What is included in Cruise deals?

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TINKERTOY ..... the 1 & only

Regardless of which cruise line you select the things that are included are pretty much the same. The price of your cruise includes your cabin, all meals (including breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks and free room service), free admissions to all shows and entertainment, and free use of all facilities on ship except spa services. The things that you will have to pay for are:

GRATUITIES: They will amount to about $10 per person in your cabin per day; about $70 each for a 7 day cruise. When you check in at the pier they will set up an on-board charge account for you to cover any and everything you may buy on ship. They will issue you a "cruise card" which will also serve as your room key and pass to get on and off the ship. At the end of the cruise they will add the gratuity to your tab and you can pay with a credit card or cash, your choice. So everything on ship except the casino is cashless; everything you buy goes on your account.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND SOFT DRINKS: Coffee, tea, milk, juice, and lemonade and punch will be provided free but you must pay for soft drinks and alcoholic beverages and they will add a 15 percent gratuity to each drink and soft drink order. Drinks of cruise ships are generally in the range of $7 to $9 including the 15 percent gratuity that is included in each tab. Beer and wine are slightly less, maybe $6 to $7.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Cruise lines will take plenty of photographs of you all over the ship, in the dining room, and as you exit the ship in ports. These will cost a lot, like $15 to $20 for most. You can save yourself a lot of money by taking your own photos and asking other passengers to take photos of you; they generally always will.

TOURS/EXCURSIONS: You are not required to book any tours and can get off and on in the ports as much as you want. But the cruise line will offer a lot of tours and these are expensive. If you book tours with Royal Caribbean well before the cruise you can pay for them by credit card when you book the tours. If you wait to book tours until you are on the ship the cost is added to you on board account. When you start looking at the tours available ask yourself whether you really want to spend the price, like maybe $75, to go swim with the dolphins, or ride a 4 wheel drive through the jungle, or would I rather pay $5 for a cab ride to the beach. So save money by selecting tours carefully.

SOUVENIRS: Anything you buy on ship from a gift shop or duty free shop goes on your on board account. Things that you buy on shore you pay cash or credit card for.

CASINO: If you plan to gamble on ship you will need cash for that.

OTHER: All cruise lines have what they call "specialty" restaurants where there is a gratuity/service charge. All other food on board is free and its not really necessary to budget for food; you cannot eat all of the FREE FOOD that will be available (so why pay to go eat).

SPA SERVICES: If you want/need to have your hair done, get a massage or wrap, or any services from the spa, you will have to pay for them. You can use the gym free but the spa stuff cost big bucks.

INTERNET SVCS: Ships now have internet cafe and some have WiFi but the there is a fee for internet access and it is very expensive (like about $50 to $60 an hour). Skip the high priced internet and ship and wait for port stops where you can usually find an internet cafe where the charges are about $5. to $7 an hour. Just ask the cabin steward and/or your wait staff where the internet is at the port. They know because they use them when they can get off the ship.

You cabin will likely have a minibar with soft drinks and munchies; you have to pay for them (but there is free room service 24/7).

FUEL SURCHARGES: Right now Royal Caribbean and all other cruise lines are charging a fuel surcharge or about $10 a day per person and that amount is automatically added to your cruise price along with taxes and other fees. So its paid up front when you book as opposed to being a charge that's added after the cruise starts like all of the other items above. BUT, the cruise lines will be reassessing this fee and either eliminating it or reducing it as the price of oil come back down.

Lew

Your cruise ticket covers all meals on board and your accommodation.
Any extras that you have, drinks from the bar, specialist restaurants, excursions, photographs, hairdresser, spa treatments and some activities, bingo, gambling and anything else that you purchase from the on-board shops are extra and are charged to your shipboard account.
Gratuties can be prepaid before you cruise, or added to your account daily, or, you can chose to pay them yourself to the people who have given good service.

1Cheapcruise

Just the cruise (most meals & shows onboard), port charges, taxes and fuel supplement. Drinks and excursions are extra.
Sometimes you can get prepaid gratuities which will save $$.

Hopefully Fuel Surcharges will be adjusted soon!

gary o

To make it simple..................... Everything is mostly included . All food you will ever want to eat plus most if not all of the activities.

The only charges you will have are drinks(alcohol), tips and if you gamble. Or any special services like hair dresser.

Remember...tips can be expensive.
You can also set up a line of credit on the ship and work against that for all your charges.

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