Avoiding Cruise Tricks that Can Cost You Money

Cruising can be a relaxing, cost-efficient way to travel. You have transportation, accommodations and entertainment all rolled into one. However, cruise lines often have tricks up their sleeves to insure that you, the passenger, will spend more money than originally intended. Having just returned from a somewhat disappointing cruise vacation myself, I have identified several "cruise tricks" that I would like to share with you.

Mandatory secret service charge. I was pretty steamed about this one. Each passenger is automatically charged ten dollars per person per day on top of the price of the ticket. After a seven day cruise, this really adds up! The purpose of the charge is to tip your room attendants, wait staff, etc. Since it's mandatory, you have no choice on how you get to reward their service. To make matters worse, we were not even told about the charge until AFTER we had bought our tickets! I didn't know about it until the cruise line sent my cruise documents in the mail. In this same paperwork, they had the nerve to suggest that I could tip MORE on top of the mandatory charge if I wanted!

Shore excursions. These are the guided tours that the cruise line tries to sell you. They are outrageously expensive. Do I really need to pay 50 dollars per person to ride a bus to the beach, have some hamburgers, and listen to loud music? Of course, there are fun excursions like swimming with dolphins and such, but they cost an arm and a leg. The good thing is, you can take the same tours from the locals for 30 or 40 percent less. But the cruise line spends a lot of energy trying to make buying the excursions more attractive, which leads me to the next point...