Admit it we have all done it. Sometimes we see a cruise deal on a website or in an advert in the paper or that someone has shared on social media and you think wow that’s really good. You look at it and think I wouldn’t mind doing that so you show it to your partner and maybe some friends and say what do you think and then you pick up the phone or email for more details.
I’ll admit I did this when I booked my cruise for the Explorer of the Seas which I go on next week. A good customer of mine asked me to price this cruise back in March of last year when Roya Caribbean first went on sale for 2020. I saw the price that it was starting from and thought wow that is such good value it would be great for our first full family cruise for the 5 of us, I told my wife and then the next day it was all booked for 8 of us to go. To make the cost’s cheaper for me we asked my mother in law to go and she is sharing a cabin with my daughter so we don’t have to pay the extra cost for a large family cabin of which they are limited numbers and generally inflated prices. Once we mentioned it my parents jumped at the chance to go to as 11 nights cruising with Royal Caribbean for around £700 per person was to good a deal to turn down.
So I have been sat here all this time thinking how smug I am that I have this amazing deal booked and then you start to factor in all the extras. I live in Middlesbrough in the North East/North Yorkshire area so traveling down to Southampton for 8 of us proved a bit of a challenge. In the end we looked at all options and decided the most stress-free and easy and best value option was to get the train and travel the day before. We were getting prices of around £800 for all of us but managed to get 2 x Family and Friend Rail Cards for £30 each and saved around 40% by doing this so I was really pleased with that but it was extra to my cruise cost.
Next we booked a hotel in Southampton for the night so we searched for 3 rooms saw a good deal with a large chain. We did not have the rail booked at this point so we never booked the hotel and left it until we booked the rail and then had to pay more for the rooms. Still only £52 per room and although I won’t name the chain if it is good enough for Lenny Henry it’s good enough for me and again another little cost to factor in.
The big one which I have just added is…………….The Drinks Packages. I have seen so many free drinks offers since I have booked but It was still worth not having one because when the Free Drinks are on the price of the cruise was so much more. Yes I have just had to pay £442 per adult for the Deluxe All-Inclusive package but I had $100 per cabin to put towards that and the kids soda package was only around £90 each so while it was an extra £1100 it was still better value but again an extra cost you need to thinks about.
Ah the dreaded Tips is another to think about. A lot of cruise lines are starting to include now like P&O and MSC and Marella but Royal Caribbean don’t as yet and again it was not part of my offer. I know I still need to factor this in as I have chosen not to prepay. I very much believe in tipping but I like to see what kind of atmosphere, service and food I am getting before I tip. I will ask them not to charge to my onboard account and will tip the people who have served me at the end of the cruise.
The last thing to think about is excursions. Do you need to book an organized tour as if you do again it is an extra cost you may need to think about. Excursions can be expensive luckily on my cruise to the canaries I have been to most of the places so and happy to use the shuttle or jump in a taxi but again you do have the extra cost to factor in.
So all in all I do have quite a few extras to add on from the deal price that tempted me to book however I still think I have a bargain booked even with all the extras and I’ll tell you all about it on my next update!