Every time we tell our family and friends we’re going on another cruise we see them wondering whether we won the lottery and we forgot to tell them. And while we know that a cruise vacation, like any other vacation, costs money, we keep on trying to convince them that a cruise is more affordable than they think. After all a lot of the fun things you can do on board are absolutely free.
On our recent cruise with Celebrity Equinox we found plenty of activities that were completely free of charge.
You’re on a well deserved vacation so why would you get up early in the morning and face the other hundreds of guests who are, like yourself, hungry and looking for a table at the buffet restaurant. Why not make every day a sunday and have roomservice bring you breakfast in bed. If you’re staying in a balcony or verandah cabin you can even do better by having breakfast with a view.
While your cruise fare includes all meals in the complimentary restaurants, dining in the specialty restaurants will result in an extra charge to your onboard account. However if you sign up for the galley tour you not only get a look behind the scenes, you might also end up getting a free sample of the food served in the specialty restaurants.
If the ship organises an elegant tea do sign up and attend. In case you’re wondering why, onboard Celebrity Equinox the elegant tea was organised in Blu, the restaurant exclusively reserved for guests staying in Aqua Class staterooms. And let’s be honest, you would probably go for afternoon dessert in the buffet restaurant anyway. So why not enjoy a cup of tea and delicious desserts served in an elegant setting while a musical duo plays live music in the background.
Unless you’ve booked a beverage package, every drink you order is going to result in you handing over your seapass card to the waiter, and an extra charge to your account. However by attending the art auctions you might get some free “champagne” while learning a thing or two about art. Another way of getting free drinks is by attending a wine tasting seminar.
And finally the best way of getting free drinks onboard is by joining the loyalty program. This way you will get an invitation for the welcome back party and, once you’ve reached a certain loyalty status, you get complimentary entrance to the loyalty lounge and the happy hour.
All that free alcohol and food could result in bringing home some extra pounds, luckily there are ways to prevent this. By visiting the gym or trying to swim of those extra pounds (the hard way), or a game of boce ball or croquet on the grass onboard the Solstice Class ships (the soft way), you can make sure you’re not taking that extra dessert back home with you.
By now you’re probably thinking life onboard a cruise ship is all about eating and drinking, and for some guests it is, but there is more.
Why not take the opportunity to learn something while taking a break from working on your tan. Celebrity Cruises, like many other cruise lines, offers a wide variety of activities designed to energize our gray matter. These activities range from dance lessons and interactive self-guided art tours to destination talks and live demonstrations of glassblowing.
While these are just a few of the things on our last cruise, other ships offer plenty of other activities like zip lines, bumper cars, ropes courses, ice skating,… They do however all have one thing in common, you’ll meet a lot of people and who knows make some new friends. And isn’t that the best free activity onboard a cruise ship…