Do These 6 Things To Not Waste Money On Cruises

Above, yours truly having a cigar and cocktail on the cruise to the Bahamas last summer.

Moments ago, I saw an interesting article on six things to do to save money on cruises.

One especially caught my attention. It was not to take a cruise line transportation shuttle from the airport (in our case, Miami Airport) to the port. Last summer, a friend and I paid $50 each for transportation to the port from the airport. They never showed up despite us making several phone calls and leaving messages. I instead called Uber and they got us to the the port for about $25. This was for the cruise to the Bahamas with Norwegian Cruise Line. 

The article was posted with the Cruise Blog, and they begin it with: 

Having taken over 30 cruises, there have been times when I've felt ripped off while onboard. Sometimes, it's my fault. For example, forgetting to purchase shore excursions in advance means I'll inevitably pay more for the same product on the ship. 

This happened a few years ago when I waited until the last minute to plan my day ashore at Royal Caribbean's private island. Although cruisers have reported scoring epic deals to Thrill Waterpark, I shelled out $149 for a full-day pass. 

I've made plenty of mistakes throughout my cruising career, but I've also found that there are easy ways to always save money on a cruise vacation. Here are my 6 best tips to not waste your hard-earned money on your next cruise. 

To read more, go here. 

The Most Affordable U.S. Airlines

Above, Delta Airlines came in at number 10 as an affordable airline. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

This year, I took six flights on U.S. airlines. 

The first was a round-trip to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to attend G-FEST. The flights were non-stop flights. The second was a round-trip, which included two connecting flights, to Miami for the cruise last month to the Bahamas, bringing the total of six. The Chicago flights were with American Airlines and the Miami flights were with Delta Airlines.

According to a study by AirAdvisor, those airlines are far from the cheapest. American came in at number 8 and Delta came in at number 10.

The average cost for each round-trip was $400.

One may ask, What are the most affordable (and most expensive) U.S. airlines?

Travel + Leisure has posted an article answering just that question.

They begin it with:

Frontier Airlines is the cheapest carrier in the United States, despite its history of upselling customers for things like bags and seat selection.

The ranking is courtesy of a new study from airline compensation company AirAdvisor shared with Travel + Leisure, which looked at total passenger revenue per seat mile for the top 10 airlines in the U.S. When it comes to Frontier, the airline was more than $0.01 per mile cheaper than the next cheapest airline, fellow low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines.

“Frontier Airlines is often referred to as an ultra-low-cost carrier, and this certainly rings true based on our research,” AirAdvisor wrote in the study. “US airlines don’t get any cheaper than this as a whole.”

 To read more, go here.

Getting To The Cruise Terminal From Miami Airport

Above, my first look at the Norwegian Sky at the terminal in Miami. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When Mitch Geriminsky and I went to Miami, Florida to take a cruise to the Bahamas earlier this month, we arrived at Miami Airport around 5:30 AM.

After getting our luggage, we went to the meeting place to catch our shuttle to the Norwegian Cruise Line terminal (about 10 miles away) that we paid $25.00 each in advance. There was nobody there when we got to the location, so we called and left a message. We waited a bit and I called the number and left a message. We again waited. 

We waited a while for someone to show up or get a return call, but nobody came or called.

I decided to get a ride through Uber to the Norwegian Cruise Line terminal. Within a short period of time (about 20 minutes), the Uber driver arrived and took us to the terminal.

The cost for the ride (not including tip) was $23.00. We never did hear back from the shuttle service. (Note: this was with a third-party company and not affiliated with Norwegian Cruise Line.)

Later, during the cruise, I met a couple from Pennsylvania in the smoking area and we talked about getting to the terminal from the airport and, for them, the hotel. They said they took a taxi from the hotel to the terminal which cost around $90.00 (roughly $45.00 each instead of carload). They also were booked at a hotel in Miami that wasn't what they expected. They wanted a hotel reasonably close to the terminal and were assured that the hotel they were booked at was near the cruise terminal. It wasn't.

If one is planning to take a cruise that departs from Miami, a little word of cost-saving caution. Avoid taxi cabs and so-called pre-paid shuttle services. Both are rip-offs. 

It has been posted here and there that the flat rate for Uber and Lyft from the airport to the terminal is a flat rate of $27.00. We got the ride for $23.00. 

When our ship got back to Miami after the cruise, we again got a ride with Uber and the price was the same. Our flight was around 10:00 AM and we arrived in Miami around 7:00 AM.

My general impression of Miami (besides expensive taxi service) was that it looked rundown in comparison to Fort Lauderdale, from which we took a cruise to Key West and Havana five years ago.