Do's and don'ts of cruising

Two weeks ago, I promised to give you some helpful tips on cruising, with the end in view of assisting first timers in deciding on that cruise vacation you’ve been contemplating for the family. Although I have had the chance to travel quite a few times to different parts of the world, this was my first cruise.

We finally set sail for that Mediterranean cruise I’ve been planning for years for the family. There have always been plans but my work schedule of producing and hosting three weekly TV shows and two weekly columns for the Star has always made them just that-plans. Well, my brother Rey talked me into it by saying, “It’s not comfortable to see the world in a wheel chair like many we see. Would you rather wait for that?” Well, that thought made me decide. Only this time, the original family of four got extended to 15 members, still all family, and that made it more enjoyable. 

We needed about two months to prepare, primarily because the Schengen visa could be a problem, time-wise. I suggest you get a reputable and efficient travel agent and not rely on your own organizing skills no matter how good they are because it could spell the difference between a stressful vacation and a leisurely one. The agent should be accredited by the cruise lines. Incidentally, the travel expo which is held annually here in the country gives exciting promos which spell hefty discounts, so watch out for them.

The cruise itself does not cost much. However, the attendant costs could make the whole vacation balloon out of proportion to the cruise cost. The embarkation point being Barcelona, we needed Schengen visas. For this, one has to shell out for visa documentation fees from the agent (P1,500 each), travel insurance (P2,500 each), and visa fees of (P3,700). The travel agent suggested that we take additional travel protection (something like $89 each), which supposedly serves as an insurance if, for some reason like our visa applications for instance are denied, or we couldn’t get on the ship after full payment of travel fees, we would have protection. We opted out of this because we learned that we couldn’t get reimbursed in cash but in kind, meaning we get it as some sort of ticket when we travel next time around. Incidentally, four of our friends backed out after paying the deposit of $300 each, and the agent or cruise line refused to even partially refund them. Lesson learned: pay your deposit only if you’re a hundred percent sure of going on that trip.

Other fees for the cruise include government taxes and fees ($103.21 each), country taxes and fuel surcharges ($270 each) tacked on to the airfare which looked innocuous at $1,000 per person.

Lucky for us we caught the cruise line’s on-going promo. The 3rd and 4th passengers, if quad-sharing a cabin, were free. It was perfect for our family of four The first two only had to pay $1,420 for both. 

The first mistake we made was to bring hefty luggage for each one of us. Though we allowed only one suitcase each for everyone (allowance was 20 kilos per passenger), the humongous suitcases ate up much of our living space inside the cabin. We actually had to navigate our way gingerly to get to our bunks, which, incidentally were super comfortable. Quad-sharing meant one double-decker and another pull-out bed.

Weather-wise, it was perfect for traveling. April and May are spring months and the sea is calm, the weather on deck cold and nippy but made tolerable by the warmth of the sun which did not set until about 8:30 in the evening. The cold wind notwithstanding, the open-deck heated swimming pools and Jacuzzis were always teeming with vacationers frolicking around the area. This was cruising.

There are about twelve or so dining destinations within the vast ship (seven decks for passengers, not counting the decks below for crew members). Of these, about five are absolutely free (excluding drinks), including the main dining and fine dining areas. In the specialty restaurants like the Sushi Bar, one had to pay for cover charges, but could have unlimited orders of sushi and sashimi. Cover charge here was $15 per person. We tried it and it was well worth it. Our Filipino waiters just kept loading them on. The Teppanyaki restaurant charged $25 each but you could have unlimited steaks with that, the Italian restaurant charged $10 per person while the French restaurant charged $15 per, and the Steaks outlet charged $25 each.

The grill area beside the pools was very popular. Set informally, people came all day for barbecues of steaks and hamburgers and a light buffet of salads, hot dogs, fish fillets, roast chicken, pork chops, baked beans and sausages. Some days you could see huge pans of fried rice cooking, or huge cauldrons of hot soup, but the fare was invariably the same for the whole duration of the cruise.

Though the buffets were free, drinks were not, and here you could end up paying a lot for seven days of cruising. We opted for their special offer of $50 for unlimited soda for the whole cruise, no questions asked. I figured that with four family members sharing one card, it wasn’t such a bad deal. But actually, that wasn’t supposed to be allowed.

Hard drinks, on the other hand, carry an additional service charge of 15 percent. When you think that this is on top of the mandatory gratuity required from each passenger, the consolidated service tips could be pretty hefty. Each passenger is required to pay a gratuity tip of $12 per person per day. For the four of us, that was $48 per day. Ouch! Seeing that most of the crew on board were Pinoys, though, made this a lot easier to deal with.

The ship itself offers its own land tours when docking. Called excursions, these can be very, very expensive. Our first dock was in Malta, and we all opted for the city tour which we contracted for outside of the ship. That cost each of us 15 Euros. However, when we docked at Naples, my brother Rey and his family of five opted for the ship excursion which cost them almost $200 each. Us-we opted to walk the dirty streets of Naples for about an hour, drank some espresso in the sidewalk cafes, sampled slices of their cold pizza, and walked back to the ship and saved about $1,000.

The costs of those ship-sponsored excursions were really prohibitive. In one excursion to the Vatican, we spent 400 Euro or about $550 for a group of nine. In the ship, this would have cost $250 per person. One advantage of getting the tours from them is that they guarantee that you will not be left by the boat. My sister-in-law Liz got one such excursion and they were left behind by the tour bus in Pisa, Italy. Lucky for them they were able to board another tour bus, after explaining their predicament. Later at the ship’s front desk, they raved and ranted about being left behind by an inefficient staff, and all they got was a lame apology. No refunds. Lesson learned: if you can manage your time efficiently, you can save a lot of money and actually see more than the standard tours offered by the ship. We actually resorted to having regular roll calls to make sure no one was left behind.

Another thing to watch out for are the various outlets where charges could be incurred. While we contented ourselves with the free buffets onboard, the young people in the group had nights out, and invariably signed a few chits here and there. Your account can be viewed at any time in your own TV set in the cabin. In our case, a little dressing down was in order when I saw that my account reached almost $1,000, including the mandatory tips. After that, no new charges were tacked on.

More on the cruise and cities visited next week.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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