How long did it take you to save up money

[jbshell]

How long did you save money before going on your first cruise? We are looking to sail Nov 2015

[DisneyManFamily4]

YEARS!
Sadly, we weren't able to vacation for five years after DH and I got married. We weren't actually saving all that time. Even so, we couldn't really afford a Disney Cruise, so we did a 4night on Carnival immediately followed with a 3 night Disney cruise on the Wonder. Needless to say, I was so happy we had the Disney cruise AFTER the carnival cruise because our first DCL experience blew Carnival out of the water.

Don't get me wrong, we still cruise on Carnival because we can't usually do a Disney cruise every year. We average a Disney cruise every two years.

[jbshell]

Originally Posted by DisneyManFamily4

YEARS!
Sadly, we weren't able to vacation for five years after DH and I got married. We weren't actually saving all that time. Even so, we couldn't really afford a Disney Cruise, so we did a 4night on Carnival immediately followed with a 3 night Disney cruise on the Wonder. Needless to say, I was so happy we had the Disney cruise AFTER the carnival cruise because our first DCL experience blew Carnival out of the water.

Don't get me wrong, we still cruise on Carnival because we can't usually do a Disney cruise every year. We average a Disney cruise every two years.

Thanks we have been married 8 years and only have gone on one tiny vacation not even out of state lol we have 4 small children and travel expense is huge .... So from this week until we sail I will be saving every penny

[Bear3412]

IIRC almost 2 years. We knew we wanted to sail so started saving.
Finally settled on DCL Fantasy 6 months later. Then had 14 more months to pay it off. The wait was brutal, but gave lots of time to pay.
Some of these sailings, if you are after a specific cabin, need to be booked way in advance. Some also feel it saves you $ by booking early.

[cmwade77]

Huh? We really haven't had to save up for any of our cruises.

For our first one, it was a 2 day cruise to nowhere from LA and it became available the day after I received a nice bonus at work and the cruise was only a fraction of the bonus, so we immediately booked it.

For our second, we simply rented some of our DVC points (the cruise we wanted to do wasn't accepting DVC points) and used the cash from that to sail on our second cruise.

Since they both sailed out of Los Angeles, we had no airfare or hotel to book.

I have to say that I LOVE DVC, we have been able to do several major vacations since buying in 2010. We were able to do several before that as well, but they were definitely not as nice of accommodations and our DVC membership cost about the same as 2-3 of those trips and it's paid for 50 years worth of vacations (even factoring in Annual Dues, the break even point is at about 4 vacations). No, it won't work for everyone, but when I see these threads about saving for vacations, it makes me realize how important yearly vacations is to us and how amazing DVC truly is in our case.

[kimberlyelayne]

We usually book a year in advance and place a deposit with tax money or work bonus. Then make payments every month and pay off the cruise about three months in advance. Then take two months to pay air. And save last month of spending money

[mimmi]

We just use our vacation money for a cruise. It is a vacation after all, so instead of doing something else, we do a cruise now and then.
We get 14 salaries a year and use one for Christmas and the other one for vacations.

[PizzieDuster]

Booking ahead helped. We wouldn't go to Vegas or anything like that knowing that we were going on a cruise.

However, having two sons in college now, at the same time, I wish I would have put some of that money away for college. That's just me. Although we have wonderful memories and experiences, the best gift we can give our sons is no loans for college (at least for undergrad). It's been tough, but let me add, I have an ex husband of my 2 boys that is thankfully helping. Since the boys started college I've taken the 2 day cruise to nowhere and the MR cruise with my mom with a KSF.

That's why PizzieDuster is constantly looking for KSF while my daughter is still a teen. Now that the Wonder left Los Angeles, we are looking at mini vacays. She's 5 years away from college. I can't think about spending thousands now. I now know to save.

I am doing a girlfriends Carnival 4 day cruise out of LA (gasp) in August for my 50th birthday. They insisted. We always have so much fun together but it will be interesting.

[Rogillio]

Visa. No waiting. :-)


The amount of debt you carry and your net take home pay are very personal and varies widely. We all have to make decisions about where to put our money. IMO most people live in too much house and so most of their money goes towards their mortgage.

Credit is not a bad thing like many claim. It allows you to do things when you need to. Your children will only be children for a short time.

Our kids are grown now and we are working to get completely debt free. We could have been debt free years ago....but would have missed the opportunity to cruise a dozen times with our kids.

[cruisecrasher]

Focused on paying off our mortgage, and as such did not go on vacation once.
We don't really have to do much to save up for a cruise now that we don't have to pay mortgage...
Mind you, two of our cruises were 2A @ 11c GTY, so that's not exactly expensive (and one of those was paid entirely in disney Visa rewards dollars).
It's all a matter of priorities.

[DL1957]

Originally Posted by cmwade77

Huh? We really haven't had to save up for any of our cruises.

For our first one, it was a 2 day cruise to nowhere from LA and it became available the day after I received a nice bonus at work and the cruise was only a fraction of the bonus, so we immediately booked it.

For our second, we simply rented some of our DVC points (the cruise we wanted to do wasn't accepting DVC points) and used the cash from that to sail on our second cruise.

Since they both sailed out of Los Angeles, we had no airfare or hotel to book.

I have to say that I LOVE DVC, we have been able to do several major vacations since buying in 2010. We were able to do several before that as well, but they were definitely not as nice of accommodations and our DVC membership cost about the same as 2-3 of those trips and it's paid for 50 years worth of vacations (even factoring in Annual Dues, the break even point is at about 4 vacations). No, it won't work for everyone, but when I see these threads about saving for vacations, it makes me realize how important yearly vacations is to us and how amazing DVC truly is in our case.

DH and I agree with you. I know some folks dont like to use DVC points for cruises however we have sailed 10 times on DCL and have used points 7 of the times. The first time we did not have DVC points. We would not have receached platinum level if we did not have DVC points.

[Raspberry Beret]

We don't. We have the disposable income available to pay for our cruises. We book when dates are released and that gives me usually more than a year to pay it off.

[jbshell]

Originally Posted by Rogillio

Visa. No waiting. :-)

The amount of debt you carry and your net take home pay are very personal and varies widely. We all have to make decisions about where to put our money. IMO most people live in too much house and so most of their money goes towards their mortgage.

Credit is not a bad thing like many claim. It allows you to do things when you need to. Your children will only be children for a short time.

Our kids are grown now and we are working to get completely debt free. We could have been debt free years ago....but would have missed the opportunity to cruise a dozen times with our kids.

we are completely debt free except for mortage and car payment. . but live on just hubbys income since I am a stay at home mom... I refuse to use credit since its takin us 9 years to become debt free.. my inlaws have a permanent camping site at a jellystone park so thats as far as thy get every year for a vacation our oldest is only 8.. and youngest is 7 months at least when we do cruise the baby will be 3





thanks everyone

starting our research for our first cruise ... I reasearch a ton this momma likes planning and budgeting

[cruisecrasher]

Originally Posted by jbshell

we are completely debt free except for mortage and car payment. . but live on just hubbys income since I am a stay at home mom... I refuse to use credit since its takin us 9 years to become debt free.. my inlaws have a permanent camping site at a jellystone park so thats as far as thy get every year for a vacation our oldest is only 8.. and youngest is 7 months at least when we do cruise the baby will be 3

thanks everyone

starting our research for our first cruise ... I reasearch a ton this momma likes planning and budgeting

You're in the right place, research away!

[ksucats]

Originally Posted by cruisecrasher

Focused on paying off our mortgage, and as such did not go on vacation once.
We don't really have to do much to save up for a cruise now that we don't have to pay mortgage...
Mind you, two of our cruises were 2A @ 11c GTY, so that's not exactly expensive (and one of those was paid entirely in disney Visa rewards dollars).
It's all a matter of priorities.

We spent the first 10 years paying double on the mortgage and paid it off last year. We still vacationed quite a bit during that time, but a lot of that was because I travel for work & could use airline miles and hotel points to pay for the bulk of vacations. Since I can't use miles & points to pay for cruises, we only did one Disney cruise during that time span. We took the Fantasy last summer & getting ready to take the Magic for our 3rd Disney cruise, so that will be 2 in a span of 10 months. We also have a planned trip to Disneyland this summer. I credit being able to do that much in one year entirely on not having a mortgage or any debt. If you can get to that point, then everything else becomes much easier.