Cruise Add-Ons that are Worth the Splurge!
Photo Courtesy: Georgy Trofimov, Unsplash
Cruises are amazing ways to visit multiple new places, relax and rejuvenate, and have epic adventures all in the same trip! I have cruised for over 20 years, and even lived and worked aboard cruise ships for five years!
However, the cost of cruising—like most travel—has risen dramatically since the Pandemic. While I will argue that cruises still offer fantastic value for the overall cost, cruise vacations are not all-inconclusive.
From the pre-booking stage through the duration of the cruise, guests are offered countless extra add-on costs. Yet, cruise extras can quickly rack up your total cruise bill.
In this post, I will uncover the five splurges on cruises that I recommend because they will absolutely change the way your cruise!
Related: The 13 Must-Have Accessories for Your Cruise,
How I Saved $1000 on My Cruise,
Avoid These 5 Health Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Cruise
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Sunrise view from my balcony on the Quantum of the Seas
Balcony Stateroom
There is no better way to experience a cruise and connect with the ocean than to have a balcony attached to your cruise cabin where you can enjoy the ocean views whenever you want! Catching the stunning sunrise and sunset and hearing the waves without leaving your stateroom makes the cruise so much better.
Although every cruise is scenic, an Alaska cruise, in particular, really warrants a balcony stateroom to be immersed in the beauty of the Alaskan wilderness non-stop.
Sailing into Sitka, Alaska
Yes, I love a bargain, and always booking inside staterooms saves money, but check out my personal reasons for always staying in a balcony cabin below.
Here I am loving the sounds of the ocean on the Quantum of the Seas
Bargain Cha$ing Tip: Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, and Norwegian Cruise Lines all have stateroom upgrade programs after you have made your final cruise payment. There may be an opportunity to upgrade to a balcony stateroom after booking an inside or ocean-view stateroom depending on availability. This can be cheaper than initially booking a balcony stateroom (but it’s not a guaranteed method). I saw this on my Royal Caribbean cruise to Hawaii: all the inside staterooms were booked, so the cruise line offered guests the chance to bid on an upgraded stateroom in the months leading up to the cruise. When cruisers upgrade, the cruise line benefits because they can free up the inside staterooms and continue to sell them to fill the ship. I explain Royal Caribbean’s upgrade program and how it helped me save a ton of money!
Update: At this time, Carnival Cruise Line does not have an upgrade bidding system
2. Bucket List Shore Excursions
Cruises offer so many epic shore excursions that for many, are once in a lifetime. From swimming with dolphins to seeing whales in the wild to riding on a dogsled in a glacier, cruises can definitely help you check off those bucket list experiences off your list.
For that reason, my advice is to book that excursion. My feeling is that we work so hard throughout the year, and a vacation is not only a reward, but also to create lasting memories.
Swimming with Dolphins in Costa Maya, Mexico
Shore excursions can also take you away from the crowds and “tourist traps”. For example, I had walked along the “main street” of St Maarten countless times when I worked aboard a cruise ship, but it wasn’t until I went on a catamaran excursion that I saw the French side of the island and how beautiful and different it was from the Dutch side where the cruises dock. You can actually see airplanes nearly landing on the beach from this view!
Airplane flying over my catamaran to land near Maho Beach
Bargain Cha$ing Tip: Book your shore excursions online prior to the cruise as soon as you can because they sell out really quickly. There are also local companies not affiliated with the cruise lines that offer similar experiences. I recommend researching them thoroughly for safety first, and also to ensure you are getting a comparable experience for a good price. 3. Dinner at a Specialty Restaurant
When I cruised in the early to mid-2000s, cruise ships often had the classic 3-story dining room where all the guests ate dinner. These days, cruise lines are really promoting specialty restaurants from Jamie’s Italian (Chef Jamie Oliver) on Royal Caribbean to Guy’s Pig and Anchor Smokehouse and Brewhouse (Chef Guy Fieri) on Carnival Cruises—all at an additional cost, of course.
Some cruise ships have 4 to 5 specialty restaurants in addition to the main dining venues. While I enjoy the main dining room and would not personally pay extra for a specialty dining package, I think one specialty dinner is a treat and could be the highlight of your cruise.
I dined at Royal Caribbean’s Chops Grille on one cruise when my daughter was a toddler, and it remains one of the best cruise ship dinners I’ve ever had. I love cruising with kids, but having an adults-only meal with amazing service and exquisite cuisine while my daughter played in the kids club was so refreshing.
Chops Grille on the Quantum of the Seas
I recommend reserving your specialty dinner online prior to the cruise.
Bargain Cha$ing Tip: It’s not as much of a splurge if you can use onboard credit for your cruise “extras”. Learn how I earned extra onboard credit below: 4. Spa Experience
This cruise splurge is a new addition to my list. I never used to book appointments at the spa because I deemed them too much of a splurge.
However, when I returned to cruising after the Pandemic, I booked an appointment to have my hair styled in the spa on the Discovery Princess, and now, I want to get my hair done every cruise! The time I saved by having a stylist wash and blow out my hair allowed me to spend more time doing fun activities on the ship!
For years on cruises, I had to allot several hours before dinner to wash, dry, and style my hair (hair takes forever to dry on cruise ships). This meant leaving the deck activities early or returning from shore early. Not anymore!
Plus, I loved the way my hair looked, and the prices were comparable to salons where I live. For other cruisers, a massage or a spa day may be the way they treat themselves. Again, your experiences on vacation are rewards for your hard work at home, and you have earned the splurge!
Vitality Spa and Salon on the Quantum of the Seas
5. Cruise VIP Program
This splurge has a lot of debate—the majority of Youtube videos I’ve watched on this topic say that VIP programs are not worth the cost. However, I loved my cruise’s VIP program so much that I’ve bought it several times. You really have to weigh how the benefits will affect your cruise, and if your cruise companions will take advantage of enough perks to make it worth the extra cost.
I bought Royal Caribbean’s Key program which has a list of benefits.
At the time of writing this post, they were:
Early entry to the cruise terminal upon arrival
An embark day VIP lunch in the main dining room featuring the lunch menu from Chops Grille
Delivery of carry-on luggage to the stateroom
Priority tender boat boarding or debarking the ship in ports of call
VIP seats at entertainment venues that require reservations
Priority entrance to popular onboard activities that vary by ship. On our cruise, they were rock climbing, surfing or boogie boarding on the Flowrider, bumper cars, North Star
An internet package
Discounted dinner at specialty restaurants if booked the first day of the cruise
A VIP debark breakfast in the main dining room
Priority debarkation from the ship at any time (as Key members, we were allowed to skip the long line to debark the ship)
A designated luggage area in the terminal (we found our bags really quickly)
We also received a variety of extras delivered to our stateroom throughout the cruise—fruit plates, desserts, water bottles, coupons for specialty coffee—for being Key holders.
For my family on our particular cruise, the Key made sense.
The two things I dislike about a cruise are embark day and debark day (I’m sure I’m not alone!). I can’t stand the hustle and the crowds—especially at the buffets the first and last days. Travel days are just stressful to begin with and then, you struggle to fit on an elevator, and then it’s a mad search to find a seat in the buffet, and everyone’s carry-on bags are taking up space.
Plus, the buffet lunch on the first day of the cruise is never good—it’s the leftovers from the previous cruise (Trust me, I know!).
Peaceful dining room aboard the Quantum of the Seas
Therefore, for the Key’s embark and debark perks alone, I was sold! Both the embark day lunch and the debark day breakfast in the main dining room were so relaxed, and the food was delicious!
Our cruise had two tender ports, and I get nervous about tender boats because I travel with a senior parent with balance issues. We appreciated access to the front of the long line to get on a tender.
As a cruise guest, you will encounter many “extras” that can increase your total vacation cost quite a bit. As a veteran cruiser, I can verify that these 5 “splurges” are worth the money. Let me know which cruise add-ons you swear by!
Quiet, relaxed Debark Day Breakfast on the Quantum of the Seas