good morning from somewhere on the Pacific Ocean! I'm Stephen, she's Andie, and today, we're coming
to you from aboard our first cruise ever yeah as first time cruisers you can bet that we have
learned a lot in just the few days that we've been here and that's why we wanted to make this
video for you if you're considering taking your first cruise we have some do's and don'ts for you
both for before your trip while planning and also while you're on board so let's get right into it
number one do use a travel agent definitely I consider myself a really good researcher and
I was online for weeks before we booked this cruise I thought I'd found the best deals they
were offering all kinds of incentive packages on top of great rates but my family encouraged us to
reach out to their friend Dale at Treat Yourself Travel and I should not have been at all surprised
when she came back with a much better rate than the one I had found and I was looking at a cruise
line with an ocean view room nice window I thought that would be good oh no she got us a balcony
we had a couple of requirements we definitely wanted to do the inside passage and we had to do
Glacier Bay National Park and only certain cruise lines are allowed to go in there at certain times
a year so that kind of narrowed the choices for us thankfully Dale has a lot of experience with
cruises and she knows exactly what kind of crowd each one caters to so she was able to direct us
to the one that she thought would be best for us so definitely find yourself a really good
trusted travel agent because they're gonna have access to deals to special incentives
even more than what you're gonna probably find on your own number two don't rule out
an obstructed view definitely check with your travel agent maybe do a little research yourself
about your particular ship in our case we've got an orange lifeboat right outside of our balcony
but at the same time we've got the ocean beyond that and the shoreline so we're having no problem
seeing amazing views over that boat it's not really obstructing us all that
much and if you're looking to travel on a bit of a budget that'll save you a good amount of money
absolutely would have cost us about a thousand dollars more for an unobstructed view room and
honestly doesn't bother us that much to have it there plus as I mentioned before we thought we'd
only have an ocean view with a window so score we got outdoor space yeah number three do some math
before splurging on that specialty drink package for a lot of people they really don't add up kind
of depends on you and how big of a drinker you are maybe because you're on vacation you're gonna go
crazy hey we're not judging but for us we're casual drinkers maybe one or two a day if we're
vacationing I don't even think we've been drinking daily have we nope but the one thing to keep in
mind as well is the drinks package also goes towards specialty coffees the standard package
only gives you the regular brewed coffees in the dining rooms so if you're a big coffee drinkers
like we are that might start to add up a little bit for you also some cruises unfortunately ours
is not one of them have juice bars it would also cover your juice bars so you get fresh pressed
juice I was really hoping we'd get some of those but unfortunately no so do the math because if
you're not going to drink that much just a couple coffees or a couple alcoholic beverages each day
you're actually going to do better to pay cash now in our case it was an add-on it was a perk
to get people back out cruising again so well you know we're gonna take advantage absolutely
number four don't skimp on the internet package I know you think you're gonna be unplugged just
relaxing on your vacation but then you're going to want to text family or friends or maybe post
that really cute picture you just took then you're going to be in your cabin relaxing and
you're going to want to stream your favorite Netflix show it all adds up and they charge
you by the data you use so it just makes sense to go ahead splurge for the package in advance
get a booked and taken care of and then you won't get hit with a nasty bill at the end of your trip
also make sure you book in advance because things cost more once you're on the ship just
get it taken care of in advance you got nothing to worry about on your vacation number five do put
your phone in airplane mode cell networks don't extend into the open water and you'll probably
find yourself in a situation where you're roaming and if you have to connect to the ship's satellite
network that is going to cost you some bucks yeah don't do it you're going to get hit with a
nasty bill at the end of your trip number six don't be intimidated by cruise culture have you
noticed that there are these communities of avid and frequent cruisers especially on YouTube we
certainly did as we were researching this trip and I gotta be honest we found it a bit intimidating
these people love the onboard activities the shows the dining the formal nights these are all things
that we really didn't envision ourselves getting too much into aside from the dining of course
however once you're on board it turns out none of that matters you can't tell who's an avid cruiser
who's part of the cruise culture and who's a first-timer casual cruiser like we are we can just
choose our own adventures opt into anything that looks fun to us you can go enjoy a show you can
enjoy the casino or you can do none of it whatever you want it's totally up to you because everybody
else is just as busy as you are enjoying their own vacations so they're not worried about you
and what you're doing either and who knows after your first cruise or two you might find that the
shows and the formal nights are a big part of what you end up enjoying on cruises and this cruise
culture could be your people that could be pretty awesome too number seven do take a water bottle
the water on these ships is totally drinkable and if you're like us and you like a little bit
of extra filtration you can always get a bottle that has a filter in it we have one by Brita and
we love it we'll link to it below in case you want to check it out they do have bottled water
available on the ship as well if you don't like tap but honestly who needs all that extra waste
number eight do book the early excursions booking early excursions helps motivate you to disembark
your ship sooner after it arrives in a new location and then if your excursion is only a
short part of your time in a port say 3 hours out of nine you get the rest of the day to explore the
town on your own before returning to ship it's a great way to maximize your time in a port and see
more and hopefully that's why you're going there because why spend more time on the ship when you
have days at sea for that number nine don't get left behind you need to operate strictly according
to the ship's time and if you are one minute late you could be left behind in port they're
gonna take off without you they're not waiting so make sure you get back to the ship when they tell
you to get back to the ship or better yet early number 10 don't wait until you're on board to book
things yeah just like we mentioned earlier with the internet packages things are more expensive
once you're on board that goes for drink packages and especially excursions
so do as much planning as you can in advance choose everything on the website or in the app
beforehand book your excursions and again so much less to worry about once you're on your vacation
number 11 do be aware of your cruise line's dress code there's a dress code
on many cruise ships in our case princess cruises is mostly smart casual we pretty much
live in jeans and we were able to wear our jeans with no problems most nights
but we made sure they had a nice fit and didn't bring any that have holes or tears in them
there are areas and events on many cruise lines however that call for more formal attire
in some cases full-on gowns and tuxedos we're definitely not the formal dress types especially
on vacation so while we opted out of the more formal events and dining options ourselves we did
bring cute outfits to dress up just a little one of the nights and we treated it like a date night
number 12 do bring cash yeah most cruise lines do claim to be cash free but there
are going to be some things you will need cash for primarily tipping your crew absolutely and
also when you're on shore excursions some of the businesses will be willing to haggle
with you on prices a bit if you've got cash to offer instead of charge
number 13 make sure you bring everything you need they do have a lot of amenities here on
board little conveniences you can get things like Advil or toothpaste anything that you might forget
of that sort but it is gonna cost you these are resort prices because these are floating resorts
so anything that you can think of in advance make sure you pack it with you it's just gonna save you
some extra cash and hassle once you're here number 14 do learn from frequent cruisers yeah there are
so many people out there who cruise it seems like year round I think it's their jobs to just go
from cruise to cruise to cruise back to back it's amazing I'm kind of jealous the thing is they make
these amazing blogs and videos here on YouTube you can learn so much from these people and we watched
a lot of this before we came on ours there are certain things we never would have been prepared
for if not for them and our travel agent so we're gonna link below to a couple of the channels that
we got a lot of information on and definitely take advantage of their knowledge they know the
different cruise lines they know the ships inside and out some of the crew they can tell you what's
great what's not what to watch out for all the ins and outs it's going to be such a huge help
for you when you go out and your first time and quite frankly when you go out for your 10th 20th
time I feel like there's so much to learn that you could keep learning every single time you go
we've got a bonus don't for you and this is a big one do not fly in the same day as your cruise
a lot of people do it and it's totally fine they have no problem getting from the airport to the
port smooth sailing the whole way but honestly if you end up with a situation like we have it
could be a disaster anything can happen yeah our bags didn't make the connection in Chicago O'Hare
so we got to Seattle we had no suitcases fortunately we flew in the night before
and our bags made it on another flight a few hours later everything worked out just fine but
if we'd flown in that morning we wouldn't have had a few hours to spare and we'd be
freezing our tuchuses off wearing the same summer clothes we flew in so that's our list
if you've got anything more to add put it in the comments below that's right we really appreciate
you joining us today and we can't wait to take you on the next adventure see ya! see ya next time!