I’ve got 10 costly cruise mistakes to avoid when you book, plan and taking a cruise.
Adelie penguin with chick in center next to rock in the rookery at Brown Bluff, Antarctica
Whenever we travel, many problems can occur without adding more problems ourselves. First-time cruisers often make cruise mistakes because they’re new to cruising. Veterans sometimes make mistakes by not paying enough attention or trying to cut corners.
Here are the top mistakes reported to me by readers, friends, and family who have cruised and a couple I made when first taking cruises many years ago.
Read your cruise contract carefully to understand what you’re entitled to and what your responsibilities are.
Failing to read the fine print:
Cruise contracts are complex and generally one-sided. Like the airlines’ contract of carriage, they list the cruise lines’ responsibilities, their right to change the itinerary, and the cruiser’s responsibilities, including behavior, the documents needed, fees, and what’s included and excluded in the cruise fare. Even “all-inclusive” cruise lines and cruises don’t include everything. Don’t miss anything important. Read the contract carefully.
Passports are better buys than less expensive passport cards if an emergency occurs.
Not having a passport, even your cruise only requires a passport card:
Passport cards are generally acceptable for international travel by land and sea between the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean. You can use a U.S. Passport Card on cruises that start and end at a US port. You can’t use a U.S. Passport Card if your cruise starts outside the US.
While Passport Cards cost $65 and US Passports $165, I consider U.S. Passport Cards a bad buy, even for cruising. If you have an emergency and must fly home without your Passport, you’re out of luck. Passport cards aren’t acceptable for international air travel, even between Canada, Mexico, and the US.
Unfortunately, emergencies happen. They could be family emergencies at home requiring cruisers to end their cruise early. On-board medical emergencies can also occur. Several years ago, the companion of a friend of mine had a heart attack while they were on a cruise together. He had to be med-evacuated back to the US. Fortunately, they both had their U.S. Passports.
Not checking your passport expiration date:
Too many Americans think that every country in the world accepts their U.S. passport as long as it hasn’t expired. That isn’t true. Making that assumption is one of the big cruise mistakes.
Many countries require visitor passports to be valid for at least three months after the traveler’s departure date. More than 50 countries require passports to be valid for at least six months after the traveler’s date of entry or departure.
You’ve got to check the passport requirements for each destination you intend to visit. If you’re flying to your cruise port of embarkation in a foreign country and have an ineligible passport, you won’t be allowed to board your flight. You’ll likely miss your entire cruise and no refund will be offered.
My rule is to apply for a passport renewal when the expiration date is a year away. That might seem extreme initially, but considering the six-month expiration date rule and the three months of processing time for U.S. Passports, that gives a buffer of just 90 days.
Choosing the wrong season for your cruise, which can mean fewer sights and options during your cruise, is another cruise mistake.
Failing to choose the season wisely for your cruise:
Some cruises have specific times of year that make the sailing more special than at other times. For example, when I went to Antarctica, I went in mid-December. I knew I’d miss seeing penguin hatchlings if I went in November. Likewise, you want to avoid Hawaii in summer if you want to see lots of whales, or the Caribbean during spring break unless you want to share your vacation with drunk, rude students on sprees, or Alaska in May when many excursions are likely impossible due to snow. Research your cruise before booking to know when to go or not.
Not purchasing travel insurance and travel health insurance for many:
If something goes wrong on a cruise, it can cost thousands. On a Caribbean cruise I was on some years ago, a family booked a private tour in Costa Rica. Their van got a flat tire and they arrived at the pier 30 minutes after the ship sailed to a day at sea. Their expenses included four last-minute airplane tickets, two hotel rooms for two nights and meals. There was also no cruise refund.
If you incur health problems while traveling internationally your health insurance might not pay for your health care. Medicare, for example, doesn’t pay for healthcare outside the U.S.
On cruise ships, I know from personal experience that your cruise fare doesn’t include shipboard healthcare, and the charges added to your account are not inexpensive. Fortunately, my travel health insurance paid my shipboard healthcare bill.
Get travel and maybe travel health insurance for your cruises.
Cruise mistakes include cutting your flights to your cruise and booking shore excursions that are too tight to your ship sailings.
Cutting the flight to your port of embarkation too tight:
A way to kill your cruise quickly is to arrive late at the embarkation pier and miss the sailing. Too many cruisers fly to their port of embarkation just hours before their ship’s departure. Most are lucky, getting to the pier, just in time. Others either miss their sailing altogether or arrive without their luggage. I recommend flying to domestic cruises the night before embarkation and 72 hours in advance of international embarkations. That international recommendation has saved me twice.
Smoking in your cabin:
Smoking is prohibited in cabins and balconies on cruise ships today. If you light up anyway, the odds are you’ll get caught and, at best, only be fined. On most ships, you’ll also be kicked off the ship at the next port, with no refund and all additional expenses charged to you.
Leaving your belongings in the cabin safe:
I’ve heard from countless cruisers who’ve left valuables in their cabin safe. Most, but not all, recovered their valuables from the cruise line. I leave a shoe in the safe to ensure I empty it. There’s no way I’ll travel home wearing just one shoe.
Not allowing for problems returning to the ship from a private tour:
The family I discussed above that booked the private tour in Costa Rica that missed the ship’s sailing, would have been fine if they had booked a tour that was due back earlier than 15 minutes before the ship was due to sail. I recommend you only book private tours that will return to the pier with a minimum of an hour to spare. Two hours is better.
Be careful to understand ship’s time and port of call time, which may be different.
Not understanding that a ship’s time may be different than local time:
More than a few readers let me know that they missed their ship sailing because they didn’t realize that the ship’s time wasn’t adjusted to the port’s time. That happens more often than cruisers realize. I’ve been on cruise ships that never adjusted their time when changing time zones.
These mistakes and others can be extremely costly, not just in money expended, but they can ruin a cruise vacation by causing you to miss all or part of your cruise. Take a commonsense approach to cruising and don’t repeat the above mistakes.
(Image: Adelie penguin with chick in center next to rock in the rookery at Brown Bluff, Antarctica, a tuya located at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. (The chick is all black.))
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After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
