Cruise Do's/Don'ts

[albertGQ]

So my wife and I are finally going on our Honeymoon next weekend. We're going on a Caribbean cruise.

Has anyone taken this cruise? If so, what should I expect as I've never been on a cruise before. Any hints so we can maximise our trip? Is there a casino there?

We've only booked two things so far. Scuba diving and a Zip line thingy

Our stops are below. Anything we should do or avoid while we are at each individual stop?

Sun 31 Jan San Juan, Puerto Rico --- 11:00 PM
Mon 01 Feb St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, U.S.A. 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Tues 02 Feb Dominica, Dominica 9:00 AM 6:00 PM
Wed 03 Feb Grenada, Grenada 7:00 AM 2:00 PM
Thurs 04 Feb Bonaire, Aruba 11:00 AM 7:00 PM
Fri 05 Feb Aruba, Aruba 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
Sat 06 Feb Sea Day --- ---
Sun 07 Feb San Juan, Puerto Rico 6:00 AM 11:00 PM
Mon 08 Feb St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, U.S.A. 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Tues 09 Feb Tortola, Virgin IS/British 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Wed 10 Feb Antigua, Antigua 8:00 AM 5:00 PM
Thurs 11 Feb St Lucia, Saint Lucia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Fri 12 Feb Barbados, Barbados 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
Sat 13 Feb Sea Day --- ---
Sun 14 Feb San Juan, Puerto Rico 6:00 AM

[Phanuthier]

Budget in that you have to tip the guy who cleans your room, and all the waiter staff you have over the trip. And by tip, I mean a few hundread to a few thousand depending, not a nice shiny nickle.

The zip line thing seems like a waste of money, I don't know why so many people pay money to do that. Pickup a cheap ass harness, make a slackline, get a biner or two and some slings and I bet I could make one. (Or since I already have all that, I should make my own zipline and start making a fortune.)

[Regulator75]

Don't: Contract the Norovirus

[pylon]

ALWAYS negotiate with cabbies before you get in the taxi.

Also what Phanuthier said. Make sure you have about a grand for tips. It was spooky, like our room porter was hiding behind the drapes or in the shower or something. The room would be a sexed out disaster zone with ginch on the floor and puke in the sink, and you would leave for 8 minutes in the morning realize you forgot your sunglasses, go back to the room, and it was freakin spotless. We tipped our room porter $300 bucks for the week.

Also go to the concierge desk once a day and check on your "card" balance. It balloons FAST especially if you are drinking at all.

[Scoopdogg]

Drinks can get real expensive on the boat, especially since they give you a card to pay for everything. They really get you with that because you don't realize how much your spending until you get your bill. To minimize your booze bill I would suggest the following.

When you are at port, get a big water bottle (1 liter or larger).
get a large bottle of vodka or rum or any other clear alcohol.
Drink or dump water out of water bottle and refill with booze.
Carry booze back on to ship and it appears that you are just bringing water on board.

This worked like a charm when I was on a cruise. I just brought a 7/11 super big gulp travel mug with me. I think you can pay to get all you can drink pop while you're on the boat. So just fill up with booze and top off with your favorite mix and you're good to go.

[InSutterWeTrust]

I just came back from a Carnival Cruise last week.

As Phanuthier said, budget in tips. The cruise ship can automatically bill you for the tips at the end of your cruise, this covers your things like your waiter, waiter assistant, housekeepers who tidy up your room everyday.

Also if you do an excursions the drivers who take you to the places usually expect tips as well. Also about excursions when the ship says its leaving at 4:00pm, it really leaves at 4pm, so make sure your back on the boat.
They have everything scheduled perfectly on these ships so they are pretty dead on with times.

Most cruise ships dont take cash when your purchasing stuff on the ship they will give you a ship card which is directly billed to your credit card. On Carnival we were able to watch our balance of the card on our tv in the bedroom so we kept an eye on what we spent. Our first cruise we didnt pay much attention and it added up quickly.

If your Pop drinkers, you can buy a pop card at the begining of your cruise to drink unlimited pop. It cost me $50 for an unlimited pop card, but that was for a 7 day cruise.

The cruise companies love to take your picture, everytime you dock somewhere they are out there with someone dressed up wanting to take your picture, then they print all the pictures out and you can go pick out your pictures if you want, but they arent that cheap.

Check to see if your allowed to bring any alcohol or pop on with you on the cruise. I believe we were allowed to bring a six pack of beer with Carnival, but when I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise we were not allowed to bring any.

Enjoy the cruise, they are really fun!

[AvsJerk]

I tried the big gulp trick like Scoopdogg, long story short...it didn't work.

[monkeyman]

What ever you do, do not get him started on katie holmes, anti-depressant medication , or Psychology...
I'm sorry, i couldn't resist.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by fotze

Always curious about cruises, sounds like you are a financial hostage from these stories. Is it really that bad?

No, it's not. I'm going on my 5th cruise this March and love every minute of them. Tipping is really not that bad (on ship) - if you max the recommended tips - it comes out around $200 per cabin/week. Excursions can get pricey but we always check out those excursions before going without going through the ships and usually they are much cheaper.

As for buying things on ships, ya you get a card that handles all your funds but you can pay it down as the cruise goes on or let it build and pay it off at the end. The last cruise I ended up paying of 90% of my tab from playing craps - so i didn't mind that. On average we racked up about $700/week on the card. Again, it all depends on how much you spend.

As for alcohol. I always bring my own but ya, you have to kind of sneak it in. I found plastic mickeys are the easiest as I carry it on myself and the metal detector is none the wiser. But we always buy a wine package as well and you can take your bottle anywhere aboard.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by pylon

ALWAYS negotiate with cabbies before you get in the taxi.

2nd that

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

We've only booked two things so far. Scuba diving and a Zip line thingy

Have you done scuba before? I just ask because I did the "Discover Scuba" thing in Mexico (with Canadian instructors) and then came home and got certified. While taking my courses there was a lot of stuff that would have been good to know before going 25 feet deep in the ocean.

[wooohooo]

I love going on cruises but the problem is they're always docking in the early, early mornings and they leave pretty early so that leaves you no choice to sleep in. I always have problems sleeping and so sometimes I have to pop a sleep med to get to bed.

Also, bring some sea sickness meds. Most of the cruises I've been to I had no problems but one one day it was crazy rocky and I threw up 3 times.

That alochol in a water bottle sounds genius... I must try that some other time.


Depending on the cruise line, some give you an amount that you have to pay, some you have an option of how much... I think.

I don't remember what Carnival was but I went on Celebrity and there's a set amount you pay and there's an option to tip more.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Have you done scuba before? I just ask because I did the "Discover Scuba" thing in Mexico (with Canadian instructors) and then came home and got certified. While taking my courses there was a lot of stuff that would have been good to know before going 25 feet deep in the ocean.

No, I haven't done the Discover Scuba thing. I've never been scuba diving. My my wife has.

[Jayems]

We had our honeymoon cruise that left from San Juan. We went to most of the places, in that order, on your second leg.

First thing when you get to San Juan is you line up for a cab. Your rate is non-negotiable with the driver. There is some sort of tourism board that prevents them from overcharging. We took a cab straight to Old San Juan, about 20 minutes by cab from the airport, and it was like $25 USD. There's someone there who mediates between you and the cabbie depending on your destination.

We stayed at the Sheraton, it was nice. There's a burger joint downstairs (outside) and a casino there too, if that's your bag.



Now, I see that you have the same departure time as us. They'll tell you that you can't check in until 5pm or whatever, but that's not true. We lined up around noon I think. The hotel held our bags in their holding room until noon. Anyways, we did get in but there was a security delay, so we ended up sitting around doing nothing for hours inside. They told us we could leave and come back, but we didn't. So, I'd recommended planning on doing something in Old San Juan that day. Go check out the coastal forts etc.

I assume you're on a Carnival trip because of your itinerary. If you are, we had a fun time. There was a casino. They had poker, but it was one of those electronic tables with no dealer. Kind of odd.

As for trips, we did the underwater scooter in St. Thomas. I'd HIGHLY recommend doing that. Lots of fun. Think it was called Bosse Underwater Adventure or something. You can pre-book online and avoid rushing when you get on the cruise and miss the long lines to register. You can also book on your TV in your cabin, iirc.

We did a jungle adventure course in Domnica, it was okay. When we got back near the port, we kind of went off the main drag and were quickly approached by a smelly, homeless dude missing half an arm. He was trying to be our tour guide and leading us further away from the common areas. I quickly realized what was up and moved along, but he kept following. I honestly thought he was going to try and rob us or was getting us to where his buddies were laying in wait. I gave him a few bucks and he went away. Not 10 minutes later, even after sparking up a conversation with us, telling us he used to pick apples in Ontario in summers, he came to our table where we were having a beer and begged for money.

We did something that was advertized as a a mud bath in St. Lucia. Worst day of the trip, by far. First of all, it was like a 3hr bus ride just to get there. Also, you stop at these points of interest and are swarmed by people hawking necklaces. They're very, very pushy. You just have to say no and keep walking. They'll try and get you to hold them.. don't. Just ignore them, but be polite. They're all workiing together with your driver, so they'll stop wherever their buddies are so you can buy crap. Anyway, after the marathon bus ride, we get to this 'mud bath'. it's basically a big crater with black, bubbling water from a volcano or something. Stinks like sulphur. You take some pics there, then go down to the 'mud bath'. It's basically water hot enough to cook lobster in that's black. It's incredibly unconfortable, but we manged to get our bodies used to it enough to sit for 3 or 4 mins. There was some crazy dude rubbing mud over himself too.. good times.




We scuba dived in St. Kitts. It was okay, did a small shipwreck. Didn't last long enough. It was a discover scuba thing. So we had like 30 mins chatting about stuff, 45 mins in the pool, then waited around FOREVER for their boat to come, and I was scuba'ing for no more than 15 mins before they guy told me to go back up to the surface cause I was out of air. I was royally pissed. (And no, it was not because I was breathing hard. My tank wasn't full apparently, and they refused to give me another one and re-join the group, including my wife. . But, it was such a bad experience not getting to stay underwater for long that I didn't tip much, or at all. Which is incredibly uncommon for me, considering I know they live on tips, etc. But, you get brutal service, you can't reward them. I hope they smartened up for the next bunch.

Barbados, we did a party ship pirate boat thing. Was okay, i guess. they had a snorkel portion, but there was 200 people in the water in a small place. I was constantly being kicked in the face.

Antigua we did a kayak and snorkel adventure. Very, very good.

I'd say that 95% of the people vacationing on the cruise were all from Puerto Rico. They are an incredibly fun group who know how to have a good time. However, their knack for congregating at and blocking doorways is infuriating.


Anyway, I had a great trip. Weather was fantastic and other than a few incidents, it was a great time. If you have any specific questions, I've been on 3 Carribean cruises and seen most countries. Ask away.

[Sylvanfan]

Try to avoid booking the tours from the cruise ship. Usually you can find the same tour company selling the tours on shore for a lot less, and you can often book online in advance.

If they still have the ice cream dispenser don't grab a large dinner plate, load it up with ice cream and go back to your room. I seriously saw people doing this, and I don't mean one person, it was quite common. At least they burned a few calories transporting their plate of soft serve.

[csnarpy]

On the subject of seasickness. If you get this in anyway, bring along the patch - it's called Transderm (i think). You just put it on and where it behind your ear.

My wife gets motion sick for almost everything and she swears by this patch.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

What ever you do, do not get him started on katie holmes, anti-depressant medication , or Psychology...
I'm sorry, i couldn't resist.

Read the thread just for this. Didn't dissapoint.

[Pinner]

I loaded 2 large water bottles with booze and put them in my boots/ checked luggage.

We also did the (included) tips, I don't remember how much tho... And like 20 bucks each for the week. We didn't leave a mess or get the bed turn down, so we were very easy.

In the morning I would just zip up the elevator to grab coffees, it was alot quicker than room service.

I found the food wasn't that hot in the dinning room, trying to serve hundreds of people at the same time is not a good idea.

Carnival Spirit was our ship for the inside passage / Glacier Bay national park cruise.

P.S. The glaciers have been melting up there for hundreds of years.

[boogerz]

Antigua is amazing. Try and stay as long as you can

The best way to soak up the local culture is to avoid the tourist/white people places that the cruise ship recommends and has shuttles to. If you are white skinned and don't know the culture, you'll be relatively safe in St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, Dominica, and Barbados(some areas) if you decide to venture on your own into town. Very easy going locals in each of these places. Without doing some wandering ou will not experience eating foods such as salt fish, roti, real chicken curry w/ atchar(?sp), or cook up rice

Dominica and Grenada don't really have any good beaches. Beautiful scenery, spices, and scuba diving though.


Try and avoid using utensils from local cook shops or food places. One fish stand in Dominica I ate at had no running water and was quite unclean(possibly the dirtiest place I ate at while on my cruise). The food was good and I drank a beer with a cop(I was underaged at the time), but it could have been disastrous without the proper immunizations and precautions.

It's also a given that you shouldn't dress very gaudy and/or wear a lot of jewelery while you are off the boat. That's just asking for unwanted attention.

Also, each Caribbean island has it's own common brew, so make sure you try the popular beer from each island. Try some 60% proof white rum too. Very potent, but it tastes great and goes down surprisingly smooth.

[Esoteric]

DO book excursions online before you depart. You can save a ton of money, plan out what you are doing, and you know what to expect.

I did a tour with Sunny Liston in St. Thomas - http://sunnylistontours.com/
And in Dominica I can't remember the name, but our guide was fantastic, I'll update later.