6 Things You Can Get Free On A Cruise - If You Ask ! - YouTube

you're about to discover things that you can get for free on a cruise if you

simply ask for them. I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips

for travellers. I'm going to tell you things that you can get for free on a cruise

that the brochures, and cruise lines don't necessarily tell you about. Simply

by asking, you can get more bang for your buck on a cruise.

First of all extra free food. On pretty much every single cruise line, you can

order more than one main course. Some cruise lines tried to introduce

charges for ordering extra main courses, but they soon backed away. You can ask for more

than one main course, so if you want the lobster and the steak you can order both

of those for no extra cost. The other thing to do is go off menu. On some

premium cruise lines they allow you to go off menu, however, if there's nothing

on the menu that appeals ask the waiter if you can have something off menu.

Particularly if it's something that was on the lunch menu, or perhaps the night

before. You often find that they have courses

and dishes that they can do at short notice.

Many cruise lines have some standard items that they offer every

night, like steak or chicken, but a lot of cruise lines if you ask for something

off menu you might find that you can get it. If you're vegetarian or vegan

it is a great way of getting extra food that's not on the menu. Most

cruise lines will have some vegetarian or vegan options, but the secret is if

you're interested in that or you want different food, then talk to the maitre d

or waiter and they will often start to cater for you and create

specific dishes for you to meet your specific needs. If you have any

dietary needs, you can often get extra free food that is different or

is specially created for you. If you're a big fan of ice cream, lots of

cruise lines have gelato or ice cream shops, however most of them do

offer free ice cream too. You'll either find that up in the Lido buffet or

on the pool deck and in the restaurants at

lunchtime and dinner if you ask for ice cream you will get it free without any

extra cost. Another great tip is room service. A couple of cruise lines will

charge for room service, but many of them do not - so

if you want an iced tea or coffee in the morning just phone room service. Certainly,

room service is a great way to get extra food, and you'll often find they have a

slightly different menu to the main restaurant. Secondly free drinks. Most

Cruise Lines charge for drinks. There are a couple of ways of getting free drinks.

First of all, the most obvious is attend the cocktail parties like the

welcome party and farewell party. You'll normally find there is a big selection

of drinks that are offered for free. If there's other events on board like you

often find the shops will have special events, and art auctions have

special events where they provide drinks for free. Normally that's

champagne, but not necessarily. Attend those events. You don't have to buy

anything and you'll find you get free drinks. Another important thing to

note is that tap water is drinkable on cruise ships. Some people say they

don't like the taste, but it's 100% safe to drink. Bring along a refillable water

bottle and perhaps bring some flavour sachets or cordial, and use those

to give your tap water a little bit of taste. Tap water is free and is

completely drinkable, and by bringing little sachets of flavour you can

spruce it up and probably save a lot of money on buying things like sodas

or other soft drinks. Another great way of getting free drinks is sign up for a

Cruise Critic Meet-up. Many cruise lines host meet-ups for members of Cruise

Critic. If you're on Cruise Critic, have a look for your particular cruise and

find out there's a meet-up, sign up for it and go because you'll find there

are free drinks and often little nibbles and snacks.

Remember that tea, coffee, juices and things like lemonade are often available

24 hours a day in the Lido buffet restaurants. No matter what time of

the day or night, if you want some tea or coffee you can get those free up

in the Lido deck. My third tip on free things you can get on a cruise by asking

are gifts, and there's quite a few options here. First of all, one of the

things to do is take part in all of the activities. You'll find that many of

the activities, whether it's trivia games, deck games and other events run by the entertainment team,

if you go to those you will have a card and build up points, and

at the end of the cruise you can redeem those points for gifts and prizes. A lot

of people take part in activities and don't do that

and so miss out on getting free bits and pieces of gifts. They often

tend to be branded merchandise. So, if every cruise you go on if you do

collect the points you will collect a lot of free gifts. Another way of getting

free gifts is going to the shopping talks. This tends to happen more

in places like the Caribbean or Alaska where duty free shopping is a really big

thing. On board there will be shopping advisors and they have lots of

free gifts and incentives to get you to go into the shops. Again you don't

normally have to buy anything, but by simply going to the talks you'll get free

gifts and then by going to some of the stores you can

redeem vouchers for free gifts. It's definitely worth doing that

because you'll come away from the cruise with all sorts of things like

T-shirts, lucky charms or free samples. Another thing to do is if you've

forgotten some of your amenities, so that might be a comb or a brush, stuff for

shaving or toothbrush, instead of heading straight for the

shops go to the Guest Services desk and ask them if they have an amenity kit.

You'll often find, like in many hotels, you can often get those for free.

The other thing to do is you'll often find in your cabin or by going to Guest

Services, you can get stationery, envelopes,

writing paper, pens and postcards. One of my favourite ways of getting free gifts

is to take part in some of the raffles, especially on embarkation day you'll find

a couple of places around the ship have raffles to get you to go there.

One of the best ones to go to is the Spa. They enter you in a raffle,

often give you a free drink and you just have to be there a certain time

(normally just after the muster drills) at 5 o'clock

or 6 o'clock and they do the draw and you have to be there to get the prize. On

a couple of cruises I have won packages with free massages and facials. So, that's

definitely something to do. You'll also find sometimes the shops will do these,

particularly if they're launching a new range they'll have a raffle as

they want you to go there to look at the new merchandise.

Definitely look out for the raffles around the ship where they're giving

away prizes. My fourth tip is an easy one to do and that's to

cruise when there's a special event taking place like your birthday

or a special anniversary. Make sure the cruise line knows that it's a

special event and let your cabin steward know. Most cruise lines

will make a fuss over a special event. If it's your birthday at

dinner they will bring you a cake. If your cabin steward knows that it's a special

anniversary or your birthday they will also normally do something, like

they might bring a cake, put up some decorations or bring you a bottle

of something bubbly. So, make sure that they know that you're cruising

on a special event. Pick cruises when you have a

special event because it's very likely that if the cruise line knows, they will make

a fuss and give you something free. The fifth thing that you get free is

medication and the Medical Centre. Medication and seeing the Medical Centre

can cost a lot of money, but there are two pieces of medication that you can

get for free. First of all, seasickness tablets. You'll

find that the Cruise Line at the guest services desk

will normally give seasickness medication away for free, particularly

when rough sea or they know that it's getting rough.

The second is around if you have stomach upsets and you need anti diarrhoea.

Very important if you think that you have any of the signs of norovirus, like

you are the vomiting or you have diarrhea problems, if you contact the

Medical Centre they will usually see you for nothing.

You will normally get a consultation by the doctor, or nurse, for free. If you

have those symptoms, they will give you the relevant medication. My

sixth tip is one that I have used quite a lot, and works me, and this is around

getting your cabin improved. If you have any issues with your bed, so it's too

hard or too soft or you don't like the pillows, speak to your cabin steward and

see what they can do. Often they can bring in new mattress

toppers, give you feather pillows or memory foam

pillows - and you normally find that you can get your bed adjusted and improved

so that it really suits you and there are things they can normally do very easily. So,

don't suffer if you're not happy with your bed. The second thing that you can

do is if you have a problem with your cabin, there's a noise problem or

something's not working, always make sure that your Cabin

Steward knows and that they've also reported to their supervisor. Once they've

done that, then go and report it to Guest Services. It is very important that

sequencing of events. I've had problems on different cruises where I've

had a noise problem or something hasn't really worked, I made sure the cabin

steward has known about it and I know that they reported their supervisor, and then I've

gone to guest services telling them that I've reported it. The cabin steward is

verifying that you have a problem and when that's happened

I've often been moved to better cabins, because everyone agrees that

there is a problem. Then Guest Services know and the hotel manager knows that

it's not just you creating a fuss for fuss sake, and that your steward agrees

there is a problem and I have been moved (when of course there's availability) to

better cabins as a result. So, cabin improvements definitely can happen by

asking and working with your cabin steward. As you can see, simply by asking

there's a whole lot of things that you can get for free to give you more bang

for your buck on your cruise fare. I hope you found that helpful. I have loads more

videos with lots of tips and advice about cruising, so why don't you watch

one of those right now?