Did you get drink package? We have had it once time when it was a perk that we didn't pay for, but we don't drink enough to make it worth it. But...on our last cruise, at every port, my wife bought a bottle of wine. When you get back on the ship, you go through security, and when they see you have a bottle, they told us to go check it. Well... we just didn't. Each time we just left it in the bag, turned and went up the stairs, and they never stopped us. Then my wife just filled up a thermos cup and had her wine on the ship without paying the cork fees. It may not work, but it's worth a try. You can usually bring on one bottle per person, and drink it in your cabin for no fee. She brought the thermos cup to avoid any cork fees, and then got lucky when she found out they didn't really police bringing the bottles in from the ports.
Don't forget to bring a little extra cash for tips at the end. They collect tips automatically, but it's customary to give a little extra, in particular if you had the same waiter every night, and for your cabin staff. Everything else on the ship is cashless except the casino.
And I'd recommend breakfast in the dining room... it's much quieter than the buffet and most people use the buffet for breakfast, so it's the one meal you can eat in the dining room that won't crowded.
And my last tip, if you are kind of a geek like me.. one of my favorite things to do that very few people ever notice... when you leave port, a local captain will take the ship away from the port and out to open waters, usually just maybe a mile, maybe even less. So to get that pilot off the boat, a small faster boat will approach the ship, pull up next to it, and the captain and sometimes 2 people will jump from the cruise ship to the smaller boat. Sometimes it's an easy step, but sometimes if the seas are at all choppy, it's pretty exhilarating to watch. I try to watch every time I can.
