Onboard Expenses - What Makes Up Your Stateroom Bill?

[Disneygirl NY]

When we have a trip planned we ask family members for Disney Gift Cards for Christmas, bdays, etc. Our 2 boys each had $40, and my husband had $140 from xmas and from a friend he helped out. That ate up a big chunk of our room bill. You need to bring them to the guest services desk for them to be applied to the bill. I did a $50 spa treatment, boys did the sports simulator for $20, then we had some drinks, bingo cards, a few photos, and the tips.

 

[DVCNuts]

Remy can add up quickly, especially if you get the wine pairing. And the bar tab, especially if your team wins an NFL playoff game and you buy drinks for everyone.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Is it clear on everything that costs? I would say no, especially for kids.

Can you please clarify this? Sorry, new to cruising so wanting to plan ahead.

Thanks also to the person who mentioned you can view your bill on the TV in your stateroom. Good to know.

I know my biggest temptation is going to be to buy the picture CD. I have a year - might just as well begin saving for it now!

 

[sunryzez]

You can go by guest services at any time and they will print a copy of your bill. I usually do this once or twice just to see where I am but as other said you can literally spend nothing extra if you want (except gratuities) or ALOT! Things that always add up for me are spa treatments, rainforest, pictures, excursions, bingo, drinks, most importantly Palo =) and the gift shop. but, everytime I go I know what I have saved and am pretty good about picking and choosing and staying within that number.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

So when people talk about ordering Mickey Bars from room service are those free or do they have to pay for them? I always assumed they were free.

 

[Magic3forme]

So when people talk about ordering Mickey Bars from room service are those free or do they have to pay for them? I always assumed they were free.

The Mickey Bars are free. There is a whole list of what is free in your cabin and what has a charge. I just bring a stack of one dollar bills for tips.

you can get the Mickey Bars in the dining room too.... they are on the kids dessert menu.

 

[3princessMommy]

Mickey Bars are free!

I always try and estimate my charges and then prepay my onboard account with my Disney Visa. I get 6 mo interest free financing with that an Disney reward points that I can use on my trip! (Just do it in the month billing cycle before your trip, so it calculates in time to redeem the points.)

The big ticket items for us are normally:

- Excursions
- Palo/ Remy
- Souvenirs
- Wine package
- Tips
- photos
- Spa

The rest tends to be smaller for us. But these are the ones I can generally plan in advance and pre-pay.

 

[chudson98]

We rented bikes at Castaway and that was charged to our room. Best money we spent! It was so much fun and a beautiful family ride. It think it cost about $15 for each bike with helmet for 2 hours.

 

[UmmGooD]

We didn't do excursions but here is what was on our bill our first Disney cruise:

1. Gift shop purchases.
2. Special kids drinks in souvenier cups with the glowing tinkerbell/toy story characters. (They carry these around during the shows like at a ball game. If you have small kids they will be wanting these BADLY!) and they are pretty obvious because they glow. I think ours had milkshakes.
3. A couple drinks of the day.
4. Our tips
5. $40 in laundry (we brought aboard a 3 month old and our 3 year old got a bit of sea sickness so we did a lot of laundry).
6. Cove Coffee (6 days 3 drinks/day). My mom, wife, and myself each had a special coffee each day.
7. M&M's from the theater. (These showed up really strange on our bill. I don't remember how they showed up but I couldn't figure it out. Even when I asked Guest Services they didn't know. I eventually figured it out.)
8. Palo brunch and Palo Dinner
9. Tips from someone else's room. We payed our bill and settled expenses the day before we left so we wouldn't have to wait in line. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the stateroom account the day we were to disembark and saw that our tips went WAY up. I went to guest services and asked what happened and they treated us like we made the mistake on our form. Turns out someone the night before had put their name on their form but our stateroom number so Disney added their tips to our room. It was a huge pain and we had to wait for 40 minutes for them to go through all the forms before they would remove the charge from our bill.

We didn't do any excursions.

 

[gilsan]

I am not sure which ship you are on but the Bibbidi Boppiti Boutique may be something you would do, especially with a 4/5 year old daughter.

My DD wanted to do one of the packages so she saved her allowance to pay for it. I also had booked her in for the pirate makeover without the dress, but she enjoyed the first BBB experience so much we upgraded to the full pirate package.