I am going on a Royal Caribbean cruise next week....?

Question

Is it true that room service and most food is free....What can I expect my bill to be at the end for a family of 5 (2 adults, two 7 yr olds and a baby) (not counting the cruise itself and gratuity)

Answer 1

Food is free, room service is free! I just got back yesterday from Enchantment of the Seas. I recommend getting a soda cup, since soda is not included and they wouldn't even let us carry a case on. It's $6 a day for the cup. You can honestly just share one with your family, refilling it however many times you wish. EOS had orange juice, coffee, and a guava juice for free in the morning. In the afternoon it had lemonade, and coffee is served all day. We were able to walk by activities and score free champagne. Royal Caribbean offers pre-paid gratuities. I highly recommend this. I paid $40 for myself, which is split among the cabin person, waitstaff, and bartender. As a family or a single person, you really are only going to pay for sodas and drinks, the casino if you plan to go, and excursions are added to your seapass. ALSO, if you plan to get the soda cup do it when at sea. That way you won't pay taxes.One of the best things we found out while dining with some serious cruisers is............ you can order as much as you want! So we all ordered multiple appetizers and some nights, multiple entrees! I recommend looking at cruisecritic.com in the boards section for helpful tips from fellow cruisers.

Answer 2

Well, if you've never been on a cruise you have no idea how much gratuity is expected.. Make sure you bring cash for it. You can usually find these guidelines posted somewhere online (and remember that the people you are tipping generally are foreign and support their ENTIRE families solely on the tips they earn). The things you pay for are shore excursions (which will add up quickly). The best thing to do is to decide in advance what you will do or won't do, and don't budge from that choice. Alcohol and items bought on the ship. You will get a room key, which also acts as a credit card. It seems so easy to swipe that card when you want something, but then it comes back to bite you. ALL FOOD IS FREE. The only food you pay for is the private restaurants located on the ship. Services are not free, so if your wife wants to spend a day at the spa get ready to fork over some cash. A 30 minutes massage cost me $120. I would say your bill would be anywhere from $300-500 based on alcohol, SMALL trinkets, and maybe a spa treatment. They do have AMAZING jewlery sales on the ships though. My engagement ring was appraised (back in the U.S. AFTER I bought it on the ship) for $4500 and we spent $1200 on it. If you are an art collector, they have art galleries as well. If you are going the frugal route, you CAN get out without owing anything because there is a lot of free options.

p.s. the amazing thing about a cruise is that you can order whatever you want at dinner and however many of them you want, there is always someplace to eat at any moment of the trip, always something to do (games, clubs, bars, movies, etc).

Answer 3

It depends which cruise line you are with, I came off a royal caribbean cruise 2 days ago, all my food was free, from around different resteraunts 24 7. My water, lemonade tea & coffee was also free. There is places which charge and thats bars and specialiality resteraunts. You also pay for your alcohol Room service was free too. You can pre pay your gratuities, or put money in env. to the people you wish to give it too. (about £80 for 2 adults) There are free ice creams and superb snacks on pool decks, the food is all first class. It will cost you nothing, just your alcohol. Unless of course you hit the shops, and paying resteraunts. I have just notice you are Royal car too, RC was fabulous, we were on the Voyager.

Answer 4

Yes, your food and room service are INCLUDED in your cruise fair - so eat all you want!!! Eat whenever you want! Even roomservice is included! You will want to tip your servers at the end of the week - usually it's $10 per day so if you are on a 7 night cruise, expect to tip $70 for each of you (including your kids) because they are being served and cleaned up after too! The tips are split between your cabin steward (who cleans your room 2x a day - and your wait staff - including room service). If you drink, then then drinks are about $5-8 each and if you kids like soda, buy a soda card, so they can drink all they want. I have a link that will help you not forget anything "what to pack" have a GREAT time!!! Here is the link from my site to "first time cruisers" which will be a GREAT link for you.

Answer 5

Alright now, this idea of tipping or not tipping is getting old. The stewards, busboys, and waiters work basically for tips. They work very hard and they deserve to get your tips. The rule of thumb is that children are supposed to tip at the same as the parent's tip. The steward has to make up their beds as well as yours and probably some extra cleaning will be done, too. The waiter has to serve meals to the kids as well as you and husband. The busboy has to clean up after them - and probably more than with just you and husband. Some cruise lines add tips in automatically on your shipboard charge. I don't know what RCL does. If you do pay in cash at the end of the cruise - they provide envelopes and you hand it to your waiter and busboy on the last dinner of the cruise - you can put whatever you want in the envelope as a tip. They have the manners not to count it in front of you and they will be very gracious about accepting your tips. If you want to shortchange them or feel as though the service was not worth the suggested guidelines, no one is going to say anything. If the tips are automatically added to your shipboard charges, you have to speak to the pursar's office about eliminating them or reducing them. You will feel like a cheapskate. I just read the guidelines in the link provided by Lizzy P. below my answer. RCL does say that the tips guidelines are regardless of the age of the passenger. I stand corrected.

Answer 6

The price of your cruise includes your cabin, all meals (except the specialty restaurants), all shows and entertainment, and use of all facilities on ship. Room service is free but your should tip the person who brings your food a couple of dollars. The things that you will have to pay for are:

Gratuities: They will amount to just under $10 per person in your cabin per day; about $70 each for the week. You will have to pay a gratuity for two adults and two kids but I am not sure about the baby as far as gratuity is concerned. When you check in at the pier they will set up an on-board charge account for you to cover any and everything you may buy on ship. They will issue you a "cruise card" which will also serve as your room key and pass to get on and off the ship. At the end of the cruise they will add the gratuity to your tab and you can pay with a credit card or cash, your choice.

Alcoholic drinks and soft drinks: Coffee, tea, milk, juice, and lemonade and punch will be provided free but you must pay for drinks (alcoholic beverages) and they will add a 15% gratuity to each drink of soft drink order. You can save on drinks by ordering them in a plain glass rather than the souvenir glasses they often use. You can also save money if you can by taking a six-pack of bottled water and soft drinks with you in your carry on. Since you cannot take these through airport security you would have to get them after leaving the airport.

Photographs: Cruise lines will take plenty of photographs of you all over the ship, in the dining room, and as you exit the ship in ports. These will cost a lot, like $15 to $20 for most. Skip them and save yourself a lot of money. Take your own camera and have the other passengers photograph you on and off the ship.

Tours/Excursions: These are listed on your cruise line web site and you can reserve them well before the cruise and pay for them also. If you wait until you are on ship to book tours they will be charged to your on board account (then you can pay cash to settle your account on the last day)

Souvenirs: Anything you buy on ship from a gift shop or duty free shop goes on your on board account. Things that you buy on shore you pay cash or credit card for.

Casino: If you plan to gamble on ship you will need cash for that.

Other: most cruise lines have what they call "specialty" restaurants where there is a gratuity/service charge. For example your Royal Caribbean ship may have a Johnny Rockets where the fee to eat is $5.00 per person. All other food on board is free and its not really necessary to budget for food; you cannot eat all that will be available. If you want/need to have your hair done, get a massage or wrap, or any services from the spa, you will have to pay for them. You can use the gym free but the spa stuff cost big bucks.

Ships now have internet cafe and some have WiFi but the there is a fee for internet access and it is very expensive (like about $50 to $60 an hour). You cabin will likely have a minibar with soft drinks and munchies; you have to pay for them.

Answer 7

Yes, the food is free, but unsure of cost for your family.

Answer 8

this site has great info for you
http://allcruiselines.info