What is free on a cruise?

Question

I'm going on a Royal Caribbean cruise!

4 nights 3 days, since its pretty short i want to make the best out of it!!

So i would like to know what's free on a cruise and what's not!

Our ship is called: Monarch of the seas. So what is free on the cruise; like is the Jade Sushi free? Are sodas?

Please help!! Thank yous soo much!

Answer 1

OMG!!!  I went to Ensenada on Monarch of the Seas and it was the worst.  The ship is absolutely horrible!  Unclean, bad food, poor service, boring activities, etc.  

As for the "freebies"...the cost of your trip includes you food.  However, you have to pay for premium drinks which include alcoholic beverages and sodas.  Any food that you might have to pay for will be in one of the restaurants that you have to make reservations for.  

I hope you have a better time than I did.

Answer 2

What isn't free is the question:

spa, booze, trip excursions in ports, gift shop, tips for room service, casino, tips for the servers and matradee in the resturants. Tips for the cabin steward. Specialty resturants may have a small fee (like if there is a Steak house on board). Other then that it's smooth sailing on the cash..lol.

My hubby and I do not drink so when we go on cruises we go get "the soda card". You can go to the front desk on the ship and buy one.

Sodas are not free so we get a card (on an average it's 5$ a day) and with the card you can drink all the soda u want.

Trust me, at 5.75 for one soda..it's the smartest thing you'll buy on the trip!

Some sneak booze in a shampoo bottle and then make their own mixed drinks..  at 10 bucks a shot you'll be thanking me. some drinks run 15.00....

AND,..you can check on your bill as much as you want throughout the trip... check it...they do mess it up sometimes.

Make sure if you order room service (the food is free as many things as you want, btw) but they wait for a tip. No prob..I tip...   then they add another tip on the bill. Naughty naughty...

Enjoy...cruises are fun..if you are wise.  The dummies get the crazy bills slipped under their doors the last night and then they wait online all night at the front desk with the rest of the idiots who want to understand the bill.

Someone posted what carnival posted recently on their site:

"Fuel Supplement Increase

Effective for all new bookings on April 21, 2008, the fuel supplement will increase from $5 to $7 per guest, per day (based on double occupancy). In addition, a fuel supplement of $2 per guest per day will apply to third/fourth/fifth guests.

The fuel supplement was necessitated by significant rises in fuel prices which have dramatically increased Carnival’s operating costs. Unfortunately, we could not continue to shoulder this huge cost burden and it was necessary to implement a supplement to partially offset a portion of soaring fuel costs.

Implementing this fuel supplement was a difficult decision and we hope that our guests will understand that this is a necessary step in today’s challenging economic environment.

Voluntary Refund

Carnival announced a voluntary refund of the company’s fuel supplement on March 31, 2008 for applicable U.S. bookings that were made prior to November 7, 2007 under an agreement with the Florida Attorney General’s Office. The fuel supplement, announced November 7, 2007, was applied to all U.S. bookings for voyages departing on or after February 1, 2008.

The company will now refund the fuel supplement for those guests who were already booked at the time the supplement was announced. Refunds for affected guests will be implemented based on cruise departure date according to the following schedule:

- For cruises departing on or prior to April 4, 2008, guests will receive a refund in the same form they used to purchase their cruise;

- For cruises departing from April 5, 2008 through June 23, 2008, guests will receive an on-board credit;

- For cruises departing on or after June 24, 2008, guests’ bookings will be adjusted to eliminate the fuel supplement."

And here's some information about the other expenses to plan for:

Regardless of which cruise line or ship you go on, 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)(you do pay to eat in the specialty restaurants), all shows and entertainment, and free use of all facilities on ship. 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.

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% gratuity to each drink and soft drink order. You can save on drinks by ordering them in a plain glass rather than the fancy souvenir glasses that they offer them in.

PHOTOGRAPHS: The cruise line 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. Save your money and take your own pictures around the ship and just ask other passengers to take them for you; they are always glad to.

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. These are listed on your cruise line web site and you can reserve them well before the cruise and pay for them also.

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. If you need more cash dollars while on your cruise, instead of going to the ATM, go to the casino cage and ask for cash on your on bard account. They will give you the cash and not charge an ATM or other fee, but just process it as any other charge

OTHER: Most 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.

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. Spa services are not the same as the gym which is FREE. Spa stuff cost big bucks.

INTERNET: The ship will have internet cafe and maybe WiFi hotspots, but the there is a fee for internet access and it is very expensive (like about $50 to $60 an hour). Skip the ship's internet service and just look for an internet cafe in your port stops. You can usually get internet service in the ports for $5 to $7 an hour.

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).

I found on NCL it was like 25 bucks for an hour of wifi

Safe trip.......

Answer 3

By now you might got little bit of idea, what's free? Thats a good question to ask. When we did our first cruise last month, we wondered about the same thing when we are on board. You actualy thinking ahead.

1. Sodas's are not free - they cost aver $1.75 a can. You can always take a some amount of water and soda's in your lugguage.

2. Spa, face treatment - not free

3. Drinks served on the open deck/pool side are not free and alway include 15% tip

4. All the shows, entertainments are free except casinos where you want to lose your money.

5. Drinks served in the dinning room/sitting dinner are not free.

Tips for tipping: I actually went to frontdesk and took away the tipps they automatically added. I then tipped for people who served me better personaly. That way, they feel good and you are not double tipping.

Answer 4

Nothing is "free", its only included in the ticket you paid for.

But on royal carribean, as your cruise line is called expect the following:

The cruise ticket include:

The cabin you choise.

Most enterteinment.

all meals but not bevereges (except some none alcoholic ones such as water)

Some special reasturants (And I think that Jade is among them) requires you to pay an a la carte fee (or something like it) that is up to 20 usd. But its worth it since you usually got more and better food in them.

What youll pay for: Most beverages (also remember to include a 15% tip fee to every bill)

Things that youll normally will pay for such as spas, casinos, art actions, pictures taken by ships fotografes, items purcased in any stores, shore excursions and more. If youre unsure always check with some one before taking an item.

The best tip is to only do what you want and dont try to do to much the first day. Just remember to have fun. Johan

Answer 5

ive been on Royal Caribbean cruises an there absolutly amazing.. i havent gone on the Monarch of the sea tho.  but FOOD is basically free 24/7 sometimes they have sushi nights so thats free... things that you would not be free are sodas or other special drinks.. .. drinks you get free are usually like orange juice, water, lemonade, and ice tea.