Is this your first time on a cruise? I just experienced mine last week and I learned some things along the way that I needed to share. Last week I shared 9 tips your need to know about on your first cruise. So check out that post as well. But let’s get into 9 MORE tips your need to know about on your first cruise.
Going on a cruise can be scary, but exciting at the same time, and if you have never done it… I am sure you are just like me if you are reading this post. You are doing a bunch of research to see what you are getting yourself into.
Luggage
Make sure you bring a carry-on with the most essential things you will need for that first day. Your room will not be ready until about 3p or later and your luggage will not be in front of your room until after dinner. My biggest tip for luggage is to check your luggage when you get to the port on embarkment day.
On disembarkment day keep your luggage with you so when you get off the ship you don’t have to wait for your luggage. We kept ours with us when leaving and walked right off the ship at our designated time all the way out to the street to wait for our Lyft.
Buy the drink package
Doing my research I saw online that the Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas drink package was about 63 dollars. I am sure it is if you buy it online, but once we were on board they had a deal going buy one get one half off. 81.00 Dollars for the first and 40.50 for the second. That is per day! Our thought was we were not going to be drinking a lot of alcohol and they do have free drinks in certain areas like orange juice, fruit punch, coffee, and water. We opted not to get the package.
But we wish we did because 80% of our bill was buying drinks. The unlimited drink package includes alcoholic beverages as well as soda. It would have been a little bit more than what our bill was in total, but it would have saved us a lot of time looking for the places with the free drinks. You can only drink so much lemonade before you get heartburn… LOL
Gratuities included
When you buy drinks on the cruise ship gratuities are already included. We did not know that when we first got on the ship and bought a couple of drinks. For the first half of the day, we were tipping because they printed us out a paper receipt. We did not read the receipt. It is fine if you want to tip more for excellent service, but just know tips are already included in the price you are asked to pay.
Also, they do charge you about 14.50 a day in gratuities for the services you don’t normally tip for like your room attendant and the servers at the buffets.
Buy the internet package
We were naive in thinking we didn’t need the internet package. We were on vacation… relaxing by the pool we wanted to scroll Instagram or Facebook but couldn’t because we didn’t have the package. Again this is also charged by the day and I heard from plenty of people it can be shotty service, but what do you expect… YOU ARE ON A FREAKING BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN!!!
Really I needed it because I forgot to transfer money to my main account for a bill to come out and spent 2 days wondering if my account was going to be overdrawn because I forgot I had TWO bills coming out. As soon as we got to Costa Maya we found a Starbucks ordered a coffee and soaked up their wifi for a bit just to catch up on things and make sure my account was not in the negative. Buy the internet package… don’t be like me. LOL
Pool/Jacuzzi are packed
I thought when going on this cruise I would be living in my bathing suit because I would be in the jacuzzi or pool the whole time. Nope… I went in the Jacuzzi once for about half an hour. On Brilliance of the Seas, they have an indoor and outdoor pool and 3 jacuzzis. They were very packed, but I still enjoyed hanging out on the lounge chairs.
I spent more time swimming in the Costa Maya Port pool than on the actual ship.
Bring your towels back
You can get pool towels if you go in the jacuzzi or the pool on the ship. You can even take them into port with you. But make sure you bring them back to where you got them from. Mike and I made the mistake of leaving ours in our room thinking housekeeping would take them… No, they did not and on our last day of the cruise, we checked our account and found that they were going to charge us 50 dollars for 2 towels.
Of course, we went to guest services and explained that we thought housekeeping would take them. They said we could leave them in our room and they would inform housekeeping to reverse that charge for us. Great… wonderful. I know we should have returned the towels (that was our mistake for assuming), but next time maybe add that charge after housekeeping goes in our room and sees we did in fact TAKE the towels.
Either way, learn from our little mishap and return your pool towels to the attendants by the pool.
Assigned Dinner time
You can eat in the buffet multiple times a day when it is open. You can also eat there for dinner. We had an assigned dinner time at the Minstrel at 8p. We went the first night and dinner was wonderful, but every day while walking around we would stop by Minstrel to look at their menu for the night. Nothing sounded good after that first night.
So don’t feel obligated that you HAVE to have dinner there. You can always at the buffet.
More fun on the ship than in port
I think if you are going on a 4-day cruise that the fun you have on the ship out ways the fun you would have when you get to your destination. I loved going on a 4-day cruise to Mexico the downfall was we only had maybe 8 hours in Mexico. There was no real reason for us to leave port and risk not being back in time for departure.
With that being said we had more fun actually on the ship than in port.
The motion of the ocean at home
The above gif states my exact words to Mike… This is the biggest one that I can’t believe no one told me in all the blogs and Youtube videos I watched… NO ONE said ANYTHING about the motion of the ocean when you get home. Our trip was 4 days and when I got home the next 4-5 days I felt my house or the world moving as I walked. For those 4-5 days I was taking mid-day naps because I was getting so nauseous. The motion-eaze I bought while on the ship was not working at home. I just had to deal with it until I felt better.
Your first cruise
That is how my first cruise went in a nutshell. Some of these tips may be less important than others, but I think they are valuable lessons to learn on your first cruise and I needed to share them with other first-time cruisers.
Now that I know better and I still going to book another cruise… ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY!! I still had a blast and want to see more places. Want to see some pics from our trip go check out my Instagram. The next cruise might be to Europe. Who knows??? Now that I know cruising isn’t just for rich people… I have a lot of years to catch up on. LOL, All my extra cash is going towards cruises now. Forget Disney, Busch Gardens, and Universal Studios… I am ready to set sail on the open seas!
Until next time, Have a great day! and sea ya for the next adventure matey!!
