Category: The Sunday Spotlight

Every cruise adds a daily gratuity to your bill. And every cruise, someone marches to guest services to have it taken off. They think they are beating the system. They are mostly just confusing it. Here is what that charge actually is. It is a pooled tip that gets split among the people who clean…

Waiting until the last minute to book a cruise usually costs you more, not less. The idea sticks around because it used to be true. Decades ago a half empty ship was a real problem, so lines dumped cabins cheap before sailing. That is not how the business runs now. Today the cruise lines want…

People pay extra for the wrong side of the ship all the time. They heard port is better. Or starboard. Someone said it with confidence at a dinner party and now it is gospel. Here is the truth. On most sailings the side of your cabin barely matters. The ship turns around. The views even…

Most people book a cruise for the ports. They circle the islands on the map and count the stops. Then they spend the sea days waiting to get somewhere. That is backwards. The sea day is the product. Everything else is a nice interruption. Think about what a port day actually is. You wake up…

Bigger is not better. Bigger is just bigger. That is the whole myth in one line. People fall in love with the mega ships because the marketing is loud. Waterslides, go-karts, a dozen restaurants, a neighborhood with a name. It looks like more for your money. Sometimes it is. Often it is not. Here is…

The inside cabin gets treated like the kids table of cruising. No window. No balcony. The room people book when they cannot afford better. That reputation is wrong, and it is costing people money for no reason. Here is the part nobody says out loud. You do not sleep in the view. The balcony is…

The cruise drink package is sold as a splurge. It is really a math problem. And most people never do the math. Here is how it works. The package has a daily price. You pay that price every single day of the sailing, whether you drink or not. Sea day, port day, the day you…

People ask me to settle this constantly. Carnival or Royal Caribbean. As if one of them is right and the other is a mistake. Neither is a mistake. They are two very good cruise lines chasing two slightly different people. The trick is knowing which person you are before you book. Start with the ships.…

You spent years sailing one cruise line to earn your elite tier. The priority boarding. The free drinks. The little pin. Then you looked at another line and figured you would start over at the bottom. You might not have to. Several cruise lines will match the status you already earned somewhere else. It is…

People fight over the top decks. They assume higher means better. On a cruise ship the opposite is often true. A ship is a lever. The higher you go, the more you feel every roll and pitch. The lowest passenger decks near the middle of the ship move the least. That is where the motion…