Trying to find a good cruise=Overwhelmed!!

[momof2inohio]

Well we decided for our family vacation this year we would do a cruise. This will be our first cruise. I have spent hours looking for good deals. The cruise prices aren't so bad but when you include the flight option it really raised the price. We want to do a 4 or 5 night bahamas cruise. I found a carnival 4 night cruise for a total of 1200.00 for 4 people. I checked the option for flights and it said 600.00 per person for our flight. I went back to expedia and found a flight on airtran for 168.00 per person.

I have several questions:

Should we fly in the night before our ship leaves or the morning the ship leaves? I worry about our flight not arriving on time and missing the boat. The ship leaves at 5 pm so I am guessing we should fly in the night before and stay in a hotel?

What are some fun things to do when we land in the bahamas? I dont want to spend a ton of money on the extra excursions.

I know food is included but it said that drinks are not. Are the drinks reasonable or expensive. DH and I would like to have some adult beverages

Passports: it said we dont need them since we are leaving from the US and returning to the US but the website recommends them in case of an emergency. I'm still not sure if we should bother to get them or not?

Are there any other expenses that we will have out of pocket that I am not thinking of other than drinks, excursions and gift shop items?

Thanks

[Iluvdisney]

I would get the passports.

Drinks on the ship are $ but there are ways to save on them depending on who you are cruising.

[JrandMdB]

My family and I went on a cruise for the first time a year ago May it was Carnival as well and there are a LOT of hidden costs that you may not be seeing in the "pricing" that Carnival gives you. First off the ships dont handle cash transactions so you will have to have cash to put in an onboard account ahead of time or a credit card... 200.00-250.00 per person is about the best amount...then there are gratuity fees.. I was soooooo mad about those because I wasnt aware of them until the end of the cruise.. that cost us an additional 170.00 I think it was. Also we were charged for fuel-surcharges which were like 40.00 per person I think it was. All of our meals and foods were "free" with our trip but all drinks aside from coffee, tea, water are more... sodas... wow! I ended up buying a soda pass for us because the costs were insane. As for the excursions.. granted they are awesome ect. but the are also expensive. For me... my husband and I talked about it.. we wont be doing another cruise at least not while we have kids at home... its a lot more expensive than it appears. But.. if you really are set on going start looking for those hidden costs... because they are there! Good Luck!

[JrandMdB]

Forgot to mention... even as of last year we were told we "had" to have the passports even though it was listed as "optional" basically... those bad boys arent cheap either! They were working on a passport card which is intended for North American travel to include for cruising but as of last year the bugs werent worked out yet and we had to get the standard ones which I was disappointed because the Passcard was a lot cheaper.. you might look into that if you decide to follow thru with the cruise.

As for flights... we had such a large party we decided it was cheaper to drive instead of flying. We all drove from Indiana to FL and last year when fuel costs were in the high $3 range it still was cheaper than flying... GL!

[amys]

we are looking at a cruise right now - a friend goes a lot

For drinks - she said if you put a couple bottles of wine or a 12pk of soda in your luggage, they have no problem with it (reasonable is the key)

You can opt out of the gratuity and do your own tipping - my friend does this as all the gratuity gets pooled and split, but if you do your own tipping, then that person gets the tip. If you don't opt out it is $10 per person, per day.

Excursions are definitely not cheap, but you can explore on your own - just don't be late returning to the ship - they WILL sail without you and then you will have to have a passport to get home.

Carnival has a ship card where you can put money into an account and use the card to make purchases that are charged to that card - then they will let you know if your balance gets low.

[momof2inohio]

Thanks for all the tips! I think we have decided on a 4 or 5 night Bahamas cruise. We found some flights going to Orlando for around $188.00 per person round trip. I am very excited since this will be our first cruise. It looks like there's alot for the kids to do so they will have a great time

[amys]

A quick note to you - oil by the barrel is over $70 right now. I don't know when you are traveling, but you may want to budget the fees on that into your trip right now.

[judymd]

vacationstogo.com has cheap cruises.

[morihuel]

I'm also looking into prices as well for a 4 night cruise, however, I am looking for Royal Caribbean since I have heard good things about it. I was looking on cruise.com and have wonderful prices. You dont mention if you are traveling with a senior or are Florida residents. The combination of both will give you amazing prices, but you can only access them with an operator because they can combine and see better results than we do on the internet.

As far as flying, I'd fly the night before, I worked for a cruise line and I witnessed many people miss the time the ship leaves.

As far as gratuities, look for cruises that include it in the price, it is better that way.

Good luck.