Man who has been on 50 cruises issues warning over secret costs that'll leave you out of pocket
A cruise ship fanatic who has been on 50 holidays at sea by the age of 30 has revealed his biggest warnings when it comes to knowing about the hidden costs that can come with a break on the open seas.
Bradley Jones has travelled on cruise ships so much that he's earned himself an 'elite' status and all the perks that come with that.
After spending his 30th birthday going on five cruise ship holidays in 45 days, he sat down to speak to LADbible about all things cruises. And one major talking point was about hidden charges that some, if not most, first timers might be completely unaware of.
For Bradley, who hails from Swansea in Wales, one of them is that bad he joked he could 'buy a house for what it costs'.
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Dining out
When you're booking your cruise ship holiday, you wouldn't be blamed if part of the reason you were enticed was because of the food being advertised wherever you might have spotted it.
"But not every restaurant on a ship is included," Bradley told LADbible. "Tourists may see adverts - and as you know, when it comes to advertising these companies are the best. They will advertise things like food which isn't actually the food in the main dining room.
"So when they've seen a specific restaurant online, you board the ship and these are actually speciality restaurants. So these now not included, there's a surcharge or extra charge."
How much extra these speciality restaurants cost varies, but you can expect to find prices of around $20 per person in standard speciality venues.
For Bradley, he thinks this needs to be stressed more, adding: "I feel that it's something that should be made aware of to people because some people do actually book cruises for these specific experiences. They've seen a company advert on TV and they've put out this lovely advert about the restaurant and it's not included. To me that's not right."
On what you do get on board that is included in your fare, Bradley revealed: "You've got every cuisine. If you want silver service or sit down dining, if you want a buffet service, if you want a la carte. If you want, outdoor al fresco. It's there and they are included."
Using the spa
One thing that often catches people out is using the spa, Bradley says, as you'll pretty much never find a cruise ship that offers these entire facilities for free.
While most ships will have some that you can use, be expected to cough up. Especially if you want treatments, much like with most spas on dry land.
"Some people made mistake that because you've paid an all inclusive fare, the spa and everything there is included now," Bradley said.
"While some aspects scenarios of it are the whole spa and the salon are normally extra. They may give you access to the the sauna but not the thermal spa."
Tipping the staff
Cruise ships have a culture where tipping staff has become a part of the experience and is expected on most journeys.
But on some ships, this apparently isn't communicated well to all customers - especially if they're on a fare that doesn't include tips in the fee you've paid upfront.
"Most companies that do include tips in your charge and fare," Bradley said. "Crew appreciation they call it. But what you get is now is people going on a 'cruise only fare'. That will literally just cover the cruise.
"But when you get on board they'll say there's a daily tip charge of, say, $10. You can take that off but a lot of people won't know that that's on until they get their bill. And it's too late. On the last day, so you get your statement on the morning of the last day and you might think 'hang on now what's that?'
"Some people don't read the finer print and that's not really something that is widely published, when the tips are and aren't included. Some will state whether you've got your drinks and whether crew appreciation is included, so you don't need to worry about anything. It's bullet pointed in the script. I think that's important."
'You could buy a house for what it costs'
"The big one: internet. Wi-Fi. That's the biggest one," Bradley noted.
"So you go on a brand spanking new shiny ship and just like walking in to a hotel, you think Wi-Fi is included but 75 percent of the time it's not.
"At-sea Wi-Fi, you could buy a house for what it costs. And I'm not going to pretend that it's cheap because it's not, And that's where the cruise fare comes in to play.
"Say you've picked the lowest cruise fair, and you think 'yeah, we've saved £200 a person'. There's two of you and the two kids, but by the time you get on that ship you think 'Christ there's no internet and we have to buy Wi-Fi that £200 each'. You haven't actually saved a penny."
Bradley revealed that on his last cruise with Princess 'every was included so I didn't have to worry' but if he had been on the fare below, Wi-Fi would have been an extra fee.
"You're talking a couple hundred dollars for a week," he said.
Tom Earnshaw