Welcome to the 2024 BNB cruise group
After having to sell our cabin on the 2023 cruise due to it being too long, we were happy for a shorter cruise (although 9-10 nights would have been even better). It turns out there are 15-20 couples from our resort going on this cruise, so there was lots of pent up demand waiting for something shorter than 14 nights.
A 7 day cruise was just right for Luann, our 9 day cruise with the addition of flights and pre cruise stays were a bit much.
Fore me it's very spendy owning my own small business being away from it. I just can't justify it. I've been offered the chance for textile cruises but once I've been on a nude cruise it will never happen.
I'm good to pay the premium to be on a nude cruise however I have a budget and a wife that does not adhere to being away from the biz for 2.5 weeks. Our dear friends are still set to go this year but they have advantages in that she works for an airline and he is semi retired. I'd love to do do it again!
We don't even feel the premium since we get a balcony/mini suite on textile cruises and an inside cabin on nude cruises which cost about the same per day (well, maybe not right now with cruise lines practically giving away cabins on regular cruises). The need for a private balcony for some nude time at sea is non-existent on the nude cruise. Instead we can get our nude time playing mini golf up on the top deck, or browsing in the shops, or checking out our pictures in the photo gallery, or...
We are adding a couple of days at Lake Como pre-cruise, so we still get 9 days with some nude time -- ten if we want to get up at 0-dark thirty to walk around the deck Sunday morning before the ship docks (we'd rather just sleep a couple of extra hours).
We never minded being lower deck levels mid ship as I have had motion sickness since forever and we don't spend much time in a cabin anyway. I just can't do textile cruises anymore or a balcony suite might be attractive. My advise to someone with my affliction is take motion sickness tablets, drink coffee or take caffeine tablets so you don't sleep the cruise away.
I have no idea if Celebrity still does not offer an alcohol package or it's still what it was in 2017 by the beverge. That can get spendy by the end of cruise by the drink. I also replaced Luann's engagement ring at one of the ships duty free jewelry shops. Hey fun times just cost a bit of money !
We've only been on Celebrity once, and it was for one of our nude cruises (2015), so I am not sure of their drink package options. But we are diamond level with Royal Caribbean (who own Celebrity) and we've been getting hounded to buy their drink package for our cruise that leaves this Sunday. I can't imagine Celebrity not having drink packages. We never get them since we typically average less than $60/day in drinks, which is the usual cost for the drink package. Now that we are diamond, our drink costs will probably go down even more since we can stop by the Diamond Lounge happy hour on the way to dinner and pick up a free glass of wine and then hit the Diamond Lounge again before happy hour ends to get a margarita before heading out to the theater or comedy club. That just leaves a drink or two while sitting by the pool in the afternoon, which doesn't happen every day.
Oh you re right it was Celebrity cruise in 2015 that had the drink package. It was on a diff cruise line on the 2017 cruise line that discontinued drink packages on charter cruises.
All of the BNB cruises from 2017 - 2024 are/were on Carnival. I thought the drink package was out for 2017-2019 and then brought back for 2020. We never get the package, so I never noticed one way or the other.
Great tip. We'll have to remember that happy hour before and after dinner.
Royal Caribbean has made things even simpler. We each get four free drinks loaded on our sea pass card which can be used at any bar any time of day. We only got one drink in the Diamond Lounge so far and have been getting the rest either at the pool bar or the bar right outside the main dining room. If only Bare Necessities would do a nude cruise on RCCL (or another one on Celebrity) we could cash in on our Diamond status and cruise nude at the same time!