Reply To: A Newbie Guide to Cruising AND getting there & back again
1. Get the travel insurance. A cruise is expensive enough that if something happens you will be out of a lot of dough on top of your disappointment, especially if you are flying. Although I guess if you worked it so you got a $99 room and you live in Ft. Lauderdale it would be pointless.
2. Spa: As a former massage therapist, if you plan to do a lot of drinking and rich food on the spa, do your spa thing earlier rather than later. Either way drink a lot of water after. Overindulging in every possible way and THEN getting a massage is a recipe for feeling gross. (I really thought this was massage therapy frou frou instead of reality and did a spa treatment near the end of the cruise last time, after many mojitos and all the things I could eat, and I felt both beaten up and gross for the rest of the day, even though it was not a beat-up-y thing I had). Men’s facials are tailored for men and don’t have a lot of froofy smelling products in them. If you’re a massage newbie, go for a swedish massage instead of a deep tissue. Many dudes try to be more manly with a deep tissue massage, and especially if you’ve never had a massage before, you’re more likely to feel tired and sore than relaxed. I am a great big fan of hot stone massage, although since it will probably be nice and warm on the cruise the effect isn’t as nice as when it is cold and awful outside.
I can offer no insight on alcohol pricing as I just handed my drink card to people until it ran out of dollars.