Don’t Lose on Your Cruise
Helpful Hints by QueenBee

Now that I’ve had some time to download photos from my camera to my laptop and digest our latest cruise experience, I thought I’d share some helpful hints that we’ve learned from years of cruising.

Timing and Pricing Hints

We’ve cruised in Alaska, the Caribbean, and across the Atlantic, and saving money on the cruise itself has a lot to do with timing. On most cruises, the longer you wait to book, the less the trip will cost. There is one exception to this rule — a Holiday cruise — the longer you wait, the more expensive it will be.

It also is a really good idea to subscribe to various cruise line newsletters. The companies have various special pricing that they offer to their subscribers, and it is well worth filling in the opt-in form to get this information. For example, we found out about our Transatlantic Cruise with Royal Caribbean last year through their newsletter and watched their sales until we saw a price we liked. We then booked the cruise at a very advantageous rate.

When we looked at Holiday cruises this fall, the pricing was fairly steep. So, we went to the Cruise One website and looked at the same trips. We booked through Cruise One for a better price with perks. By the way, we booked the cruise in early November, and noticed that closer to departure, the pricing increased.

Cruise Ship Excursions vs. Private Companies

When we did our first cruise several years ago, we booked a cruise ship excursion almost every day we were in port. First, daily excursions get to be tiring and somewhat defeat the relaxation of being onboard a ship. Second, as we got to know more experienced travelers, we found out that booking excursions with private, local companies had many advantages, including better pricing as well as more authenticity.

So, when we decided to go to the Southern Caribbean for Christmas, we looked at Celebrity’s excursions and then Googled competitive local companies. Here’s some of our finds:

• Our webmaster went diving in St. Croix. After researching, he found S.C.U.B.A. St. Croix and was able to arrange to dive the wall (which was not available with Celebrity Summit) at a very advantageous price. He said S.C.U.B.A. was very professional, provided great transportation to the dive, and had a blast diving the wall.
• On Christmas Day we had a beautiful experience in the rainforest with Bumpiing Tours. We found Bumpiing Tours through tripadvisor.com, as they were the No. 1 tour listed for Dominica. We did the Roseau Valley Treasures (Morne Bruce, Botanical Gardens, Trafalgar Falls, Titou Gorge, and Champagne Reef) and swam and hiked at these sites. The Gorge and Falls were amazing, and the tour guide was knowledgeable and fun to be with. For $45 a person, this was an amazing find!

When Will We Learn to Bypass Massages?

We had made a pact to forego shipboard massages, but after a few days of hiking and swimming, we had poolside foot reflexology sessions for $25 each. As we had been advised before, we should have stopped there and saved quite a bit of money. We both ended up having an hour massage, and although we saved a bit because we did the massages when the ship was in port, they were very expensive compared to massages we have on land  (over $200 including tip vs. $75 excluding tip). So, please follow everyone’s guidance and don’t have a massage on board the ship; and if you do, tell the massage staff up front that you are not open to buying products.

Ask for Referrals from the Locals

St. Thomas is one of the shopping capitals of the Caribbean, but we found that finding a good local restaurant wasn’t that easy. That’s when Harry Quincy and his staff were a good local resource. We went into Mr. Quincy’s store, Diamonds International, because we had heard that they had good prices on stones and struck up a conversation. We learned a lot about diamonds and diamond cutting (QueenBees can never have too many diamonds!) and had all our questions answered. We happened to mention that we were hungry, and Mr. Quincy referred us to a good restaurant where the locals eat. You can be sure that we will stay in touch with Mr. Quincy and his staff, and because they didn’t hard sell us into buying a diamond and helped us find a great restaurant, I am sure we will be doing business with him for many years to come.

These are just a few helpful hints that we have learned during our cruise experiences so that we could have more fun and spend less money. Would love to hear what you’ve learned on your travels.

QueenBee