The Hidden Cost of the Coddled Experience

In my previous post, I wrote about the "cruise bubble" that wonderful, protective environment where everything is taken care of for you. But I also noticed that there is a bit of a higher price to pay to remain in that coddled experience when you leave the ship for excursions.

When planning our trip, my family and I chose not to pre-book any official Carnival excursions. At the time, it was a bit of a gamble, but in hindsight, we are so happy we made that choice.

By not locking ourselves into a pre-paid itinerary, we retained our flexibility. Once we actually got on land, we ended up changing our minds about what exactly we wanted to do. Seeing a port city with your own eyes often changes your priorities compared to looking at a brochure months in advance.

More importantly, for the activities we did decide to do, we found that we could book basically the exact same excursion the cruise ship was offering, but at a significantly lower price. By simply waiting until we were on land, seeing what was available, and booking on the spot, we saved a bundle.

For example the cost to see the arch next to lovers beach and stop and swim at lovers beach was a $125 per person excursion offered by Carnival. However, the same tour was available from multiple boat operators from $10 to $25 per person. My daughter was able to negociate $10 per person. His name is Adrian, he was an awesome captain, I still keep in touch with him. We then worked with him for our second day to go snorkeling. Instead of paying over $100 per person for that, we paid $20 per person.

Because we weren't tied to a strict cruise schedule, we also ended up going on different adventures by just traveling by Uber. We had ample time, where if we stuck to the cruise excursions, we could have only planned one for the day. On the second day after snorkling, we grabbed some food from amazing local taco place, then grabbed an Uber to check out the blown glass factory.

If you are willing to wait and see until you get on land, you will be surprised at what the local area has to offer. Stepping just slightly outside the cruise bubble can result in a more flexible day and keep a significant amount of money in your pocket.