Daily budget for a cruise.

Captain_Bargain

I am cruising for the very first time next month (Norwegian Epic's maiden voyage Southampton to NYC :j) but have no idea how much I should allow for on-board expenditure. I realise this depends on how much I spend (natch) and the kinds of things I want to do...but as I am on a very tight budget, what do people think is a reasonable daily allowance to enjoy being on board without going overboard?:wave:

There are no excursions to budget for - but on board life is a mix of included and charged for activities.

Caz3121

have a look over at cruisecritic and you will see there are forums for each cruise line to checkout what is included (some lines include soft drinks etc) and what bar prices are like. We ate not drinkers so normally spend around £100 a week excluding excursions

vivatifosi

Hi Captain Bargain. I have cruised before on Norwegian on a few occasions. On non-port days the main expense is food and drink, entertainment and pampering, and every day you have the tips to factor in which can be pre-paid in advance. For us the pound went down against the dollar and it was more cost effective to do this way.

So some questions.

1. Where do you want to eat? If you are happy to eat in the main dining rooms each day, or in the buffet or fast food location, there should not be additional charges. This was the case last year when I was on the Gem, but the Epic hasn't yet launched so I don't know what will be charged for what yet. Assuming its the same, then you need to allow about $10-20 per person each time you eat in one of the other eating locations of an evening.

2. What do you want to drink? You can get limited free drinks (juice in morning, tea, coffee) at machines in buffet throughout the day as well as free ice-creams. Everything else you need to pay for and alcoholic drinks in particular are quite expensive. You can make prices cheaper by buying beers in a bucket or taking up the wine package at the beginning. I've tried to get you a sample drinks menu loaded but I can't. If you go to https://www.cruisecritic.com then to the NCL forum you'll be able to read through the posts and reviews and find one, but its hard to get onto at the moment.

3. Do you want to use the spa? The spas on NCL ships are great. They may offer a spa pass for the duration of the trip where you can use the facilities without having treatments. I use this even on port days. Get back from a trip, have a shower, relax on a heated bed, use the spa pool, have a sauna and a steam, another shower and get ready for dinner. Works out about $15 per day. If you want treatments, the nice ones are about $200 each.

4. Entertainment. The entertainment options where you can spend a lot of money are the art auctions (read up on these on the web before you go, they can come across as a bit of a rip-off) and bingo. Both are ways of spending a lot of money. If you must play bingo, the MSE way of doing it would be waiting until the last day when the jackpot must go if it hasn't already done so. Those who played daily will have built the pot up, then you come along with an equal chance of winning it. Sweet. Of course there's the casino too where you can really lose your shirt if you aren't careful. The evening shows on NCL were pretty good and free on the other ships. Because its a new format, I don't know if say Blue Man is a charged show, but even if it was I'd pay to see it.

In practice (taking tips out of the equation, you can spend $0 per day if you want to - just drinking those free drinks, eating in the free restaurants and participating in the free entertainment. Or at the other end of the scale you could spend over $100 per person per day if you want to have plenty of alcoholic drinks, a spa pass, eat out every night at a speciality restaurant and participate in the paid entertainment such as beer tasting. More if you want daily spa treatments too. This excludes buying anything in their shops which you may also want to do, though a lot of what they sell is very glitzy and American looking.

In practice my cruise bill on any cruise line is normally about $30 per day. I have a great trip but I'm not a big drinker and don't have spa treatments, so allow more if that's you.

getmore4less

For all things the EPIC TA you need.

http://epicmadhatters.com

Join in on the meet and mingle and other activities.

precruise meet in Southampton as well

For the TA drinks and speciality food will be the main optional expences.

You could do it for tips only(if not prepaid) and spend nothing.
We will have $150pp for the speciality and chargable events but we are part of a big group and we like to do them.

(ps : at southampton taking on a few bottles is usualy no problem, we put a bottle in case and carry on.)

bcl999

That madhatters link isn't working this morning.

Captain_Bargain

Wow! Thank you all so much for your kind advice and suggestions - just what this cruise newbie (and MSE forum newbie) needed! I have noted all your helpful insights and will follow up the leads you have provided.

Thank you! :beer: