Took 3 night now want to take a seven night!

[yaddakal]

Well, I was afraid this might happen...our family loved the Disney 3 night cruise! So I booked a dummy date but then I get home and I look at the room and week we want and holy moly. How do I save for this?
Any tips?
Also, we love Disney period. Is buying DVC a smart move if I cannot pay a lump sum up front?
Addicted to Disney
Thank you!

 

[Plaid Princess]

Well... not sure how well it will work for your dummy date, but we have a separate savings account that we use only for travel. We put a set amount into it each paycheck, and that is our travel fund.

The account is in a different bank than we use for day to day finances, and it doesn't have any ATM/Debit cards associated with it. If we want to withdraw the cash, we have to physically go to the bank and get a cashiers check.

It makes it easier to save, and harder to use the cash on day to day expenses.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Well, I was afraid this might happen...our family loved the Disney 3 night cruise! So I booked a dummy date but then I get home and I look at the room and week we want and holy moly. How do I save for this?
Any tips?
Also, we love Disney period. Is buying DVC a smart move if I cannot pay a lump sum up front?
Addicted to Disney
Thank you!

Don't forget about the disney visa. It allows six months no interest for your trip. Or you can use it all year and get points towards your next one! We did both! Love our dis visa. $50 on board credit. Got a $50 Disney card waiting for us when we got home, accrued $42 dis dollars in our first month! Now every time I pay for anything, it goes on there so we can get dollars for the next one, so that could help?

Also yes there is a very big difference price wise from 3 day to 7. While we would love a 7, we will prob book a 4-5 day first with some park days on it first. (Unless we can get the deal of a lifetime on a 7.)

We had a fabulous time too, glad your fam liked your DCL too!

 

[jmarsh]

That is exactly what happened to my family. We are saving for the end of 2014.

 

[MagicFan75]

Don't forget about the disney visa. It allows six months no interest for your trip. Or you can use it all year and get points towards your next one! We did both! Love our dis visa. $50 on board credit. Got a $50 Disney card waiting for us when we got home, accrued $42 dis dollars in our first month! Now every time I pay for anything, it goes on there so we can get dollars for the next one, so that could help?

I definitely recommend getting a Disney Visa. Its the only credit card we use and if you get the premier card, which does charge you $50 per year, you get double points on gas, groceries, restaurants, and of course, most Disney locations. So it more than pays for itself ($50 service fee) and so much more. We love knowing that we have lots of onboard credit when we board the ship.

Other than that, try to cruise on off-peak times if possible. The fares are a little lower. We've found the classic ships to be less expensive than the new ships, but now that they are upgrading the Magic, this might not be the case in the future.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Four Swampers]

Well, I was afraid this might happen...our family loved the Disney 3 night cruise! So I booked a dummy date but then I get home and I look at the room and week we want and holy moly. How do I save for this?
Any tips?
Also, we love Disney period. Is buying DVC a smart move if I cannot pay a lump sum up front?
Addicted to Disney
Thank you!

1. Buy Disney gift cards (technically entertainment cards) at Target to save 5% or more. They can be redeemed to pay for your cruise:

Disney Gift Cards
Many stores offer promotions to entice you to purchase gift cards, also called entertainment cards.
At Kroger, Disney gift cards give you double fuel points for money off on gasoline at Kroger and participating Shell stations. For example, if you purchase $500 in Disney gift cards, you get 1000 fuel points, which can be redeemed for $1 off each gallon of gasoline at one fill-up, up to 35 gallons. If you could use this on 35 gallons, you would save $35. Your $500 cost of Disney cards gets you $35, which equals 7% back. If your tank maxes out at 20 gallons, you would save $20, which equals 5% back.
At Target, you can get 5% off your purchase of Disney gift cards if you purchase them with your Red Card. A Red Card is a card offered by Target; you can choose either a credit card version or a debit card version. Also at Target, you can receive another 5% off if you have a Target Pharmacy Rewards Coupon. Combining the 5% off Red Card and the 5% off coupon yields a 9.75% discount.
Get the Target Pharmacy Rewards coupon by filling five prescriptions at Target. Those five prescriptions can be for any and all members of your family, done at one time or over the course of months. Of note, when the fifth prescription is filled, it takes about 2 weeks to receive your coupon in the mail. That coupon will be good for 5% off all purchases made on one day at Target, and it will expire about 6 weeks after you get it.
Note that Target discounts often say: “Not valid on gift cards.” They are referring to Target Gift Cards, not Disney gift cards. Target terms Disney, restaurant, and other cards as “Entertainment Cards,” and they will receive the Red Card and Target Pharmacy Reward Card discounts.




2. DVC is not a great way to pay for cruising. The conversion does not work well. I have chosen not to get DVC because I tend to choose value resorts for my family of four. If you take the money to buy DVC and the yearly maintenance fees, you are better off just getting a hotel IF you do lower end. If you want to stay at the high end resorts with a large family, say 6 or more, once or twice a year, then DVC might make economic sense.

I know there are DVC fanatics. Please don't slam me for not praising DVC. It works well for some and not well for others.

 

[caribbeandreaming]

I just have to say that I love all the comments that mention people are saving for their cruise instead of putting it on a credit card and paying for it later!! That is a very smart thing to do!

OP: I would suggest just starting a separate vacation fund. Look at your budget and see if there are ways you can cut costs and add that savings to your cruise fund. It adds up faster than you might think!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I just have to say that I love all the comments that mention people are saving for their cruise instead of putting it on a credit card and paying for it later!! That is a very smart thing to do!

Um...

 

[Lorelei528]

Same thing happened to DH and I. We actually cruised for free when we bought into DVC on our Disneymoon. I was a little unsure having neither of us cruised before, but we LOVED it and dummy booked a 7 night too! After the 3 night cruise I lost my job and was unemployed for over a year, but we were able to rebook and cruised on the Fantasy this past October! Oh my! It was amazing!!! We even want to cruise for longer, but that for us, gets expensive.

We dummy booked another cruise while on board and are now booked for another 7 night on the Fantasy, same cabin and everything!

The saving part is tough for sure. I didnt plan it right for our last cruise and was scrambling at the end making payments.
This upcoming cruise in NOV, I'm making monthly payments of $150, which is totally doable for us, literally on the day I get paid. We'll be paid off 7 months before we cruise this way, which is a relief.

As far as other ways to save, the Target 5% off is great as well! We are going tonight in fact to get another $100 in gc's for our trip in December to WDW. I'm sure we'll do the same thing for our cruise (for whatever we need money for).

Another way to save is OBC. If you transfer your cruise to a TA that gives good OBC, that's even more $! Between the initial OBC DCL offered and the additional OBC from DU, we had a $400 OBC for our last cruise, and for our next one it'll be $300.

You may want to look into transfering your ressie to a TA where you can get OBC.

 

[Lorelei528]

OH! And as far as DVC goes...if you will be vacationing at WDW at least once every two years for a week or more, you should look into it.
You can either buy direct or resale (which is way cheaper). We bought direct as our credit was not good when we wanted to buy in, and DVC will basically finance you no matter what! LOL.

We bought in at BLT, and added on at AKV. We have used DVC for our last 4 trips and I don't regret our purchase one bit.
It does take a lot of research though...

 

[tweis]

1. Buy Disney gift cards (technically entertainment cards) at Target to save 5% or more. They can be redeemed to pay for your cruise:

Disney Gift Cards
Many stores offer promotions to entice you to purchase gift cards, also called entertainment cards.
At Kroger, Disney gift cards give you double fuel points for money off on gasoline at Kroger and participating Shell stations. For example, if you purchase $500 in Disney gift cards, you get 1000 fuel points, which can be redeemed for $1 off each gallon of gasoline at one fill-up, up to 35 gallons. If you could use this on 35 gallons, you would save $35. Your $500 cost of Disney cards gets you $35, which equals 7% back. If your tank maxes out at 20 gallons, you would save $20, which equals 5% back.

This is what we did for our upcoming Dream cruise (13 days ). The cruise was sort of last minute (for me) so we hadn't saved for it but was able to save quite a bit in the end by buying gift cards at Kroger. This works especially well when they are having the 4x promotion. My DH and I fill up at the same time so as to take advantage of the 35 gallons. We shop at Kroger way more than Target so this works much better for our family.

Another way to save is OBC. If you transfer your cruise to a TA that gives good OBC, that's even more $! Between the initial OBC DCL offered and the additional OBC from DU, we had a $400 OBC for our last cruise, and for our next one it'll be $300.

You may want to look into transfering your ressie to a TA where you can get OBC.

^^^This We aren't getting a ton of OBC for this trip because it's only a 3 day but it is still more than what we would have gotten booking directly through DCL. For our Fantasy cruise next year with the DU OBC and the DCL OBC we will have $650 to spend onboard which is less out of my pocket.

 

[darkwing818]

Well... not sure how well it will work for your dummy date, but we have a separate savings account that we use only for travel. We put a set amount into it each paycheck, and that is our travel fund.

The account is in a different bank than we use for day to day finances, and it doesn't have any ATM/Debit cards associated with it. If we want to withdraw the cash, we have to physically go to the bank and get a cashiers check.

It makes it easier to save, and harder to use the cash on day to day expenses.

We also set up a direct deposit separate savings account for Vacations/emergencies. Understand this was done in conjunction with my direct deposits into my 401K & our DDs college fund. It's amazing how quickly the money added up when it's taken out before you get your check. We also have the Disney CC, it's always good for an extra $400 to $500 per cruise (just make sure you pay in full every month )
We are also DVC members since 1995 (the cost of points was a lot "LESS' than today). We took our first 4 cruises using points, but over the last 8 or 9 years we've been paying cash for cruises (before we could do a 7 day cruise for 4 with our points; now we're lucky if our points can get us a 4 day cruise ) & using our points for WDW getaways w/o cruises. Anyway this all seemed to work for us.

 

[CrawfordMomof2]

Lots of great ideas. We are still saving for our May 2014 cruise. We have been doing 2 things.

1. Decide when you want to have the cruise paid in full, and then decide how much you would have to save per week or bi- weekly to pay in full by that date. My husband gets paid every week, so every week I give Disney a payment. I feel like once its gone, I don't miss it anymore. We pay it first thing just like its one of our bills.

2. We save our change. My husband and I eat lunch out one or 2 days a week, so we started using cash instead of just using the debit card. At the end of the week we put whatever singles we have left over, and all of our change in a bucket. It doesn't seem like much at the time, but it really adds up over the course of a year. That's what is paying for our airfare.

Just simple things, and I agree with having a separate savings account. I think we may need to look into that one to.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Darkwing,
Sorta SUB thread but with regard to saving/paying for next cruise:

What is the significance of paying in full every month on the Disney Visa? Do we not get points if we don't??? We are working on closing down a different one and so we have been diverting most of our income into that one to close it. We have been keeping up with payments regularly on the Disney Chase, but with our cruise booked last month and the incidentals and then putting as much of our every day gas and groceries on it, we are not able to pay both of them down and pay on the Chase IN FULL each month. Are we not getting points for using it even if we are keeping up with well more than the minimum, but not in full???

Now I'm super concerned!!!

 

[MikeAndNick]

Well, I was afraid this might happen...our family loved the Disney 3 night cruise! So I booked a dummy date but then I get home and I look at the room and week we want and holy moly. How do I save for this?
Any tips?
Also, we love Disney period. Is buying DVC a smart move if I cannot pay a lump sum up front?
Addicted to Disney
Thank you!

Shop the cruises. If you take your kids out of school for a week you can often save up to 1/2 on the cruise. I work with the school and get Independent Study for my son when we cruise so he does not miss the work.

 

[jennileigh]

I am going on my first 4 day cruise (with my mom) in years in September... Growing up my family used to do the Big Red Boat when Disney was apart of it.. I'm worried 4 days isn't going to be enough time.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who books and plans in advance. My friends always laugh at me for booking my vacation so far in advance - but it gives me time to pay it off. Went to Hawaii on NCL and booked it 1 1/2 years before we left. Gave me pleanty of time to make my monthly payments..

My September trip actually started out with us paying for it.. Realized that I could use my DVC points to book and ended up using that - with enough to stay 4 days at WDW after the cruise!! I love DVC - the best thing my family did. We havent lost a point yet...

I am already planning my next cruise with Disney - thinking the 7 day Fantasy next year or even 2015.. Going to wait to book it on board.. Totaly could use the OBC.. And the time to pay it off!!

On a side note - this site is addictive.. Since finding and joining I am on at least once a day and have learned sooooo much!! Makes the waiting for Septemeber soo hard..

 

[darkwing818]

Darkwing,
Sorta SUB thread but with regard to saving/paying for next cruise:

What is the significance of paying in full every month on the Disney Visa? Do we not get points if we don't??? We are working on closing down a different one and so we have been diverting most of our income into that one to close it. We have been keeping up with payments regularly on the Disney Chase, but with our cruise booked last month and the incidentals and then putting as much of our every day gas and groceries on it, we are not able to pay both of them down and pay on the Chase IN FULL each month. Are we not getting points for using it even if we are keeping up with well more than the minimum, but not in full???

Now I'm super concerned!!!

Don't need to be Super Concerned

You will still get your points regardless of whether you pay off your Disney Visa or not each month . My only recommendation to the OP was to pay their Visa off each month, so they wouldn't be paying credit card intrest which could negatively off set set what they would be getting in Disney Points/Dollars. Any Disney cruise/vacation deposits will get you 6 month no intrest, but you will have to pay these off with in that 6 month window along with your monthly monthly charges. Hope that makes sense.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Gotcha. So it was from an advice standpoint to the OP, you use it for things you would use for your debit card and then pay it off at the end of each month and owe nothing, and still get all your points. Capiche!

Kinda wish we would have gotten premier but getting him to take out ANY account for our impromptu cruise was a big step!

Come on disney dollars!

 

[darkwing818]

Gotcha. So it was from an advice standpoint to the OP, you use it for things you would use for your debit card and then pay it off at the end of each month and owe nothing, and still get all your points. Capiche!

Kinda wish we would have gotten premier but getting him to take out ANY account for our impromptu cruise was a big step!

Come on disney dollars!

Si...

We did the Premier card when it first came out, Disney had a promotion to sign up for the card, where you got 5% on Disney charges for 3 or 6 months (can't remember which), we booked a couple of cruises & paid off one, so the Disney Reward dollars added fast. We also use to pay our DDs college tuition (pay it off from their college fund), while we don't get double, it's still a large $#

 

[buzzntink2]

That is what happened to us! We took a 5 night double dip on the Dream in the summer of 2012 and are now saving for a 7 night on the Fantasy for 2014. We are hooked and love all things Disney!!