A Cheapo's Guide to Avoiding Cash Grabs - Cruisin' Part 3
The cruise experience has changed so much over the last twenty years that it is now a totally different product you're buying now. Of course, it's all related to economics and if you calculate what a cruise of 1985 would cost in today's dollars, it would be triple what we pay today. I miss the old way though - the exclusivity and pampering and particularly that we were never approached to spend more money. You could cruise then for a month and have almost nothing owing on your shipboard account. Cocktail and wine prices used to be at 'duty-free' prices and there were so many cocktail parties with free drinks. The prices of merchandise at the stores used to be so low compared to onshore. Not any longer - these are the things that grate on my nerves, that have really caught my attention:- There's an ice cream bar on the Sun Deck - selling Haagen Daaz etc.
Solution: Have your ice cream at lunch time, either at the buffet or in the dining room - There are two coffee bars selling fancy concoctions - one is in the Atrium and one in the internet cafe
Solution: Apparently there isn't one other than switching to tea because I'm told the free coffee is awful all the time. But a coffeeholic can buy an espresso, cappucino or cafe latte for $1.50 to $1.75 in the internet cafe and my source says they're very good. - There's always a culinary demo on a cruise and usually they hand out a photocopy of the recipes after. Not so this time! They were peddling a $30 cookbook as you went out the door. They gave us a recipe sheet but not for the ones demonstrated.
Solution: Take notes or don't cook - Wine tasting has historically had a charge attached, usually $5 which was rebated when you ordered any bottle of wine. Now they charge $8.50, refund $5 on wine and keep the $3.50. They did let us keep the little dessert wine glass though.
Solution: Become an elite member like me and it's FREEEEEEE! - Photos have always been a cash grab, but they now sell albums, cameras, and offer photo printing services, etc.
Solution: Have friends take your photo with your own camera - Internet access costs 35 cents a minute / $21 an hour and it can be very slow sometimes. It can take five minutes to just open your email site. Some days, I have used over $30 worth of time.
Solution: Become an elite member like me and it's FREEEEEEE! - Spa - I guess they always charged for these services but now they have more than ever and then they have the fancy sauna and steam bath.
Solution: Use the free sauna and steam and have your partner do a massage - They used to provide 24 hour lemonade and iced tea free. They don't have the lemonade anymore. Now they sell a refillable soft-drink container for about $30 that you have to carry around with you I guess.
Solution: Drink iced tea - Mini-bar in room - the drinks are pretty pricey!
Solution: Become an elite member like me and it's FREEEEEEE! - Sabatini's is the additional price restaurant - $20 per person, but they have about 20 courses. It's pretty empty most of the time. People that have used it say that they couldn't possibly eat all that was offered and those that tried were laid up the next day with gastric distress. It's really delicious apparently but so much of it and so rich. I think large young men would be the only ones to enjoy it.
Solution: Partake in anytime dining where you have four theme restaurants to choose from - Pacific Moon Asian, Sante-Fe Tex-Mex, Sterling Steak House and Vivaldi Italian. So if you choose Vivaldi, the Italian one, that should stand-in for Sabatini's. - Stewards wander around trying to push the sale of alcoholic beverages in the Horizon Buffet
Solution: Drink iced tea - Dining room liqueurs are pushed every few nights - I ask them if the captain's paying for them and they slink off.
Solution: Do as we did - we went to successive repeater cocktail parties and carried out drinks to the dining room after
posted by O'Leary @ 11:55 AM
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