Life Nomadic: Tynan’s Top Ten Cruise Tips

by Tynan on


Ahoy! Here’s a quick followup on my last post about cruising, posted from Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas. I’ve been on a bunch of cruises now, and have come up with a few tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your cruise.

1. If you’re really into safety, go to the “mandatory” lifeboat safety drill. If you’ve been to one before or think that you can handle following the green arrows and putting on your life vest, stay inside your cabin. They don’t actually check names or your cabin to make sure you go.

2. Never go on official shore excursions. If you just walk off the ship you’ll find lines of touts waiting to give you the same thing for half the price, usually with more flexibility if you want something slightly different. Walk past the touts and you’ll usually find stores offering the same tours for 25-30% of the cruise line quoted price.

3. When choosing your cabin, choose one near the stairwells and elevators. You’ll be making that walk many times every day.

4. At dinner you can order as many things off the menu as you want, not just one appetizer, salad, and entree. My record is 31 plates divided between a friend and I.5. You can also have meals customized based on your dietary needs. Contacting the cruise line in advance will get more promises than actual actions, but if you talk to the Maitre’D the first night, he’ll make sure you get what you want.

6. Don’t eat your meals at the buffets or informal dining rooms. The food quality in the main dining rooms is ten times better. If you’re hungry before or after your assigned dinner time, go to the other seating and eat two dinners.

7. Insist on carrying your own bags up to your room when you check in. If you give them to the porters you’ll end up waiting in your cabin for a few hours for your stuff, and you’ll have to tip them. It’s a short walk to carry them yourself and you’ll be able to explore the ship as soon as you get in.

8. On long cruises, don’t buy an internet package until the first sea day. The daily newspaper will usually have a 50% off sale, and you can use the minutes you buy for the rest of the cruise.

9. Make friends early. A good way to do this is to enter contests or sing karaoke on the first day there. People will recognize you and start conversations. If you have a choice of what size table to sit at, pick the biggest one possible.

10. You will be assigned a checkout time for the last day of the cruise. The cheaper your cabin, generally, the earlier it will be. Do like I do and ignore the time. Pack up the night before and sleep in until the maid comes knocking to clean your room for the next group. I’ve been the last person off the ship every single time.

Bonus tip: Make friends with the staff. They’re from all different countries and have all sorts of stories. They also know the ins and outs of each port and might even invite you to the staff parties, which are a lot crazier than the passenger parties.

Life Nomadic: Luxury Cruise Ships at Hostel Prices

by Tynan on


When I was a kid, my breakfast cereal of choice was Kellog’s Corn Flakes. The back of the box, which I relied on for breakfast-time entertainmant, sometimes had contests to win cruises on Carnival Cruise lines. I guess advertising works, because since then I had always wanted to go on a cruise.

I had no idea how much cruises cost. I never saw prices advertised, so I assumed that they were like first class air travel – too expensive to actually consider.

As I found out many years later, cruises aren’t expensive at all. In fact, if you know what you’re doing, you can stay and eat on a luxury cruise ship for less than a hostel.The one notable downside to cruise travel is that you only visit each place for one or two days at most. On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about meals, you don’t have to pack and unpack between spots, and the ship is a destination itself.

Before I became a nomad I focused on round trip cruises. Leave out of Houston, cruise around the Caribbean and Central America for a week, and end up back in Houston. Now I use cruises as transportation whenever possible, seeking out one way tickets. That means that the price of the cruise is counting against the plane ticket, meals, and lodging I would have paid otherwise.

The gold standard for a good deal in cruising is fifty dollars a day, including taxes and port charges. Except for a transatlantic on the Queen Mary II, I’ve never paid more than that. You will also have to tip $10 per day total to the waiters, maids, and cabin stewards.

The first place I look for cruise deals is the Cruise Sales on Travelzoo, particularly the exotic cruise section. Exotic is a euphemism for cruises with strange, long, and usually one way routes. This is exactly what I want, but such strange itineraries usualy don’t fit into the standard weeklong vacations that most people go on, so they get seriously discounted.

The next step, once you find the cruise you want, is to go over to Cruise Compete and put in a request. Cruise Compete is an amazing site where cruise agents fight for your business by offering private quotes. These quotes are always cheaper than you’ll find anywhere else, often times by half.

For example, I put in a request today for a 23 day cruise from China through Japan and Alaska to Vancouver. The advertised price on Travelzoo was $1149, but I got a quote for $647. That’s $28 per day, including all fees, for a room, all meals, and entertainment. This particular cruise also happens to be on Princess, which is one of the best cruise lines.

Some of the very best deals can be had during repositioning cruises. Cruise ships tend to migrate, usually across the Atlantic, every fall and spring, and offer very low prices to passengers who want to go on a long cruise with a lot of days at sea. In fact, I’m on a fourteen day from the Dominican Republic to London as you read this.

If you can get past the slightly overdone tackiness on most cruise ships, you’ll really enjoy your time on them. For the partying types there are clubs and bars all over the place, as well as half a dozen pools and hot tubs. Many newer ships have attractions like miniature golf, rock climbing, and even ice skating rinks. I like these things, but my favorite part of being on a ship is getting away from the distractions of cell phones and constant internet access, and finding some peace and quiet to get work done or stare out at the sea and do some thinking.

My next post will be ten tips on getting the most out of your cruise, so start looking for the right one now!

Daily Travel Deal – Royal Caribbean Cruises starting at just $229 + bonus credit

by Scott Carmichael on

Royal Caribbean is currently offering a huge variety of very nicely priced cruise packages, starting at just $229.

That low price actually gets you a 3 night/4 day cruise from Miami to the Bahamas (and back).

To make the deal even better, they’ll also throw in a $25 on-board credit on select dates, making the final price just a couple of bucks over $200.

That $200 includes all your meals, entertainment, pool access, rock climbing, 9 bars, a casino, movie theater and a fitness center/spa. That means you get an all inclusive vacation for just $68 a night!

If you have a little more time (or money), you’ll find a nice lineup of other cruises including 10 nights in Alaska for $1049 (with a $200 on-board credit) or even a 12 night transatlantic cruise from London, via France, Ireland, Iceland and Canada to Boston for $1099.

Of course, these prices are all based on an inside room, but in my experience, if you plan your ship time well, you’ll only be using the room for sleeping. Upgrades to an oceanview room start at just $50. As with most travel deals, availability will be limited, and not all dates will be available for the lowest price.

Check out the entire lineup of Royal Caribbean cruise deals here. If you’d prefer to keep both feet on solid ground, be sure to check out the top 5 travel deals!

Man overboard! Passenger falls off Bahamas cruise ship

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The Coast Guard has given up its search for a 39-year-old Norwegian Cruise Line passenger off the Bahamas. The man fell off the boat early yesterday morning, approximately 60 miles north of Nassau. Though he hasn’t been identified, other passengers saw him take the plunge.

Other cruise ships in the area contributed to the search for this lone moron passenger. But, at 8 PM yesterday, the Coast Guard said it was suspending the search after having scoured 590 square miles.

Clearly, it pays not to get too close to the edge of the ship … unless being on a boat isn’t your idea of going out to sea.

UPDATE: Our hearts go out to the family of the victim. We are sorry for your loss.

U.S. Calls for Limits on Antarctic Tourism

by Kraig Becker on

Following in the wake of the report released earlier this week that an “inexperienced and over confident” captain caused an Antarctic cruise ship to sink, the U.S. is calling for tighter restrictions on tourism to the Southern Ocean, and the continent itself.

According to this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is asking for limitations to the size of cruise ships traveling the Antarctic waters, and limits to the number of passengers that can go ashore as well. Smaller vessels would be more maneuverable when avoiding icebergs and navigating the treacherous waters in the region, and limiting the number of visitors who can go on land would help protect the fragile environment there as well.

The article notes that the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators has its own code of conduct which has similar restrictions. But following that code is completely voluntary, and with the sharp increase in tourism to Antarctica over the past decade, there is a growing fear that disaster could strike. This was underscored no only with the sinking of the cruise liner in 2007, but two more ships running aground in this past season.

There are 28 signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty, which is now more than 50 years old. Last week those nations met at a conference designed to review that treaty, and the new guidelines were proposed there. If the proposal is adopted, ships carrying more than 500 passengers will be banned, and no more than 100 passengers can go ashore at any given time. The proposal also calls for one guide per 20 passengers as well.

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