When backpackers land on a luxury cruise

When backpackers land on a luxury cruise

Talk about being overwhelmed. Kia and I are leaving for Los Angeles today in a pretty ridiculous way considering our financial situation: on a Princess luxury cruise!

We have been “stranded” in Tahiti for a month and have not been able to afford flights east to America. We were planning on flying from Tahiti to Chile, but the cheapest flight we could find in December was in the thousands instead of the hundreds. With that in mind, we took a modest room in Tahiti and relaxed for Christmas, hoping prices would drop in the new year.

Prices have not fallen.

We were forced to look for other options and amazingly found an affordable 16 day cruise from Tahiti to Los Angeles where we could get cheap onward flights to Colombia.

As backpackers (on a backpacker budget) we never imagined this situation. Still, with a little frugality and careful research, we think we can just about make this work.

The mathematics

As I said, direct flights to Chile or South America were out of the question. Flights to LA were our second best choice at around £500 ($800) each. The cheapest cabin on the cruise – an inside cabin without an ocean view – cost us £640 ($999) per person. For a total of £280 more we can sail part of the Pacific, 16 nights of food and accommodation and stops in Hawaii, a part of the world we never expected to see on this trip.

We mentioned in How to Save for a Year of Travel that our daily budget is £40 ($60) excluding flights. So 16 nights x £40 is £640. If we add that to the two flights to LA we come to £1,640.

The cruise cost us £1,280 - significantly less than the flight option when you take into account food and accommodation.

If we can keep costs down while traveling, this cruise will actually save us money. Kind of.

EditA reader emailed us to highlight that we don't take time costs into account. Since we are on the road, there is no real time commitment for us. And if we had the choice between 16 days of sailing across the Pacific or a much more prosaic 8 hour flight, we would take the sailing! This may be different in other circumstances, but fortunately on this occasion we have freedom of choice.

booking

We booked our cruise through lastminutecruises.com. I was also in contact with several booking agents, but it was clear that none of them could really understand (or want to understand) our predicament. Several times an eager salesman tried to explain that I should pay $1,300 with him because it would be cheaper over the entire cruise.

Guess what, it turns out I knew my finances better than he did and I was perfectly capable of dividing one number by another number. We decided to do it ourselves and started watching the fluctuating prices closely. Finally, eight days before departure, I found something we could afford and booked it.

I know this isn't always possible, but if you find yourself in a similar situation to us, I advise you to hold your nerve and wait to see what you can afford.

Other useful websites include cruisesheet.com and cruisedeals.com.

budgeting

There is no hiding - we will be the poorest people on this boat. The only way we can make this work is by watching the wallets every step of the way.

Food and drink: Food is included in the price, drinks are not. A quick online search shows that tap water is perfectly safe to drink on cruise ships. Then it's tap water. We have to sacrifice our soft drink and (my) beer trust.

The specialty restaurants are also taboo. They sound tempting, but the dining and buffet options at any time have to be good enough. If I'm honest, we've been living on super noodles and egg noodles for a while now, so anything tastier is a bonus.

Excursions: We have stops in Moorea and Bora Bora in Polynesia and Hilo, Honolulu and Maui in Hawaii. Shore excursions offered by the cruise line are expensive, but going ashore is free. We've already seen Bora Bora, so we can save some money there. Moorea and Hawaii are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, so we want to see these destinations. There are scooter and car rental companies near the shipyards, so another DIY visit is in order.

Entertainment: There are some things that go without saying. For example, the casino, professional photos, transfers, spa, Pilates classes - I could go on - are all luxuries we cannot afford. They all sound great but expensive. Looking through the cruise website, I noticed that access to the gym and running track are included in the price, as are the swimming pools. There is also a library on board and a TV in our room - both free. Sorted.

Internet: When it comes to internet access, we also have to make compromises. This will be difficult since we're trying to run a travel blog, but we'll just have to rely on the magic of scheduling. We hope to contact you as soon as we gain access to land.

Laundry: We also frantically wash our clothes so we don't need laundry during the cruise. Worse, we just have to wash in the cabin hand basin!

Clothing

alt=“Peter and Kia on the Bora Bora lagoon tour”>Atlas & Boots

Unfortunately I didn't pack my tuxedo so we'll just have to skip the formal evenings. However, I have two or three light casual shirts and matching pants from Royal Robbins. These have proven to be very effective in covering all occasions, from hiking in the interior of tropical islands to cocktails at a yacht club and everything in between! With that in mind, I can safely walk the decks knowing that the other customers don't know how poor we really are.

Tilt

Well, here's a controversial topic. Having never taken a cruise before, I had no idea how controversial this was. A Google search turned up hundreds of articles and forum threads on the controversial topic. For us Brits it's confusing to say the least. Tipping is not deeply ingrained in our culture, and when we do tip it is usually at the end of a service and reflects a percentage of the cost versus the quality of the service. For example, if a meal costs £50 and I'm happy with the service, then 10-15% (£5-7.50) seems reasonable. Poor service would result in about 5% or none at all. Likewise, exceptional service can justify up to 20%.

Our cruise company automatically adds a voluntary gratuity to our bill each day that has nothing to do with the cost of the cruise. They charge this before the cruise - meaning before we've even boarded the ship we're left with a bill of £260 ($400) - more than 20% of what we paid for the cruise.

Regardless of how we feel about paying for services we haven't used yet, we simply can't afford that amount. It's an embarrassing and uncomfortable situation we find ourselves in, especially since this money is intended for the workers we will actually meet, as opposed to the faceless cruise company, but we have no choice. We need to contact the Purser’s Office and arrange a lower tip.

So that's our situation in a nutshell. We're not entirely sure how the staff will react if we rock out with our dirty backpacks, but we'll definitely let you know.

Mission statement: Atlas & Boots

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