Hi everybody this is Bruce here welcome to my youtube channel
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video Hi it's Bruce here welcome to my video called Cruise Ship Vacation Tips
Saving Money Series this is gonna be the first in a series of videos to help you
save money booking the cruise before you board your cruise and once you're on
your cruise the key here to saving money is one of the key ways is how you book your
cruise I like to book my own cruises on the Internet I like to scour the
internet there's a couple websites I like to to see what the prices are the
timing of the year of course how long the cruise is the different cruise lines
there are all kinds of price points and you have to do a little research on that.
Another thing you have to figure out is how to save money before you even get on
the ship get to your location perhaps one day before you go do some shopping
at the port city that you're departing from picking up items like soft drinks
that you're gonna put in your luggage perhaps a bottle of wine or two if the
cruise ship line allows it perhaps small things like getting sunscreen or
mouthwash or toothpaste that type of thing the other saving that you have to
think about the other way to save money is once you're on your cruise you have
to really be mindful of the deals that are being offered to you the promotion
is being offer to you sometimes it isn't worth it sometimes it is worth it
you really have to scale that now here's a tip be flexible on your cruise dates
if you can be flexible on your cruise timing you could really save yourself a
lot of money sometimes it pays to take the kids out of school for a week and do
a cruise when others aren't there if you're trying to do a cruise during
Christmas or during Easter break you're in competition with everybody else it
might not work you might want to look at something like a repositioning cruise if
you're thinking of a cruise in the spring the summer late fall
you might want to do a cruise from say North America to Europe one way and
then fly home one way that's a great way to get a 10 to12 day break even before you
get to Europe or even the other way around you're in Europe for a week or
two on a holiday and then you're gonna cruise back on a repositioning cruise
back to Miami or Fort Lauderdale that might be something to think about look
at air fares airfare deals might actually dictate your cruise so you
might reverse engineer this find the best airfare deal to Fort Lauderdale
Miami or Orlando or to Los Angeles or to wherever your cruise is departing from
of course I'm talking about US cruises here but it could be in Europe as well
even look for one-way deals one where airfare deals where you're doing a
repositioning cruise you might be able to get a deal there instead I've
mentioned it earlier but get to your part or city the day before your sailing
date you can do a bit of organizing you can go to Costco Walmart pick up items
on the cheap before you board your cruise you might even buy yourself
another suitcase a large suitcase and use it with the suitcases you have that
you put on the airplane to repack and bring bring items on board like soft
drinks and other items another thing is avoiding costly deals
when you're on the ship watch out for the drink deals watch out for the
premium food specials you don't know how you're going to feel the second third
day in you might not be feeling too well maybe the ship's been rocking a little
bit you're not going to be taking advantage of that drink package what a
waste of money if you're buying a drink package that where you have to drink $15
$20 a day of drinks just to break even sometimes it pays just to pay A La Cart and
that way you could pace yourself and you're not under any pressure pre-planning
you're on shore excursions is also important if you're on a seven-day
cruise and you've got a golf game in mind you know in Puerto Vallarta great
go for it it's probably gonna be sunny hardly gonna be raining in the winter
but if you're on a 10-day cruise you know, you may only have one or two days
pre-planned the rest you sort of wing it when you get there don't be don't be
over booking it or over planning it but yes look at pre prepaid or excursions
that you might want to book in advance especially if you're in Europe and doing
stuff like Rome and going to the Colosseum or
or the Vatican and that kind of thing daily Spa Pass access this one's a big
one for me I love to book access to the spa so I can get into the private area
that's reserved for spa guests but I don't necessarily need a massage every day
I just want access to the hot tub area the steam room perhaps or the sauna the
whirlpools that they have there it's much quieter there are no children they
have a ceramic heated loungers check into that some of the cruises have
passes for the entire cruise just for that don't over plan your cruise
vacation because sometimes weather can come into play here
you know bad storms can delay the ship or can delay you because you
might be in bed for half a day and just not feeling too well and if you've got
all kinds of excursions booked day in and day out and day in and day out and
you can't take them you might have prepaid for some of those and you can't
get your money back be careful on that sometimes you just you know you just
feel like getting off the ship and walking around the city you're in for a
couple hours and then coming back play it that way the final tip here on this
video is tipping that's a big thing tipping is generally built in to the
cost of the cruise or it's like an add-on to the true sort of a mandatory
or suggested kind of thing I always prepay my tips in advance so before I
even get on the ship I've already pre paid my tips and I know that my cabin
stewards and room attendants are all covered in that I also know when I order
a drink on board it's got a tip in it if I'm down at the coffee shop ordering a
latte there's a tip added to it I don't feel guilty the only time I add a tip is
when I see a room service person come to me I'll give them a dollar that type of
thing thanks for joining me today subscribe to
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