One of the big attractions of going on a cruise is that you need to do very little planning. All you do is get to the port on time, get on the boat, and let them take care of you. So going on a cruise must be all happiness, candy, and cute little duckies in fifi pajamas, right? Unfortunately, there are still some things you'll have to think about up front.
Some questions you may have include: "How much is this REALLY going to cost?", "Can we take whatever we like off of the boat?", "How big a hassle is it to get on and off the boat?"
Our travel agent set up all of the air and ground transportation to the ship. Delta Airlines apparently has a deal with Carnival, and airfare was built into the Carnival bill we received. We also took a bus Carnival provided from the airport to the ship (and vice-versa).
There is one thing about getting on and off the boat: be ready for long waiting periods punctuated by frantic activity! When we arrived in Tampa, we learned from the Carnival agents waiting for us that the ship had come in late due to bad weather. We waited in the airport for about three hours. After we got on the bus, we arrived at the cruise ship terminal.
Here we were greeted by a gaggle of porters. It was still unclear to us if we had to give our luggage to them or not. Yes. You do. We found that out when we got our luggage and moved away from the fray a bit (all the porters were busy with other bags). A supervisor(?) yelled at us "What are you doing? Give your bags to the porters!" We still did not know our room number, so they threw us a manifest, and we had to scramble to find our names and correctly write the room number listed under our name on our baggage. The entire process was not fun.
After our bags were unceremoniously put in a huge pile of other bags, we waited in a line that reached outside of the terminal and around the block. As a rough estimate, I would guess the line was a quarter to a half mile long. After getting inside the building, we had to wait in line to have our travel documents inspected. After that, we had to wait in the terminal until the boat was ready to accept passengers. This took a while. Even when it was ready, they called passengers according to a numbering system and it took a significant amount of time to get called to get on the boat. Oh yes, and then you had to get your picture taken - one last hurtle before you could get on that gangway.
All of this waiting adds up to a very long day of traveling. Be ready for it. Liquids, snacks, and lots of portable entertainment are must-haves.
There will be lots of other people waiting with you. Many of them will not be as well prepared as you. These people will be getting bent out of shape over silly things during the various waiting processes. Be patient and try not to be one of them.
Your luggage is taken away from you the evening before, and you have to find it in a huge warehouse when you get off the ship. After finding your luggage, you have to go through customs again (they look at your customs form and should just wave you through), leave the terminal, make sure you are on a bus and then deal with the airport. Be patient, just as you were patient getting on the boat. Be prepared for waiting and wading through big crowds.
If you are agoraphobic, a cruise may not be for you.
This was a very confusing, frustrating, and stressful experience. There is nothing quite like knowing that there is NO ONE to help you in case you do not quite understand the system. Learning how to use a new ticketing system with dozens of other fellow travelers breathing down your neck is not fun.
It did not help that the machines refused to give us tickets. We were at the airport early and the machine said that we could only get our tickets at a certain time. According to our watches, that time had passed. According to the airport clocks, that time had passed. Only in wacky kiosk-land was it too early to grant us tickets. Was that because the machine was broken? Were we on a terrorist watch list? Who knows? What other things could be going wrong in there? It was fun to speculate that it may dispense incorrect tickets.
It had four methods of finding our booked tickets. We tried three of them and only one worked. This was not good. The way the information was presented, it seemed that we would only be getting our tickets to Atlanta, not our complete set of tickets. What's that? You want to ask a question about that? Ha ha! There are no people here! Just machines!
The saddest part was an old lady in front of us in line. When confronted with the machines, she did not realize that that was the ONLY way she was going to get her tickets. I tried to tell her that she had to get her ticket from the kiosk. She gave up her place in line, saying "No, I need to find someone to give me my ticket." She was unable to comprehend that Delta did not have two methods of acquiring tickets - humans and machines. Ha ha! Sorry grandma! There is no one here but baggage handlers! Sink or swim with the machines!
Memo to Delta Airlines: traveling is stressful enough. I would have waited in any line just to get a human to give me my tickets. Forcing frazzled travelers to play around with machines that only half-work is not going to win you any customers.
The cost for a particular ship cabin is published in Carnival's glossy brochures. This cost will probably include airfare as well. So far, it is pretty easy to plan your cruise spending. However, there plenty of "gotcha!" costs you will encounter on your cruise. If you are aware of them ahead of time, you can plan accordingly.
Carnival publishes the shore excursions available at each port on their website. It also publishes the approximate dollar amounts each will cost. When you purchase your cruise and get a booking number, you will be able to see exact prices on their website and order them early.
Note, however, that online shore excursion booking is closed the week before the cruise. Virtually all of the excursions have limited capacity, so to guarantee a spot, you must book early. Patty and I booked them on the first few hours of the cruise and had no problems, but we probably should have booked them sooner.
These shore excursions will be a big part of your cruise budget. They will dictate what fun things you will do over the course of your cruise and will affect your overall satisfaction with the cruise. Plan what you want to do with these early!
Then there are the drinks. Food is free on the ship. Most drinks are not. Further, each drink purchased has a 15% gratuity attached to it. This blow is softened a bit considering sales tax does not exist at sea. But it is something to keep in mind if you plan to drown your brain cells in alcohol every night. Soft drinks cost about $1.50 per can or $2.50 per 20 oz. Most alcoholic drinks cost $4-$6 each.
You can purchase a card that gives you unlimited soft drinks for the duration of the trip if you like. Patty and I did not need the card, since we discovered early on that water, coffee, and juice (e.g. fruit punch) were free.
Did I mention there are people to tip everywhere? You are required to give your bags to the porters when getting on the ship - and you are supposed to tip them $1 per bag. It is polite to tip your tour guides and shore excursion bus drivers. Each shore excursion will have two to five people to tip. They ask that you tip your Matre'D too.
It is a very good idea to take out a stack of $1 bills before leaving on your trip so they can be parceled out for tips and small purchases. You do not want to ask your bus driver if he can break a twenty.
It is clear that the cost of the cruise is dominated by three major costs:
Considering only the cost of your stateroom is not enough when attempting to get a full picture of your cruise costs. Plan accordingly!
More importantly, all the stuff you buy has to pass through customs at the end of your whirlwind adventure. Carnival is not very quick to mention (until the last day, of course) that there are limits to the whole "duty-free" thing. Specifically, if you spend more than $800 on take-home stuff, you may get taxed. Further, you are only allowed two bottles of alcohol (per person? This was not too clear) before being taxed. Do not throw away the receipts!
If you plan on spending a lot of money, it would be wise of you to review tax and duty rules before you go. You might get a nasty surprise at customs at the end of your trip. Then you will have one more thing in common with the pirates of the Caribbean - you will both say "Aarrr!"
Ha ha. I crack me up.
