIOUS CASH on excursions:

Go to a bookstore (or even amazon.com and buy it used) and buy yourself a Frommer's Travel Guide to wherever your ports of call are. They are PACKED with info on the best places to see (and avoid), it gives you contact info for before your trip and any applicable prices. Most of them have fold-out maps insode the book! You can really plan your trip before you leave and KNOW how much money you are going to spend.

 

Guides? We don't need no stinking guides!

[chasetf]

A good tip to save some SERIOUS CASH on excursions: Go to a bookstore (or even amazon.com and buy it used) and buy yourself a Frommer's Travel Guide to wherever your ports of call are. They are PACKED with info on the best places to see (and avoid), it gives you contact info for before your trip and any applicable prices. Most of them have fold-out maps insode the book! You can really plan your trip before you leave and KNOW how much money you are going to spend. Guides? We don't need no stinking guides!

We personally like the DK guidebooks because of the better graphics and detailed maps. But I agree, some kind of guide book lets you plan better and keep track of where you are as you tour. :D

[Jill SC]

I'm another "thrifty" cruiser who books the cheapest inside. Since we can go at any season, we look for deals. If you are a frequent cruiser on any particular line you will get automatic upgrades (if rooms still available) to higher class of stateroom. I got upgraded to a balcony on my Alaskan cruise which was perfect, although sleeping could have been a problem since it was only dark for about three hours.

We will pick some shore excursions from the ship if there is something particular we want to do, otherwise we will either find something on shore or just explore on our own. We keep expenses down on the ship, an occasional drink or purchase.

We also have to consider airfare to/from the port, and that can cost as much or more than the cruise itself.

Bottom line, by budgeting we can now afford to take a cruise every year which is better than being extravgent and only going once every five years.

[Jill SC]

Someone mentioned the Frommers Travel Guide. They also have a website www.frommers.com that has information, maps etc.

[Pamywyner]

My husband and I usually go with the cheapest cabin available. We have gotten a great deal on a balcony once but, found we had to force ourselves out there. We aren't in our room much anyway. One thing we have decided to do was a little bit of an upgrade to a cabin that wasn't at the bottom of the ship. It's nice to be in the center of the ship so that you can run up or down a few flights. We also do a 'larger inside stateroom' when we have our two boys with us. Other than that, the cheaper the better! More money to spend shopping! ;)

[mgm3430]

I've been on 3 cruises and have always gotten an inside cabin because it was the cheapest. I'd rather spend my $$$ drinking, shopping, etc.

 

I just booked my 4th cruise for dec. 07 and I upgraded to a window for only $50 more than an inside so I took it. If I don't absolutely love the window, I'll be back on an inside cabin. Just to be on the ship is fine with me!!!:p

[barbevrn]

I am the "queen" of bargain hunting when it comes to booking rooms. I have probably paid to much in the past for rooms......but not since finding this site! We have been upgraded a couple of times....once to an outside and once to a balcony. Yes, they were probably nicer and a little roomier, but NOT enough to make me pay extra for it.

 

I think it is funny that people seem to look down their noses if you are on a lower deck.............makes me no difference!

[samtig]

Deck # makes no difference to us either. In fact, lower is better with motion sickness. Have a touch of claustrophobia so book ocean view or balcony (on super sale). Have to be able to see outside. We are bargain cruise shoppers. DH goes on line on major travel sites everyday watching for sales. Sometimes sale only lasts for a couple of days. When we find a "deal" we call our TA and she can usually match it. Our last cruise was a balcony cabin for $550, best deal yet. So far we have only gone on cruises we can drive to so we don't have to pay airfare. Although we didn't at first, we now book most excursions on our own which saves a lot of money. We have also found that going to the beach is a great day in some ports - some free beaches or modest cost booking on our own.

[ChristieDawn]

My DH and I are going on our first vacation together in 18 days!!!!! We have been married almost 9 years and our vacationing consists of driving 19 hours (too cheap to fly and rent a car) to visit the in-laws and sleep on a blow up mattress for a week. :eek:

 

We were going to book an IS room but the OV room at the time was only $10 more pp so we went with that! We are on the Riveria deck and I'm totally cool with that! We are not big drinkers and all we want to do on port is take a cab to Mr Sanchos, in Cozumel, and have a drink and some cheap food! We also don't really play in the casinos so the only thing that I think may cost us is the coffee shop on board! We both really love coffee drinks!

 

I'm sure we will have a great time!:)

[Wilbo]

It's called priorities and affordability. Stay with what you can afford.

Remember many people with costlier rooms pay off a big debt after the trip.

You are the smart one!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pg.]

Well I for one am wondering at some of the inside cruisers budget attitudes displayed here. Seems they feel that the cabin they book is their biggest money saver. I disagree, I think there are many other ways

We don't like insides, we don't book them .. we did finally book one for our kids( we were across the hall in a balcony). We paid about 250 dollars more (pp) for the balcony cabin. Was it worth it to us ,,, YES, we love our balcony and would not deny ourselves that part of the cruise, we use it alot..and plus since we were a group of five the balcony gave us a great meeting place( it was a Caribe deck balcony on a Princess ship, and they are quite large at 9 ft by 9 ft)

 

WHERE WE SAVE MONEY is booze , shopping and photos and shore exs. . Our total cruise card exspence, including tips for 5 people was 800 dollars for a 7 day cruise. since 350 of that is tips,,that means we only spent an average of less than 90 dollars extra pp( a few drinks, three bottles of wine,, two photos, and some ship purchases, plus coke cards for three). Do many of you inside cruisers only spend 180 dollars extra on your cruise for two? We also only spent about 50 bucks onshore shopping. My daughter bought 5 keychains for 5 bucks, a beach bag for 5 bucks, and I bought 3 small rum cakes at 6 bucks each. My hubby and sons bought nothing.

 

Alot of "inside" cruisers "save money" by booking insides, then BLOW IT on stuff we consider frivolous and wasteful ( casino anyone?) It is all a matter of choices and priorities.. why save money on a cabin then blow it on shopping?? Don't get that at all, BUT, I can understand that for some people shopping/gamboling, bingo, booze etc. is THEIR priority.

 

Shore excursions, oh my they are the BIGGEST money waste of all!! Just to go to a beach on a ship excursion could easily cost our family of 5 over 250 dollars,,( the cheapest shores exes are usaully around 50 pp, many are much more) what a super rip off. We do our own and pay a fraction of the cost. We don't need hand holding. So by NOT doing 2 shore exes we can easily enjoy our balcony for 7 whole days!!!

 

Unfortunately the biggest expence for us is getting to the port, it has always been MORE exspensive then the cruise portion for us. Nothing we can do about it though, we are not interested in Alaskan Cruises,which would be the only ports we could drive to from where we live.

 

I still think anyone can save a ton of money but how they do it is going to be different for each family.

Lay off the booze ,, photos, and extra fee restaurants and save hundreds of dollars.

Insides are not terrible, my kids didn't mind theirs at all, but, they were in our cabin alot, out on our balcony, we love sea air and views, just our tastes.

We have a motorhome so are used to tight spaces.

 

Cruising is still , inside or out, one of the cheapest ways to holiday,, my goodness, my teen boys ate more then the cruise fare alone,,, and I exaggerate not, they ate from morning till midnight, would have cost us tons to feed them on a land based trip!

[mountaingurl]

My first cruise I spent $800 for all four of us on the cruise, and we spent about $400 on everything else. We had a blast and didn't miss a thing. Half of my $400 was spent on pictures, and they were so worth it. I love budgeting and saving money!

[sandi1967]

Well we have only been on one cruise last summer to Alaska. We were on the 2nd deck with an oceanview. We really liked it, I actually loved being close to the water. I don't know that it saved a ton of money......but I also have nothing to compare it to.

 

For our cruise in January, I did book a balcony b/c at the time it was only $510 per person, I thought that sounded great. Price has only gone up. For our cruise with our 5 kiddos next summer, our budget is the biggest thing. So we did book an oceanview room and an inside room across the hall.

 

I totally understand where PG is coming from, well I understand what he is saying. Everyone can save money somewhere...be it on a room....drinks...shore excursion.....

 

On a side note, we found out that we will not book an excursion through a ship again. Seemed like such a ripoff! Maybe I am wrong.

 

Take care,

Sandi

[lovemylab]

We did our first cruise on a budget. We cruised end of October when prices were cheaper. We did book a balcony cabin but for that particular cruise the balconies weren't that much more than an outside cabin.

 

We didn't eat at the specialty restaurants, book any spa services or drink on the ship. We booked one excursion and spent about $700 total for the week. We also skipped the casino (we don't gamble so this didn't bother us).

 

We had a fabulous time and don't feel like we missed out on anything. It was our first cruise (and honeymoon) so just being on the ship and visiting fantastic ports was special enough for us.

 

Find out what is important to you and spend your money on that aspect of your cruise.

[letscruisegd]

Well I for one am wondering at some of the inside cruisers budget attitudes displayed here. Seems they feel that the cabin they book is their biggest money saver. I disagree, I think there are many other ways

Booking an inside room actually IS the biggest money saver for me. Since I don't spend a lot on other things there's really no were else for me to save.

 

Alot of "inside" cruisers "save money" by booking insides, then BLOW IT on stuff we consider frivolous and wasteful ( casino anyone?) It is all a matter of choices and priorities.. why save money on a cabin then blow it on shopping?? Don't get that at all, BUT, I can understand that for some people shopping/gamboling, bingo, booze etc. is THEIR priority.

I make my entire cruise affordable by not spending a lot on the things you mentioned here. Actually, I set aside ample spending money because I like to enjoy my vacation without thinking about how much I'm spending every time I make a purchase; but I always end up spending a lot less than what I budget. My last 3 day cruise for example: I only had a few drinks over the course of the 3 days and one soft drink during dinner. My S&S bill with gratuities was less than $50 (this was a solo cruise). Since I'd been to Nassau many times before I simply did a mini walking tour and spent about $15 in port. So not only do I save by booking inside, I don't spend much on booze, photos, shopping, bingo etc. either so I guess I get the best of both worlds. This of course means I can cruise more often.:D