I went on my first cruise in March 2008 on the biggest cruise ship in the world (at that time), Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. I was part of a group of 17 people, traveling together to celebrate my sister’s then-future-in-laws 25th wedding anniversary. We had such a great time that we came back home and talked about that cruise vacation for years. It inspired more friends and family to join the party the next time, resulting in a group of 41 cruisers on the Allure of the Seas in January 2014. The trip was a blast, but with so many people in our travel group, people started having other ideas for the next fun group trip (like an all-inclusive resort in Mexico or the Dominican or something) so cruising sort of fell off my radar for several years. Plus, it was a little expensive for me at the time, as a young, single homeowner, and finances were tight coming out of the Great Recession.
In hindsight, I definitely did a few things right on those early cruises:
- I was the third wheel in a room with my sister and her then-boyfriend/now-husband on the first cruise, and repeated that as the 3rd occupant in my parents’ balcony cabin on the second one. Rooms are priced based on double-occupancy, so the third (and sometimes fourth) occupants get a break on their cruise fare.
- I lived in Florida, so I was able to avoid the additional expenses (and headaches) of flying in a day early, staying in a hotel near the port, etc. I just woke up the morning of the cruise and drove to the cruise terminal, which meant paying for parking but not plane tickets, airport parking and a hotel. PS: There are cruise terminals all over the US, including Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego, Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral (near-ish Orlando), Jacksonville, Charleston SC, Norfolk, Baltimore, NYC, and Boston, among other smaller/seasonal cruise ports of call. Oh, and Hawaii and Alaska!
- I was in a group, so we worked with a travel agent and were able to get a group rate. This is advantageous because cruise lines have LOTS of rooms to fill for each sailing of their ships. They happily provide discounts to travel agents who help them fill 10 or more rooms in one sale/sail (see what I did there?) and they’re dealing with an experienced travel professional instead of multiple individuals who may call with a bunch of questions, installment payments, etc.
Cruising after Covid
But then Covid-19 happened, and the cruise lines were required by the CDC to shut down from March 2020 until July 2021. These companies were burning through cash to keep their ships afloat, their essential personnel paid, and they started scrapping some of their older, smaller, and less efficient ships. Even when cruising resumed, it was not uncommon to find ships sailing at 30-40% capacity for many months after the restart. By Christmas 2021, ships were back in the 75-90% range (busy holiday travel being the main reason), but then cruising was walloped by the Omicron variant and headcounts dipped again in early 2022. But by Spring Break 2022, many ships on mainline cruise companies (Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian) were back to nearly 100% capacity. Tip: ships are always fuller when kids are out of school on holidays and spring/summer breaks, so if you can, plan to cruise when schools are in session for a cheaper and more-relaxing vacation.
Of course, to fill up their ships, the cruise lines were running some good promotions. On the cruises where I paid for my fare with cash, I was able to get a balcony stateroom for around $100 per night, including the port fees and taxes. Gratuities for the staff are in addition, but you can pre-pay those with your cruise fare if you’d like. Inside cabins were cheaper, but not by a whole lot, so I had 5 balcony cabins on my first 5 cruises, between December 2021 and March 2022.
Points and miles
For any points-obsessed readers, I did not use any travel miles/points to book any of my cruises, but that’s not to say I wasn’t still playing the points and miles game while cruising. I’ve now been on 17 cruises in the past 14 months, and have 5 more booked in the next 3 months. This has allowed me to explore different ways to save money and/or earn thousands of travel miles while traveling to over a dozen countries in the past year.
It should come as no surprise that cruise vacations code as travel expenses on my travel credit cards. If I use my Bilt Rewards MasterCard, I get 2x points on all travel expenses (and 4x during their Rent Day promotions that are typically the first day of the month). A Chase Sapphire Preferred would earn 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on travel while the Chase Sapphire Reserve card would earn 3 UR points per dollar.
Cruises can also be a great way to earn future free travel, since the upfront cost and/or your onboard charges can help you meet a minimum spending requirement on a new card. Like many of you, I plan my new card opening strategy around planned large expenses (car insurance, home renovation projects, etc.) and cruising can be one of those excuses to open a new card for your planned vacation spending.
Another tip that I have used (but not exploited) is to visit the casino and load some cash onto a slot machine via a room charge. This charge will be added to your final bill and be settled on the credit card you selected for onboard spending, but you can cash out your ticket at the slot machine and turn it into cash at the cashier window. You’ll want to avoid doing this at a table game (think poker, roulette, blackjack) because the cruise line casino will hit you with a 3-5% charge, negating the benefit of getting free points on some light manufactured spend.
The best tips I know for actually using your points and miles on a cruise are as follows:
- Use miles and points for your flights to the cruise port and hotel the night before (ALWAYS plan to arrive a day early – way too many flight disruptions nowadays could make you miss your cruise vacation).
- Use a “travel eraser” card like the Capital One Venture. Put the spend on the card like normal, but then redeem your accumulated points for a statement credit towards those legitimate travel expenses.
- Some of the bank travel portals like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt Rewards actually use the Expedia travel search technology, so anything you could book on Expedia, you can book using points by calling the Ultimate Rewards or Bilt Rewards and having them book your cruise (unfortunately I am not aware of the ability to book through the portal online). This one does require you to do the research on your own ahead of the call, but it’s a way to use your accumulated URs and Bilt points for cruises.
- I would actually encourage you to Do Not Use this recommendation 😊 – The cruise lines all have their own co-branded credit cards. You could sign up for them, earn the bonus and then get those points credited to your cruise booking as “onboard credit” to pay for drinks, wifi, gratuities, shore excursions, photo packages, specialty dining reservations, souvenirs, etc. But the cards have low earning rates and the points are usually only worth 1 cent per point. I like to get more value AND flexibility out of my travel points and miles.
Money-saving tips
In the vein of trying to find ways to save money, I have paid for some Carnival cruise expenses with discounted gift cards I purchased online. I was able to save 8% on my cruise fare to Alaska by buying the gift cards on Raise (stacked with Rakuten), and I also bought some Carnival gift cards through my car insurance rewards portal (Allstate Rewards) for 10% off face value. Carnival lets you use gift cards onboard, whereas my experience with Royal Caribbean is that you can only use them for purchasing a new cruise.
If you are interested in purchasing a drink package, wifi package or photo package on your cruise, or if you really want to do a specific excursion, the best advice I can give you is to book early. Not only does the price go up after you’re a captive audience onboard the ship, but those popular excursions can sell out, leaving you with fewer options once you arrive in port.
Don’t automatically assume the drink package is worth it. A cruise blogger/YouTuber named Tanner at Cruzely has created a drink package calculator that helps you decide whether to purchase the expensive package (hundreds of dollars!) or if you’re better off just paying by the beverage and not forcing yourself to overdo it to feel like you got your money’s worth. Check out the calculator at https://www.cruzely.com/cruise-line-drink-package-calculator/. Remember, the cruise line has all of the purchase/consumption data, and they wouldn’t be selling the packages if they didn’t make them more money, so if you’re not a big drinker, it’s probably better for your wallet (and your health) to skip the drink package.
Sail with a friend. As I mentioned in my first tip at the start of this blog post, cruise rooms are priced based on double-occupancy. But some people like me sail solo, which means we’re left paying for the empty spot in the bed next to us (although fortunately only one set of port fees, taxes and gratuities applies). If you find a friend or partner to go with you, you can split that double-occupancy charge down the middle instead of absorbing it all yourself, like I do. Sometimes I have do a lot of shopping around to find specific sailings to find itineraries without the dreaded “solo supplement” aka solo penalty surcharge, which makes solo cruising more affordable, but you won’t be on the fanciest ships in the fleet or visit the most exciting destination, and that’s ok if you’re looking for a relaxing cruise vacation.
Bring your own sunscreen, medications, wine and/or soda from home. All of those things are available on the cruise ship with big mark-ups, but save yourself a few bucks and bring them from home. Cruise lines tend to allow you to bring 2 750ml bottles of wine and a 12-pack of cans of soda. Carnival sells a reasonably-priced package of water bottles, which is a worthwhile pre-purchase so you have water in the room, for excursions and for the pool. Money nerd tip, sunscreen can be paid for with FSA and HSA funds.
Loyalty Programs
And just like with your favorite hotel and airline programs, your loyalty is rewarded. But unlike hotels and airlines, the status you receive from major cruise lines is good FOR LIFE! For example, in Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society loyalty program, you first earn Gold status at 3 nights, then Platinum at 30 nights. There’s not a whole lot of benefits at these low levels, but you do get some onboard offers like priority board, a couple drink discount coupons, and discounts on future bookings. At 55 nights, you earn Emerald status, which is effectively the same as Platinum except you get some bottled water and cookies delivered to your room on embarkation day.
But at 80 nights (lifetime) you hit Diamond status, and this is where your loyalty really feels rewarded. 4 free drinks every day of your cruise (say goodbye to buying expensive drink packages!), one day of free internet every cruise (in case you need to check in for a flight to go home, check email, upload awesome pictures to social media and make your friends jealous! Ha), and many other smaller benefits.
The next step is Diamond Plus at 175 nights (5 free drinks daily, 2 days of free internet, and more) and then the highest status is Pinnacle at 700 nights (6 free drinks and a personalized lapel pin to show off being top status). Both of these status levels also get priority seating at theatre, ice shows and AquaTheatre shows, plus access to the Concierge Club and usually preferred seating at the pool or a private deck altogether.
Levels Platinum through Pinnacle all receive some level of discounts on booking balconies and suites.
The only other cruise line status I’m somewhat familiar with is Carnival. You start as Blue on your first cruise and work your way to Red after your first cruise. Gold is achieved at 25 nights and Platinum at 75 nights. Top tier is Diamond at 200 nights. I don’t find their Very Important Fun Person (VIFP) program to be very rewarding. You get a 1.5 liter water bottle for being red. Same water bottle and a pin for being gold, plus if your cruise is 5+ nights, you get 1 free drink after 5pm on the last night. Platinum and Diamond get you priority boarding, tendering, and debarkation, plus some free bags of laundry while sailing. But your VIFP status is shown to everyone by the color of your Sign & Sail (room key) card, so everyone knows the passenger with a blue card is a Carnival newbie, while red and gold are in the middle and the grey/platinum and white/diamond cards are top tier.
Casino Programs
Of course, on most ships there are casinos situated in the middle of the action. It is not uncommon to see all ages of people walking from one end of the ship to the other, conveniently through the casino floor, to go from dinner to the show in the theatre, or vice versa. Casinos are big business for the cruise lines, and they also have their own points programs to reward big bettors and frequent cruisers.
I’ll start with Carnival this time, which is where I got my first free* cruise. I use the asterisk, because there are always still port fees, taxes and gratuities to be paid, even when the casino gives you a free cruise. I’ve taken 3 free* cruises on Carnival by matching my Caesars Diamond status (matched from Wyndham hotels Diamond status, matched from IHG Platinum Elite which was a benefit of carrying the IHG credit card) at https://www.carnival.com/Registration/Promotions/casino-funmatch.aspx After receiving my matching status on Carnival, I started getting free* cruise offers based on that new status in Carnival’s casino. I still get emails every week based on that status, which I have used to visit the ABC islands in the Southern Caribbean over Christmas 2021, to the Eastern Caribbean over Spring Break 2022, and to visit Alaska in August 2022. And for all three, all I had to do was pay port fees, taxes and gratuities, although the first two also had a required $200 deposit that became onboard credit to spend on the ship during those 8-night cruises. I have not found Carnival’s program to be very transparent on the number of points you earn or what levels you might earn, which is why I’m not sharing any details of the program here.
Royal Caribbean’s casino also has a tier/offer matching program in their Club Royale program https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/TierOfferCruiseMatchRequest.asp I was not able to use this since I already cruise Royal Caribbean, but it would be great for someone new to Royal Caribbean that has status on another cruise line casino or a land-based casino program. Once you’re onboard, you earn 1 point for every $5 played through the slot machines (1 per $10 for video poker) and at the table games it’s based on your average hand over the course of an hour of play. But the free* cruise rewards start at 800 points on an individual sailing in the form of an Instant Cruise Rewards Certificate that can be redeemed on the last day of the cruise at the NextCruise office onboard. And they track your play over the course of a year, so once you hit 2,500 points in Club Royale within a year (April 1-March 31), you earn Prime status, which includes free drinks in the casino for the rest of the rewards year in which you earn it and the whole following year (so currently until March 31, 2024) and an anniversary free* cruise that’s good for up to 8 nights in an inside cabin for 2 passengers. I’m not encouraging everyone to gamble – that’s the opposite of the money recommendations I typically give on my blog, but if it’s something you enjoy and can afford to lose the money, at least there are ways to earn more free trips along the way, and maybe you’ll be a lucky winner too!
Rewards for playing games
Other ways to score free cruises or at least some discounts or free play in the casino are through the MyVegas games. There are 7 that I’m aware of, including MyVegas Slots, MyVegas Blackjack, MyVegas Bingo, PopSlots, MGM Slots and myKonami Slots all have mobile game apps for your cell or tablet, and MyVegas Classic Free Slots can be played on desktop from Facebook.
In the past year, I have redeemed my MyVegas loyalty points for a free 5 night cruise in a balcony cabin, $100 in onboard credit on another cruise, and a 10% discount on a balcony cabin. But those free games also have earned me a free carwash in California, a free night hotel stay in Nevada, a ticket to the New York New York roller coaster in Las Vegas, Complimentary entry and a drink at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas, and a free pass to use the Las Vegas Monorail.
None of these were particularly life-changing, but cool additions to my road trip plans along the way. The available rewards change all the time, including other cruise lines being added from time to time. I have seen free* MSC cruises on occasion, plus currently there is a promotion with Norwegian cruises, although they all sold out quickly. I think it is a way for cruise lines to unload some last-minute room availability through their casino partners, and encourage play onboard the ships, although you can absolutely book MyVegas rewards and not step foot in the casino on the ship.
Miscellaneous tips
Join the Facebook group for your sailing – AKA “Freedom of the Seas January 16, 2023” and you will be able to link up with other cruisers on your actual sailing date. There are usually meet & greets, pub crawls, slot pulls, door decorating contests, and other fun events, plus people can ask questions about the ship, the itinerary, dining, or whatever else they want to know more about. There are always seasoned cruisers in the Facebook groups that are happy to provide info.
Same goes for a website called CruiseCritic.uk or an app called ShipMate. ShipMate is cool because you can load all of your past and future cruises, post photos of ships and ports, and connect with your ship-mates. For example, I heard about ShipMate from a couple on my Liberty of the Seas sailing in November 2022, and they were also on my Harmony of the Seas sailing in December 2022. In the app, I can see their upcoming cruises they have already booked, and if we were actually friends, it would create extra excitement to be booking the same itinerary as my cruise buddies.
CruiseMapper.com shows you the location of any cruise ship in the world and its current and future itineraries. It can be fun to see another ship at sea and guess which ship it is, where it came from or where it’s going, etc. But you can also see statistics about the ship including passenger capacity, crew size, ship length and weight, year built, and home ports.
Download the cruise line app. It’ll serve as your boarding pass and your activities schedule, plus you can see the menu in the dining room, your onboard account charges, etc. But once you leave the cruise port on embarkation day put your phone in airplane mode. I have heard horror stories of people who walked off the ship at the end of the week with a bigger cell phone bill than what they paid for the whole cruise, since they were roaming the whole time they were at sea! You can connect to the free wifi to use the cruise line app, and you can use wifi in your ports of call. Check with your cell provider to see if your phone plan works in your various destinations and/or how much you’ll be charged if you use it in a foreign country/network.
And while I don’t typically encourage investing in individual company stocks, this blog post would not be complete without talking about the Shareholder benefits that are available for cruisers who own at least 100 shares of the cruise company stock. For example, Royal Caribbean stock is currently trading for about $65/share, so am investment of $6,500 would get you onboard credit of $50 on a 2-5 night cruise, $100 on a 6-14 night cruise, and $250 on sailings of 15+ nights. It’s not a huge additional return for being a shareholder, but you still own the shares and I think about it as betting on the recovery of the cruise industry as a whole. And the same types of benefits are available on Carnival and Norwegian, which are trading for about $11 and $16, respectively. That’s a much smaller outlay of cash to get possibly hundreds in extra onboard credit to use to enjoy your cruises.
When preparing for your cruise vacation, I recommend watching YouTube videos of the ship you are sailing and the ports you are visiting. Your cruise vacation is already short, so there’s no reason you should wander around the ship the first couple of days feeling lost, or not realizing some of the amazing attractions, venues, shows, bars, etc. exist on your cruise ship. And it adds to the anticipation of your cruise by learning about your ports of call, the excursions available and special features of the ship that others might miss. Better to spend a few hours at home watching YouTube than losing valuable time.
I also strongly urge you to check your Passport expiration date. If you don’t have a Passport, you’ll want to get one, and if your Passport expires within 6 months of your sailing date, you will need to renew it.
Packing tips
It is very commons to over pack for your cruise vacation. I have done 17 in the past 14 months and still tend to over pack a few items. One tongue-in-cheek packing tip is to pack for your trip, then take out half of what you put in there 🙂 It’s not a big deal if you happen to re-wear a shirt that you only wore for a few hours on day 2. Remember that most of these people are never going to see you again in your life. And worst-case scenario, you have to pay for laundry on the ship. You can also try to do laundry in your stateroom bathroom, which tend to always have a clothesline in the shower for hanging items to dry.
If you really need to pack more, try using packing cubes, which come in various sizes and allow you to pack more items into the same small space and keep things tidy. I like to pack an entire outfit in each packing cube, so I can just grab one and be ready for the day. Expert level packing cubes – unpack your clean clothes and then use packing cubes to keep your dirty clothes contained, plus it’ll make it easy to re-pack your suitcase to go home on the last night of your cruise.
Modern cruise staterooms have limited electrical outlets, and they aren’t always conveniently located. Most staterooms I’ve stayed in have had 1 US electrical outlet and 1 Euro-style outlet above the desk/vanity portion of the furniture in the cabin. There is also 1 plug available in the bathroom that is usually labeled “shaver only.” But unless you are on one of the fancy new ships, you will probably want to bring a plug adapter or a USB-hub to be able to charge multiple digital items at once (cell phone, digital camera, GoPro, Kindle, FitBit, etc). And it’s always a good idea to bring a battery backup so you can charge on-the-go while on excursions or on a long day of taking selfies or Instagram Reels around the ship.
And now a courtesy tip: if you check a bag with the porters at the cruise terminal, it is customary to tip them a dollar or two per bag. They’re doing the heavy lifting and letting you get started on the fun onboard without having to drag your luggage onto the ship. Your bags will be delivered to your stateroom sometime during the afternoon or evening of embarkation day, most likely while you are out enjoying a sailaway party or grabbing dinner.
Which leads me to one final packing tip – pack anything you might need day 1 with your in your carry-on bag. This could be phone chargers, swimsuit, sunscreen, medications, and a change of clothes. Perhaps even pack your pajamas, because sometimes baggage takes a while to arrive, but it’s pretty much always delivered in the afternoon or early evening.
Community-sourced tips
Justin from the blog Root of Good is an early retiree and frequent cruiser who shared another tip with me. He says https://cruisesheet.com/ is the “best resource for finding the cheapest cruise or a particular kind of cruise with the port taxes and fees added in. I don’t know of a similar resource that offers that level of transparency.”
Also from Twitter, Collin from https://trybetterfare.com/ has introduced Better Fare, a service to help you find better deals on your cruise reservations. There’s no risk and no money down, but if they are able to find you a better rate, you’ll get a refund of the difference or that amount paid in onboard credit, and Better Fare will charge 30% of the savings they were able to find for you. They also added a section on their website where you can shop existing cruise deals they’ve found, and I’m happy to report that I came up with this idea for them.