I love to cruise and the chances are that if you ready a list such as this one, you either love to cruise or are interested in trying your first cruise adventure.

I have never had a bad cruise and know how lucky I have been to be able to take the ones that I have but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there are some aspects of the industry that I don’t like and there are some that I feel are just wrong.

I will look at one of those aspects of the industry in this list as sadly just about every line will try to different extents to ‘rip off’ their customers.

I know cruise lines only operate to make money, they are a business after all, but that should come by offering a service or product so good, that people want to pay money for and not by doing bait and switches, overselling or promoting something to be something that it isn’t.

It is those latter elements that I will look at in this list where I go through what I believe to be the most rampant rip offs in the industry that really impact cruisers.

Our Top 10 Cruise Rip Offs You Need To Avoid

Onboard Photos

For this one it should be a simple task of if you want a photo, you have it taken and then of you like it, you buy it.

It’s often on the day of a special occasion, such as an anniversary, when you are dressed up for a formal night or at the end of your cruise when you want a photo with new friends to remember the times you had.

That’s fair enough but a big blight that has it the industry comes from the growing number of lines that don’t allow you to buy a single photo and force you into buying a package or charge an exorbitant amount for a single photo to all but force you into buying a set.

With pre-cruise saving also meaning you pay much more onboard, if you want that last minute photo with new friends or a memento of a perfect night, expect for some lines to rinse you for that.

‘Art’ Auctions

These are always done by 3rd parties and that does give the lines a clear out for saying the issues with these are their problems and not ours and maybe you could say that makes sense if there were simply renting space, but it does go much further than that.

I have heard rumours that lines get a cut of the auction price, which makes sense, but they also allow the auctions to take over lounges and entertainment spaces and constantly push that you should go to them.

From a barrage of leaflets and ‘letters’ left in your cabin to tell you that you have been specifically chosen to go to the auction (along with everybody else onboard of course) to your cruise directors telling you how much ‘fun’ they are, the lines really do do the hard sell to get you there.

For those who do go, you get ‘exclusive’ access to prints and mass-produced art that is available across most ships- and plenty of shopping centres.

Spa Services

This one is similar to art auctions as in they are often 3rd parties but heavily linked to lines and they use many of the same hard sell tactics.

You will often get a barrage of sails materials for the spa and even ‘free’ offers that soon turn into a cost when you arrive at the spa.

Even if you head there for a service you are wanting and agree to pay the cost of, extras will soon appear on your final bill.

Bingo

This is one of the most ridiculous one on this list as the majority of people participating in it see what happen but the lines have the patter down so much, they often don’t feel like they have been ripped off.

Worst of all, you kind of need to win to suffer.

Bingo on many lines is not just a small price and the chance to have some fun with your friends, but it comes at a huge cost and is serious gambling.

With 1000’s often taking in by the line for each session, the winner will often get such a small fraction of it that it would be an accounting rounding up error.

If you look around the room, see how many are playing and then hear how much you can win, most playing wouldn’t do again but that’s where the patter come in as they often mask the prize by saying it needs to be worked out and then when its over and they announce it, its done incredible quickly and get the room to cheer for it, distracting you from working doing the math.

Cruise Line Shore Excursions

This one is a tricky one to call a rip off, as you are given the price up front and you agree to pay it.

There is the hard sell of saying it’s the only way to guarantee you get back to the ship etc etc but if, for example, a road accident happens, no one gets back and even if you happen to be the only people in that area but on a cruise line shorex, they are unlikely to hold the ship for hours and hours, so will need to get to the next port.

With lots of private shorex companies having guarantees to get you back to the ship or onto the next port, or with a decent insurance policy covering missed departures our of your control, you tend to be in the same situation no matter how you do an excursion.

So that does kind of mean you pay the over-the-top prices through the ship for little in the way of a return, but what is the worst thing for me, and where the rip off really comes, is when a line takes advantage of elderly or those with disabilities or mobility issues.

These are the sort of excursions where you get so little for what you pay for that it is only those who have no other option will take it.

Example I have seen for this sort of thing is in Alaska where you can pay $50 dollars to be taken from the ship to Tramway in Juneau, a trip so short I walked faster than the coach as they got held up at some lights or a shuttle between the terminal and the old town in Ibiza Town that cost $20.

Not only is there a ferry that does the same trip, but that costs $7 and drops you off in the heart of old town whereas the shuttle still need you to walk a bit, which still makes it difficult for those with mobility issues who will likely be the only ones on it- as its less than a 10 minute trip.

Wi-Fi

There are plenty of people who go on holiday to switch off and relax, I really wish I was one of them, but for too many of us, we simply need to be able to keep in contact with people back home, whether it’s just checking in with family or keeping up with work.

It’s one of those things where it is incredibly expensive to buy wi-fi at sea, but it is a choice and it is something that the price is advertised upfront.

Where the rip off element often comes in is that the line will sometimes give you the speed you will get or promote a certain package as been a casual one for checking emails etc whilst you need a premium one for watching YouTube etc.

These are often the same speeds, but things are just blocked and in a worse case scenario, you simply don’t get what you paid for and cannot do what was advertised.

I take that back actually, the worst case is from my time sailing with NCL, on what was actually my first ever cruise so I knew no better at the time, but basically, you paid for internet minutes but it was so slow, you wasted a huge chunk of those minutes simply loading a webpage or evening disconnecting.

Jewellery

This one is a whole can of worms and has often led to court cases and people been out of pocket into the thousands.

There is just so much to go into that cannot be covered in a sit such as this one but if you are thinking about buying jewellery from the 3rd party shop that are found on all of the mainstream lines- if you’ve sailed before, you know the one- I can only say that you need to do your research first and then maybe you’ll avoid the same problems so many others have suffered.

Bottled Water

Cruise lines love to sell you bottled water and on my first cruise, me and my wife thought “that could be useful” and got a pack of something like 24 of them.

That was more than we could ever use on a short cruise and they were all dropped off on the first day in the cabin, taking over much of the desk space we had.

Thankfully, nowadays, the majority of lines will give you a bottle of water as part of your drinks package to take on shore with you and if you don’t want a package, simply take a reusable bottle with and use one of the refill stations onboard.

Drinks Packages

Most of the time the cost of a drink package is given up front, and you can decide if you want to pay it or not, so not a rip off.

But there is the issue that you don’t get to compare the cost of simply buying a drink, so it can be difficult to know if it is worth it for you or not.

Some lines also use dynamic pricing, you don’t even know what the cost of package will be until you have booked the cruise, which is sneaky at best.

Where the rip off elements for this one comes into play is how many lines change the rules once onboard or hide them in small print.

When you order your package, it will normally be something like a premium package (including all alcoholic drinks, cocktails, soft drinks, speciality teas and coffee and extra such as fruit smoothies), an adults drink package (including cheaper alcoholic drinks, speciality teas and coffees, smoothies, cocktails and soft drink), soda packages, non-alcoholic packages and kids packages.

For each one, the difference can often be the cost of the drink as they will have a maximum amount per drink you can use it for, with the difference needed to be paid.

It’s all a bit convoluted but you know that once you get onboard, the type of drinks you can have and the maximum amount you can spend per drink.

So that should all be straightforward right? Well, no! as it is often the case that some drinks are not included, such as energy drinks, despite been under the price point and it can depend on where and how you get the drink.

The strangest been with Princess where even with a full drinks package, if you want a soda and it comes in can, if the bar tender pours it for you, its included, if he hands you the can, you are charged for it.

Speciality Restaurants

For me, a speciality restaurant can be a great option if you are celebrating a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary and you just want that bit more space whilst eating your favourite cuisine.

Outside of that, there best thing is that they keep people out of the MDR’s and buffet giving me more room.

There are some issues that many don’t think about including you the cost of a meal each day is worked into the cost of your base fare, so you are kind of paying twice and also it is often the case that the food in the speciality restaurant is the same or very similar to what can be eaten with no extra cost in the main dining rooms.

Those issues are really something cruisers should understand but why they feature on this list is when a line has a speciality restaurant giving you nothing that you cannot get elsewhere on the ship for free.

An example of this was a ship I sailed on with a speciality restaurant serving pizza but the restaurant was open planned and just in the atrium and there was a no extra cost pizza place elsewhere on the ship.