you're about to discover things that you can get for free on a cruise if you
simply ask for them. I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips
for travellers. I'm going to tell you things that you can get for free on a cruise
that the brochures, and cruise lines don't necessarily tell you about. Simply
by asking, you can get more bang for your buck on a cruise.
First of all extra free food. On pretty much every single cruise line, you can
order more than one main course. Some cruise lines tried to introduce
charges for ordering extra main courses, but they soon backed away. You can ask for more
than one main course, so if you want the lobster and the steak you can order both
of those for no extra cost. The other thing to do is go off menu. On some
premium cruise lines they allow you to go off menu, however, if there's nothing
on the menu that appeals ask the waiter if you can have something off menu.
Particularly if it's something that was on the lunch menu, or perhaps the night
before. You often find that they have courses
and dishes that they can do at short notice.
Many cruise lines have some standard items that they offer every
night, like steak or chicken, but a lot of cruise lines if you ask for something
off menu you might find that you can get it. If you're vegetarian or vegan
it is a great way of getting extra food that's not on the menu. Most
cruise lines will have some vegetarian or vegan options, but the secret is if
you're interested in that or you want different food, then talk to the maitre d
or waiter and they will often start to cater for you and create
specific dishes for you to meet your specific needs. If you have any
dietary needs, you can often get extra free food that is different or
is specially created for you. If you're a big fan of ice cream, lots of
cruise lines have gelato or ice cream shops, however most of them do
offer free ice cream too. You'll either find that up in the Lido buffet or
on the pool deck and in the restaurants at
lunchtime and dinner if you ask for ice cream you will get it free without any
extra cost. Another great tip is room service. A couple of cruise lines will
charge for room service, but many of them do not - so
if you want an iced tea or coffee in the morning just phone room service. Certainly,
room service is a great way to get extra food, and you'll often find they have a
slightly different menu to the main restaurant. Secondly free drinks. Most
Cruise Lines charge for drinks. There are a couple of ways of getting free drinks.
First of all, the most obvious is attend the cocktail parties like the
welcome party and farewell party. You'll normally find there is a big selection
of drinks that are offered for free. If there's other events on board like you
often find the shops will have special events, and art auctions have
special events where they provide drinks for free. Normally that's
champagne, but not necessarily. Attend those events. You don't have to buy
anything and you'll find you get free drinks. Another important thing to
note is that tap water is drinkable on cruise ships. Some people say they
don't like the taste, but it's 100% safe to drink. Bring along a refillable water
bottle and perhaps bring some flavour sachets or cordial, and use those
to give your tap water a little bit of taste. Tap water is free and is
completely drinkable, and by bringing little sachets of flavour you can
spruce it up and probably save a lot of money on buying things like sodas
or other soft drinks. Another great way of getting free drinks is sign up for a
Cruise Critic Meet-up. Many cruise lines host meet-ups for members of Cruise
Critic. If you're on Cruise Critic, have a look for your particular cruise and
find out there's a meet-up, sign up for it and go because you'll find there
are free drinks and often little nibbles and snacks.
Remember that tea, coffee, juices and things like lemonade are often available
24 hours a day in the Lido buffet restaurants. No matter what time of
the day or night, if you want some tea or coffee you can get those free up
in the Lido deck. My third tip on free things you can get on a cruise by asking
are gifts, and there's quite a few options here. First of all, one of the
things to do is take part in all of the activities. You'll find that many of
the activities, whether it's trivia games, deck games and other events run by the entertainment team,
if you go to those you will have a card and build up points, and
at the end of the cruise you can redeem those points for gifts and prizes. A lot
of people take part in activities and don't do that
and so miss out on getting free bits and pieces of gifts. They often
tend to be branded merchandise. So, if every cruise you go on if you do
collect the points you will collect a lot of free gifts. Another way of getting
free gifts is going to the shopping talks. This tends to happen more
in places like the Caribbean or Alaska where duty free shopping is a really big
thing. On board there will be shopping advisors and they have lots of
free gifts and incentives to get you to go into the shops. Again you don't
normally have to buy anything, but by simply going to the talks you'll get free
gifts and then by going to some of the stores you can
redeem vouchers for free gifts. It's definitely worth doing that
because you'll come away from the cruise with all sorts of things like
T-shirts, lucky charms or free samples. Another thing to do is if you've
forgotten some of your amenities, so that might be a comb or a brush, stuff for
shaving or toothbrush, instead of heading straight for the
shops go to the Guest Services desk and ask them if they have an amenity kit.
You'll often find, like in many hotels, you can often get those for free.
The other thing to do is you'll often find in your cabin or by going to Guest
Services, you can get stationery, envelopes,
writing paper, pens and postcards. One of my favourite ways of getting free gifts
is to take part in some of the raffles, especially on embarkation day you'll find
a couple of places around the ship have raffles to get you to go there.
One of the best ones to go to is the Spa. They enter you in a raffle,
often give you a free drink and you just have to be there a certain time
(normally just after the muster drills) at 5 o'clock
or 6 o'clock and they do the draw and you have to be there to get the prize. On
a couple of cruises I have won packages with free massages and facials. So, that's
definitely something to do. You'll also find sometimes the shops will do these,
particularly if they're launching a new range they'll have a raffle as
they want you to go there to look at the new merchandise.
Definitely look out for the raffles around the ship where they're giving
away prizes. My fourth tip is an easy one to do and that's to
cruise when there's a special event taking place like your birthday
or a special anniversary. Make sure the cruise line knows that it's a
special event and let your cabin steward know. Most cruise lines
will make a fuss over a special event. If it's your birthday at
dinner they will bring you a cake. If your cabin steward knows that it's a special
anniversary or your birthday they will also normally do something, like
they might bring a cake, put up some decorations or bring you a bottle
of something bubbly. So, make sure that they know that you're cruising
on a special event. Pick cruises when you have a
special event because it's very likely that if the cruise line knows, they will make
a fuss and give you something free. The fifth thing that you get free is
medication and the Medical Centre. Medication and seeing the Medical Centre
can cost a lot of money, but there are two pieces of medication that you can
get for free. First of all, seasickness tablets. You'll
find that the Cruise Line at the guest services desk
will normally give seasickness medication away for free, particularly
when rough sea or they know that it's getting rough.
The second is around if you have stomach upsets and you need anti diarrhoea.
Very important if you think that you have any of the signs of norovirus, like
you are the vomiting or you have diarrhea problems, if you contact the
Medical Centre they will usually see you for nothing.
You will normally get a consultation by the doctor, or nurse, for free. If you
have those symptoms, they will give you the relevant medication. My
sixth tip is one that I have used quite a lot, and works me, and this is around
getting your cabin improved. If you have any issues with your bed, so it's too
hard or too soft or you don't like the pillows, speak to your cabin steward and
see what they can do. Often they can bring in new mattress
toppers, give you feather pillows or memory foam
pillows - and you normally find that you can get your bed adjusted and improved
so that it really suits you and there are things they can normally do very easily. So,
don't suffer if you're not happy with your bed. The second thing that you can
do is if you have a problem with your cabin, there's a noise problem or
something's not working, always make sure that your Cabin
Steward knows and that they've also reported to their supervisor. Once they've
done that, then go and report it to Guest Services. It is very important that
sequencing of events. I've had problems on different cruises where I've
had a noise problem or something hasn't really worked, I made sure the cabin
steward has known about it and I know that they reported their supervisor, and then I've
gone to guest services telling them that I've reported it. The cabin steward is
verifying that you have a problem and when that's happened
I've often been moved to better cabins, because everyone agrees that
there is a problem. Then Guest Services know and the hotel manager knows that
it's not just you creating a fuss for fuss sake, and that your steward agrees
there is a problem and I have been moved (when of course there's availability) to
better cabins as a result. So, cabin improvements definitely can happen by
asking and working with your cabin steward. As you can see, simply by asking
there's a whole lot of things that you can get for free to give you more bang
for your buck on your cruise fare. I hope you found that helpful. I have loads more
videos with lots of tips and advice about cruising, so why don't you watch
one of those right now?