What is included and what do I pay for on a cruise.

What is free and what cost on a Cruise? 

The price of your ticket will include your cabin, on-board entertainment and food.  Other items to consider when budgeting for your fabulous cruise are:

·      Taxes, surcharges, and fees, including airport fees, handling fees, departure taxes and port charges.  As your cruise consultant I can help you figure that out. 

·      Alcoholic beverages, bottled water and soft drinks are an extra charge.

As an example:   

·      Celebrity Cruises charge – Soda Package starting at $7.00 per night

Bottled water starts from $12.00 per night.  You can purchase a Premium Non-alcoholic package (which includes nearly all selections of sodas and premium water and specially coffees) for $18.00 per night. 

·      Princess offers an unlimited soda Package for $4.50 per day. Plus for just $2.50 extra their unlimited soda & more package allows you as many fountain sodas, refreshing juices, fruit mocktails and creamy ice cream shakes that you can handle.    

They also have a Café select coffee card for $29.   This entitles you to 15 espresso-based specialty coffees.

·      There are also alcoholic beverage and wine packages available on some cruise lines.

These are just a couple of examples of packages offered by cruise ships.  Of course there are high-end cruise ships like Crystal or Regent Seven Seas that are all-inclusive, but you pay a higher price ticket up front.

·      Shopping purchases made both on and off the ship.

·      On board extras, such as gambling, spas, messages and ship-to-shore calls or Internet services. 

·      Tipping  (which I will share more information on in a later post).

Most cruise lines use a billing system for your convenience.  They will take an imprint of your credit card and set up a tab for the cruise, presenting you with the total bill at the end.  It is a good idea to keep the receipts you signed to verify the tab’s total.  Also some cruises now have a kiosk type machine you can daily check your expenses on.  The kiosk will print out a current total of all your shipboard expenses to date.   Making easy for you to keep track. 

The specialty drinks, sodas and fabulous coffee drinks make your trip special.  Include them in your cruise budget.