Please help with REALISTIC spending expectations

[cascadecupcake]

Hi!

I want to surprise the family for a last minute 3 day cruise. In order to make this happen I must be VERY frugal! There are four of us. Me, DH, DD-10, and DS-7. Thinking of booking 2 inside rooms as that is cheaper. Then I'll have 2 $50 credits if I use my Disney VISA.

What I need to know is...what will we need money for. I want to be frugal, but not have it be a bummer that we can't do anything. We have never cruised before so we don't know what to expect. (nor will we know what we're missing if we cut corners I'm hoping)

Can all you veterans give me some insight on just what I will need to spend money on once I board the ship? Also, maybe you could let me know ideas on what I could do for free to keep it entertaining also.

I sure appreciate any info you could give me. I can do budget-WDW like a pro, but this is all so new to me that I just don't even know where to begin!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

COSTS ON SHIP
Tips,Meals, cabin, Porters on/off ship, photos, drinks from bars (+tip) shore trips, spa, Palos Adult evening meal. Disney shops.
Free Room service, (except tip, most food items,) Soda (pop) in the resutants and on Deck 9. Pools, shows, Character meets, Kids club, all food from outlets and Ice cream from Scoops.

TIPS try http://members.aol.com/cruise tip/
Shore excusions see DCL main website for costs.
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/disneycruiseline/funonshore/funonshoreindex?id=FunOnshoreRoot

For a three day trip basically Casterway cay can be free, food and soda from Cookies BBQ, and get a sunbed, however the bar and Shops could use some money.

In the end it will be down to you how much you spend, but the Tips part has to be covered.

 

[cwf1028]

I haven't cruised Disney before, but I have been on two other cruises and have done quite a bit of planning for this cruise. Is there a reason you need to book two cabins? The Cat 11 and 10s can sleep 4 and then you would be paying 3rd and 4th guest prices for the kids. Other than that, on a three day you should be able to get a way with not paying alot. I'm not sure how you are getting to the port, but there is a $10 per day fee for parking and if you are not in the area, you may want to plan to drive down the day before so you would need to plan for lodging and food. On the boat, you need to prepare for tips for all of the tipped positions and other than that, everything else is optional (drinks (alcholic), pictures from shutters, Bingo, shore excursions, video games in game room, internet access, palo or spa, tips for room service and porters at the port, and laundry services or self serve). That's all the optionals that I can think of. I believe the only one you would miss would be shore excursions if that is something that intrest you and others seem to really like Bingo and Palo or the Spa, but I would not miss them. HTH

 

[Magic_Fan_Bruce]

Pam,
We’ve done five seven day cruises with DD’s 7 & 10 and always had a single cabin, I don’t think two cabins are necessary. There is a lot to do on the ship that is free. Since this is your first cruise and everything will be new to you, the 3 days will go by fast and you’ll have more entertainment choices than you can attend.

The mandatory extra costs are;
Transportation to/from port.
Tips for wait staff and cabin steward.
Parking (if needed)

I would also suggest extra money for;
Small Photo Package
Room service tips
Some souvenirs

On one of our cruises we didn’t do any shore excursions, and spent very little extra money onboard, and I think that was one of the best vacations we’ve ever had (I have DD’s 7 & 9). In my opinion, The less you spend on a cruise, the more relaxing it is.

 

[natsmom125]

Pam....we just returned from a 7 night cruise and only spent 500.00 on the ship.

Most of that was for Palo, wine, internet cafe, and unfortunately, Bingo. We did no excursions, no spa, no drink of the day.

We did spend some cash in ports for souviners for DD, tee shirts, key chains, stuff like that. I did purchase some cologne for myself and DD as Christmas presents and so that was about 200.00.

So I guess that was about 700.00 in all and 200 of the 500 we spent on the ship was Disney Dollars....so in reality we only spent 500 for our whole trip.

So, if we went on a 3 night....probably the only thing we'd spend money for on the ship is Palo and wine.

Phyllis

 

[cascadecupcake]

Thanks so much for all of your quick replies!

So for example we could...(not counting tips, drinks)

First day - arrive, explore, do Studio Sea at night ($0)
Second day - Nassau;glass bottom boats & explore on our own
plus Disney Dreams that night onboard ($100-$120)
Third day - Castaway Cay; float rental, relax
plus a movie onboard that night ($40)

And tips for a family of 4 are about $130 minimum?

Does that sound alright or am I missing anything?

 

[anlashokna]

Parking fees if you're parking a vehicle...i keep forgetting this one when I pre budget too !

BTW here's another thought. If you're interested in teh Romantic Escape at Sea that will get you Spa treatments and since it sounds like you're charging the main portion of the cruise that can go with it as it becomes part of your package.

The way it sounds based on all the other comments on these boards your children may want to participate in the Lab programs which will free you up for some time to yourselves.

I haven't cruised yet either. But I spent 7 days at WDW last year on the gold plan (meal inclusive). I really didn't spend money on extras. A couple of tshirts and pins. I was rather shocked when I got home as I'm generally a shopaholic!

Maybe budget so much money for kids to buy souveniers with too.

 

[clh2]

Just a thought - 1 cat 9 (with a porthole) which sleeps 4, would probably be less expensive than 2 cat 10's - a little bit of an upgrade too. On a 3-nt cruise, you most likely won't be spending tons of time in the room. You do get the split baths in a 9, which really helps when 4 people need to get ready.

 

[tvguy]

We spent $1100 for 4 on a 7 day, $700 of that was for excursions. Spent $125 on wine, the rest was tips, photos and tee shirts.
Don't forget to budget money for food in airports, or in route if you are driving. With tightened security, we have found it is better to arrive 3 hours early to the airport, and have a meal there, than risk getting delayed.

2004 was a wild travel year in our household for some or all of us. It started with the NYE Disney cruise, followed by a school trip for DD and DW to Washington D.C, a school trip for DS and I to Las Vegas. We made 3 trips to Houston due to a family illness, and DS made a school trip to Spain and France. Needless to say, I'm still paying for some of those trips!!!!
And a word of advice to those who are debating whether or not to get your kids passports.....trust me.....get the passport, you NEVER know when that overseas school trip of a lifetime will come up at the last minute.

 

[cristit14]

I would say only book one room for the 4 of you. We had a category 9 for the 4 of us on our 4 day last summer. We had booked a cat. 11, but got upgraded. I think that we probably would have been fine in the 11 also. Most of our extra spending was for tip. We also did drinks, a few souveniers and a Shutters package. We didn't do any excursions, but we did go to the pirate museum in nassau and rented a float on Castaway Cay.

 

[westjones]

The biggest way you could save money over your current plan is to book just 1 room. You don't need 2 rooms on the cruise, you are hardly ever in the room. The kids will probably be hanging at the Lab during the day (I alway managed to get some quiet nap time in the afternoon while they were with the kids clubs).

DJ

 

[Dcanoli]

Hey! Got a quick question regarding your earlier post--you said you used $200 in Disney Dollars.

How did you use them? I mean, did you have to put them on your account at Guest Services? Because I thought you couldn't use DD on board the ship.

(We are going on the 1/30/05 4-day Wonder, and my Dad gave each of my kids $50 in DD for the trip, so I'm trying to figure out how they work on the ship.)

Thanks!

 

[disfan9]

Hey! Got a quick question regarding your earlier post--you said you used $200 in Disney Dollars.

How did you use them? I mean, did you have to put them on your account at Guest Services? Because I thought you couldn't use DD on board the ship.

You can just put the Disney Dollars on your acct at Guest Services when you get on the ship....or use them to pay your bill at the end of the cruise.

 

[april riddle]

I used Disney dollars a couple of weeks ago on the Magic. I had a total of 1000 in travellers checks and disney dollars. I also gave them my credit card and once I had used all my money they started to tally up for the credit card. One way you can save money is not buy the pictures from shutters which IMHO are quite expensive (but are very nice). They are hard to resist! I did buy the 10 package and ended up only getting 6 so they credited me. I did buy three of the 8 x 10's which cost 19.99 each. Our biggest expense was the excursions. I did reserve snorkling equipment for all four of us on Castaway Cay and we only ended up using one - right on the ticket it says no refunds but they were nice enough to credit my stateroom with three snorkling equipment which was over 75 dollars. We also packed movie snacks which was a good thing since my kids loved going to the movies while on board. We did order popcorn one afternoon from room service which they charged 1.50/ bag which wasn't too bad since they were fairly good size. We also took cash for the tips and had them put away before we ever got on board with extra for the ones who really deserved them. We did not have a charge on our credit card.

 

[Dcanoli]

Hey, Got a quick question...why did you have to pay for popcorn from room service? I thought room service, and all other food, was free (except for the snacks they sell outside the theater)...

 

[april riddle]

there are a few things you will be charged for from room service - you can get candy and popcorn nuts etc. Also pop will be charged if you order from room service. Of course you can also buy a a bottled water package but we brought our own on board with us.

 

[anlashokna]

April Riddle..

How did you take water aboard? I had a duffle bag I was thinking of putting a case of water in and checking as one of my two bags at the port. I'm hoping this is allowed. Don't feel like paying $30 for $5.00 worth of water !
Driving to Florida and hauling my own water.

 

[Dcanoli]

Now, I thought that DCL changed their policy for soda. I thought is was free on-board--is it only free at dinner and at the beverage station on Deck 9?

I think we'll order snacks from room service (the free ones) before we head off to any movies....cookies, cheese, etc.

Let me know what you think/experienced! Thanks April!

 

[Magic_Fan_Bruce]

We take our own bottled water with us on the cruise. We each use a bottle a day and if it’s needed I’ll refill mine at the Deck 9 drink station. We also have had the water from the sink in the cabin, and in my opinion it tastes fine.

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

Soda is free at all of the restaurants and at the Drink Station on Deck 9. Soda is not free in any bar or ordered from Room Service. On the page in the blue book in your room that has the room service items at the bottom of the page is a list of items you can order from Room Service that have charges. Not much you can order from Room Service to take to a movie, maybe a cookie.