saving $$ on the little things

[mikeandlissasmom]

anyone have any $$ saving tips for the cruise? Trying to plan in advance. Thanks.

 

[mommasita]

I like this topic..

We don't drink much, but we do enjoy it on vacation...We generally order baskets for the kids, baskets of beach toys, filled with candy and stuff they don't give away cheaply on the cruise, and a basket with wine and/or beer from Shirley..(theperfectgift.cc) THis saves us a lot of money that we don't end up spending on alcohol, and candy for the movies or whatever.

We also order room service sandwiches, which come with a side order of chips..Cookies, anything that is free..We do tip and tip well of course..We also order sandwhiches the night before a beach stop, and bring them in our cooler for lunches..

Take your own camera, as for us, the photos REALLY add up to big $$$$ We take the exact shot a staff would, and voila!!!

We do our own excursions as it is much less economical, and we now feel comfortable enough to do so..

We either rent a car, or use a pick up service, as opposed to Disney's transportation..

And last but not least, constantly read these amazing boards, it is amazing what you pick up here..

 

[castlegazer]

Use the drink station.

Do your own excursion as said above.

BYOB

Be careful in Shutters

 

[mikeandlissasmom]

thanks guys, I'm gonna use the room service to my advantage.
BTW, what is it about shutters? We're rookies.

 

[Jsme]

I have to agree with everyone else.

Although we did not drink much on this last cruise our bill still added up quite a bit for that I wanted it too.

If you drink bring your own! Saves lots.

Drink the daily specials if you want but remember there is not much alcohol in them because they are made in large qualities and are not stirred often. Normally you can drink another alternate drink that is mixed right then, thus a little strong, for less than $1 more. We find if we do this we tend to not drink as much therefore saving the money on mulitple drinks.

Tip is already include on beverage orders, but we have found an extra tip benefits us on freebies or in the least much better drinks. Cash even works better verse writing it on the slip.

Don't buy the cooler with water at CC. Unless you want the cooler. Water for us last week was only $1.50 a bottle on CC.

You should never have to pay for any food while on the cruise unless you chose to dine at Palo. Which for us is worth every dime.

Do not buy snacks for the movie. You can pack snacks in your luggage to eat there if you want.

Snacks are located in a lot of areas take advantage of them as sugguest above for excursions.

Take a roll on cooler as a check bag. We did this last week. I had lots of bottled water and one bottle of wine. Just do not put ice in it until after you are in your stateroom.

I would also take a small colaspable cooler. You can stick it in the roll on cooler. This way you have it for ports or excursions at ports.

Take your own pictures with your camera. The CM's will be glad to snap a shot as you have your picture made with the characters. Also other guests are willing to help out with this. Only go to look at your pictures on the last night. This can help you to compare pictures and drop the others in the unwanted bin.

The Vista Spa is about twice the amount of a spa at home. Have you toes and nails done prior to cruising if this is important to you. While we always do various treatments on the cruise this does rank up quite a bit of money spent. Do spa treatments at home to save the funds.

While Palo is a surcharge of $10 pp this is worth every dime. Where else can you eat at a 5 star restuarant for an additional $10 pp? While we tip over and above our server last week was very upset with us for doing this.

Do not go to the shops but once. If you do not go you can not spend any money. Think before hand what you want to purchase and stick to that plan.

Don't buy the light items during the deck party. Take your own. Go to the dollar store and purchase glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets, glasses,etc and take them with you. Or if you have anything purchased prior from another cruise, WDW or even the circus put batteries in them and take them along.

I love the idea about using Shirley for baskets. While you have to spend the money on this it saves room in your luggage plus saves you the money on the ship.

DCL will give you a DCL logo corkscrew to you for wine. We had to call room service for this and glasses but I did not have to pack it or pay for it.

You can even pick up souvies locally and pack them then give those to the kids once you are on board.

Don't give the kids the ability to use their KTTW card to purchase things.

There are literally dozens of ways to save. Hope this helps some.

 

[mikeandlissasmom]

Guys. who the heck is Shirley?

"I love the idea about using Shirley for baskets. While you have to spend the money on this it saves room in your luggage plus saves you the money on the ship."

 

[stampinshauna]

We don't buy food when we are at the ports. We plan shore excursions so that we can get back on the ship and have lunch (since you don't have to pay for it).

Disneydirect has a bunch of clearance items. If you have children, you could purchase some of those items and suprise them during the cruise instead of buying things on the ship. You can get some t-shirts for $5 instead of the $15-20 that you'll pay onboard.

We didn't do any spa treatments last time, so that saved $ but we are splurging this time.

Sign up for a Disney Visa if you haven't already. We charge almost anything we can and pay it off monthly and we have $300 Disney Dollars we can use for tipping, shore excurisions, etc.

 

[BuzzBoyMom]

Shirley from theperfectgift.cc - She is our Dis Mom. She takes care of all of us. She has the biggest heart and the best baskets!

 

[Cindi0511]

mikeandlissasmom,

There is a lot of information about Shirley and her gift baskets on this thread (I hope it's clickable!) If not, just copy and paste it into the address line.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=896687

It has a bunch of questions and answers that you may find helpful. I haven't used her yet, but certainly plan on it come next August/September.

Hope it helps! I've read nothing but good stuff about her...

 

[Jrsy Boy]

BTW, what is it about shutters?

Shutters is where you go to look at all of the professional shots that are taken throughout your trip. Just about everywhere you go - dinner, CC, on deck - there is a professional DCL photographer roaming around snapping shots of everyone and the characters. You can look at them at Shutters, dispose of the ones you don't want and you don't want anyone else to purchase or buy the ones you like. If you find a lot of shots of your family, you can quickly tally up a pretty hefty bill!

 

[mikeandlissasmom]

thank you, everything helps.

 

[iluvscoops]

I don't understand what Shirley does. Do you send items to her and she gets them on the boat or does she sell the items in a basket. Are they delivered to the boat?

 

[6griswolds]

I'm a newbie here so here is my probably silly question. if snapshots are being taken all over the ship of so many people.....how can you find your own at Shutters? Is it just a big mix of everyone or are they all on a computer and you have a special number or something?

 

[Niagara2]

Not sure if you are pulling our leg - how do you find your picture????? I guess if it looks like you and your family it is yours!!! That even means that if the people in the picture are not you and your family then it is a good guess that it is not your picture. Actually they are lined up on boards in groups of the background. It takes some time but you do finally find your own shots. We find ours from each day and pile one them up together and make our decisions at the end of the cruise unless of course the picture was one that we just had to have that moment as it was perfect.
We had Christmas cards made on the cruise last week. Hint - Bring Santa hats or such to make the picture more seasonal. The cards say DCL and are very nice.

 

[Echo queen]

I'm a newbie here so here is my probably silly question. if snapshots are being taken all over the ship of so many people.....how can you find your own at Shutters? Is it just a big mix of everyone or are they all on a computer and you have a special number or something?

Shutters is slelf after shelf of pictures , for instance you take a picture with Mickey, all of those pictures are in one section and so on with the charactor photos. The pictures are placed at best by date. It can be difficult to find yourself

 

[clh2]

My daughter had her picture taken by the ships photographers with every character that we saw. We also took our own digital pics at the same time. We downloaded them onto our laptop every night, so we were clearly able to see which picture (as in 1) that did not turn out.

We only spent $30 at shutters...one formal picture of our family, and the one of DD with Belle where ours was awful.

 

[Jennay]

So, if you put your pictures that you don't want in the "unwanted" bin, what does DCL do with all those pictures? They are already taken and developed, seems like you should get them for free.

 

[crisi]

I did the pre-cruise spa day. Had a very nice day that included a haircut (which I'd have spent $40 on), plus a facial, body scrub, manicure, pedicure and lunch for $250 - plus a gift bag with $50 worth of stuff in it. A facial, pedicure and manicure on board is over $200! Plus it added a day to the vacation.

It did feel rather luxurious to walk onboard a fancy cruise ship with beautiful nails, painted toes. As we only took a four day cruise, I sure didn't regret not spending an hour inside the spa either!

 

[Cruella de mom]

Don't buy the light items during the deck party. Take your own. Go to the dollar store and purchase glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets, glasses,etc and take them with you.

We do this for WDW every year and the kids love them. I wish I had a nickel for every person who asked where we got them from - I could afford a second cruise! We got the kids flashing rings from a dollar store as well and even the boys went nuts for them. Of course, it helped that we remembered to give them to the kids while we were in line for Space Mountain. I spent the whole ride hoping they would keep their hands in the car.

Now adays I keep a stock of glow necklaces, bracelets etc. You just never know when they will put the perfect touch to a night or keep that over tired kid from having a complete meltdown...

I think this is an excellent idea

 

[Cindi0511]

Don't buy the light items during the deck party. Take your own. Go to the dollar store and purchase glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets, glasses,etc and take them with you.

We do this for WDW every year and the kids love them. I wish I had a nickel for every person who asked where we got them from - I could afford a second cruise! We got the kids flashing rings from a dollar store as well and even the boys went nuts for them. Of course, it helped that we remembered to give them to the kids while we were in line for Space Mountain. I spent the whole ride hoping they would keep their hands in the car.

Cruella,

You are too funny!! Great ideas -- I plan to use some of your suggestions soon. Thank you!