Advice please - realistic shipboard credit for 7 day

[pixiefaery]

oh... thats a great idea.

is the REAS available for the land cruise vacations?

 

[LiserAnn]

is the REAS available for the land cruise vacations?

Yep!

 

[Mickeyfan66]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to spend money on Vacation. However, to help keep me within my budget I am planning on putting what I budgeted (minus the cash for tips) on my room prior to leaving. Just in case I over budgeted does anyone know how the money I don't use will be refunded?

 

[richard_andmel]

Is it me, or does the tipping that DCL suggests seem a little low?

Per Guest per cruise______3-Night____4-Night____7-Night
.......Dining Room Server___11.00______14.75______25.75
Dining Room Asst. Server____8.00______10.75______18.75

25.75 + 18.75 x 2 Adults = $89/ 7 nights= $12.71 per evening. If I were eating at a sit down restaurant at WDW, I know I'd be tipping more than $12.71 at dinner for the kind of meal I'd be getting on this cruise.

Now this thread has scared me a bit. I am really glad I saw it though. While I know I won't be drinking $5 smoothies all day long, I'm definitely going to be tipping a bit more than that.

 

[jennat]

I am reading this post and am in SHOCK! (I didn't read all the pages). We cruise every year and we never even spend close to that. I am trying to figure out why. We don't usually take our kids but will this year and that will add tips, but if you want a more conservative extimate. We charge tips, alcohol (about $6.00 a drink x however many you think you will drink) and an occasional soda. We drink a drink whenever we want it but are not big drinkers. We go to the Pay restaraunt. that's about it. We hardly ever buy things on board. Never really anything I want. For Disney, I will probably let my kids (6 and 9) bring some of their money and decide what they want to spend it on (when it is gone it is gone). You can carry on pop (and wine and beer for that matter). We don't buy alot of pics (maybe 4), they are so expensive they make it easy to say no unless it is the best. You can take them with your own camera. Anyway, without kids we usually spend between 400 and 500. We book excursions on our own, and that is separate. maybe that is the big price difference. Excursions are so variant. For example, we are taking a day sail ($250.00) and a couple we are going with is doing a tour $40.00. You can easily control the costs of your trip so don't let the numbers freak you out. Just think about what you like and will spend. (the spa will run it up quick!)
Just my two cents.

 

[jrabbit]

Is it me, or does the tipping that DCL suggests seem a little low?

Per Guest per cruise______3-Night____4-Night____7-Night
.......Dining Room Server___11.00______14.75______25.75
Dining Room Asst. Server____8.00______10.75______18.75

25.75 + 18.75 x 2 Adults = $89/ 7 nights= $12.71 per evening. If I were eating at a sit down restaurant at WDW, I know I'd be tipping more than $12.71 at dinner for the kind of meal I'd be getting on this cruise.

Now this thread has scared me a bit. I am really glad I saw it though. While I know I won't be drinking $5 smoothies all day long, I'm definitely going to be tipping a bit more than that.

You're probably very correct in stating that the gratuity guide might be on the low side (especially for 2 adults traveling by themselves). But you should remember that DCL is primarily a family cruise line and that the guide is a per guest tip. And the kids (under age 10) meals are generally much less "expensive" than what the adults are having. So if you look at it from a family of 4 peoples perspective, they might think that the guide is a bit on the high side.

The entire gratuity guide from the DCL web site is..
What about gratuities? (September 2004)
We'll make it easy. It is customary to give gratuities in recognition of service, which you will most likely be treated to in abundance aboard the ship. As a guideline, may we suggest the following:


Per Guest per cruise______3-Night____4-Night____7-Night
......Dining Room Server___11.00______14.75______25.75
Dining Room Asst. Server____8.00______10.75______18.75
.Dining Room Head Server____2.75_______3.75_______6.50
..Stateroom Host/Hostess___10.75______14.50______25.25
Dining Manager Your Discretion
Room Service Your Discretion

For your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine, and deck service tabs. All gratuities can be charged to your room charge.
At the Walt Disney World® Resort, 15% is the customary gratuity at restaurants and bars.
------
--JRA here again--
Remember, the guidelines for gratuities are for the "food" portion of your meal only. There is a seperate, AUTOMATIC gratuity of 15% added to beverages that carry a charge (see above). These beverages include, but are not limited to Wine, alcoholic drinks, the "virgin" version of the alcoholic drinks, smoothies, bottled water, speciality coffees, etc.

So if you are eating at Alfredo's in Italy at EPCOT and you have an appetizer, entree and desert the cost of just that runs you maybe $40 per adult (it's been like forever since we've eaten there so I may be WAY off on my guess)so the gratuity of $6 each is about right for the adults in the party. The kiddos meal probably costs $15 so their tip of $6 each is about $4 to much.

The great thing about being able to tip, is that YOU decide how much to tip and who to tip. The guidelines are just a starting place. You can tip more if you feel like it (and many cruisers DO tip more, unfortunatly there are many that don't tip at all )

 

[LiserAnn]

The great thing about being able to tip, is that YOU decide how much to tip and who to tip. The guidelines are just a starting place. You can tip more if you feel like it (and many cruisers DO tip more, unfortunatly there are many that don't tip at all )

Are there a lot of people who don't tip? I just can't imagine--it's part of the cost of cruising, just like tipping in a restaurant is part of of the cost of dining there. Amazing!

 

[captaincrash]

We had a 7 day with 3 and we spent sot=mething between 500-800 as I recall - it was well under 1000. We di not do much except gratuities, buy photos, some drinks and a lot of souveneers. We had been to the islands before and tended to buy our own transportation and activities away from the ship.

Plus - as previously stated - it's a good idea to go over your bill - but may I add that the lines to get you bill details early are very long - I guess o the last evening of the cruise everyone is getting in line to get a copy or get corrections done!

Plus - this ship has no gambling - so your expenses can be pretty light if you do not drink much. The other folks who had a party of 7 and 3000 tab had 4 "swim with the dolphin" excursions. That can be about $1600-2000 all by itself! COnsider that ship excursions are generally about DOUBLE what it costs normally. So 7 excursons would have been perhaps 1000 by utself! Add gratuities and you can see how this approaches 4000 without drinks or souvenneers!

Hope this helps -

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

I was adding up our(me & DS15) estimated expences for Nov 5,2005 cruise 7-day Western...Here goes.
$350 excursions
$339 REAS
$200 arcade
$140 SMOOTHIES, drink of the day
$300 tips (we plan to tip the stateroom keeper $10 a night plus the mim.on last day
and the room service runner $5 each time and then the mim-plus for the
others)
$500 on board souviners ie: map,ship replica,beach towel,bathrobe,pins,t-shirts
$200 shutters(it will be nice for me to be in some of the pics)
----- total $2029 plus the cost for the stateroom.
Plus some cash for the ports of call souviners $1750.
When I showed this to my son he was taken aback "I thought this was all inclusive"
I think I have been realistic about this, if any one thinks I need to add something please let me know. also I plan to use travlers checks put on my account the 1st day to pay for this so no credit card bills later.

 

[princesspumpkin]

Yeah! Thank you princesspumpkin! So, you went on the Eastern. For how many days. Was there a public beach that you went to in Naussau?

Thanks!

We went on the 4-NIght Wonder, not the Eastern. And we didn't go to a beach in Nassau. We walked thru the straw market (and bought 2 souvenirs for $5) and spent the rest of the day on the ship.