If you love hopping on a cruise ship and you love to get free stuff, I’m here to tell you some of the best freebies and perks on a cruise and some cruise hacks to find out what’s included on your cruise. Read to the end for a freebie from me to help you plan your future cruises!
Cruising is great! It’s one of our favourite ways to get away from it all and we wish we could do it more often. But taking cruises, the costs can add up, especially if you have to fly to the cruise port and stay in a hotel for a night or two. So, I’ve put together a list of things that you can do and get for free on a cruise, to help you save money.
- Know what’s included
- Loyalty perks
- In your cabin
- Food and drinks
- Activities
- Other stuff
- Special needs
- To use onboard
- From guest services
- Discounts
- Freebie from me
Know what's included
I’ve said it many times, but planning ahead for a holiday, whether it’s a cruise or not, is half the enjoyment for me. One of the first things I do when I book is to find out what’s included, by going to the cruise line website, where they’ll have a page for each ship. I find our ship and take note of the restaurants, bars and activities that we might be interested in, along with what deck they’re on and if there’s any cost.
Many cruise lines provide room service breakfast for free – which is great on busy days with an early port excursion, so don’t miss out!
Loyalty perks
Have you cruised with a particular cruise line a few times? I hope you signed up for the loyalty program! Go to your favourite cruise line’s website and look for their loyalty program to find out what perks you may be entitled to. Some even give a discount on cruises after you’ve sailed with them just once! Then there’s freebies like a Captain’s welcome for guests with a certain status, and some cruise lines offer free laundry or discounts on wifi. Don’t miss out!
If you have status with a cruise line and you’re planning to sail with MSC, MSC will status match so make sure you sign up for that in advance and you’ll get all the perks and freebies on MSC too!
And Celebrity offers power up points on their website, for doing certain activities, so even when you’re not cruising you can be boosting your status!
In your cabin
There are many things you can have provided for you in your cabin, and I’ll cover them more extensively later, but don’t forget, most cruise lines will provide an extension cord and distilled water for a CPAP machine.
Some cruise lines have on demand movies for free – even if there are some you need to pay for there’ll often be free ones too.
And your cabin steward will be more than happy to fill your ice bucket daily!
Food and drinks
Of course, you know that the buffet and the main dining room provide food that’s included in your cruise fare, but did you know that in the main dining room you can often order additional starters and main courses at no extra cost? Even if there is a cost it’s usually small, such as $5 or $10. So if you don’t know what to have, or you’re extra hungry, you won’t miss out!
And speaking of food, all cruise lines will make dietary adjustments at no extra cost, so if you’re vegan or lactose intolerant or have any other dietary need, just let them know.
And nearly all cruise ships have some sort of ice cream for free. It may be gelato or soft serve, or real ice cream, but its normally near the buffet.
Activities
Some ships have lots of activities and some only have a few. But the majority of these will be free. Whether you want to go to trivia, work out in the gym or enjoy the casino you should be able to find plenty to do at no extra cost.
I list the included activities in my planning, and take note of ones that have a cost but that we might be interested in. On some ships there may be activities that have a cost on sea days but are free on embarkation day or port days, such as Royal Caribbean’s skydiving simulator.
The gym is always free, but did you know that sometimes there are classes for free – stretch or movement classes for example. And the casino will often have classes in how to play some of the table games they have onboard. Of course, these are designed to entice former non-gamblers into providing them with more revenue. But nothing says you have to!
Then there are things like table tennis, pickleball, mini golf, that bag toss game – no idea what that’s called! And some cruise lines even give you points for participation that you can use at the end of the cruise to purchase merchandise.
On our Oceania cruise we earned enough points playing trivia to get a rain jacket for Michael.
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Other stuff
Now for a couple of random ones – if you have a significant event whilst you’re onboard, say a birthday or wedding anniversary, make sure to let the cruise line know. Some ask about it when you book, or you can tell guest services when you get onboard. You might get a special dessert, or a bottle of wine, or the dining room staff singing happy birthday, or even a birthday cake made of towels – it depends on the cruise line!
And another thing that many people don’t realise is that there are no luggage limits – well perhaps there are so don’t test it out by bringing ten bags for a four-night cruise! And no luggage fees, although in North America I believe it’s customary to tip the baggage handlers when you hand over your bags.
Special needs
If you or someone in your travel group has special needs, cruise lines have lots of ways to assist. For a start, wheelchair accessible cabins are usually available so you can specify that you need one when booking. Or perhaps you’re with an elderly parent who can’t stand or walk for too long – you can usually arrange wheelchair boarding for them, which means they’ll be wheeled by a crew member and boarded early. And you can go with them.
Then they often have facilities for other needs, such as large print menus for vision impaired people like my husband Michael, and sign language interpreters for the shows. Go to the cruise line website and have a look to find out how they can help! But you usually need to let them know before boarding.
To use onboard
Don’t forget to ask for items that your cabin steward can provide for your use while you’re onboard – but don’t take them home with you. To provide more comfort in your cabin they can get you a mattress topper or different pillows, a top sheet on the bed if it doesn’t have one, and extra towels, blankets or pillows.
You should also be able to get a kettle if you want one to make tea or instant coffee, and even a fan if the room’s a bit stuffy.
Don’t forget that you won’t need to bring towels for the pool or beach, because the cruise line provides them, even to take onshore for a beach day. But some cruise lines check them out to your account so if you accidentally take one home with you or lose it in port, there’s likely to be a charge!
From guest services
Guest services can usually provide a range of items too. I’ve heard that they can give you used cards from the casino, a pen, and stationery such as envelopes and even postcards.
I’ve also heard that they’ll provide anti-seasickness medication, and if you forget your toothbrush or razor, they can sometimes provide an amenity kit to help you out. But don’t count on this one, they may just direct you to the onboard shop to buy what you need at a steep mark up!
Discounts
Finally, let’s talk about discounts. If you book your next cruise on board, you’ll get a discount, or some onboard credit for the future cruise, or perhaps onboard credit for your current cruise. Or you can buy deposit certificates to use when you next go to book a cruise, also at a discount or with some onboard credit attached.
If you’re looking at drink, wifi or speciality dining packages, buying them before you embark often means you’ll get them at a discount. Some cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, change their pricing all the time so it’s common for people to buy a package, watch for a discount, then cancel and rebook it.
Then there’s shareholder credit. If you own at least 100 shares of Royal Caribbean, Carnival or Norwegian stock, you can get onboard credit on any of their cruise lines, for every cruise. We hold Carnival and Norwegian – so since we bought them, we’ve received onboard credit on Princess, Oceania and Norwegian. I’ve heard that some cruise lines also offer credit for military and teachers – if you think you might be entitled to some form of onboard credit make sure you do your research!
Special freebie from me
Now for my freebie for you! I have a PDF cruise planner where I make note of the things I’ve mentioned in this video – included and speciality dining, activities, and even more so if you’d like to get a copy of that to use for yourself, please sign up for our email list using this link.
If you’ve enjoyed this, read my post on cruise line drink packages, and this one about some levelling up your cruise!
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About
We are Mardi and Michael Linke. We’ve been travelling together for over 25 years and we love to share our experiences, showing the places we go and reviewing hotels, airlines and cruises.
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