January 17, 2024 • 56 mins
Over here at How To Money, we’ve experienced a lot of life over the years and typically the way the podcast works is that we share our firsthand account of something personal finance related. Save up 3-6 months of living expenses for an emergency fund? Of course. Investing in real estate and becoming a landlord? We’ve achieved that many times over. Pursuing entrepreneurship by scaling a podcasting sidegig into a full-fledged business? You’re listening to it! But when it comes to going on a cruise, we’re total noobs! Neither of us have ever been on a cruise before, and so we figured it made sense to bring on a pro. We’re joined by Ilana from Life Well Cruised which is a cruise and travel blog, and she also has a YouTube channel where she has around 45 million views, which is incredible! But it shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the helpful content she’s publishing over there. Ilana shares why she loves cruising so much, how to get the best deal during wave season, the difference between some of the major cruise lines, excursions, choosing a room, sea sickness, and plenty more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Today we're talking cruises, the cheapest way to travel with
Ilana from a Life Well Cruised. Yeah, so, typically the
(00:28):
way this podcast works is that we share our first
hand account of something personal finance related. So save up
three to six months of living expenses for an emergency fund.
Of course, we did this years ago, investing in real estate,
becoming a landlord. That's something we have done multiple times over.
Even pursuing entrepreneurship by scaling a podcast side gig into
(00:50):
a full fledged business. Well, that's something that you are
listening to right now. But when it comes to going
on a cruise, Joel and I are total idiots. Neither
of us have ever been on a cruise before, but
we're intrigued and so we figured it made a lot
of sense to bring on a pro And so we're
joined by Ilana from a Life While Cruised, which is
a cruise and a travel blog. And she also has
(01:12):
a YouTube channel where she has around forty five million views,
which is just incredible, but it makes sense considering the
helpful content that she's publishing over there. So Alana, we
hope you're ready because we have a ton of questions
for you. Thank you for joining us today on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh thanks so much for having me on. Super excited
to talk with you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We're excited too, Alana and I've got so many questions because,
like Matt said, we are total newbies at this. But
the first question we ask anybody who comes on the
show is what do they like to splurgeh On Matt
and I we drink fancy craft beer from time to time.
We're having the next one. Now, what is it that
you splur John while you're still trying to save and
invest well for your future.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, firstly, I do like to splurge on cruises. That's
definitely one.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hundred percent I figured.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But besides that, when it comes to traveling in particular,
I splurge on direct flights. They could be economy, but
I will not even look at any flight that has
any stop. Part of that is because I have flight anxiety,
so it's a very practical reason. And otherwise it's also hotels.
I'd rather spend a little bit more money on a
(02:21):
hotel in a great location, safe, nice looking. So those
are my kind of splurges.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Those direct flights, they just save a lot of time
and hassle when you're traveling too, right, Yeah, is it
more like you mentioned kind of the flight anxiety. Is
it more just the fewer the planes the better, or
is it also about kind of reclaiming some of your time.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well absolutely both, Okay, so yeah, definitely it's for the convenience.
But at the same time, it really is very practical.
I know that crash anyway. Crashes happen more on landings
and take offs, so I just reduce my risk, that makes.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Sense, But they also probably occur just as frequently as
somebody falling overboard on a cruise. I don't think that's
something that we're planning to get to.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, we won't even talk about that.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, ever happens like this kind of makes me think
about when we first reached out to you to record,
and of course you weren't available because you were actually
on the cruise I think at that point. And so
for us dudes who have never been on a cruise,
can you tell us why it is that you love
cruising so much? Is it specifically because you don't like
(03:27):
flying that you're like, you know what, for me, it's boating, Like,
what is it for you that causes you to want
to go on as many cruise as you possibly can.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh, that's a good question. Well, first of all, though,
it is actually for the vacation itself. On a cruise,
you can travel to several different destinations all within one trip,
and your hotel moves with you, so you don't have
to pack and unpack to go to different locations. You get,
you know, great meals, fine dining, your entertainment pretty much
(03:55):
for five star accommodations, all in one travel experience, and
overall it's a pretty reasonable way to travel.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, Well, I'm curious too because, like COVID was almost
the death knell for some of the cruise companies. Did
that cramp your cruising style? And how do you feel
like that's changed the industry because that was Man, that
was a rough couple of years right there.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't know what I thought when
it kind of all first happened, but definitely cruises were
completely stopped for I believe it was more than eighteen months,
but definitely eighteen months. So you would have thought that
some of the cruise lines would have just gone bankrupt
after that, but they didn't. At least on the most part,
(04:38):
all of the big cruise lines are still around. They
invested a ton of money into safety protocols and health protocols,
and now they're back better than ever. In a lot
of ways, cruises have become even more popular vacations than
they were before.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, okay, I mean, and you said a second ago
that you think that they're more than reasonable, but I mean, honest,
just in preparation for this episode, looking at some of
the prices out there, like they really do seem like
the most affordable way to travel, like you said, and
see multiple countries at once. And so we want to
start off by talking about finding a deal on a cruise. Sure,
and it seems like that, like we're right in the
(05:14):
middle of what's known as wave season. Is that right?
It seems like that that's when you are able to
snag the biggest discounts on some of the different different cruises.
What should folks be looking for there?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, absolutely so, starting sort of in January all the
way through March, there are typically a lot of great
deals on cruises, although you can find good deals at
all different times of the year, but definitely right now,
a lot of cruise lines are having sales on third
and fourth passengers. So that's really good for families that
are willing to cruise all in one cabin. So cabins
(05:49):
on cruise ships are smaller than hotel rooms, but for
families that are willing to do that, oftentimes they can
have their kids sailing free or sailing at really highly
discount rates. Other times cruises are just sort of on sale.
There are some discounts, some percentages off even on like
let's say a second passenger, So when your two people
(06:09):
in the cabin, the second passenger might sail for forty
to sixty percent off, so that's a good deal. And otherwise,
even if the prices are about the same as before,
there are perks when people are traveling and cruising. So
that can include free gratuities for instance, or extra onboard
credits that you can use for excursions and other things
(06:32):
on the cruise.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So when you book matters, it sounds like I guess
I'm curious about all the other ways you can save too.
You've talked about being flexible with dates. We know that
when you're booking airfare. We talked about Airfair just a
second ago. That just changing your dates by a day
or two forward or backward can save you a ton
of money getting to your destination. But that can also
be true of a cruise itself, right, like the dates
(06:56):
that you're departing and can make a big difference in
how much you pay.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh absolutely, And for instance, I'm going on a cruise
on January seventh, and the cruise that I'm doing, if
I would have booked it for New year so just
you know, the week before, I probably would have paid
oh goodness, maybe not double, but pretty close to double.
So it's significantly more expensive to go on a cruise
(07:21):
at New Year's than it would be to go one
week later. But the same thing happens during different times
of the year. So, for instance, cruises tend to be
most expensive during school breaks, during the holidays, and during
summer breaks. And so if people can go during shoulder
season while the kids are still in school, before they've
(07:44):
gotten out of school, the prices are going to be
somewhat better, And it definitely can make a difference if
people go one week before or one week after a holiday,
that will make a difference.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, I'm curious to hear that, because I guess, again
having been you know, being completely ignorant ubes when it
comes to comes to cruises. I didn't know if the
actual cruise lines had that kind of flexibility as well,
but it sounds like they do. I'm curious then, like,
what if you end up booking something and the price
ends up going down, like you, you know, maybe you
(08:17):
book a week after it sounds like everybody else is
going to book their cruise, and so you're able to
get a deal, But what if it continues to drop?
Is that something? Are there ever any instances I guess
when you're able to get any of that money refunded
to you, like some of the more favorable airlines will
oftentimes offer.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, it definitely does happen. And that's something that for
people that are cruising often they know that the best
time to book a cruise typically is as far ahead
as possible, So a lot of times people will book
a cruise eight months to a year before, sometimes even
longer than that. But the benefit of doing that is
people are able to book their preferred date, they're able
(08:56):
to brook the book excuse me, their preferred cabin. But
at the same time, if the price does decrease as
they get closer to sailing, then the cruise line will
usually honor the lower price up until final payment, so
I probably do have to explain cruises most of the time.
(09:18):
Most cruise lines have when people do book, you book
and you put a deposit on your cruise, So that
deposit could be, as an example, five hundred dollars per person.
That's just an example. The deposit can differ depending on
the cruise line and depending on the different promotions that
they have, but if that deposit is five hundred dollars,
(09:40):
that's usually a refundable deposit, and the final payment is
anywhere from seventy days to one hundred and twenty days
before the cruise. So if the price does come a
little bit cheaper, let's say four months before the cruise,
you simply have to call your travel agent or the
cruise line and they will almost all the time lower
that rates so that you can get that refund on
(10:02):
the cost.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
The difference nice is that across the board with all
the different cruise lines.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It is as long as you're booking. Like in North America,
sometimes the rules are a little bit different for UK residents,
but that's pretty much on most of them on the
mainstream cruise lines, so that includes everybody from Carnival to
Princess Cruises to Royal Caribbean. It may not include some
of the luxury cruise lines, but most of the popular
cruise lines. That's pretty much what happens.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's cool. It should provide I think, some peace of
mind from people being able to book early and then knowing, oh, hey,
if the price goes down, I don't have to just
wait for the perfect deal. I can hopefully book and
then let the deal come to me well after the fact. Yeah.
And also too, the fact that you said that it
sounds like that deposit is also refundable. Is that also
across all the popular cruise lines in the US as well,
(10:51):
So all of.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The cruise lines have an option to book with the
refundable deposit. Okay, However, some of the cruise lines do
sometimes offer a better price if you book with a
non refundable deposit, so that really is up to the person.
Some people absolutely know the date that they want to cruise,
so then one hundred percent if they can book with
(11:14):
a non refundable deposit, that's going to be their best bet. However,
sometimes people do want a little bit more flexibility. They
haven't booked their area yet, and they're not one hundred
percent sure of their date that they're going to sail,
so then they'll want a book with a not excuse me,
with a refundable deposit.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Gotchakay? All right? So I've seen a lot of there's
a new cruise ship launching now in twenty twenty four.
It's the biggest one ever. It's the Icon of the Seas,
I believe, right, and it's getting a lot of publicity.
I saw commercial for it during like the college football
stuff recently. And these things are like floating islands. They've
got eighteen story slides going into pools and stuff like that.
(11:51):
I exaggerate only a little, but just a little, Yeah,
just a little. But what what is your take on
booking like the newest, latest, coolest versus booking an older
cruise ship which might save you more money? And how
much money? Are we talking about the difference the disparity
between kind of those fancy, new in demand megaships versus
(12:12):
maybe some of the older ones with fewer amenities.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, so definitely. I Mean, the Icon of the Seas
looks absolutely amazing and people are so interested in it,
so it really is commanding the highest prices. But if
you love a lot of the things that are offered
on Icon of the Seas, so that's a Royal Caribbean
cruise ship. Royal Caribbean has many amazing cruise ships, including
the Oasis class, so the Oasis of the Seas, And
(12:39):
if people do want to actually get the best deal,
then what they can do is just look at an
older cruise ship that still does offer for instance, the
water slides, the zip lines, the many pools and many
hot teps, all of the different dining options, and the
price difference can really be significant. I can tell you
I was actually speaking with my friend just yesterday and
(13:03):
she did end up booking a cruise with Rural Caribbean
where they did have a sale for kids under twelve
were sailing free. So you know, she called me up
and she was like, what do you think should I
do this cruise ship or this other cruise ship both
with Rural Caribbean and the cruise ship that was a
little bit older that was refurbished in twenty eighteen quite
(13:25):
extensively was actually it was almost twenty five hundred dollars
less than the newer cruise ship. So in the end,
because they it was. It's their first cruise, it's their
kids first cruise. I think their children are ten and twelve.
Now she knows they're absolutely going to love it. And
in their case, they wanted to save the money and
(13:48):
they decided to go for that little bit of an
older cruise ship. And this way they can use the
money that they saved on the excursions, on the drink packages,
on thee and for them, for them, it's worth it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, So is there a resource like how do you
know I guess whether or not the boat that you're
looking at is older as a complete novice here as
a rookie, how do you know, I guess if the
ship has some of the different amenities even like you mentioned,
is that all detailed out? How do you tell if
you are getting a good deal or nut?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Sure? So, Actually, the cruise line websites are really good resources.
They're going to have all of the information, so you
can actually look up the cruise ship that you're looking at.
You can take a look and see the information about
the cruise ship, what restaurants are on, what type of
activities are available on that cruise ship, and it usually
(14:42):
will give you some information about when that cruise ship
was last refurbished. But honestly, a really good resource is
a travel agent that specializes in cruises. These people tend
to absolutely love going on cruises themselves, and oftentimes they
really do have the best deals and the best information
as well.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Do you have any tips for finding like a great
travel agent.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
A lot of the big travel agencies that are also
online websites, so you know, anybody from Expedia, Cruises, Vacations
to Go, but also you know smaller agencies that specializes
that specialize in cruises, They're going to be super helpful
as well.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And a lot of people think that that using a
travel agent is going to add to the cost. But
how does that relationship work and does going through a
travel agent? Is that going to cost me more than
booking directly with the cruise line itself.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, that's such a good question. I think a lot
of people think that using a travel agent is going
to cost them more money. But the way it works
is travel agents get paid, at least when it comes
to cruises, they get paid from the cruise line. So
the cruise line really builds in a commission for the
travel agent and that doesn't change the cost for the passengers.
(15:59):
So whether you book directly on the cruise line website
or by calling the cruise line, or you book with
a reputable travel agent that specializes in cruises, the price
should be the same, if not lower, with a travel agent.
What happens is with these big agencies, what they do
(16:19):
is they're able to book group travel rates that they
book up cabins way in advance, like a year or
more in advance, and they're basically holding that inventory at
the lowest price that is available. So, especially when you
are booking in advance, you're oftentimes going to find a
better price that is available from a travel agency or
(16:43):
from one of those large travel websites. And at the
same time, you might find, at the very least, even
if the price is the same, that the travel agent
is going to give you a little extra perk. So
that could be different times they'll have promotions and that
will be through the cruise line as well. But it
might be free gratuities. It might be you know, an
(17:04):
extra onboard credit of fifty dollars that you can use
towards excursions or drinks or something else you know, or
it might be a bottle of wine.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Okay, well, hey, I take anything. Okay, So another again,
this sounds like maybe this is more of a cruise thing.
But when you say free gratuities. Normally, when you hear
something is free, it means it's, oh, you receive this
thing and you didn't have to pay for it. But
with gratuity being something that's normally something that you give,
how does that work. Does that just mean that, hey,
(17:32):
you actually have a special badge or something that means
that you don't have to leave tip or what does
that mean?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, So when you go on a cruise, part of
the I guess it's the tradition on cruises is that
passengers are sort of expected to give a gratuity to,
you know, the waiters, the people that are cleaning your cabin,
so the house can being the housekeeping, et cetera. But
rather than giving you know, twenty dollars to one person
(18:00):
you know, and ten dollars to another and fifty dollars
to another, or leaving money for every time you go
to the dining room and you go and eat a meal, instead,
what cruise lines will do is they will have a
suggested automatic gratuity that is charged to your account every
day of your crews and most cruise lines now the
(18:21):
suggested gratuity is between sixteen dollars and twenty dollars per
person per day. But that includes all of the people
who help you on the cruise to make your crews better,
so you know, your housekeeping, your waiters, and even some
of the people that you don't see that are behind
the scenes as well. So basically, when you have free gratuities,
(18:42):
I'm using like air quotes, gotcha, but that just means
that those automatic ratuities would be paid for you, so
you couldn't have that charge to your account while you're
on the cruise.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Gotcha. That makes sense essentially like a fen Yeah, totally,
it's like a fee that's rolled off essentially that they're
covering for you. I love the insight you gave about
travel agents, and that's super helpful. I guess, you know,
given the Internet age and kind of the DIY mentality
that Matt and I have and a lot of our
listeners have. It it makes me think of like, when
I'm trying to book a flight, I'm not usually calling
(19:14):
a travel agent. I'm going to directly to Google flights.
I'm kind of playing around with the dates with the
destinations and trying to commandeer the best price I can
find for the given trip I want to take. What
does something like that exists for cruises where there's an
algorithm and you can kind of add or subtract and
you can kind of hone in on kind of some
(19:35):
of the best deals that are available, Like, how would
one go about DIY booking? Is there a third party
site that can help us do that?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I'm not aware of one. I think a lot of
people would think of that as you know, looking on
vacations to Go or Expedia or any of those different sites.
But those are still big travel agencies. They're just online
travel agencies, but real people work for them, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, So either that or just going directly to the
individual cruise line cruise websites that sounds like they've got
a lite just takes a little more a little more.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Leg work, It takes a little more digit and and
again I'm not working as a travel agent, but they
do have access to to listings and to some of
the sales, Like they'll see some of the promotions that
are available. They'll see that before you and I will.
On the consumer facing websites and things like that. And
(20:30):
it's just it is a little bit different than flights because,
if I'm not mistaken, most of the airlines have cut
the commissions years ago from travel agents, which is why
it's not cheaper usually with a travel agent for a flight,
but that is not the case with cruise lines.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Gotcha. Okay, So you mentioned kind of getting a jump
on some of those bookings that you can get via
a travel agent. I think I've heard you mention that
you've got the ability to get a really good discount
for you to book a future cruise while you are
currently on a cruise. Is that right? Is that a
good way to get a deal as well?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, a lot of people think that it's like too
good to be true, but definitely, when you're on a cruise,
you can visit the future cruise desk and the future
cruise person representative will be able to book you on
a future cruise and they will offer you a promotion
while you're on the cruise. And usually that promotion will
(21:24):
either be that you'll receive an onboard credit that you
can use on the cruise that you're on at the moment,
and most people do have a certain amount of money
that they've spent on their creuse, so what reduces that
or you can get an additional on board credit on
a future cruise, and for people that are using a
travel agent already, that booking can still be serviced when
(21:45):
you get home by your existing travel agent. And something
that I like to do because I don't always know
what I want to book. I don't know why, I'm
just like that. I can't really pick my next cruise
while I'm on a cruise, but oftentimes I make what's
called an open booking, So I basically put a deposit
on a cruise knowing I'm going to do one, and
usually you have between two and four years, depending on
(22:07):
the cruise line to book the next cruise, and I
just put a deposit, and this way I get all
of the benefits by having that additional on board credit
that I'm always trying to accumulate for future cruises, and
then I can choose my cruise once I get home
and I have a little more time to kind of
figure out my schedule and where I want to go.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So you're saying that somehow sometimes you're able to get
like a credit for the cruise like it sounds like
essentially like dollars that you are going to be spending
while you are on the cruise. So does that apply
to restaurant It's like, what do those credits go towards?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yeah, absolutely so on board credits on cruises is equivalent
to having like a cash credit that you can use
while you're on the cruise, and so that can be
things like some of the restaurants I should mention on cruises,
your dining is included, so there are a lot of
casual restaurants and fine dining that is included, but there
(23:04):
are also alternative restaurants that are a little bit more
intimate that will not be included, and if people choose
to go to them, there's going to be in there's
going to be excuse me, an additional charge. So with
your onboard credit, you might choose to go to one
of the specialty restaurants. So that's something that you can do.
Some people choose to get a photo package while they're
(23:25):
on their cruise, or you know, even just buy one
or two photos, So that's something you can use your
onboard credit for. And there's a variety of things or
even the shops, you know, so if you want to
do a little bit of duty free shopping while you're
on a cruise. You can use the onboard credit for
that as well.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Cool. Love it all Right, there's so much that we've covered,
but there's still so much to cover because I haven't
had all my questions answered yet. We've got a lot
more than we want to get into with you, and
we'll get to especially I want to like the different
cruise lines. What's the difference between all of them? So
we've got questions on that and more. Right after this,
(24:07):
all right, we are back and we're talking about cruises
with a Lana truly how it can be the cheapest
way to travel. And let's talk about choosing a specific cruise, Alana,
because you can basically it seems like you can cruise
pretty much anywhere, right, like whether you're taking like anywhere
there's water matte, like a river cruise in Europe, you're
not in your bath, like you could cruise up to Alaska,
(24:29):
the Caribbean, Alana, How do you think about choosing a cruise?
How are you factoring in like maybe the destination, the
port of call, maybe the length of cruise. I would
love to hear your thoughts on how it is that
you choose a cruise or are you like us and
you're letting the deal drive the destination. How are you
taking all that into account as you're making a decision.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, I think when it comes to picking a cruise,
you do want to think about the destination and what
you wanted of it. So some people really want to
go on a Caribbean or a Bahamas cruise because they're
looking for or that hopefully hot and sunny weather. But
other people are looking for a cruise that they're going
to have more of a travel experience that has a
little bit more culture involved or a little bit more
(25:12):
sight seeing. So in that case, perhaps it's a Mediterranean
cruise or as you mentioned, perhaps a river cruise. So
I think those are some of the biggest differences. Definitely,
though when it comes to cruising, there are so many
Caribbean cruises. It is the most popular cruise destination I
think in the world, So you could definitely find probably
(25:32):
the most chance of having a great deal on a
Caribbean cruise just because there really are so many ships
that are doing it. So that's a good way, especially
if it's a first cruise. A Caribbean cruise is probably
a good choice.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
All right, talk to me about the different cruise lines.
We talked about different like newer and older cruise ships,
but what about like Norwegian versus Carnival versus Royal Caribbean.
Do they each kind of stand out and do better
at certain things worse at others? Or is it different
strokes for different folks? Are you able to find better
discounts on one versus the other or does it just
(26:08):
is it all up to the savvy shopper.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Oh, that's a good question. But I think that every
cruise line, as you said, different strokes for different folks.
I think that every cruise line attracts a different maybe
not a different person, but what somebody might want for
their vacation. So definitely, if you're going on a Carnival cruise,
you can expect a really good value. That's great for
(26:33):
people that are on a budget. It's great for families
that are cruising maybe with young kids, and they know
that they really want casual, good food, they want water slides,
they want you know, a little bit of a loud
party next to the pool. That's something that they would enjoy.
Then Carnival's a really good cruise line for that. But
(26:54):
somebody else might want a little bit more of an
adult atmosphere, maybe a little bit more of an upscale
even atmosphere, and then probably if they were going on
a cruise line like Celebrity, that would be a better fit.
And of course there are so many cruise lines you know,
in between, and you know, everybody is different in what
(27:15):
they would enjoy.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, I'm of Norwegian descent, so I lean towards Norwegian
cruise lines, even though I've ever been on a cursise.
That's just the one I assume I would take based on,
you know, my ancestry.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That is fine. Although Norwegian Cruise Line is great and
they've got some really good deals. I should share it
with you. They have a Norwegian Cruise Line has something
called Free at Sea, and it's a promotion that they
run pretty much all the time. But you have the
option of booking either a standard rate so that's your
basic cruise rate, or you can book within the Free
(27:47):
at Sea and then the price is a little bit higher,
but you can get a free drink package, you can
get free dining. So if you're taking a sevent day
cruise and you're in, for instance, an insight cabin. Then
you can get one specialty restaurant. If you have longer cruises,
then you can get more specialty restaurants. You can get
(28:07):
a strictin amount of Wi Fi free, a certain amount
of short excursion credit that is free. So that is
actually a deal that you can get on Norwegian Cruise
Line if you're interested in them anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
That's cool. Matt would totally bank up Norwegian if he
that deal. Well, it is good to know that that
the different cruise lines have different personalities. I guess I
don't know if that's maybe a good way of describing. Obviously,
if you go on into Disney Cruise, I'm assuming there's
gonna be a lot of Disney stuff, right, Yes, yes,
lots of all the rest of them, in my mind,
are kind of like a locked I don't know, just
(28:39):
having not looked into it, it seems like it's maybe
more of a closed box. But I guess it is
not all that difficult to kind of figure out the
vibe of some of the different cruises that are out there.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Sure, and like you said, some cruise you know, every
cruise line does something a little bit different that they
do better. So Royal Caribbean has phenomenal entertainment and also
active during the day. But that would really suit people
who are either traveling with kids or who are very
They like to be active, so maybe they want to
go ice skating on a cruise ship, or maybe they
(29:11):
want to go zip lining. And then other people prefer
more of a relaxing experience, and you know, they'd much
rather spend time at the spa. So really there are differences.
So it is worth before a first cruise really figuring
out what you like, because otherwise some people go on
a cruise and they say, oh, gosh, I was bored
the music was so quiet, and then other people go
on a cruise and they say the pool was so crowded.
(29:34):
It wasn't what I liked at all. So it really
is just choosing the right cruise ship and cruise line
for you.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, and that's that's one of the things I want
to highlight here, is just that getting the lowest price
for a cruise that doesn't work for how you live
may not be the best value. That might be cheap
instead of frugal, right, and it's a good idea to
approach this from a frugal standpoint and try to get
a reasonable price on a cruise you're interested in. But
if you let the price drive the you picking maybe
(30:01):
a cruise line that doesn't work for your vibe or personality,
you might find yourself having like a more miserable experience
than you otherwise would have if you had maybe paid
a little bit more and picked the cruise line and
the itinerary that made more sense for kind of how
you liked to vacation.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Okay, so you just mentioned something about excursions, I guess
with maybe it was when you were talking about Royal Caribbean,
but I've heard you mentioned that it makes a lot
of sense to book those ahead of time. Can you
explain why that's so important? And then I'm realizing too
that there are excursions that are like cruise line sponsored,
but then there are the other excursions like third party excursions.
(30:41):
So just I guess talk about why you would want
to jump on those bookings early, and then maybe kind
of highlight some of the differences between endorsed excursions versus
choose your own adventure excursion.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Sure, so when it comes to excursions, especially if there
is something that you really want to do, then you
do want to book that early. So as an example,
if somebody is going to Alaska and they have their
heart set on doing a helicopter excursion to the Menenhall Glacier,
that is going to book up pretty quickly. And that's
(31:13):
whether by the way people book it with the cruise
line directly or even with private companies just because that
is just such a popular excursion so or even whale
watching sometimes. So some of those excursions, the ones that
you really want to do, you want to get those
booked early. The other thing, though, is when you book
(31:33):
with the cruise line, if you do book it ahead
of time and you book it on the cruise line website,
then oftentimes there will be a lower price than if
you book it when you're on your cruise. So that's
another reason too. And in fact, on the cruise that
we are going on in a few days, there was
a sale I think it was on Black Friday, and
(31:56):
I took a look on the Cruise Line website and
they do usually send you an email when you have
a booking with them, so I was able to see
and the excursion that we're doing in Nassau, Bahamas was
instead of it being about two hundred and fifty dollars
per person it was instead it was like one twenty five,
(32:18):
maybe even a little bit less, maybe like one twenty three.
So it was fifty three percent off and I'm paying
for four people on this cruise up.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it was like five hundred dollars in savings just
by booking it about five weeks before my cruise.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's great, love it? Yeah, awesome? All right? Well, is
there is there any risk with third party excursions? By
the way, can you get left in the lurch? Can
you miss the boat essentially on the way back? About that?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, yeah, you potentially can those third party excursions. It
doesn't mean they're bad, by the way, There are really
reputable tour companies that people do book with, but it
is something to be aware of when you book with
the cruise line directly. One of the good things is
that the cruise ship will not leave without you. If
(33:03):
your tour is late coming back to the cruise ship,
or if something happens right like if that tour bus
breaks down or something like that, the cruise line is
aware and they are going to wait for you to
come back to the cruise ship along with the other people. However,
if you go off on your own, and you take
a cab to the other side of the island and
something happens and you cannot make it back to the
(33:24):
cruise shup on time, that cruise ship will leave without you.
So I think we've all seen those videos. Yeah, yeah,
of the people crying on the pier. Oh my gosh,
that's a cruiser's worst nightmare. So that's something to me.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
What happen That's when you've gotta be able to swim fast.
So literally what happens in that situation. Let's let's say
someone does do that and literally hope you travel is
sailing off? Is that an instance where travel insurance comes
to play, Like are you able to get back on
the boat somehow?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Usually what would happen is that the person would have
to fly to the next cruise port or find a
way to get to the next cruise port.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So I'm guessing that would not be affordable.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, I'm actually really not sure you know what would
be even covered. I'm not a travel insurance expert, so
I don't know what would be covered, But I think
you just really want to avoid that.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, worst case scenario, avoid at all, almost at all costs,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, but maybe travel insurance would cover that. I just
think you really do want to be careful. A lot
of times. It's not necessarily that people are you know,
are on an excursion, although that can happen, but it
does seem like, you know, based on some of the videos,
it does seem like perhaps sometimes people are spending a
little bit too much time at the local bar or
(34:40):
even shopping. You know, you see people coming back with
your shopping back, so they're they're really close by. They're
just betting that that cruise ship won't.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Leave set multiple on your phone people, you know, that's
that's the way to avoid that. Okay, talk to me
about booking a room, because you mentioned that the rooms
can be kind of small, and when I've looked into
I'm like, there's no way I would book an into
your cabin, Like I feel like I'd want that deck,
I'd want to be able to see some sunlight. But
(35:08):
you can also save a lot of money by booking
an into your cabin. But then I also saw you
say something about being able to book an interior cabin
and then bid for upgrades, and maybe that's the cheapest
way to potentially get a nicer cabin. When without like
paying full freight for it.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Yeah, that's one of the ways. So I would caution
though for somebody who really doesn't want to like you
had said, you really wouldn't want to be in an
interior cabin, so then I probably wouldn't do that. So
that is a good strategy. I'll explain that people can use.
They can book the lowest cabin that they still would
be okay with to stay in, and then bid for
(35:45):
an upgrade, so you can bid. As an example, we
have a cruise coming up we not the crews I'm
doing now, but a cruise after that. We that we
booked an ocean view cabin, so I didn't book an inside,
but I think that the balcony was about double the
cost of the inside, and I just thought it was
(36:06):
a little more than what I wanted to spend on
that cruise. But the ocean view cabin, so a large
picture window, was only one hundred dollars more worth three
people in the cabin, So it was like a no
brainerd that for one hundred dollars we were going to
do the ocean view rather than the inside. And I
know we're not going to be in our cabin very much. However,
I did bid for an upgrade. I don't know yet
(36:28):
if we got it, but I bid the minimum that
was available for an upgrade to a balcony, and I'm
really aware that I might get that upgrade. And if
I get it for about one hundred dollars, I'm very
happy with that. But if I don't get it, I'm
perfectly fine with staying in an ocean view, okay, but
for somebody who wouldn't be fine, then it's not a
(36:49):
good strategy to use.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
That makes sense, It makes sense? Oh yeah, absolutely, okay.
So does the room that you book like in relation
to the ship? How does that impact the potential for
getting seasick because I think I saw I think I
saw something about rooms that are more towards the center
of the ship. I guess they pitch less if there
are waves or inclement weather. Is that true? Is so
(37:12):
basically like the closer you are to the middle of
the ship, the less rocky the ride's going to be.
Or did I completely read that wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
No, you've got it, okay, So just something to mention
is on most cruises now modern cruise ships have stabilizers,
so the kind of seasickness that people might have had
in the eighties and nineties. It isn't the same anymore.
And it's not even the same as something that you
might have if you go on a ferry or a
fishing boat. So it's not anything like that to worry about.
(37:40):
But it can happen that if the caesar stormy or
even a little bit windy, you can feel some movement
in the ship, and if you are prone to motion sickness,
then you want to be a little bit cautious with
where you are taking your cabin. The best place that
people can be is always going to be midship, just
because you're hedging your bets that you're going to have
(38:01):
the less the least movement. Excuse me, Yeah, so you'll
have the least movement if you're in the midship of
the cruise.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Gotcha, Okay, that makes sense because for honestly, for me,
that is the number one thing I think that is
keeping me from booking a cruise is I have gone
on some deep sea fishing trips before, and every time
I've gotten so sick. So I'm picturing that but just
stretched over days and days, and I'm thinking there's no
way that you can convince me to get on a
(38:30):
cruise ship. I don't know. You talking about the stabilizers
bolstered my confidence a little bit. And of course you
can get the patches or the little wristbands with the
pressure points, like there's all those other remedies to kind
of help you to combat that. Do you have a
favorite way to combat seasickness? By the way, is that
something that you deal with.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, a little bit. I actually don't get seasick very much,
but sometimes I do feel a little bit the movement.
My husband gets a little bit of motion sickness. And
there is a medication. It's an over the counter one
that I personally like. I know a lot of people
that take it preventatively, so they'll take one a day,
or some people can take to a day, morning and night.
(39:11):
And of course I'm not a doctor or a pharmacist,
so disclaimer, but I think it does work. It's called
bonine b n E, and I think it's very similar
to dramamine. I don't find that I don't get any
side effects at all, so I don't get that like
woozy feeling or that drowsy feeling that you could get
(39:32):
with some medication. So I find that works well. A
lot of people who are very prone to sickness swear
by the patch behind the ear. I've never tried it,
but definitely for somebody who thinks that they might get
motion sickness, that's a good idea. And like you mentioned
the c bands that work with pressure points on your wrists,
there's another product. I think it's called motion Ease. Some
(39:53):
people have said that that really works. But definitely on
an average Caribbean cruise or in an Alaska cruise, most of
the time you're not going to get a tremendous amount
of movement. Definitely nothing like you'd get on a smaller boat.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, well, I love the idea
too that you have the potential to save a lot
of money and get one of those interior what you
call it, like midship cabins. I guess, so you're saving
a ton of money and also, by the way, that's
going to keep you from getting sick, from getting nasty. Yeah,
feeling discussion.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Sure, but you can also take midship cabins and have
a balcony as well, by the way, and the other
alternative is even midship towards the aft. So anything between
the middle and sort of the back. The area that
you really want to avoid is the forward. The forward
is where you're going to feel the most movement if
there is rough weather.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Okay, okay, amazing tips And we've got the forward. We've
got a few more questions. We've got a few more
questions we want to get to with a lot of
maybe some offbeat sort of cruising questions that are just
on the top of our minds. Well, we'll get to
right after this. All right, we're back. We're still talking
(41:10):
with Ilana from Life Well Cruised about how cruises might
be the cheapest way to travel when you break it
down cost per night and where you get to go.
It just seems to be the case. And so maybe
Matt and I were getting over our version to cruising.
Alana is selling it now instead of that hiking trip
that we're planning. That's right, Maybe it'll just be like
a couple of cruise trip. Just me, buddy, you know
(41:32):
what I am, dow, I feel like if I'm going anywhere,
Alaska's at the top of the list, because that from
what I hear A lota tell me if I'm wrong,
you can see things that you wouldn't know, they wouldn't
be able to see from the mainland. So maybe that's
one of the selling points of the Alaska cruise.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Absolutely, And I was somebody who I wasn't sold on
Alaska because I live in Canada and the idea of
going somewhere they didn't have hot weather it was not
appealing to me. Oh my goodness. I loved Alaska so much.
I would consider going back again this summer. I'm sure
I could go back and I would just see and
do different things. Loved it definitely.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Okay, well, that one's going That one's on my list
for sure. Okay, talk to me though about We got
a couple other questions for you. One you've mentioned that,
of course people who listen to how to Money, they
care about their money and they care about investing. People
who have invested in cruise line stock can maybe get
preferential deals or treatment. Is that true?
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yes, absolutely, and it's definitely a pro or an avid
cruiser secrets maybe not the right word, but it really
is a tip and something that people use. So if
you purchase one hundred shares of Carnival so Carnival Corporation
of Royal Caribbean. I think it's Royal Caribbean International. In
(42:49):
any case, it's Royal Caribbean or Norwegian Cruise Line. You
can get benefits. It's a shareholder benefit on the cruises
that you go on with in that family of companies.
So for instance, I have one hundred shares of Carnival stock,
and when I go on a Princess cruise, because Princess
(43:10):
is part of the Carnival umbrella, I get an onboard credit,
which is a shareholder benefit. When I book my cruise
with Princess and the same thing happens. I'm going on
a celebrity cruise soon. I have Royal Caribbean shares. You
do need a hundred to be able to get that benefit,
but I'm getting an additional one hundred dollars on board
credit because I have those shares.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Very nice, that's cool. It makes me think back to
was it last year a couple years ago when AMC
they were selling all the site and it's just like, hey,
every time you come in you get a free popcorn. Yeah,
if you're a shareholder, yeah. And I mean just our
general advice. We always try to encourage folks when they're
looking at their retirement portfolios to invest in the entire market,
right index investing, don't try to pick the winners and
(43:53):
the losers. However, if there is a certain token amount
that allows you to reap a benefit that's going to
be outsized to the investment that you make, I think
that's definitely something worth considering a lot of Let's talk
about just practically speaking, like is there WiFi like on
a cruise? How do you go about buying that? Is
that something that sort of like you were talking about
(44:13):
with excursions that you book ahead of time, you can't
call on your phone from the cruise, can you mean? Why? Yeah?
There's service.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
It's so different, and that actually messes up a lot
of people because sometimes you know, they might have traveled
and they've gone to hotels and people are used to
that there's free Wi Fi everywhere you go, but it's
not the case on most cruise ships, and it's just
a completely different system. If I'm not mistaken, they're on satellite.
Things have changed over the last couple of years, but
(44:41):
Wi Fi is still expensive when you're on a cruise,
and those international phone plans don't really work on cruises.
You have to be really careful sometimes people think that
their phone is going to work when they're on a cruise,
they can make phone calls, but then unfortunately they can
end up with a really big bill, like in the
hundreds and even thousands of dollars after they get off
(45:03):
their crew, So they do want to be careful. But
you can purchase Wi Fi or intranet on your cruise.
So there are different Wi Fi packages that people can choose.
Some of them, you know, are lower priced and they
include just scrolling on social media and checking emails, and
you know, there are other more expensive Wi Fi packages
(45:23):
that are going to include streaming. So it is something
people want to shop around for a little bit, you know,
once they book their crews, to find the package that
actually suits their needs for for when they're on the
cruise ship.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Okay, do you have a favorite way to pay for
cruises or using credit cards? Is there is there any
like a most efficient method or a way to garter
the most rewards or a way that the cruise lines
incentivize you to book when you're doing business with them.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Well, you can definitely book using your credit card. Actually,
most cruise lines do have a credit card that is
their own credit card that you can book and you
can get points. Unfortunately, because I'm Canadian, you do have
to be a resident of the United States, so that
has never applied to me.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
So I just sorry us.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, I know. So I booked using my regular credit card,
you know, and the one that gives me the most
reward points at home in Canada. But you can definitely
book with credit cards. I can't think of another way
that would be better. So I was going to mention
there is something that for people who are members of
(46:31):
aa RP. There are gift cards that people can purchase
and they can use those gift cards towards paying off
their cruise, and some people do that, and I believe
they get a ten percent discount on the aa ARP
cards and therefore it gives them a little bit of
a small discount when they're paying off their cruise.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
School Well, if they're like you and you're going on
multiple cruises a month's that's actually so we haven't asked.
I'm curious a lot how many cruises have you gone
in total? And how many are you planning on going
on in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
So I haven't gone on as many cruises as some people.
There are people that have been on you know, one
hundred cruises and more. I haven't done that. So we've
done I believe it's thirty five now. I did seven
cruises in twenty twenty three and that was the most
that I ever did in a year.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Nice. Well here's to eight or nine in twenty Yeah,
it sounds like you you might be on your way
to doing that. But okay, one last thing, this is
how to money. And like we mentioned, we always enjoy
a craft beer during the during the episode. I know
some cruise lines allow you to bring your own alcohol
a board. Conjol my show up with our own craft beer?
(47:44):
Is it cruise line dependent as to what their specific
rules are? And you earlier you mentioned like drink packages.
How do you go about if you want to enjoy
an adult beverage on the cruise? How do you go
about doing that?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Well, cruise lines will most appreciate if you either drink
packages or if you pay for drinks on board. But
what you can do I don't know if you can
bring beer. I don't believe that you can. I've never
really looked into it though, But you can bring wine
on board. Most cruise lines will allow you to bring
one bottle of wine per adult in the cabin, so
(48:19):
you can bring that on the cruise and if you
plan on, you know, having a glass of wine in
your cabin, then you know that's something good to do.
If you do take the wine out of your cabin
and you bring it to the dining room when the
waiter will open it for you, there is going to
be a corkage fee of between fifteen and twenty dollars
depending on the cruise line, so that may or may
not be worth it for you, but definitely if you're
(48:40):
drinking the wine in your cabin, or even if you
fill up your glass in your cabin and then you
walk around with a glass of wine, you can definitely
do that.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Like some of our fancier beers come with corks, so
I wonder if maybe that they let it slide. I
don't you take it up there and they're just like, oh,
so this is a wine. It's like, aha, it's actually
a goose. This is a Belgian lambiic so you thought,
but a cork for you, sir. A lot of this
has been like so informative and it's really like made
(49:10):
me kind of think twice about cruising in general. But
thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
How can our listeners find out more about you and
and all the good information that you're giving out.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Thanks so much for having me on. So your listeners
can find me either on my YouTube channel, it's simply
called Life Well Cruised. I also have a website lifewell
cruised dot com where I share packing tips and other
information about cruises, and as well on social media so
Instagram and Facebook under life Well Cruised.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Awesome, Alana, thank you so much for taking the time
to speak with us today.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
It was a lot of fun, all right, Matt. Now
I feel like I am aching for a vacation. Yeah,
cruising for a cruise boosom. I don't know pretty much.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I mean it's the middle of January. It is the
time which you don't want to be, like, I don't
want to go on a cruise until January hits. And
I'm like, it's true. It's like that midwinter bleakness. It
makes sense that though the quote unquote wave season when
they offer a lot of the discounts is this time
of year. Yeah, and like these cruise lines are just
they're looking for those deposits so that they know that
(50:20):
they can basically bankroll these ships. Yeah, just a way
for them to do some planning because those things are expensive,
that's right, to maintain and to fuel all that kind
of stuff. Yeah, for sure. All right, So what was
your big takeaway from this combo? I think for me personally, dude,
it's the fact that she mentioned the stabilizers whatever these
things are on these on the newer cruise ships, and
it sounds like you might have to get a pretty
(50:40):
dang old cruise ship that doesn't have the stabilizers. But
for me, that is the number one thing that's keeping
me from hopping on a hopping on a cruise ship.
I think is like, is the worry. It's the concern
of getting seasick and not being able to enjoy a
single day of that cruise because I'm I'm feeling terrible
because I do get I do get motion sick. But
here her talk about that and the fact that there's
(51:02):
a lot of different drugs or remedies out there she
mentioned bo nine, Dude, I'm totally going to look that.
I mean, honestly, I might even look that up. For again,
I know nothing about this and whether or not. You
can give it to kids or not. But you know,
like our kids get carsick when we go on longer
trumps as well, and I'm thinking, okay, mental note, is
that something that we you know, that we have on
hand in case any of the kids start feeling a
(51:24):
little queasy. But dude, seriously, for me, that was my
big takeaway is that, Okay, cool cruises are a lot
more within the realm of possibility. Yeah, knowing that that exists, No,
that's yeah, I think that's fascinating. I think my big
takeaway was to like, you can have all confidence booking
well in advance the cruise that you want to go
on and the dates, and then you know, wait for
(51:44):
the discount to come to you after the fact, just
basically like it'll probably go down in price. And then
it sounds like, based on one Alana was saying, every
single one of the major cruise lines is more than
willing to basically refund you the money that's in excess
of what the current prices. So I think that's a
wonderful tactic to take if you're saying, like, well, I
(52:05):
don't want to just be subject to the whims of
a sale necessarily I definitely want to go on this
trip specifically, well, the price might go down. You have
to keep looking like just kind of like we talk
about with auto rentals or something like that, you book
the auto rental, the refundable auto rental, and then later
on down the line you can check to see if
the price has gone down and then rebook. What's similar
(52:27):
with the cruise right where you book, and then you
just call Instead of rebooking, you just call and say, hey,
give me the discounted price now, and they're pretty much
always gonna be like, Okay, you got it. And I
love that as a tactic for getting to take the
cruse you want and spending hopefully less money than you
otherwise thought you would. Totally yeah, I think I should
give folks a lot of peace of mind. That plus
(52:49):
the refundable deposit. But let's get to the beer that
you and I enjoyed during this episode was called Last
Will and Testament. This is a beer by Monday Night
Brewing was donated to the show by friend of the show, Ryan, So, Ryan,
thank you so much for swinging by the clubhouse the
office here and dropping off this old high school path.
Plus he reached out and he's like, I've got beer
(53:09):
for you. I'm like, yeah, thank you. I was bummed
he invited us to like a he's got like a
vinyl and cocktails Christmas party that we weren't able to
attend them because that sounded like the coolest party. So nice.
But yeah, what were your thoughts on on this particular beer? So?
I thought it was delicious. It was in my mind
the two notes that I was getting were bourbon and raisin.
It was like bourbon soaked raisins in in beer form,
(53:32):
and this was I like, I like that vibe. Yeah,
I don't like raisins and my cookies because I don't
like the consistency, but I like the flavor of the eyes,
and I do like I can eat raisins by themselves.
But like you love raisins and cookies, which I think
is just like the stress. I like the chew and
a nice oatmeal raisin cookie. But well, this this tastes great.
I'm glad you could taste this because with your cold
that you're lacking right now. I wasn't sure. It certainly
(53:53):
didn't pick a nuance, but I was like, we were
specifically looking for one that was gonna hit you over
the head when it came to the flavor. But well,
I think it's the remedy personally. Yeah, I think I'll
be better in no time now. Yeah, it's all the
health professionals out there are just shaking their heads. Right. No,
but this is a bourbon barrel aged English old ale
and it totally has some of those It almost has
like Belgian quad like flavors going on with it. It
(54:15):
tastes like an old world kind of beer, certainly the
kind of beer you want to enjoy here in the
like the dead middle of winter. I'm glad you and
I got to enjoy this one by one of our
favorite local breweries. I don't honestly know. I don't think
there's any other brewery out there where we've had more
other beers on the show not only because they're local,
but because of the fact that they're so dang good.
(54:35):
So make sure that you're not sleeping on Monday nights beers.
But buddy, that's gonna be it for this episode. We'll
link to Alana's YouTube channel up in our show notes
up on the website at how themoney dot com. Okay,
I just just a lot of this one final little takeaway.
And we didn't even get to this, but in one
of her videos, this is like a little maybe we
(54:57):
should stick this in after the fact, after we end
the you know, like the little like a little easter egg.
She in whatever video, she shared the fact that the
walls of cabins on a cruise ship they're all made
of metal, which I guess makes sense because it's a boat. Yeah,
and that didn't occur to me. So here's a little
tip if you are a cruiser, she says, always show
up with magnetic hooks, and so you hooked those up
(55:20):
on the wall and you hang up all your stuff,
keeps it from slipping around. I guess. Really, that's the thing. Yeah,
when you thought those are the kind of tips that
a lot of sharing, yeah exactly on her YouTube channel exactly.
Some of it's money saving and some of it's just
how to cruise like the right way, Yeah exactly. So
she's got a bunch of great stuff on there. We'll
link to everything in the show notes up on our
(55:41):
site how to money dot com. But Matt, that's going
to do it for this episode until next time. Best
Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt.
Today we're talking cruises, the cheapest way to travel with
Ilana from a Life Well Cruised. Yeah, so, typically the
(00:28):
way this podcast works is that we share our first
hand account of something personal finance related. So save up
three to six months of living expenses for an emergency fund.
Of course, we did this years ago, investing in real estate,
becoming a landlord. That's something we have done multiple times over.
Even pursuing entrepreneurship by scaling a podcast side gig into
(00:50):
a full fledged business. Well, that's something that you are
listening to right now. But when it comes to going
on a cruise, Joel and I are total idiots. Neither
of us have ever been on a cruise before, but
we're intrigued and so we figured it made a lot
of sense to bring on a pro And so we're
joined by Ilana from a Life While Cruised, which is
a cruise and a travel blog. And she also has
(01:12):
a YouTube channel where she has around forty five million views,
which is just incredible, but it makes sense considering the
helpful content that she's publishing over there. So Alana, we
hope you're ready because we have a ton of questions
for you. Thank you for joining us today on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh thanks so much for having me on. Super excited
to talk with you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
We're excited too, Alana and I've got so many questions because,
like Matt said, we are total newbies at this. But
the first question we ask anybody who comes on the
show is what do they like to splurgeh On Matt
and I we drink fancy craft beer from time to time.
We're having the next one. Now, what is it that
you splur John while you're still trying to save and
invest well for your future.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, firstly, I do like to splurge on cruises. That's
definitely one.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Hundred percent I figured.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
But besides that, when it comes to traveling in particular,
I splurge on direct flights. They could be economy, but
I will not even look at any flight that has
any stop. Part of that is because I have flight anxiety,
so it's a very practical reason. And otherwise it's also hotels.
I'd rather spend a little bit more money on a
(02:21):
hotel in a great location, safe, nice looking. So those
are my kind of splurges.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Those direct flights, they just save a lot of time
and hassle when you're traveling too, right, Yeah, is it
more like you mentioned kind of the flight anxiety. Is
it more just the fewer the planes the better, or
is it also about kind of reclaiming some of your time.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well absolutely both, Okay, so yeah, definitely it's for the convenience.
But at the same time, it really is very practical.
I know that crash anyway. Crashes happen more on landings
and take offs, so I just reduce my risk, that makes.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Sense, But they also probably occur just as frequently as
somebody falling overboard on a cruise. I don't think that's
something that we're planning to get to.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, we won't even talk about that.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, ever happens like this kind of makes me think
about when we first reached out to you to record,
and of course you weren't available because you were actually
on the cruise I think at that point. And so
for us dudes who have never been on a cruise,
can you tell us why it is that you love
cruising so much? Is it specifically because you don't like
(03:27):
flying that you're like, you know what, for me, it's boating, Like,
what is it for you that causes you to want
to go on as many cruise as you possibly can.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Oh, that's a good question. Well, first of all, though,
it is actually for the vacation itself. On a cruise,
you can travel to several different destinations all within one trip,
and your hotel moves with you, so you don't have
to pack and unpack to go to different locations. You get,
you know, great meals, fine dining, your entertainment pretty much
(03:55):
for five star accommodations, all in one travel experience, and
overall it's a pretty reasonable way to travel.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, Well, I'm curious too because, like COVID was almost
the death knell for some of the cruise companies. Did
that cramp your cruising style? And how do you feel
like that's changed the industry because that was Man, that
was a rough couple of years right there.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I don't know what I thought when
it kind of all first happened, but definitely cruises were
completely stopped for I believe it was more than eighteen months,
but definitely eighteen months. So you would have thought that
some of the cruise lines would have just gone bankrupt
after that, but they didn't. At least on the most part,
(04:38):
all of the big cruise lines are still around. They
invested a ton of money into safety protocols and health protocols,
and now they're back better than ever. In a lot
of ways, cruises have become even more popular vacations than
they were before.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, okay, I mean, and you said a second ago
that you think that they're more than reasonable, but I mean, honest,
just in preparation for this episode, looking at some of
the prices out there, like they really do seem like
the most affordable way to travel, like you said, and
see multiple countries at once. And so we want to
start off by talking about finding a deal on a cruise. Sure,
and it seems like that, like we're right in the
(05:14):
middle of what's known as wave season. Is that right?
It seems like that that's when you are able to
snag the biggest discounts on some of the different different cruises.
What should folks be looking for there?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, absolutely so, starting sort of in January all the
way through March, there are typically a lot of great
deals on cruises, although you can find good deals at
all different times of the year, but definitely right now,
a lot of cruise lines are having sales on third
and fourth passengers. So that's really good for families that
are willing to cruise all in one cabin. So cabins
(05:49):
on cruise ships are smaller than hotel rooms, but for
families that are willing to do that, oftentimes they can
have their kids sailing free or sailing at really highly
discount rates. Other times cruises are just sort of on sale.
There are some discounts, some percentages off even on like
let's say a second passenger, So when your two people
(06:09):
in the cabin, the second passenger might sail for forty
to sixty percent off, so that's a good deal. And otherwise,
even if the prices are about the same as before,
there are perks when people are traveling and cruising. So
that can include free gratuities for instance, or extra onboard
credits that you can use for excursions and other things
(06:32):
on the cruise.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So when you book matters, it sounds like I guess
I'm curious about all the other ways you can save too.
You've talked about being flexible with dates. We know that
when you're booking airfare. We talked about Airfair just a
second ago. That just changing your dates by a day
or two forward or backward can save you a ton
of money getting to your destination. But that can also
be true of a cruise itself, right, like the dates
(06:56):
that you're departing and can make a big difference in
how much you pay.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Oh absolutely, And for instance, I'm going on a cruise
on January seventh, and the cruise that I'm doing, if
I would have booked it for New year so just
you know, the week before, I probably would have paid
oh goodness, maybe not double, but pretty close to double.
So it's significantly more expensive to go on a cruise
(07:21):
at New Year's than it would be to go one
week later. But the same thing happens during different times
of the year. So, for instance, cruises tend to be
most expensive during school breaks, during the holidays, and during
summer breaks. And so if people can go during shoulder
season while the kids are still in school, before they've
(07:44):
gotten out of school, the prices are going to be
somewhat better, And it definitely can make a difference if
people go one week before or one week after a holiday,
that will make a difference.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Yeah, I'm curious to hear that, because I guess, again
having been you know, being completely ignorant ubes when it
comes to comes to cruises. I didn't know if the
actual cruise lines had that kind of flexibility as well,
but it sounds like they do. I'm curious then, like,
what if you end up booking something and the price
ends up going down, like you, you know, maybe you
(08:17):
book a week after it sounds like everybody else is
going to book their cruise, and so you're able to
get a deal, But what if it continues to drop?
Is that something? Are there ever any instances I guess
when you're able to get any of that money refunded
to you, like some of the more favorable airlines will
oftentimes offer.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, it definitely does happen. And that's something that for
people that are cruising often they know that the best
time to book a cruise typically is as far ahead
as possible, So a lot of times people will book
a cruise eight months to a year before, sometimes even
longer than that. But the benefit of doing that is
people are able to book their preferred date, they're able
(08:56):
to brook the book excuse me, their preferred cabin. But
at the same time, if the price does decrease as
they get closer to sailing, then the cruise line will
usually honor the lower price up until final payment, so
I probably do have to explain cruises most of the time.
(09:18):
Most cruise lines have when people do book, you book
and you put a deposit on your cruise, So that
deposit could be, as an example, five hundred dollars per person.
That's just an example. The deposit can differ depending on
the cruise line and depending on the different promotions that
they have, but if that deposit is five hundred dollars,
(09:40):
that's usually a refundable deposit, and the final payment is
anywhere from seventy days to one hundred and twenty days
before the cruise. So if the price does come a
little bit cheaper, let's say four months before the cruise,
you simply have to call your travel agent or the
cruise line and they will almost all the time lower
that rates so that you can get that refund on
(10:02):
the cost.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
The difference nice is that across the board with all
the different cruise lines.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It is as long as you're booking. Like in North America,
sometimes the rules are a little bit different for UK residents,
but that's pretty much on most of them on the
mainstream cruise lines, so that includes everybody from Carnival to
Princess Cruises to Royal Caribbean. It may not include some
of the luxury cruise lines, but most of the popular
cruise lines. That's pretty much what happens.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's cool. It should provide I think, some peace of
mind from people being able to book early and then knowing, oh, hey,
if the price goes down, I don't have to just
wait for the perfect deal. I can hopefully book and
then let the deal come to me well after the fact. Yeah.
And also too, the fact that you said that it
sounds like that deposit is also refundable. Is that also
across all the popular cruise lines in the US as well,
(10:51):
So all of.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
The cruise lines have an option to book with the
refundable deposit. Okay, However, some of the cruise lines do
sometimes offer a better price if you book with a
non refundable deposit, so that really is up to the person.
Some people absolutely know the date that they want to cruise,
so then one hundred percent if they can book with
(11:14):
a non refundable deposit, that's going to be their best bet. However,
sometimes people do want a little bit more flexibility. They
haven't booked their area yet, and they're not one hundred
percent sure of their date that they're going to sail,
so then they'll want a book with a not excuse me,
with a refundable deposit.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Gotchakay? All right? So I've seen a lot of there's
a new cruise ship launching now in twenty twenty four.
It's the biggest one ever. It's the Icon of the Seas,
I believe, right, and it's getting a lot of publicity.
I saw commercial for it during like the college football
stuff recently. And these things are like floating islands. They've
got eighteen story slides going into pools and stuff like that.
(11:51):
I exaggerate only a little, but just a little, Yeah,
just a little. But what what is your take on
booking like the newest, latest, coolest versus booking an older
cruise ship which might save you more money? And how
much money? Are we talking about the difference the disparity
between kind of those fancy, new in demand megaships versus
(12:12):
maybe some of the older ones with fewer amenities.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yeah, so definitely. I Mean, the Icon of the Seas
looks absolutely amazing and people are so interested in it,
so it really is commanding the highest prices. But if
you love a lot of the things that are offered
on Icon of the Seas, so that's a Royal Caribbean
cruise ship. Royal Caribbean has many amazing cruise ships, including
the Oasis class, so the Oasis of the Seas, And
(12:39):
if people do want to actually get the best deal,
then what they can do is just look at an
older cruise ship that still does offer for instance, the
water slides, the zip lines, the many pools and many
hot teps, all of the different dining options, and the
price difference can really be significant. I can tell you
I was actually speaking with my friend just yesterday and
(13:03):
she did end up booking a cruise with Rural Caribbean
where they did have a sale for kids under twelve
were sailing free. So you know, she called me up
and she was like, what do you think should I
do this cruise ship or this other cruise ship both
with Rural Caribbean and the cruise ship that was a
little bit older that was refurbished in twenty eighteen quite
(13:25):
extensively was actually it was almost twenty five hundred dollars
less than the newer cruise ship. So in the end,
because they it was. It's their first cruise, it's their
kids first cruise. I think their children are ten and twelve.
Now she knows they're absolutely going to love it. And
in their case, they wanted to save the money and
(13:48):
they decided to go for that little bit of an
older cruise ship. And this way they can use the
money that they saved on the excursions, on the drink packages,
on thee and for them, for them, it's worth it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Okay, So is there a resource like how do you
know I guess whether or not the boat that you're
looking at is older as a complete novice here as
a rookie, how do you know, I guess if the
ship has some of the different amenities even like you mentioned,
is that all detailed out? How do you tell if
you are getting a good deal or nut?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Sure? So, Actually, the cruise line websites are really good resources.
They're going to have all of the information, so you
can actually look up the cruise ship that you're looking at.
You can take a look and see the information about
the cruise ship, what restaurants are on, what type of
activities are available on that cruise ship, and it usually
(14:42):
will give you some information about when that cruise ship
was last refurbished. But honestly, a really good resource is
a travel agent that specializes in cruises. These people tend
to absolutely love going on cruises themselves, and oftentimes they
really do have the best deals and the best information
as well.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Do you have any tips for finding like a great
travel agent.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
A lot of the big travel agencies that are also
online websites, so you know, anybody from Expedia, Cruises, Vacations
to Go, but also you know smaller agencies that specializes
that specialize in cruises, They're going to be super helpful
as well.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And a lot of people think that that using a
travel agent is going to add to the cost. But
how does that relationship work and does going through a
travel agent? Is that going to cost me more than
booking directly with the cruise line itself.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, that's such a good question. I think a lot
of people think that using a travel agent is going
to cost them more money. But the way it works
is travel agents get paid, at least when it comes
to cruises, they get paid from the cruise line. So
the cruise line really builds in a commission for the
travel agent and that doesn't change the cost for the passengers.
(15:59):
So whether you book directly on the cruise line website
or by calling the cruise line, or you book with
a reputable travel agent that specializes in cruises, the price
should be the same, if not lower, with a travel agent.
What happens is with these big agencies, what they do
(16:19):
is they're able to book group travel rates that they
book up cabins way in advance, like a year or
more in advance, and they're basically holding that inventory at
the lowest price that is available. So, especially when you
are booking in advance, you're oftentimes going to find a
better price that is available from a travel agency or
(16:43):
from one of those large travel websites. And at the
same time, you might find, at the very least, even
if the price is the same, that the travel agent
is going to give you a little extra perk. So
that could be different times they'll have promotions and that
will be through the cruise line as well. But it
might be free gratuities. It might be you know, an
(17:04):
extra onboard credit of fifty dollars that you can use
towards excursions or drinks or something else you know, or
it might be a bottle of wine.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Okay, well, hey, I take anything. Okay, So another again,
this sounds like maybe this is more of a cruise thing.
But when you say free gratuities. Normally, when you hear
something is free, it means it's, oh, you receive this
thing and you didn't have to pay for it. But
with gratuity being something that's normally something that you give,
how does that work. Does that just mean that, hey,
(17:32):
you actually have a special badge or something that means
that you don't have to leave tip or what does
that mean?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, So when you go on a cruise, part of
the I guess it's the tradition on cruises is that
passengers are sort of expected to give a gratuity to,
you know, the waiters, the people that are cleaning your cabin,
so the house can being the housekeeping, et cetera. But
rather than giving you know, twenty dollars to one person
(18:00):
you know, and ten dollars to another and fifty dollars
to another, or leaving money for every time you go
to the dining room and you go and eat a meal, instead,
what cruise lines will do is they will have a
suggested automatic gratuity that is charged to your account every
day of your crews and most cruise lines now the
(18:21):
suggested gratuity is between sixteen dollars and twenty dollars per
person per day. But that includes all of the people
who help you on the cruise to make your crews better,
so you know, your housekeeping, your waiters, and even some
of the people that you don't see that are behind
the scenes as well. So basically, when you have free gratuities,
(18:42):
I'm using like air quotes, gotcha, but that just means
that those automatic ratuities would be paid for you, so
you couldn't have that charge to your account while you're
on the cruise.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Gotcha. That makes sense essentially like a fen Yeah, totally,
it's like a fee that's rolled off essentially that they're
covering for you. I love the insight you gave about
travel agents, and that's super helpful. I guess, you know,
given the Internet age and kind of the DIY mentality
that Matt and I have and a lot of our
listeners have. It it makes me think of like, when
I'm trying to book a flight, I'm not usually calling
(19:14):
a travel agent. I'm going to directly to Google flights.
I'm kind of playing around with the dates with the
destinations and trying to commandeer the best price I can
find for the given trip I want to take. What
does something like that exists for cruises where there's an
algorithm and you can kind of add or subtract and
you can kind of hone in on kind of some
(19:35):
of the best deals that are available, Like, how would
one go about DIY booking? Is there a third party
site that can help us do that?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I'm not aware of one. I think a lot of
people would think of that as you know, looking on
vacations to Go or Expedia or any of those different sites.
But those are still big travel agencies. They're just online
travel agencies, but real people work for them, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, So either that or just going directly to the
individual cruise line cruise websites that sounds like they've got
a lite just takes a little more a little more.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Leg work, It takes a little more digit and and
again I'm not working as a travel agent, but they
do have access to to listings and to some of
the sales, Like they'll see some of the promotions that
are available. They'll see that before you and I will.
On the consumer facing websites and things like that. And
(20:30):
it's just it is a little bit different than flights because,
if I'm not mistaken, most of the airlines have cut
the commissions years ago from travel agents, which is why
it's not cheaper usually with a travel agent for a flight,
but that is not the case with cruise lines.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Gotcha. Okay, So you mentioned kind of getting a jump
on some of those bookings that you can get via
a travel agent. I think I've heard you mention that
you've got the ability to get a really good discount
for you to book a future cruise while you are
currently on a cruise. Is that right? Is that a
good way to get a deal as well?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yes, a lot of people think that it's like too
good to be true, but definitely, when you're on a cruise,
you can visit the future cruise desk and the future
cruise person representative will be able to book you on
a future cruise and they will offer you a promotion
while you're on the cruise. And usually that promotion will
(21:24):
either be that you'll receive an onboard credit that you
can use on the cruise that you're on at the moment,
and most people do have a certain amount of money
that they've spent on their creuse, so what reduces that
or you can get an additional on board credit on
a future cruise, and for people that are using a
travel agent already, that booking can still be serviced when
(21:45):
you get home by your existing travel agent. And something
that I like to do because I don't always know
what I want to book. I don't know why, I'm
just like that. I can't really pick my next cruise
while I'm on a cruise, but oftentimes I make what's
called an open booking, So I basically put a deposit
on a cruise knowing I'm going to do one, and
usually you have between two and four years, depending on
(22:07):
the cruise line to book the next cruise, and I
just put a deposit, and this way I get all
of the benefits by having that additional on board credit
that I'm always trying to accumulate for future cruises, and
then I can choose my cruise once I get home
and I have a little more time to kind of
figure out my schedule and where I want to go.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
So you're saying that somehow sometimes you're able to get
like a credit for the cruise like it sounds like
essentially like dollars that you are going to be spending
while you are on the cruise. So does that apply
to restaurant It's like, what do those credits go towards?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yeah, absolutely so on board credits on cruises is equivalent
to having like a cash credit that you can use
while you're on the cruise, and so that can be
things like some of the restaurants I should mention on cruises,
your dining is included, so there are a lot of
casual restaurants and fine dining that is included, but there
(23:04):
are also alternative restaurants that are a little bit more
intimate that will not be included, and if people choose
to go to them, there's going to be in there's
going to be excuse me, an additional charge. So with
your onboard credit, you might choose to go to one
of the specialty restaurants. So that's something that you can do.
Some people choose to get a photo package while they're
(23:25):
on their cruise, or you know, even just buy one
or two photos, So that's something you can use your
onboard credit for. And there's a variety of things or
even the shops, you know, so if you want to
do a little bit of duty free shopping while you're
on a cruise. You can use the onboard credit for
that as well.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Cool. Love it all Right, there's so much that we've covered,
but there's still so much to cover because I haven't
had all my questions answered yet. We've got a lot
more than we want to get into with you, and
we'll get to especially I want to like the different
cruise lines. What's the difference between all of them? So
we've got questions on that and more. Right after this,
(24:07):
all right, we are back and we're talking about cruises
with a Lana truly how it can be the cheapest
way to travel. And let's talk about choosing a specific cruise, Alana,
because you can basically it seems like you can cruise
pretty much anywhere, right, like whether you're taking like anywhere
there's water matte, like a river cruise in Europe, you're
not in your bath, like you could cruise up to Alaska,
(24:29):
the Caribbean, Alana, How do you think about choosing a cruise?
How are you factoring in like maybe the destination, the
port of call, maybe the length of cruise. I would
love to hear your thoughts on how it is that
you choose a cruise or are you like us and
you're letting the deal drive the destination. How are you
taking all that into account as you're making a decision.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Well, I think when it comes to picking a cruise,
you do want to think about the destination and what
you wanted of it. So some people really want to
go on a Caribbean or a Bahamas cruise because they're
looking for or that hopefully hot and sunny weather. But
other people are looking for a cruise that they're going
to have more of a travel experience that has a
little bit more culture involved or a little bit more
(25:12):
sight seeing. So in that case, perhaps it's a Mediterranean
cruise or as you mentioned, perhaps a river cruise. So
I think those are some of the biggest differences. Definitely,
though when it comes to cruising, there are so many
Caribbean cruises. It is the most popular cruise destination I
think in the world, So you could definitely find probably
(25:32):
the most chance of having a great deal on a
Caribbean cruise just because there really are so many ships
that are doing it. So that's a good way, especially
if it's a first cruise. A Caribbean cruise is probably
a good choice.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
All right, talk to me about the different cruise lines.
We talked about different like newer and older cruise ships,
but what about like Norwegian versus Carnival versus Royal Caribbean.
Do they each kind of stand out and do better
at certain things worse at others? Or is it different
strokes for different folks? Are you able to find better
discounts on one versus the other or does it just
(26:08):
is it all up to the savvy shopper.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Oh, that's a good question. But I think that every
cruise line, as you said, different strokes for different folks.
I think that every cruise line attracts a different maybe
not a different person, but what somebody might want for
their vacation. So definitely, if you're going on a Carnival cruise,
you can expect a really good value. That's great for
(26:33):
people that are on a budget. It's great for families
that are cruising maybe with young kids, and they know
that they really want casual, good food, they want water slides,
they want you know, a little bit of a loud
party next to the pool. That's something that they would enjoy.
Then Carnival's a really good cruise line for that. But
(26:54):
somebody else might want a little bit more of an
adult atmosphere, maybe a little bit more of an upscale
even atmosphere, and then probably if they were going on
a cruise line like Celebrity, that would be a better fit.
And of course there are so many cruise lines you know,
in between, and you know, everybody is different in what
(27:15):
they would enjoy.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Okay, I'm of Norwegian descent, so I lean towards Norwegian
cruise lines, even though I've ever been on a cursise.
That's just the one I assume I would take based on,
you know, my ancestry.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
That is fine. Although Norwegian Cruise Line is great and
they've got some really good deals. I should share it
with you. They have a Norwegian Cruise Line has something
called Free at Sea, and it's a promotion that they
run pretty much all the time. But you have the
option of booking either a standard rate so that's your
basic cruise rate, or you can book within the Free
(27:47):
at Sea and then the price is a little bit higher,
but you can get a free drink package, you can
get free dining. So if you're taking a sevent day
cruise and you're in, for instance, an insight cabin. Then
you can get one specialty restaurant. If you have longer cruises,
then you can get more specialty restaurants. You can get
(28:07):
a strictin amount of Wi Fi free, a certain amount
of short excursion credit that is free. So that is
actually a deal that you can get on Norwegian Cruise
Line if you're interested in them anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
That's cool. Matt would totally bank up Norwegian if he
that deal. Well, it is good to know that that
the different cruise lines have different personalities. I guess I
don't know if that's maybe a good way of describing. Obviously,
if you go on into Disney Cruise, I'm assuming there's
gonna be a lot of Disney stuff, right, Yes, yes,
lots of all the rest of them, in my mind,
are kind of like a locked I don't know, just
(28:39):
having not looked into it, it seems like it's maybe
more of a closed box. But I guess it is
not all that difficult to kind of figure out the
vibe of some of the different cruises that are out there.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Sure, and like you said, some cruise you know, every
cruise line does something a little bit different that they
do better. So Royal Caribbean has phenomenal entertainment and also
active during the day. But that would really suit people
who are either traveling with kids or who are very
They like to be active, so maybe they want to
go ice skating on a cruise ship, or maybe they
(29:11):
want to go zip lining. And then other people prefer
more of a relaxing experience, and you know, they'd much
rather spend time at the spa. So really there are differences.
So it is worth before a first cruise really figuring
out what you like, because otherwise some people go on
a cruise and they say, oh, gosh, I was bored
the music was so quiet, and then other people go
on a cruise and they say the pool was so crowded.
(29:34):
It wasn't what I liked at all. So it really
is just choosing the right cruise ship and cruise line
for you.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yeah, and that's that's one of the things I want
to highlight here, is just that getting the lowest price
for a cruise that doesn't work for how you live
may not be the best value. That might be cheap
instead of frugal, right, and it's a good idea to
approach this from a frugal standpoint and try to get
a reasonable price on a cruise you're interested in. But
if you let the price drive the you picking maybe
(30:01):
a cruise line that doesn't work for your vibe or personality,
you might find yourself having like a more miserable experience
than you otherwise would have if you had maybe paid
a little bit more and picked the cruise line and
the itinerary that made more sense for kind of how
you liked to vacation.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Okay, so you just mentioned something about excursions, I guess
with maybe it was when you were talking about Royal Caribbean,
but I've heard you mentioned that it makes a lot
of sense to book those ahead of time. Can you
explain why that's so important? And then I'm realizing too
that there are excursions that are like cruise line sponsored,
but then there are the other excursions like third party excursions.
(30:41):
So just I guess talk about why you would want
to jump on those bookings early, and then maybe kind
of highlight some of the differences between endorsed excursions versus
choose your own adventure excursion.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Sure, so when it comes to excursions, especially if there
is something that you really want to do, then you
do want to book that early. So as an example,
if somebody is going to Alaska and they have their
heart set on doing a helicopter excursion to the Menenhall Glacier,
that is going to book up pretty quickly. And that's
(31:13):
whether by the way people book it with the cruise
line directly or even with private companies just because that
is just such a popular excursion so or even whale
watching sometimes. So some of those excursions, the ones that
you really want to do, you want to get those
booked early. The other thing, though, is when you book
(31:33):
with the cruise line, if you do book it ahead
of time and you book it on the cruise line website,
then oftentimes there will be a lower price than if
you book it when you're on your cruise. So that's
another reason too. And in fact, on the cruise that
we are going on in a few days, there was
a sale I think it was on Black Friday, and
(31:56):
I took a look on the Cruise Line website and
they do usually send you an email when you have
a booking with them, so I was able to see
and the excursion that we're doing in Nassau, Bahamas was
instead of it being about two hundred and fifty dollars
per person it was instead it was like one twenty five,
(32:18):
maybe even a little bit less, maybe like one twenty three.
So it was fifty three percent off and I'm paying
for four people on this cruise up.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, it was like five hundred dollars in savings just
by booking it about five weeks before my cruise.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's great, love it? Yeah, awesome? All right? Well, is
there is there any risk with third party excursions? By
the way, can you get left in the lurch? Can
you miss the boat essentially on the way back? About that?
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, yeah, you potentially can those third party excursions. It
doesn't mean they're bad, by the way, There are really
reputable tour companies that people do book with, but it
is something to be aware of when you book with
the cruise line directly. One of the good things is
that the cruise ship will not leave without you. If
(33:03):
your tour is late coming back to the cruise ship,
or if something happens right like if that tour bus
breaks down or something like that, the cruise line is
aware and they are going to wait for you to
come back to the cruise ship along with the other people. However,
if you go off on your own, and you take
a cab to the other side of the island and
something happens and you cannot make it back to the
(33:24):
cruise shup on time, that cruise ship will leave without you.
So I think we've all seen those videos. Yeah, yeah,
of the people crying on the pier. Oh my gosh,
that's a cruiser's worst nightmare. So that's something to me.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
What happen That's when you've gotta be able to swim fast.
So literally what happens in that situation. Let's let's say
someone does do that and literally hope you travel is
sailing off? Is that an instance where travel insurance comes
to play, Like are you able to get back on
the boat somehow?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Usually what would happen is that the person would have
to fly to the next cruise port or find a
way to get to the next cruise port.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
So I'm guessing that would not be affordable.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, I'm actually really not sure you know what would
be even covered. I'm not a travel insurance expert, so
I don't know what would be covered, But I think
you just really want to avoid that.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, worst case scenario, avoid at all, almost at all costs,
for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, but maybe travel insurance would cover that. I just
think you really do want to be careful. A lot
of times. It's not necessarily that people are you know,
are on an excursion, although that can happen, but it
does seem like, you know, based on some of the videos,
it does seem like perhaps sometimes people are spending a
little bit too much time at the local bar or
(34:40):
even shopping. You know, you see people coming back with
your shopping back, so they're they're really close by. They're
just betting that that cruise ship won't.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Leave set multiple on your phone people, you know, that's
that's the way to avoid that. Okay, talk to me
about booking a room, because you mentioned that the rooms
can be kind of small, and when I've looked into
I'm like, there's no way I would book an into
your cabin, Like I feel like I'd want that deck,
I'd want to be able to see some sunlight. But
(35:08):
you can also save a lot of money by booking
an into your cabin. But then I also saw you
say something about being able to book an interior cabin
and then bid for upgrades, and maybe that's the cheapest
way to potentially get a nicer cabin. When without like
paying full freight for it.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Yeah, that's one of the ways. So I would caution
though for somebody who really doesn't want to like you
had said, you really wouldn't want to be in an
interior cabin, so then I probably wouldn't do that. So
that is a good strategy. I'll explain that people can use.
They can book the lowest cabin that they still would
be okay with to stay in, and then bid for
(35:45):
an upgrade, so you can bid. As an example, we
have a cruise coming up we not the crews I'm
doing now, but a cruise after that. We that we
booked an ocean view cabin, so I didn't book an inside,
but I think that the balcony was about double the
cost of the inside, and I just thought it was
(36:06):
a little more than what I wanted to spend on
that cruise. But the ocean view cabin, so a large
picture window, was only one hundred dollars more worth three
people in the cabin, So it was like a no
brainerd that for one hundred dollars we were going to
do the ocean view rather than the inside. And I
know we're not going to be in our cabin very much. However,
I did bid for an upgrade. I don't know yet
(36:28):
if we got it, but I bid the minimum that
was available for an upgrade to a balcony, and I'm
really aware that I might get that upgrade. And if
I get it for about one hundred dollars, I'm very
happy with that. But if I don't get it, I'm
perfectly fine with staying in an ocean view, okay, but
for somebody who wouldn't be fine, then it's not a
(36:49):
good strategy to use.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
That makes sense, It makes sense? Oh yeah, absolutely, okay.
So does the room that you book like in relation
to the ship? How does that impact the potential for
getting seasick because I think I saw I think I
saw something about rooms that are more towards the center
of the ship. I guess they pitch less if there
are waves or inclement weather. Is that true? Is so
(37:12):
basically like the closer you are to the middle of
the ship, the less rocky the ride's going to be.
Or did I completely read that wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
No, you've got it, okay, So just something to mention
is on most cruises now modern cruise ships have stabilizers,
so the kind of seasickness that people might have had
in the eighties and nineties. It isn't the same anymore.
And it's not even the same as something that you
might have if you go on a ferry or a
fishing boat. So it's not anything like that to worry about.
(37:40):
But it can happen that if the caesar stormy or
even a little bit windy, you can feel some movement
in the ship, and if you are prone to motion sickness,
then you want to be a little bit cautious with
where you are taking your cabin. The best place that
people can be is always going to be midship, just
because you're hedging your bets that you're going to have
(38:01):
the less the least movement. Excuse me, Yeah, so you'll
have the least movement if you're in the midship of
the cruise.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Gotcha, Okay, that makes sense because for honestly, for me,
that is the number one thing I think that is
keeping me from booking a cruise is I have gone
on some deep sea fishing trips before, and every time
I've gotten so sick. So I'm picturing that but just
stretched over days and days, and I'm thinking there's no
way that you can convince me to get on a
(38:30):
cruise ship. I don't know. You talking about the stabilizers
bolstered my confidence a little bit. And of course you
can get the patches or the little wristbands with the
pressure points, like there's all those other remedies to kind
of help you to combat that. Do you have a
favorite way to combat seasickness? By the way, is that
something that you deal with.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, a little bit. I actually don't get seasick very much,
but sometimes I do feel a little bit the movement.
My husband gets a little bit of motion sickness. And
there is a medication. It's an over the counter one
that I personally like. I know a lot of people
that take it preventatively, so they'll take one a day,
or some people can take to a day, morning and night.
(39:11):
And of course I'm not a doctor or a pharmacist,
so disclaimer, but I think it does work. It's called
bonine b n E, and I think it's very similar
to dramamine. I don't find that I don't get any
side effects at all, so I don't get that like
woozy feeling or that drowsy feeling that you could get
(39:32):
with some medication. So I find that works well. A
lot of people who are very prone to sickness swear
by the patch behind the ear. I've never tried it,
but definitely for somebody who thinks that they might get
motion sickness, that's a good idea. And like you mentioned
the c bands that work with pressure points on your wrists,
there's another product. I think it's called motion Ease. Some
(39:53):
people have said that that really works. But definitely on
an average Caribbean cruise or in an Alaska cruise, most of
the time you're not going to get a tremendous amount
of movement. Definitely nothing like you'd get on a smaller boat.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, well, I love the idea
too that you have the potential to save a lot
of money and get one of those interior what you
call it, like midship cabins. I guess, so you're saving
a ton of money and also, by the way, that's
going to keep you from getting sick, from getting nasty. Yeah,
feeling discussion.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Sure, but you can also take midship cabins and have
a balcony as well, by the way, and the other
alternative is even midship towards the aft. So anything between
the middle and sort of the back. The area that
you really want to avoid is the forward. The forward
is where you're going to feel the most movement if
there is rough weather.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Okay, okay, amazing tips And we've got the forward. We've
got a few more questions. We've got a few more
questions we want to get to with a lot of
maybe some offbeat sort of cruising questions that are just
on the top of our minds. Well, we'll get to
right after this. All right, we're back. We're still talking
(41:10):
with Ilana from Life Well Cruised about how cruises might
be the cheapest way to travel when you break it
down cost per night and where you get to go.
It just seems to be the case. And so maybe
Matt and I were getting over our version to cruising.
Alana is selling it now instead of that hiking trip
that we're planning. That's right, Maybe it'll just be like
a couple of cruise trip. Just me, buddy, you know
(41:32):
what I am, dow, I feel like if I'm going anywhere,
Alaska's at the top of the list, because that from
what I hear A lota tell me if I'm wrong,
you can see things that you wouldn't know, they wouldn't
be able to see from the mainland. So maybe that's
one of the selling points of the Alaska cruise.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Absolutely, And I was somebody who I wasn't sold on
Alaska because I live in Canada and the idea of
going somewhere they didn't have hot weather it was not
appealing to me. Oh my goodness. I loved Alaska so much.
I would consider going back again this summer. I'm sure
I could go back and I would just see and
do different things. Loved it definitely.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Okay, well, that one's going That one's on my list
for sure. Okay, talk to me though about We got
a couple other questions for you. One you've mentioned that,
of course people who listen to how to Money, they
care about their money and they care about investing. People
who have invested in cruise line stock can maybe get
preferential deals or treatment. Is that true?
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yes, absolutely, and it's definitely a pro or an avid
cruiser secrets maybe not the right word, but it really
is a tip and something that people use. So if
you purchase one hundred shares of Carnival so Carnival Corporation
of Royal Caribbean. I think it's Royal Caribbean International. In
(42:49):
any case, it's Royal Caribbean or Norwegian Cruise Line. You
can get benefits. It's a shareholder benefit on the cruises
that you go on with in that family of companies.
So for instance, I have one hundred shares of Carnival stock,
and when I go on a Princess cruise, because Princess
(43:10):
is part of the Carnival umbrella, I get an onboard credit,
which is a shareholder benefit. When I book my cruise
with Princess and the same thing happens. I'm going on
a celebrity cruise soon. I have Royal Caribbean shares. You
do need a hundred to be able to get that benefit,
but I'm getting an additional one hundred dollars on board
credit because I have those shares.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Very nice, that's cool. It makes me think back to
was it last year a couple years ago when AMC
they were selling all the site and it's just like, hey,
every time you come in you get a free popcorn. Yeah,
if you're a shareholder, yeah. And I mean just our
general advice. We always try to encourage folks when they're
looking at their retirement portfolios to invest in the entire market,
right index investing, don't try to pick the winners and
(43:53):
the losers. However, if there is a certain token amount
that allows you to reap a benefit that's going to
be outsized to the investment that you make, I think
that's definitely something worth considering a lot of Let's talk
about just practically speaking, like is there WiFi like on
a cruise? How do you go about buying that? Is
that something that sort of like you were talking about
(44:13):
with excursions that you book ahead of time, you can't
call on your phone from the cruise, can you mean? Why? Yeah?
There's service.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
It's so different, and that actually messes up a lot
of people because sometimes you know, they might have traveled
and they've gone to hotels and people are used to
that there's free Wi Fi everywhere you go, but it's
not the case on most cruise ships, and it's just
a completely different system. If I'm not mistaken, they're on satellite.
Things have changed over the last couple of years, but
(44:41):
Wi Fi is still expensive when you're on a cruise,
and those international phone plans don't really work on cruises.
You have to be really careful sometimes people think that
their phone is going to work when they're on a cruise,
they can make phone calls, but then unfortunately they can
end up with a really big bill, like in the
hundreds and even thousands of dollars after they get off
(45:03):
their crew, So they do want to be careful. But
you can purchase Wi Fi or intranet on your cruise.
So there are different Wi Fi packages that people can choose.
Some of them, you know, are lower priced and they
include just scrolling on social media and checking emails, and
you know, there are other more expensive Wi Fi packages
(45:23):
that are going to include streaming. So it is something
people want to shop around for a little bit, you know,
once they book their crews, to find the package that
actually suits their needs for for when they're on the
cruise ship.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Okay, do you have a favorite way to pay for
cruises or using credit cards? Is there is there any
like a most efficient method or a way to garter
the most rewards or a way that the cruise lines
incentivize you to book when you're doing business with them.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Well, you can definitely book using your credit card. Actually,
most cruise lines do have a credit card that is
their own credit card that you can book and you
can get points. Unfortunately, because I'm Canadian, you do have
to be a resident of the United States, so that
has never applied to me.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
So I just sorry us.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, I know. So I booked using my regular credit card,
you know, and the one that gives me the most
reward points at home in Canada. But you can definitely
book with credit cards. I can't think of another way
that would be better. So I was going to mention
there is something that for people who are members of
(46:31):
aa RP. There are gift cards that people can purchase
and they can use those gift cards towards paying off
their cruise, and some people do that, and I believe
they get a ten percent discount on the aa ARP
cards and therefore it gives them a little bit of
a small discount when they're paying off their cruise.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
School Well, if they're like you and you're going on
multiple cruises a month's that's actually so we haven't asked.
I'm curious a lot how many cruises have you gone
in total? And how many are you planning on going
on in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
So I haven't gone on as many cruises as some people.
There are people that have been on you know, one
hundred cruises and more. I haven't done that. So we've
done I believe it's thirty five now. I did seven
cruises in twenty twenty three and that was the most
that I ever did in a year.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
Nice. Well here's to eight or nine in twenty Yeah,
it sounds like you you might be on your way
to doing that. But okay, one last thing, this is
how to money. And like we mentioned, we always enjoy
a craft beer during the during the episode. I know
some cruise lines allow you to bring your own alcohol
a board. Conjol my show up with our own craft beer?
(47:44):
Is it cruise line dependent as to what their specific
rules are? And you earlier you mentioned like drink packages.
How do you go about if you want to enjoy
an adult beverage on the cruise? How do you go
about doing that?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Well, cruise lines will most appreciate if you either drink
packages or if you pay for drinks on board. But
what you can do I don't know if you can
bring beer. I don't believe that you can. I've never
really looked into it though, But you can bring wine
on board. Most cruise lines will allow you to bring
one bottle of wine per adult in the cabin, so
(48:19):
you can bring that on the cruise and if you
plan on, you know, having a glass of wine in
your cabin, then you know that's something good to do.
If you do take the wine out of your cabin
and you bring it to the dining room when the
waiter will open it for you, there is going to
be a corkage fee of between fifteen and twenty dollars
depending on the cruise line, so that may or may
not be worth it for you, but definitely if you're
(48:40):
drinking the wine in your cabin, or even if you
fill up your glass in your cabin and then you
walk around with a glass of wine, you can definitely
do that.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Like some of our fancier beers come with corks, so
I wonder if maybe that they let it slide. I
don't you take it up there and they're just like, oh,
so this is a wine. It's like, aha, it's actually
a goose. This is a Belgian lambiic so you thought,
but a cork for you, sir. A lot of this
has been like so informative and it's really like made
(49:10):
me kind of think twice about cruising in general. But
thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
How can our listeners find out more about you and
and all the good information that you're giving out.
Speaker 2 (49:22):
Thanks so much for having me on. So your listeners
can find me either on my YouTube channel, it's simply
called Life Well Cruised. I also have a website lifewell
cruised dot com where I share packing tips and other
information about cruises, and as well on social media so
Instagram and Facebook under life Well Cruised.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Awesome, Alana, thank you so much for taking the time
to speak with us today.
Speaker 2 (49:47):
Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
It was a lot of fun, all right, Matt. Now
I feel like I am aching for a vacation. Yeah,
cruising for a cruise boosom. I don't know pretty much.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I mean it's the middle of January. It is the
time which you don't want to be, like, I don't
want to go on a cruise until January hits. And
I'm like, it's true. It's like that midwinter bleakness. It
makes sense that though the quote unquote wave season when
they offer a lot of the discounts is this time
of year. Yeah, and like these cruise lines are just
they're looking for those deposits so that they know that
(50:20):
they can basically bankroll these ships. Yeah, just a way
for them to do some planning because those things are expensive,
that's right, to maintain and to fuel all that kind
of stuff. Yeah, for sure. All right, So what was
your big takeaway from this combo? I think for me personally, dude,
it's the fact that she mentioned the stabilizers whatever these
things are on these on the newer cruise ships, and
it sounds like you might have to get a pretty
(50:40):
dang old cruise ship that doesn't have the stabilizers. But
for me, that is the number one thing that's keeping
me from hopping on a hopping on a cruise ship.
I think is like, is the worry. It's the concern
of getting seasick and not being able to enjoy a
single day of that cruise because I'm I'm feeling terrible
because I do get I do get motion sick. But
here her talk about that and the fact that there's
(51:02):
a lot of different drugs or remedies out there she
mentioned bo nine, Dude, I'm totally going to look that.
I mean, honestly, I might even look that up. For again,
I know nothing about this and whether or not. You
can give it to kids or not. But you know,
like our kids get carsick when we go on longer
trumps as well, and I'm thinking, okay, mental note, is
that something that we you know, that we have on
hand in case any of the kids start feeling a
(51:24):
little queasy. But dude, seriously, for me, that was my
big takeaway is that, Okay, cool cruises are a lot
more within the realm of possibility. Yeah, knowing that that exists, No,
that's yeah, I think that's fascinating. I think my big
takeaway was to like, you can have all confidence booking
well in advance the cruise that you want to go
on and the dates, and then you know, wait for
(51:44):
the discount to come to you after the fact, just
basically like it'll probably go down in price. And then
it sounds like, based on one Alana was saying, every
single one of the major cruise lines is more than
willing to basically refund you the money that's in excess
of what the current prices. So I think that's a
wonderful tactic to take if you're saying, like, well, I
(52:05):
don't want to just be subject to the whims of
a sale necessarily I definitely want to go on this
trip specifically, well, the price might go down. You have
to keep looking like just kind of like we talk
about with auto rentals or something like that, you book
the auto rental, the refundable auto rental, and then later
on down the line you can check to see if
the price has gone down and then rebook. What's similar
(52:27):
with the cruise right where you book, and then you
just call Instead of rebooking, you just call and say, hey,
give me the discounted price now, and they're pretty much
always gonna be like, Okay, you got it. And I
love that as a tactic for getting to take the
cruse you want and spending hopefully less money than you
otherwise thought you would. Totally yeah, I think I should
give folks a lot of peace of mind. That plus
(52:49):
the refundable deposit. But let's get to the beer that
you and I enjoyed during this episode was called Last
Will and Testament. This is a beer by Monday Night
Brewing was donated to the show by friend of the show, Ryan, So, Ryan,
thank you so much for swinging by the clubhouse the
office here and dropping off this old high school path.
Plus he reached out and he's like, I've got beer
(53:09):
for you. I'm like, yeah, thank you. I was bummed
he invited us to like a he's got like a
vinyl and cocktails Christmas party that we weren't able to
attend them because that sounded like the coolest party. So nice.
But yeah, what were your thoughts on on this particular beer? So?
I thought it was delicious. It was in my mind
the two notes that I was getting were bourbon and raisin.
It was like bourbon soaked raisins in in beer form,
(53:32):
and this was I like, I like that vibe. Yeah,
I don't like raisins and my cookies because I don't
like the consistency, but I like the flavor of the eyes,
and I do like I can eat raisins by themselves.
But like you love raisins and cookies, which I think
is just like the stress. I like the chew and
a nice oatmeal raisin cookie. But well, this this tastes great.
I'm glad you could taste this because with your cold
that you're lacking right now. I wasn't sure. It certainly
(53:53):
didn't pick a nuance, but I was like, we were
specifically looking for one that was gonna hit you over
the head when it came to the flavor. But well,
I think it's the remedy personally. Yeah, I think I'll
be better in no time now. Yeah, it's all the
health professionals out there are just shaking their heads. Right. No,
but this is a bourbon barrel aged English old ale
and it totally has some of those It almost has
like Belgian quad like flavors going on with it. It
(54:15):
tastes like an old world kind of beer, certainly the
kind of beer you want to enjoy here in the
like the dead middle of winter. I'm glad you and
I got to enjoy this one by one of our
favorite local breweries. I don't honestly know. I don't think
there's any other brewery out there where we've had more
other beers on the show not only because they're local,
but because of the fact that they're so dang good.
(54:35):
So make sure that you're not sleeping on Monday nights beers.
But buddy, that's gonna be it for this episode. We'll
link to Alana's YouTube channel up in our show notes
up on the website at how themoney dot com. Okay,
I just just a lot of this one final little takeaway.
And we didn't even get to this, but in one
of her videos, this is like a little maybe we
(54:57):
should stick this in after the fact, after we end
the you know, like the little like a little easter egg.
She in whatever video, she shared the fact that the
walls of cabins on a cruise ship they're all made
of metal, which I guess makes sense because it's a boat. Yeah,
and that didn't occur to me. So here's a little
tip if you are a cruiser, she says, always show
up with magnetic hooks, and so you hooked those up
(55:20):
on the wall and you hang up all your stuff,
keeps it from slipping around. I guess. Really, that's the thing. Yeah,
when you thought those are the kind of tips that
a lot of sharing, yeah exactly on her YouTube channel exactly.
Some of it's money saving and some of it's just
how to cruise like the right way, Yeah exactly. So
she's got a bunch of great stuff on there. We'll
link to everything in the show notes up on our
(55:41):
site how to money dot com. But Matt, that's going
to do it for this episode until next time. Best
Friends Out, Best Friends Out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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