Guest Author - Jim Fortune
There's been some bad press lately about cruise lines. While I am not a member of the 100,000 cruise mile club, my experience with cruise lines has been almost totally positive.
The one time I had any problem, was when I went on a tall ship and our stateroom bed was not made for someone who is 6'7" tall. From the head of the bed to the foot was not even 6' long. It was not comfortable sleeping. Other than that, every trip has been a delight.
Here are some budget travel tips for a cruise vacation.
1. Plan at least one or maybe two years in advance. With the exception of one cruise, we book at least 12 months in advance.
2. We always book our rooms as far down into the ship as we can. If the very top deck is Deck A, we try to book a room on Deck I or J. The reason for this is easy. Everyone who books a cruise wants to go for as cheap as they can. The cheap rooms are at the bottom of the ship.
As time goes on, the cruise line will move all of the passengers who booked on Deck J up to Deck I or Deck H. This is a free upgrade that the cruise line gives you at no charge. Now they can resell the cheap rooms on Deck J and give people a bargain price.
Then when they sell all of the rooms on Deck J, they'll upgrade the Deck J people to Deck H and move you up from Deck H to Deck E or F. And then the process continues.
Our first cruise we were told before boarding that we had received a free upgrade. We showed up at our room and didn't have any luggage. Guess what? It was down on Deck J. We told the steward about our upgrade and in about 30 minutes we had our bags. We wound up on the same floor as the dining room and didn't pay any extra for it.
3. Get your plane tickets with the cruise tickets. I have never been able to get plane tickets cheaper than an all inclusive package. Maybe you are a super traveller and can get low prices for airline tickets. That's not for me. I like to know when I book what the price of the trip will cost, to include air travel.
4. See if you book two years in advance if you can put 10% or 15% down and pay up to 35% at the end of 12 months and the balance 90 days prior to departure. This will give you time to save up and you can start planning your budget. Some cruise lines have a no interest plan where you can finance the trip for 24 payments. Check to see what is available when you book. With the bad press lately, cruise lines have become creative in how to get people to travel with them.
5. I had a friend who got a cruise and thought they could save money doing it à la carte. They paid for each drink, each visit to the coffee bar in the morning, each trip to the buffet line near the pool, each and every thing they ate that was not a meal in the dining room. They wound up paying $700 more than the prip would have cost if they went with the all inclusive package. I always get the all inclusive package for exactly this reason.
6. Find out the excursions before you go and see if you can do the same excursion trip for less money. This is one way to save. When you get off the ship at a port of call, find a cab and tell them where you want to go. Plan what you want to see and save some $$ by doing so. We did this at several of our ports of call like Florence, Venice, Rome when we took our 12 Night European Cruise. you can do the same if you plan ahead.
7. Get a bottle of sparkling on the formal night. O.K. So this is not a budget idea. It's just a fun thing to do since you've saved some money on the rest of the trip.
Despite the economy I hope you are travelling and enjoying yourself. Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?
Jim Fortune - the Bella Budget Travel Guy
