How to Budget for a Cruise

"Hi! My name is Melissa Schenk on behalf of expertvillage.com today we’re discussing cruise traveling tips. Now let’s talk about budgeting for your cruise. Of course perhaps you’ve already paid for your cruise and maybe you have to fly to the ship so your airline fees they’ve all been accounted for as well but let’s again talk about budgeting for the cruise a lot of things people tend to forget. There are a lot of things on the ship that are of course inclusive your meals, the cabin you’ve already paid for all of that but there’s always those incidental fees especially alcohol and any extras in the evening. What the ship would do when you board the ship and you head to the front desk they will give you what’s called a sale and sign card. The sale and sign card is kind of like a credit card so you never have an exchange of money, so for instance if you’re going out at night and you buy an alcoholic beverage they will swipe that card, keep your receipt. Another good thing is use that calculator and keep track of what you’re spending because by the end of the week perhaps you’re on a 3, 5, 7 day cruise, if you’re on a 7 day cruise you might not be keeping track of what you have spend and you’ll get a bill at the end of that week and you might be in for a very, very big surprise. Couple of other things to keep in mind when budgeting for your cruise, when you’re going ashore or you’re going to do any shopping you might want to budget for that. Do you want to go into any shore excursions? Keep in mind do some research before you leave and figure out what it is exactly you want to get out of your trip. Are you going to relax? Do you need to spend money? Do you want to go to the spa while you’re on the ship? All of those things will cost money and I’ll tell you actually some ways to save money while you’re on a cruise a little bit later on in our segments."