Cruising with Norwegian Cruise Line

LimeLight

How much money do you think we should need on an NCL cruise around the med?

daveyjp

It depends what is included in the fare you have paid.

On board costs could be. Tips, drinks, port excursions, port transfer buses, on board shops, speciality restaurants, casino, quizzes etc.

You could need nothing, you could spend thousands.

stoneman

You don't really need to take money for the ship. You leave CC details and settle up with that at the end. You will have to pay a $12 per day per passenger gratuity so allow for that. Then there is money you might want to spend in ports. All of your food and water/coffee/tea/ and squashes are included.

vivatifosi

I've been on a couple of NCL cruises and really enjoyed them. I found that I needed a bit more money than I would on other cruise lines, but that's more to do with how they are structured than anything else. You should budget the tips at $12 per day as mentioned. I don't drink alcohol, but drinks on NCL are relatively expensive and they do scan cases to ensure booze isn't smuggled on. I also find on NCL that it is nice on a couple of evenings to switch things about and eat at one of their specialists restaurants for which there is a surcharge.

Also you should allow money for each port that you are stopping at. For example, if you are going to Rome, Civitavecchia is some way from the city, so you will need to budget either for a tour or for the cost of trains.

Cruise Critic has an active NCL community and there are plenty of threads on the forum there about budgeting. See www.cruisecritic.co.uk.

LimeLight

Cheers folks.
I've already paid the gratuities, which come to £30 or thereabouts.

Can't wait! It's the first cruise I've ever been on.

Neil49

Cruise ships operate a cashless system (apart from the casino) and you use your cruise card (which acts your cabin key/security pass/payment card etc) for everything and get an itemised bill at the end of the cruise. You can also request an interim bill to see how much you have spent so far.

I do't know whether NCL are like many other US currency ships but just to advise that you should opt to have your own bank/credit card company do the currency conversion from USD to £ and not have the ship do it for you (as their rate of exchange is dire!!!).

Have a good time.