Need tips to help save money while onboard.

[Cruise04]

Well the paperwork will say you can't check it - but who listens to the paperwork and what are they going to do - throw your luggage overboard???

They don't check your luggage until after they have taken it. So it isn't like they stop you right there and tell you to empty your bags. I believe the main reason it's in the paperwork is because they had problems with people checking coolers onboard.

 

[Tera]

So when you check-in your luggage, do they physically check it or just scan it? I'll probably put a few things in with my stuff, but bring everything else in our carry on. Don't want to chance not having anything

 

[Cruise04]

They take your luggage from the curb (if you are driving and parking there). I don't know what they do if you are dropped off by bus or towncar/limo. But they physically roll your luggage on a cart into this "warehouse" area. After that, I don't know what they do with it. But you see it leaving before YOU physically enter the port.

 

[crisi]

Someone here had their luggage and clothes ruined when someone else's bottle broken open in their checked luggage and got their bags soaked. It isn't just your own clothes you are risking.

Even in a zip lock bag, with your clothes wrapped around it, if it does break in handling, you will have a real mess. I had a bottle of perfume break in luggage in a zip lock bag once, it wasn't pretty (and I haven't packed perfume since). Just carry it on. If you are taking a lot, pack in in a rolling carryon.

 

[mermaid593]

You can bring food (snack food) into the movie and the shows. I lugged my huge bag of M & M's with me everywhere. And, I heard a lot of soda cans being popped open during the 2 movies we watched on board.

As far as drinks in glasses or open cups, I don't know, I bought drinks from the bar and brought them in. The bar tender sometimes put them in to -go cups. Other times, she gave us glasses. I didn' t think the fountain soda tasted good, it wasn't mixed right, but my husband says my tastebuds are wacky.

And, I did not bring anything into the dining room, so I can't help there.

 

[Tera]

Crisi - I agree with you. I wouldn't want to take the chance of ruining my stuff along with someone else's. I figure I can just carry on one suitcase with all the "goodies" and not worry about anything breaking. Plus I'll have one suitcase for everything that we'll be bringing home.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally posted by Cruise04
You CAN check beverages in your luggage. We did it last July and I have seen many others post that they have done it.

Before anyone takes Cruise04's advice on this, please consider my request...

Please don't.

In the booklet that comes with the docs, DCL says that liquids must be transported inside carry-on luggage. Also, they "regret" that they are unable to accept checked luggage that contains beverage containers. (I'm sure that some people ignore these rules, and have no problems.)

I have no reason to believe that the stevedores are any more gentle with luggage than airline baggage handlers. You may not be worried about having your clothes soaked with Merlot or Coca Cola -- perhaps because you have faith that Ziploc Bags can neither be penetrated by broken glass not pop open under pressure from a crushed plastic pop bottle. But my bag might be under your bag, and I don't the Merlot or Coca Cola on the outside of my bag, and I especially don't want it to seep inside.

 

[Cruise04]

Just remember that there is not a lot of room in the dining room at lunch if you plan on going in there to eat and rolling a carryon in there could not be fun so just be respectful of who you might run into with the bags - remember you can't get into your room before 1:30pm.

Also I would never recommend taking breakable bottles in check-in luggage. I have only taken soda and water and they were very well protected. I do think about others clothes - that's why it would only be something that could wash out. And if I found out I had wet someone's clothes, I would try to find out who and taken responsibility for it by giving them money to wash and dry their clothes.

And it is not just my advice. If you look you will always find posts about this very subject. There will be disagreements all the time. And does anyone FOLLOW EVERY RULE? Doubt it. That is the only rule we did not follow. I'm sorry if your bags were ruined but if I didn't think my stuff was protected enough, I wouldn't do it. Maybe I took too much care in packing my stuff so that that wouldn't happen to someone else's bags. That's just how I am.

Oh well - onto more tips.

Don't purchase the cruise mixed drinks if you don't think you will enjoy them - they can cost up to $7 a drink!

 

[Tera]

Very good point Horace! I understand what Cruise04 is saying, especially if your being very careful and protecting the liquids. I wouldn't personally be bringing glass bottles anyways, but it just seems easier (and piece of mind) to have it with me. I figure one small carryone with me won't be that big of a deal and I won't have to worry if anything in my luggage leaked.

 

[Cruise04]

And you have it, like you said, to bring souveniers home. But you can also use that carryon bag to pack your swimsuit and towel or other things in case you don't have your luggage right away when you get to your room.

 

[crisi]

That's a good attitude - although I'd hate to have soda or water all over my dry clean only formals that I want to wear to Palo that evening......and you should probably state that when you give others advice - i.e. don't put anything in that stains just in case it does break.

And yes, the dining rooms are a little tight, and its a real pain to lug a rolling carryon around until you can get into your room. But you don't get something for nothing....the price of saving by bringing your own is the inconvience of having to lug it.

Personally, I wouldn't bother, but then I'm not on such a budget that it is vital I bring on my own Rum and Coke. If you would want to drag a larger carry on, I would recommend:

1) Boarding later. Yeah, a real pain if you want Palo ressies, and we are all anxious to get on the ship - but carrying a big daybag is a pain in the rear. (We overpacked our own daybags - not with liquids, but books, clothes, electronics, etc - they were not light after dragging them around from 11:00 when we left our hotel until 1:30).

or

2) Planning on boarding first thing and eating at Parrot Cay. They had spots by the tables at PC where we were able to drop our daybags. They piled pretty high by the time we left - but we were on the boat by 12:00. Don't know if they do the same at T/BBB. Early eaters had plenty of space - we didn't run to get ressies like the first two hundred boarders, so the dining room was practically empty when we arrived at 12:00.

or

3) Plan on eating in shifts or up by the pool. The pool deck has a lot of room to spread out while you wait for your room to open up - one person can watch luggage (and kids in the pool) while the other runs for reservations and everyone grabs a burger (or takes their T/BBB food to go).

(BTW, next cruise we will just pack very light day bags).

 

[Tera]

Definitely! From what I've been reading, everyone has said to pack your suit in your carry on. Do we need towels or will they have those at pool side.

 

[Cruise04]

I'm with crisi on this one - next time we will pack lighter day bags too!!!! It was hard lugging all that around (we each had 2 carryon bags because my husband had one just for medical things so we had to utilize my daughter and I for our other things) by the time 1:30 got there. So don't pack your day bags too full. We had our night clothes in one bag, our "pool bag" which we didn't even use, our bag with our toiletries, medical bag, plus a backpack which was our day bag (also had our camera and camcorder) for our excursions and then dd and I had our fanny packs. I won't take the camcorder next time either.

And yes, they have towels at poolside so sorry I mentioned towels.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

We usually bring some of my favorite beverages (miller lite) in one of those small carry on type suitcases with wheels. It carrys two cases of beer and a 12 of pop. The fist day is Nassau......if you like liquor, get off the ship and pick up a couple of bottles of you favorite rum or vodka. I took a two liter bottle of coke that was emptied and we added lemonade from deck 9 to drink and mix all day.

 

[Tera]

I'll definitely be careful about what we pack in our carry on. I figure since we will be staying close to port the night before, we could all just wear our swim suits under our close and not have to worry about changing. I figure we'll just be carrying on our camera stuff and liquor. Is there anything else that we should definitely have on us (besides all our documents)? I thining one carry on with wheels and then the girls with backpacks with their stuff that they "have" to have with them. Otherwise everything else gets checked in.

I like the idea about just bringing beer and soda and pick up hard liquor at a port. Our first port is Key West, can we just get something there or do we need to be in international waters?

 

[MrsPete]

No excursions shouldn't be a problem. You'll enjoy wandering in Nassau a bit. Castaway Cay can be done for free without any problem. We did rent floats for our kids ($6 each), which they enjoyed immensely.

Bringing wine onboard is fine -- Disney allows this. When we were waiting to board, we saw them loading suitcases (happened to see our own suitcase going onboard), and I understand why they don't want liquids in there. They take all the suitcases and throw them together in big canvas roller carts. If yours happens to land on the bottom, a wine bottle wouldn't stand a chance. Most people have soft-sided luggage these days, so you could potentially hurt your own clothes and those of others.

As for bringing wine into the dining room, this is the HEIGHT OF TACKINESS. Have a glass in your room, if you wish, but I think it'd be terribly embarassing to walk into the restaurant with a glass in your hand. It just isn't done. Remember you'll be seated with other people at your table. The waiters certainly will notice -- probably no one would say anything to you, but they sure will say something later! You don't have to have alcohol at dinner at all.

As for pictures, well, that's my weak spot -- I'd cut out souveniers and alcohol first, but that's just my priority. Do remember to bring along extra batteries and plenty of digital media (or a laptop for downloading).

Even if you love soda, the mug isn't really a good deal. Remember, you can get soda three times per day in the restaurants -- the mug is only useful BETWEEN meals. You can bring your own sodas onboard much less expensively. If you really, really want the mugs, you can book through AAA and get them free.

Don't worry about souveniers. I was surprised that they didn't really have much I wanted in the ship's stores. Something I find highly ironic: Now that I'm able to afford more stuff, I find much less that I want. When I was young and poor, I always wanted stuff I couldn't have.

 

[tigger53]

on the past cruises i've been on there have been many people carrying glasses of wine or beer into lunch or dinner, myself included, no one gave any strange looks or comments in fact when i asked our drink server if this was o k he said it was done all the time. if it saves me a coulple of dollars i'm happy, more to spend in the gift shops or on excursions.

 

[crisi]

I know tipping is a hot topic on this board....but if you are on a tight budget - don't overtip. The recommended tip amount is fine - if everyone tipped that the servers would make a pretty good living, and you don't need to take responsibility for the bottomfeeders that stiff the servers. Remember that tips are included when you order alcohol and there isn't a need for you to add an additional tip. Not everyone here is wealthy enough to be able to casually drop an extra $50 on tips.

(If you can afford to overtip and want to - the servers we had were so wonderful we couldn't help but slip extra cash in their envelopes. My two cents - I'd rather give (and receive) cash than a phone card. I know the staff enjoys the phone cards, but cash is so much more flexible, and if I don't hand out the cash, its easily spendable for me)

 

[Padre Disney]

We bring our own alcohol. As soon as we board we purchase one of the foo foo drinks in the DCL glass. We then keep the glass full with our own alcohol brought from home. I carried mine into dinner full of wine almost every night and never had any problems. We also make sure we carry them around full of something even if it is water so that they don't keep asking us if we would like to purchase a drink.

You might want to put your glass away in the morning when you leave for breakfast IF you have not washed it. We made the mistake of leaving ours near the sink with Margaritas in them and our stateroom hostess took them When we asked about them he said that they sometimes take them and wash them for you and return them later. When they had not returned them by the time I was ready for a drink they ended up bringing 2 new glasses still in the plastic. Only problem was that they were not the same color as the ones we had bought. We already had those colors at home and were trying for a collection of all the colors. They also did the same thing to our friends glasses in anothe room. So guard your glass!!

 

[Tera]

I like the idea of buying one of their cups and just refilling from time to time, but I can't see myself taking it to dinner. We're trying to save on some things, but I don't mind paying for a glass of wine or a drink at dinner.