The Most Expensive Mistakes I Made on My First Cruise
Source: Our analysis of the creator's lived experience, based on what they said in this video.
Creator's Key Takeaways
I'm just going to go big. Confession number one, I bought art. At that time, I had no idea that I would be living and working in India.
I was on a cruise by myself and oblivious to the traps people can fall into, to be perfectly honest, the traps.
I think that is a huge mistake and a costly mistake because you can always get a bottle of wine. You can always go shopping for art.
I don't regret my experience at all. I have definitely learned a lot along the way and do not make those mistakes.
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I made some expensive mistakes on my first cruise… and they cost me thousands. From buying art onboard to overbooking excursions, drink package confusion, casino losses, and surprise fees — these are the cruise mistakes most first-time cruisers don’t see coming. Hi everyone, I’m Laura and welcome to Living on Cruise Control 🚢 After living full-time on cruise ships for over a year, I’m finally sharing the expensive mistakes I made on my very first cruise. Some of these cruise mistakes were embarrassing, some were exhausting, and some were VERY expensive. From buying expensive art onboard, overbooking excursions, misunderstanding drink packages, overspending in the casino, cell phone charges, foreign transaction fees, double tipping, and shopping mistakes… I made plenty of first cruise mistakes so you don’t have to. If you’re planning your first cruise, this video will help you avoid some of the most common and costly cruise ship mistakes that new cruisers make. Whether you’re wondering: → what not to buy on a cruise → how to avoid overspending on a cruise ship → what first time cruisers often do wrong → how cruise drink packages, spa charges, gratuities, and excursions can add up this video is for you. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🛍️ Shop My Cruise Essentials (Amazon Storefront) From cabin must-haves to travel gear I use living full-time on cruise ships — these are my go-to items. → https://www.amazon.com/shop/livingoncruisecontrol (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💌 Cruise Control Postcards Receive a real handwritten postcard from the cruise ships and ports I visit around the world. Each postcard is hand-selected while I’m exploring a port, personally written, and mailed as part of my journey living full-time on cruise ships. → https://www.jotform.com/form/260955535571060 (Every postcard is unique and designs will vary based on what I find in each destination.) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🌎 CONNECT + COMMUNITY ▶️ YouTube Membership → https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCezCmLQfm5m1a-8cefMAWhA/join 🅿️ Patreon (Cruiser Casino Comp Community) → https://www.patreon.com/LivingOnCruiseControl ⓕ Facebook Page → https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572283514391 ⭐ Star Princess 2026/2027 FB Group → https://www.facebook.com/groups/1164071521929221 ☀️ Sun Princess 2026–2027 FB Group → https://www.facebook.com/groups/824496840358572 📷 Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/LivingOnCruiseControl 🎥 WATCH NEXT 12 Cruise Tips Nobody Tells You (After 12 Months Living on Cruise Ships) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g7Vz9sEXco&t=2s ⏰ CHAPTERS 00:00 Expensive mistakes I made on my first cruise 00:53 Why I’m finally sharing these cruise confessions 01:56 My very first cruise on Holland America 02:33 Mistake #1: Buying expensive art onboard 05:50 Why I emotionally bought the Peter Max painting 07:14 Realizing cruise art auctions are everywhere 08:03 The art is still in the crate 09:22 Why sentimental purchases can become a burden 10:25 Don’t make big money decisions at cruise auctions 11:13 Mistake #2: Booking long cruise line excursions at every port 13:26 Why that excursion strategy was exhausting and costly 14:02 Mistake #3: Over-scheduling every single sea day activity 15:49 Mistake #4: Booking expensive spa treatments without checking specials 16:59 Mistake #5: Misunderstanding the drink package 18:30 Vacation mode can lead to costly financial decisions 19:24 Mistake #6: Gambling without understanding casino programs 21:59 Mistake #7: Cruise ship phone charges and airplane mode mistakes 24:05 Mistake #8: Using credit cards with foreign transaction fees 24:57 Mistake #9: Double tipping without realizing it 26:07 Mistake #10: Buying too many souvenirs and paying for extra luggage 27:48 Mistake #11: Buying food I couldn’t legally or practically bring home 30:40 My biggest lessons from my first cruise 31:34 Final advice to avoid expensive cruise ship mistakes 32:26 Honest final thoughts and thanks for watching #cruisetips #firstcruise #cruisemistakes #cruiseshiptips #cruiseadvice #livingoncruisecontrol KEYWORDS (SEARCH) first cruise mistakes, expensive cruise mistakes, cruise mistakes, first time cruise tips, cruise tips for beginners, costly cruise mistakes, cruise budgeting tips, what not to do on a cruise, first time cruiser advice, cruise ship mistakes, cruise ship tips, cruise drink package mistakes, cruise excursion mistakes, onboard spending mistakes, cruise confessions, beginner cruise advice, living on cruise ships