Here are a few ways you can stretch your buck on the high seas:

1. The Spa: Dont give in to the on board spa products, unless you are ready to spend some big bucks. The spas on the ship are ran by one company, Steiner. The website www.timetospa.com is actually ran by Steiner and you can get your spa products a lot cheaper on there then if you were to buy to products on the ship.

2. Shore Excursions: It pays time to spend time on the internet before you get to the islands. For instance, you can rent a car for half the price on the actual island or online then what a cruise line package has to offer you. Now on the flip side, keep in mind that if you are NOT on an excursion with the ship, the ship will leave you if your not back by departure time. If you are on a ship excursion they will hold the ship. Follow your daily program that your room steward puts in your room for the time you need to be back on the ship.

3. Casino: Limit yourself. ENOUGH SAID!!

4. Boutiques: Everyone wants a t-shirt or a cruise line logo item. Keep this in mind though, the last day of the cruise the shirts and other misc. items drop down on the ship about 50% of cost.  Earlier in the cruise a shirt was $19.99, it would be 2 or $20 on the last day. Also, remember that commodities are very expensive on the ships too. Make SURE you stock up on film, batteries, Advil, etc… it will cost you almost double on the ship than on land.

5. Internet: My last cruise I was paying .55 a minute for the internet and the connection was verrrrry slow. Every port has a cybercafe that the crew members use when they get to the port. Talk to the crew members, ask around where the cheapest internet connection is.  Avoid the ship charges. If you have to send an email on the cruise, open your word processor and type your email out first, this way when you get to the internet connection, all you have to do is connect to the internet, copy your text, and paste to the email application.

I hope these help you like they helped me.

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Recently I got an email from a  listener asking about cruise deposits.  I sent the questions over to Chris Owen, a Master Cruise Counselor and travel writer. You can follow Chris on Twitter at OrlandoChris.

Why do cruise lines offer a deposit system and is it easier for the consumer?
It's easier for the consumer and it gives the cruise lines a good idea of who will be on any given sailing.  This is why Carnival started offering the Early Saver Fare with a NON-refundable deposit, to stabilize bookings.  Many people were (and still do) book and cancel and rebook over and over to different sailings.  The deposit up front allows the cruise lines to plan their marketing and pricing accordingly.  Remember, the golden rule of cruise lines, what they live for, is to sail full ships. 
 

Okay, so I never know how much I will have to put down and when. Is there a tier system for cruise line deposits?
It varies some from line to line but count on a lower deposit for shorter cruises and a larger deposit for longer cruises.  That's pretty standard.  Like a 3-day cruise is most often a $100 per person deposit going up to $150 for a 4 or five day then $250 for a 7 day is pretty standard.  Princess is the wild card here with a percentage of the cruise fare as deposit, a fairly new program that nobody likes.  Some lines will offer a reduced deposit during sale events to encourage booking also.  Royal Caribbean will have a "Wow Sale" every once in a while that does that.  Princess allows agencies to set up a number of sales throughout the year with a reduced deposit of $100 per person or less.
 
After you put down your deposit, could you pay say $100 a month in payments til you pay it off?
Absolutely, and many people do.  Depending on how it is booked, through the cruise line or through an agency, making payments is probably the easiest part of booking a cruise. 
 
When it the final payment usually due?
Usually and for a long time almost all cruise lines were like this, 60 to 70 days prior to sailing with a longer period of time for longer sailings and shorter period for shorter ones.  Recently, Carnival changed their long-time policy requiring a longer period of time in advance of booking for final payment to be due and, in turn, for cancellation penalties to start at 76 days prior to departure on a typical 7-day cruise.  They are the only ones to do that so far but look for others to follow. Each cruise line's Cruise Contract spells that out.

Thanks Chris for the answers!

(Chris sent me a chart too, as soon as I figure out how to put it on here it will post it.)

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My first response would always be to check the cruise lines website and check the ship layout. Now, thanks to this cool thing called “the Internet,” there is more and more we can learn about our cruise ship, destinations, and insider advice.

One valuable tool that can give you an interactive tour of the ship you are sailing on is YouTube. Just goto YouTube.com and type in the vessel you are going to be sailing on. Granted, it may not be the most professional video tour because it's all amateur footage but it will give you an idea of what the cruise ship looks like.

Below is a video that I did last year while sailing on the Sovereign of the Seas. It’s short but you will get the idea.

Embrace technology, it's your friend.

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The concept is fairly simple, in fact, it's exactly like if you were going to Target, Kmart, or Sears. The idea is simple, plan your cruise enough in advance so it isn’t a strain on your wallet. I used to like to plan about six months out, this way I had four months to pay it off, which should be plenty, even if your pay 100 bucks a month.

This is how I do it:

Plan my date
Pick my cruise
Put down a deposit (starts at 100 dollars pp)
Pay balance within 61 days (generally) of sailing

With a layaway program, you don’t have to worry about putting all the money up front and not being able to sail because you don’thave the cash. A recommendation that I find very helpful is to go ahead and prepay the gratuities along with your excursions too. The more you pay ahead of time, the less out of pocket you have to pay. Remember that travel agents are sometimes a lot more beneficial than booking directly through the cruise line.

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Enjoy!

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Casual Dining

These are the buffets, sports bars and pool side dining. This is super casual. Pool attire is totally acceptable. When you go to the buffet, make sure you have your shirt on. People don't want your arm pit hair in their roast beef. That is my biggest pet peeve when I eat the buffet.

Formal Nights

There are typically one or two formal nights per sailing. How formal you want to get is entirely up to you. A lot of people like to get dressed up for the sake of never dressing up back home.

On formal nights there are lots of opportunities to get your picture taken, they make a perfect keepsake and are great memories.  The formal night usually entails a captains cocktail party and dinner.   If you don't own a tux and would like to rent one you can do so on board for a nominal fee.

Resort Casual

This is suggested for the sit down dinner on a lot of cruise lines, though not mandatory. By all means you are on vacation so come as you are but at least dress for the occasion.

Khaki pants, dress jeans, polo shirt, button down shirts, and anything but flip flops are accepted.  This attire can also be used for the speciality restaurants on board.

This has worked for me and hopefully for you too.

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Web cam options on the Costa iPhone App

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Coki Point, St. Thomas

 

How did Celebrity address the shooting to the passengers? 

 

They communicated the news in a letter that was left at each cabin, which we found late at night after we returned from late seating dinner, but I learned of it earlier in the evening from a get together with the Housekeeping Director.  I think I still have the letter at home and can probably fax it to you tomorrow if you are interested.  Essentially the letter explained the incident and said they were cancelling the "Coral Land and Coral Sea" excursion that was going to the area, but passengers would get a refund, etc.  They discouraged passengers from visiting the area independently.  I had not booked the excursion, but decided to just take a taxi to visit Coral World previously. 

 

That evening, I started googling the news and tweeted you for your opinion whether to still go the next day or not.  When we got into port, we talked to a couple of local port security staff about it and they said it was a one-off event by a "lawless" person, and actually was not near Coki Beach, but took place near a cemetery on the way to Coki Point.  They were not targeting tourists, it was just a tragic accident of a tourist getting caught in the crossfire, being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  How terrible for the teenager's parents!  The port security and a taxi driver local assured us that it was still a safe area to go.  They also said it would probably be even safer now with more police presence in the area too, so we felt it would be ok to go. 

 

How was the atmosphere at Coki Point, St. Thomas? 

 

 In our safari bus taxi, everybody else got off at the Ritz Carlton and we were the only people to get off at Coral World!  Once we got there, we were struck by how empty it was, which is not surprising since we knew that Celebrity had cancelled its excursions and we heard Epic had done the same after chatting with the other taxi passengers who were from the Epic.  There was hardly anyone at Coral World, maybe a dozen other family or couple groups.  Normally it probably would be mobbed with cruise passengers on excursions.   In the restroom, I chatted with a local staff woman and she said the same thing as what the port security people did.  That it was not aimed at tourists and it was the very first time this had ever happened, but "<Coral World> was paying for it now."  She seemed very worried about the impact to Coral World.    Did you see the picture of Coki Beach that I tweeted last Wednesday?  When we left, I saw 3 police cars parked in the area.  We didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  
 
After thoughts of passengers after the excursion was over? 

 

Since the cruise cancelled its excursions, no "after thoughts" of passengers per se, but my personal thoughts are that it was a totally random event.  There is violent crime anywhere you visit, and this was just a tragic occurrence where it just happened at the split second tourists were going by.  I had not heard any previous news about Coki being a dangerous place, have you?  I felt safe there and my family didn't encounter any issues.
 
Your personal feeling about cruise lines possibly stopping excursions there?

 

I think it is good for the cruise lines to be overly prudent about cancelling excursions due to the nature of the incident, a shooting death.  I just read an article from cruisecritic yesterday that St. Thomas is taking active steps to beef up security and safety in that area and other tourist areas, and I think that will go a long way to regain the trust of the cruiselines and the public.  I guess it may take a few weeks, but my guess is excursions will resume soon and the businesses in that area will bounce back.

 ----- END OF INTERVIEW

 

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