MOST CRUISES ARE INCLUSIVE—that is, their basic components are typically purchased together rather than à la carte. In general, a cruise— or what a travel agency or cruise line might describe as a “cruise-only” product—includes:
1. Shipboard accommodations.
2. Three full-service dining room meals daily (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), plus alternative breakfast, lunch, evening buffets, and late-night snacks. On most ships, room service meals do not cost extra. Many ships also offer options, such as early-bird breakfast, morning bouillon, and afternoon events, including tea, pizza snacks, ice-cream parties, and poolside cookouts.
3. Most shipboard entertainment, including music, dancing, and shows in the lounges, discos, live bands, Las Vegas–style productions, nightclubs, karaoke, and movies.
4. Most shipboard sports and recreational facilities, including swimming pools, health club or exercise room, promenade or jogging track, whirlpool, sauna, library, game room, and child-care facilities. (Spa and beauty treatments, some specialized exercise classes such as Pilates, and sports equipment normally cost extra.)
5. Most shipboard activities, including casino entry, onboard games and contests, lectures, demonstrations, and most children’s programs (where applicable, babysitting services are extra).
6. Stops at ports of call on the itinerary. The features listed above are almost universally a part of any cruise vacation, and an inclusive cruise vacation is often a very good value, particularly when compared with the cost of similar pieces booked on a resort vacation. That said, other inclusions or lack of inclusion are
line specific. Some cruise lines do include transfers—basically a bus or van ride from the airport to ship and ship to airport. Other lines charge for those transfers, unless you buy your air tickets through the line in what travel agents call an air/sea package.
Port charges (usually noted in the bottom fine print of any cruise advertising or brochure) are usually included in the cruise price. Still, it pays to check carefully or ask your travel agent, as port charges can range from $120 to $200 or even more on a seven-day Caribbean cruise, depending on the itinerary.
Taxes, optional shore excursions, alcoholic beverages and soft drinks, casino play, onboard shopping, some computer classes, use of Internet connection, and tips are not included in most cases. On a few very upscale lines, gratuities and wine and alcoholic beverages are included in the cruise price. On some, tips are pooled (you are asked to contribute a suggested amount per day to be divided among all staff except officers and senior staff) and now, more and more cruise lines are adding a service charge to your shipboard account in lieu of tipping. With most lines you have the option of paying it or having it removed and handling the tipping yourself. We include a section on tipping in Part Two.
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