Here are my top Budget Cruise Tips, as a large family of 7 who always travel on a budget. We do most of our adventuring to nature, due to cost. But, twice now we have done a big family trip to celebrate and hold onto a family moment together when a son graduated from high school.

Our first big family trip was to Oahu, which you can read all about here. The post includes favorite hikes, beaches, restaurants, and a line-by-line on our budget!

For our second big family trip, we really wanted to do a family cruise. My sister and I had cruised before, but none of the rest of the family. My son wanted to cruise to the Bahamas, but we didn’t have the points to fly the family to FL and that would have doubled the cost. So, we drove down to LA and cruised to Mexico.

DISCLAIMER: These tips will help your trip be *more* budget-friendly. However, there were 2 decades where crusing was just NOT in our budget at all. Holding space that this is still not a trip everyone can afford and we saved up for!

Here are my top Budget Cruise Tips:

1. How to Get the Best Deal on Cruises

I have started to get into travel hacking, but all of my expert travel hacking friends said that cruises are currently hard to travel hack, as you can’t usually use credit card points to book them.

So, I polled my community and here were the top answers on where and when to find the best cruise deals (read all the way to tip #4, as it was the MOST common tip for getting a great cruise deal!):

• Tip #1: Cruise in the non-summer off-season months. For example, Bahamas and Mexico are much cheaper to cruise to in February + March or September-November. 
• Tip #2: Use a travel agent! We booked ours before we got this tip from many people, but I am told they are usually free to use and can get you better deals.
• Tip #3: See if going through Costco can get you a better deal!
• Tip #4: Go through vacationstogo.com – which is basically a online group of travel agents. But do your price comparisons first! Many people told me that vacationstogo.com by far had the better price, but I actually found a better deal online through cruises.priceline.com that vacationstogo.com price matched.
  • The one thing I didn’t like about vacationstogo.com is you CAN’T book it yourself online – you do have to call them and work with an agent. That was a little clunky and not my favorite. 

We ended up booking our cruise through vacationstogo.com with Carnival Cruise Line, as Carnival had the best prices. I heard previously that Carnival was a “party” cruiseline. There for sure were plenty of people drinking, but I never found the environment obnoxious or not appropriate for my kids. And the price was right!

2. What Items We Bought for Our Room

Cruise ship rooms are tiny, especially when you book the cheapest rooms (like us!). Here are some items that helps maximize the space. We had a room with 4 boys in it and then a room with me, my husband, and my youngest in it. 

• Magnetic Hooks – The walls of a cruise ship room are magnetic. With a tiny closet, a few sets of these magnetic hooks are SO helpful in organizing the chaos. They are strong enough to hold even a hoodie! We used them for hats, lanyards, hoodies, water bottles, etc. I got a set for each room. 

• Over the door shoe holder – We used this to organize all kinds of stuff, not just hold shoes. Every kid had a few rows and put stuff like swim goggles, sunscreen, shoes, toiletries, etc. in them to give more space for all the little stuff. I got one for each room. 
• Power strip – There are all of TWO, count them 2, plugs in one of the cruise rooms we were in. That was not nearly enough for all the devices and things we needed to charge! This was exactly what we needed, we got one for each room.
• Lanyards – This isn’t really room specific but you most definitely need lanyards on a cruise to keep track of your cruise ID card. You can’t get on or off the ship or into your room without that card! Happy that with these lanyards, no one lost their card the entire trip – wahoo!
• Luggage tags – To get your suitcases delivered to your room from the dock, you have to put a cruise specific tag on it. We weren’t taking any chances of paper ones getting ripped off and a suitcase lost! We printed the tags and attached them to our bags, which worked really well. 

3. What We Bought But Didn’t Need

There were a few items that seemed good in theory but will be going back to Amazon, as we just didn’t need them:

• Walkie Talkies – It is HARD to keep track of everyone on a cruise ship when you are there with a big family. You can’t just “find” them. We got walkie talkies to connect, but these ones didn’t have a good enough range if we were on opposite sides of the cruise ship. Instead, I would have just paid the $5 per person to be able to text within the cruise ship app (we used Carnival). Or, get walkie talkies with better range than these!
• Retractable Clothes Line – I got this to dry swim suits on. However, there already was one you could attach and use as needed in our shower! 

4. Why We Booked Excursions Through the Cruiseline

Booking excursions through the cruiseline is NOT the most budget-friendly option. There are lots of other places you can find excursions, including through vacationstogo.com if you book your cruise through them. 

However, my sister and I booked a more budget-friendly excursion that left without us. The boat was late and the excursion left without us. We were lucky to get our money back eventually, but it made a mess of the day. 

If you book through your cruiseline, it’s GUARANTEED the excursion will wait for you AND that the boat won’t leave without you if your excursion goes long. 

That peace of mind was absolutely worth it for us!

5. Food Items We Brought as a GF + DF Family

Carnival was very sensitive to food allergies, which I so appreciated! Everything in the buffet is labeled to indicate if it is gluten-free, contains nuts, or vegetarian. The servers at the restaurant as also awesome if you tell them you have specific dietary needs. The menus also had a special Gluten-free Menu and Vegan menu. 

But, from my first cruise I learned there were a few gaps and brought some of my own items on the second. Here is what I brought:

• Tortillas – They do offer corn tortillas at the taco and burrito bar, but they always fell apart. I brought my own Siete Tortillas instead and was so happy I did! I just went through the line and got the fillings + toppings and then scooped it into my own tortillas.
• Gluten-free buns – Our cruise boat had a delicious burger bar and BBQ restaurant, but not a gluten-free bun in sight. So, I brought our own and it was a delicious decision. No sad burgers here!
  • Our favorite most budget-friendly and least dry GF buns are from Trader Joe’s. I buy a bunch and freeze them, as we live an hour from TJ’s. Works great!

• Almond Milk – It was weird to me there was no dairy-alternative milk ANYWHERE. I feel like those a pretty mainstream? So, I brought my own almond milk and just kept it in the small room fridge. 
• Gluten-free Dairy-free Desserts – Though they do have some gluten-free desserts that are delicious, desserts that are gluten-free AND dairy-free were hard to find. If you have multiple allergies or sensitivities and don’t want to eat just fruit for dessert, I recommend bringing some of your own to enjoy. My Oreo Truffles are a delicious option that travel great…just sayin’.
• Excursion snacks – Some excursions include lunch, some don’t. We brought a smattering of bars, meat sticks, nuts, and fruit leathers to help fill in the gaps when we were on shore and we were glad we did!
• BYOD – We don’t drink, but we love sparkling water, Izzes, and Zevias. If you want a drink besides soda (that you have to pay for!) or lemonade, bring your own. We came on board with Izzes and Zevias. It’s a very common cruise practice and the waiters will happily bring you a glass with ice water to dinner for you to pour your own drink you brought. 

6. Be Prepared – A Cruise Is Not Actually All-Inclusive

I knew that I had to pay gratutities on top of the price of the cruise, which we prepaid. But, there are SO many other things they try to get you to spend your money on on a cruise! Things that are NOT free on a cruise:

• Soda – Prep your kids if you don’t want to pay the bottomless soda daily charge. Or bring your own!
• Alcohol – At least not on our Carnival Cruise!
• Half the restaurants – Dinning in the buffet and main dinner restaurant are free, along with some fun options like a taco bar, pizza, or burger bar. But, just pay attention – there are also half of the restaurants that are NOT free.
• Kids activities – Again, prepare your kids if you don’t want to pay for the trampoline park or build a bear. There are quite a few kids activities with added charges. 
• Wifi – The only thing you can access with the free wifi is the cruise app.

7. I Dare You Not to Pay for Wifi

I know this sounds crazy in our very connected world, but possibly THE best cruise decision we made as parents was to NOT pay for wifi. For ANYONE. Not the teens, not the parents.

What happened? WE CONNECTED. It was a beautiful week of just family time without Instagram, work, girlfriends, etc. distractions. I cannot tell you how fantastic it was. My boys just hung out and chatted with each other. I didn’t feel pressure to post anything or do any work.

Obviously, your situation may vary and you might need to be able to get in touch with family not on the cruise or work. But, you will have service at port (my Verizon plan had unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico), if needed. 

If you can, I encourage you to totally disconnect! It saves you money and helps your family turn inward. 

I’d love to hear what tips helped save you money on your cruises! Or, any other top cruising tips you wish you had known. Feel free to drop them in the comments below!