I've been on a couple of cruises and if you are looking for an affordable, easy, hassle free way to travel I recommend going on one. Now I say affordable, because most cruises are not that bad of a price, especially considering that food is included, but they can be spendy if you make it that way. The thing to watch out for with cruises is if you purchase anything on board, alcohol, gifts, or even excursions, they just add it to your bill and if you're not careful to keep track of what you are spending the big bill at the end can be higher than you expected. Also if you go for a large outside room with a balcony, that can be a lot more than an interior room. The nice, hassle free, part about cruising is you don't have to move hotels every night, yet you get to see lots of different cities. Let me tell you about the things I learned on the cruise I took with my husband and another couple a few years ago to Alaska.
Research the different cruise lines
We knew we wanted to go to Alaska, and we knew there were certain cities we wanted to see. There are several cruise ships that go to Alaska, but they don't all go to the same cities. We also knew which cruise lines we did not want to go on, and certain features we wanted on our ship. After looking over the options, ships and prices we settled on Princess Cruise Lines. They went to Juneau, Skagway, Tracy Arm Ford, Ketchikan and Victoria, Canada.
Do not confirm your room
When I saw the option to confirm my room when making my reservation I thought that was really dumb. Of course I wanted to confirm my room, so I checked the box without any second thoughts. It wasn't until I was checking in to our cruise that I overheard someone saying he did not confirm his room in the hopes he would get an upgrade for free. I guess if there are available rooms with windows or balcony they will upgrade people that booked cheaper rooms for free. Now I am not 100% sure about this policy and do not know if every cruise line has that option, but if I had known I definitely would not have confirmed my room. The only problem I could have potentially seen was we were pretty close to our friend's room and if we had gotten an upgrade and they hadn't or even if we both did we could have been on opposite ends of the ship. And on a cruise ship that can be pretty far away. Instead we had small interior rooms that cost just over $400 a person for a 7 day cruise (food included remember).
Plan and book your excursions before you go
Most cruise websites will have a list of the different excursions available at the different ports you will be visiting. My husband and I searched through all the different options before we went and budgeted out what we could do. We also planned with our friends what we wanted to do together and what we wanted to do on our own. The great thing about a cruise is there is something for everyone. I love horse back riding, so we made sure to book a ride that took us through the Yukon, but my friends weren't into that, so they took a train ride instead. But we made sure to do the dog sledding adventure together because that was something no one wanted to miss out on. If you like adventure, if you want to take things a bit slower, if you have a big or small budget, you can find something that will fit your needs. I also recommend booking them before you go as they have limited space and can fill up if you wait until the last minute. In case you aren't sure what you want to do before you go however, you can still book excursions on board your ship, up to the day of, as long as there is still room.
Attend the activities on board the ship
Most cruises will end up having at least one day at sea, but don't worry the cruise directors make sure there is plenty to do so you don't get bored while on board (no pun intended). We went to all the "Broadway" shows available, and while they weren't anything near Tony award winning worthy, they were fun and entertaining. We also attended a couple comedian shows, the Newlywed game and a trivia contest. There was always something going on in the different lounges, ballrooms, and night clubs. We had a calendar of all the activities in our room upon arrival which is how we knew about the different events. There are also other things to do that aren't scheduled if you want to go at your own pace. There are several pools, a spa, casino, gym, and movies playing throughout the day. We played mini golf, shuffle board, basketball and even participated in a ping pong tournament! Every ship is different and has different amenities, so just make sure to check out what your ship has to offer either before you go or once you get on board. Our ship had a scavenger hunt first thing when we got on that helped us get a feel for the ship before we even left the port. There was an incentive for a cool prize if we got everything done, but we didn't finish on time so I don't know what the prize was!
Don't get overwhelmed by all the food
Our particular ship had a 24 hour buffet where we ate breakfast and lunch. But for dinner there was a more traditional sit down option. We chose the open dinning plan which meant we did not have a specific time to come and eat or a specific table. I wanted the flexibility of not having a set time to be at the restaurant. What if we were late? What if we were playing ping pong and didn't want to leave to go to dinner? The down side to this option is there was usually a line we had to wait in for a table to open up. It was never too long though. Also we were not guaranteed to sit at a table of four. It could have been a table of six with two people we did not know. Or two tables of two and then we couldn't eat with our friends. It always worked out, but that was the warning we were given by choosing open dinning. Also we never had the same waiter, so if we really liked one, we knew we most likely would not get them again.
Besides the seating arrangements, there is the problem of how much to eat. You can order as much food as you want. Literally. On lobster night all of us had two plates of lobster each! If you want one of each dessert you can! They basically do not say no to you when it comes to food. That is besides the buffet. And our cruise had a pizza, burger and ice cream place that was pretty much open all the time. Let's just say I was glad I put my diet on hold for that week.
Drinks
Before we got on board I knew we needed to buy the coke card. Unlike the food, drinks, including soda, are not free. My husband and I are huge soda fans, so even though the card cost $20 each, I knew it was worth it. The card came with a really nice thermos that we got to keep, so that helped with the $20 price tag. Whenever we went to dinner we just had to show our cards and we got unlimited drinks. We also got drinks anywhere on board for free. Alcohol is different, we did not drink, so I can't give any advice on it, but just be aware that drinks are not free.
Tipping
People worry a lot about tipping on a cruise ship. You are expected to tip everyone, the person who cleans your room, brings your luggage, waits on you in restaurants, everyone. But the tips are included in your bill. There is an option to give an "extra" tip to the people that you thought went above and beyond and that is what all the little envelopes are that they pass out. We did tip the person that cleaned our room extra, but that was it.
Keep your budget in mind
Like I said in the beginning, going on a cruise can be really affordable, but if you're not careful it can get out of hand. We paid for our cruise and excursions before we even left for our trip and we budgeted tips into our trip because we knew that was a must. We had a small souvenir allotment, but there are plenty of things to spend money on, especially with all the duty free stores on board. The cruise ship will try to get you to buy things on the ship, but we found better deals at the ports we went to. The other thing to budget is how much it is going to cost to get to where your ship departs from. There are tons of Caribbean cruises for $300-$400, but the flight to get there and back usually cost more than that. Living in a land locked state like Utah, we will have to travel to go on any cruise. Luckily my family is from Washington so we drove up there, spent the night at my parents and then they dropped us off and picked us up at our main port. That way we did not need to leave our car at the port for a whole week. All we had to pay for was gas to and from Washington. All these things add up however to your total cost, so make sure to budget for everything.
