Cruise Sheet: Find cruise deals
cruisesheet.com
cruisesheet.com
1. I saw the link on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6697416 where plainOldText was kind enough to post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6698086
2. I thought, well, more people need to see this awesome app, so let me post the link as a story.
The only profit I got was in karma points. I checked xe.com and it says 1.000 HN = 0.000 USD.
(ps: Thanks dangrossman, plainOldText and bradly)
- When searching Florida to Florida (so as to find roundtrip cruises) the cruises just says Miami Round Trip w/o giving any ideas of where it is going to stop, what region, etc. (see: http://cruisesheet.com/?from=Florida&to=Florida)
- No way to search within a time frame. Say I want to leave after November 18th but before December 12th. There is no way to do this search and sort by price.
- Clicking custom search goes nowhere
- I have not once been able to get the low price you list
The low price is double occupancy-- a few people have gotten stuck on that, so I have to make it clearer.
http://cruisesheet.com/?from=Bayonne%2C+New+Jersey&ship=Expl...
1) Per person for a 2 person room
2) extremely last minute (< 30 days out).
Plus the boat takes you around to different ports. There are "at sea" days and days when you arrive somewhere, get off the ship, walk around, return that evening.
Personally it can be tiring and a typical cruise might have 4 days where you arrive in different places and 3 days when you are just sailing. Some people would like to be in a different place every day. Some people prefer more at sea days. But no big deal it's still nice (you don't have to get off the ship but you sort of feel you should or you would miss something).
The only added expense would be for liquor typically on some cruise lines and almost always what is known as "shore excursions". Like if you wanted to snorkle, rent a jetski or something like that.
As long as the weather is good and the cruise line isn't bottom end it's a good experience I've found.
The inside cabins are the cheapest it gets more expensive if you want a veranda (balcony) or ourside (with a porthole) but the inside cabins are ok.
After all you don't spend much time in the cabin you are on the ship at the pool or the rock climbing wall etc and you get to take advantage of the same things that anyone can. Other added expenses might be internet access or if you want to eat in a fancy restaurant one night (you don't have to the "regular" food is quite good. And it's always available (you can get food at any hour and it's typically free at least on any cruise I have been on).
Since you had no idea you might want to take a cruise, blog about it, and maybe you can figure out a way to help the cruise lines with marketing toward the age group that has never cruised. (I'm serious about that it could be a business opportunity..)
Drinks (including soda, coffee, and of course alcohol) are very much not free though. You are also not allowed to bring any alcohol on board.
Some cruises have begun charging "charging extra for new premium amenities such as fancy alternative restaurants" [1] -- but the run of the mill buffets are all you can eat and free.
[1] http://www.aarp.org/travel/cruises/info-08-2012/cruise-ships...
If you do the cruise the way the cruise company wants you to, you'll be blowing money in the casino and (especially) on alcohol. The group I was with was composed of particularly ingenious tightwads, so we found out exactly how much water you're allowed to bring (2L per person, or something similar), bought appropriate water bottles, filled them with vodka from Costco, and each took our allowed bottle of wine.
In general, I found the whole thing to be fairly dull, since I don't care for gambling or hanging out at the pool, but it was relaxing, and a great way to get a quick view of several areas in a short time. In my case, we hit Key West, somewhere else I forget, and Cozumel.
It would also be nice of there would be some pictures of the cruise or the cruise ship. Anyway, bookmarked this, will come in handy :)
Very well done and I think this could easily become a business itself. Keep this one rocking!
When I finish my living abroad, I think I will try it. It would cost me around the same to get a cheap hostel.
Anyway, awesome.
And wow, the cruises listed are cheap!
2) Follow up with link to the website you built to find cruise deals.
3) Profit.
How much are you making off this, Kirubakaran?
And in the context of the post it's not much better. You know where I like to work? From the deck of a cruise ship! No shit, I'd love to be on a cruise ship too.
"You know where I like to code? From the beaches of Aruba!" Followed up by a link to an Aruba travel deals site. No.
Extended rant: my frustration equally applies to Tynan's post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6697416 - nothing personal per se, save for the obviousness of the article I ham-handedly parodied above.
These class of ex post facto blog posts authored solely for self promotion seem like the bread and butter of HN. He build a website to sell cruise ship deals and now he _really_ wants everyone to know how great it is to [insert relevant occupation] from the deck of a cruise ship.
I really need to start thinking of HN as "Hustler News" instead of "Hacker News" I think it'd alleviate the cognitive dissonance I got going on.