Saving the pennies

[Phantom menace]

Keep clear of the casino.

[Manoverboard]

Ex Southampton especially consider buying a ( 3 x 1ltr ) pack of Schweppe's Tonic Water when on offer at Tesco, this will cost less than £3 whereas P&O's mini cans will cost £20 for the same volume.

Note ...

* There is a bigger saving on the Tonic than on the Gin

* Take a Lakeland Gizmo to retain the fizz.

* The 1 Litre size will, should, fit in the cabin fridge but others will not.
.

[Romig1]

Keep clear of the casino.

Unless you are called Flora!

[AngieT]

Ex Southampton especially consider buying a ( 3 x 1ltr ) pack of Schweppe's Tonic Water when on offer at Tesco, this will cost less than £3 whereas P&O's mini cans will cost £20 for the same volume.

Note ...

* There is a bigger saving on the Tonic than on the Gin

* Take a Lakeland Gizmo to retain the fizz.

* The 1 Litre size will, should, fit in the cabin fridge but others will not.
.

Even cheaper MOBY - drink your favourite tipple neat & you save oodles of dosh (well it works with my brandy!)

[Manoverboard]

.... Even cheaper MOBY - drink your favourite tipple neat & you save oodles of dosh (well it works with my brandy!)

In smaller glasses I trust

[Boris+]

I mentioned this a couple of times elsewhere - try bookboon.com for information about ports. Ok, so some ports are not listed, but there is always good old whatsinport.com . Stuff can be downloaded for you to take with you on an e-reader etc, and is free.

Whatsinport.com will give you a map of the port, and also a list of what other ships are going to be in port on the same day as you.

The other thing which we tend to keep an eye on (especially close to departure date) is Southampton VTS - we have discovered through this site (go to the cruise ship schedule) of a change of terminal well before we have been advised by the cruiseline of a change of terminal.

Em

[AngieT]

.... Even cheaper MOBY - drink your favourite tipple neat & you save oodles of dosh (well it works with my brandy!)

In smaller glasses I trust

Mais oui mon ami (depends what you class as small)

[gilly88]

buy the soft drinks package cards on the first night. we ususally buy two and share them betwen three of us over the course of a week. (this works as we don't drink spirts etc: although i do cheat and have a cool cola occassionally )

[arrbee]

Dont always think that going to visit places on your own is cheaper than doing a P & O tour. ie. I was looking at the Nelsons dockyard trip which is around £38 with P & O. Looking at the taxi fares on line (which I dont know whether they are this years or last years prices) together with the admission fees for three of us works out at around £10 per head dearer.... So its worth doing your homework first...

We went to Nelson's Dockyard by local bus which was a great experience on its own and it only cost us $6 each return. We had a great time, wandered round at our leisure for ages and relaxed in the sunshine.Taxis aren't the only option ashore if you do a bit of research, particularly on Cruisecritic, and you can definitely save £100s on a cruise and sample local culture.

[Kendhni]

Ultimately it is up to everybody to do their own research. We had table mates who did a lot of DIY trips and over the course of the cruise we did compare prices of the P&O vs their DIY. On some tours they did save quite a bit of money but on others they ultimately paid similar or more than it would have cost via P&O (when they took the whole price into account).

The one thing though that you can get from DIY over a planned excursion is the sens of adventure ... especially, as crazy-not-to[cruise suggests, you use public transport

[Capt Black]

Just been looking at the T & Cs for my Santander bank account.

It says that there is no fee for withdrawals from Spanish ATMs. First port on our next cruise is Alicante, so guess where I'll be getting me Euros.

[Mr-big-bits-mk2]

Some ports have portside duty free shops such as Barcelona. Whilst things such as booze and ciggies are obvious it is also very cheap for things such as soft drinks. Last year we paid 1 euro for 8 full size 330ml cans of Coke which is around 10p a can, cheap by supermarket standards and an utter gift compared to P&O's prices.

[davecttr]

Buy yourself some small bottles of water and fill them in the bathroom. Leave in the fridge overnight with the top off to allow the nasty tasting bits to evaporate. even better use the curtesy bottle

[Mervyn and Trish]

If you fancy a massage or beauty treatment don't rush to book, especially if there is a port you have been to before or don't fancy. There are often last minute bargains to be had on port days.

Of course the ultimate money savers are: don't drink, don't use the spa, don't use the casino, don't use the speciality restaurants, don't do excursions, don't tip - and the biggest saver, don't book another cruise!

[Silver_Shiney]

The biggest money-saver for me on the massage front was getting someone else to pay for it!

Unfortunately the experience was spoiled by the girl giving me a hard sell on some muscle relaxant lotion.







Just realised the unintentional double-entendree there....

[Mervyn and Trish]

You're dead right about the hard sell on products. So I suppose another money saving tip is to decide what you want and then stick your fingers in your ears and go "la la la la" very loud until the sales pitch is over.