OK.. so I have been on one cruise... yep one! It was the first vacation my husband and I had kid free in 10 years. To be specific we went on the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas to Bermuda (these observations are based on that ship and line).
Perhaps a normal person might think that one cruise is not enough to write a tips and tricks blog post about but... I have never been considered normal. So, here are a list of things that I did not read about on the massive amounts of research I did before our cruise.
1) The whole pre-booking thing... yea that's a joke. I was so worried that the spa would be booked up, or the excursion would be full or we would miss out on something if it all wasn't totally planned out and pre-booked. What a load of nonsense :)
Tip - Let me assure you that the pre-booking best rate for the spa is not the best rate. Did you know they have daily specials for the spa.. like really great ones! These specials range from $89 - $135 and they cover a mixture of wonderful things like while getting a facial, you also get a head, neck, hand, and foot massage. They are usually 50 minute appointments and you are able to upgrade them for $20 here and there to add hot stones for an extra 25 minutes to a massage etc. They have to be booked that day, so yes.. call and book early but I never had a problem getting in. Just check the daily compass (the little daily newspaper they deliver to your room of all the daily activities).
2) Internet....... it's crazy expensive on the ship and is very limited. Royal Caribbean's web-site said for one device it would be around $90 for the week. Well... it was more like $150 give or take or $39 a day. It was very slow, and did not allow for Face Time which was what we had planned on using for talking to our kids (you know using the whole Wi-Fi thing on the apple phones to avoid international cell charges).
Tip... just wait until you get to your destination. Buy a drink, get free wi-fi for an hour, or buy the area service for $20 for 3 days. The connection was great, we were able to face time all over the harbor, and had zero problems.
Extra Tip... the area service I was even able to use on the ship, as long as I was port side on the deck, so debarking etc, was not necessary.
3) The Soda Drink Package - it's a decent deal.
Here's my tip. The cup you get is just like every other person who got the package too, so there are like 1379 cups roaming around that look just like yours. And they haven't been really "washed" all week. So, you do not want to mix up your cups. My mind went to a hair band or something to put around the actual cup to differentiate it from the others but my hubby thought of something better, permanent, and doesn't get soggy when rinsed. Nail Polish on the lid. Yep, a little dot of nail polish on the lid does a world of good, just use a different color for each person. Yes.. I travel with nail polish...if you know me in person you know this to be a true statement! A real reason a Julep addiction comes in handy. Don't judge.
4) My time dinning - We loved it!
Tip - At first I was totally prepared to have different servers every meal, however.... since we made our reservations at the start of the dinner time hours of when we estimated our arrival, the matradee sat us with the same servers every night! And they were wonderful! Cosmina and Dexter, they made our cruise something special! They remembered what we liked, didn't like, they suggested things that they new we might not know to order or what have you, and Cosmina made me the best hot coco every night with milk, frothed etc.. all because the first night I asked for creme... it was the best way to end the night! Loved our servers and we still had the flexibility to eat at different times based on our island adventures and show times.
5) Restaurant Package - it's kinda expensive to add extra nights eating in additional cost restaurants, however there are two ways to do this and not go crazy.
Tip - we signed up for a package get 3 restaurants and get 25% of your total bills at those places. You have to double check our bill and make sure they got that info from the computer that you signed up for it, but it saved us about $50.
Tip - most of the restaurants have these lunch specials - it's like a buffett so you don't get the extra special stuff.. but for the sushi bar it's a great way to eat there, and not spend a ton, plus free champagne.
6) The Bed. Ok, so maybe I'm really spoiled, but no bed is equal to the bed at home and spending 7 nights on a bed that's well... less than what I am used to is hard. I would suggest traveling with a memory foam topper with a down feather topper... not possible..?!? What.. yeah, well that would be difficult.
Tip - Under our bed was 2 extra down toppers all wrapped up in a trash bag for the turn over day (day you get off and others get on). Well... I stole those suckers and stripped our bed - laid those things down under our sheets for some added padding. It wasn't the best ever, but it was a step up.
7) The Shower - it's super small. I mean like really tiny. I'm a 5' 6" - 110 lbs skinny girl and I simply could not shave with out splashing the bathroom into a wet mess. Image what my 6' 3" - cough, cough sized hubby felt like in that thing.
Tip - the spa, has a locker room were the sauna's are. And guess what... they have full sized showers in there, totally private with a curtain. Yep, I visited the sauna daily and I was always the only one in there - each and every day. I cannot promise your fellow cruisers will give you the sauna all to your self, but if you are sharing a room, just really need a good shave.... I'd suggest throwing your showering stuff in a beach tote, treating your self to a sauna treatment and just showering there.
8) Excursions -
Well first I feel like I need to explain what happened to us. We had 3 days on the island. On the internet (part of the whole pre-booking thing) they had a day at the beach as an option for day 1. Well we didn't find out until we got on the ship that we arrived at 3:00 pm that day, not really enough time considering the private beach place closed at 5:00.. so they automatically pushed that to the next day. And while that is great, we already had snuba booked for day 2..so we had tickets for two different excursions on the same day. We took them to the excursion desk, got a refund on the day at the beach and just go the lay of the land that first day. Our day 2 - our snuba was cancelled due to rough wind, however since they already had us there etc... they let us snorkel for free. Day 3 we left open because we didn't know what to pre-plan. What we ended up doing was rending a moped and exploring the island - it was the best day ever!
Tip - Don't over plan, don't be afraid to roll with the changes, and if you are so over schedule you will likely miss the little things and places that didn't get the "featured" stop on the web-site. We found the best mini golf place with literally breath taking views and locals that were amazing. Also, the best fudge is found in the Clock Tower mall! You will thank me for that tip, seriously... I know fudge... it is the best! Things are cheaper and have more options once you get out of the "tourist trip areas" and you will never have the time to find those things out.. if you over schedule and rely on the ship to bring it to you.
Side note... on our first day we literally walked like one block to the "private beach on the harbor" it was $5 entry. This was the exact same place they charged us around $38 a person in advance to have a "day at the beach" plus like $16 for transportation.. it was a block, along a side street with zero traffic, you could see it from the boat... we barely crossed a street... kinda ridiculous.
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