Advice please - realistic shipboard credit for 7 day

[jrabbit]

Family of 4 on a seven night cruise will generate a "standard" gratuity of about $305. Some people don't tip (don't go there ). Some just the standard, some a little more and some tip a LOT more :yes:: yes the service is THAT good).

There are snacks (candy, popcorn) for sale outside of the Walt Disney Theater (and sometime the Buena Vista Theater)

If you go to Palo there is a service charge of $10 per person. You should tip above this service charge for "using the room" Some people kick in an extra $10 per person, others have said that they've tipped $100 -- Wow!!

Room service is free for most items on the menu (sodas and some items you have to pay for). Be sure to tip your "server" or is it runner in this case. DCL has reciently made it possible to tip your server on your KTTW card.

With the ages of your children Shutters may be a big ticket item. The 6x8 (small) photos are something like $10 each. I don't remember how much the formal (large) photos are (maybe $15-18 each).

If you stick to the drink of the day, they will run you $3.50 each (which isn't too bad). Otherwise the prices go up from there (but still are not outrageous!!) Speciality Drinks - like coffees, smoothies etc carry a charge. Smoothies run about $5.00 each with manditory tip.

If you buy the wine package for dinner the cost is $185 to $250 depending upon the package purchased. If you buy wine by the bottle I believe you can count on $50 per bottle (but if you each only drink 1 glass each, it will last for two nights and your waiters will take care of it for you!)

There is also a "water package" that you can purchase for dinners. Why , I don't know, the water that the ship "makes" is wonderful.

Shore excursions really add up. Even if you do a "cheep" $45 excursion that's $180 for the family.

If you do the wine tasting class onboard there's a cost and I really don't know how much it is because I don't like wine that much.

Spa treatments run from $83 to well over $200 per person per treatment (count on at least $100 ).

Arcade cards for the kids. Denominations start at $10 and go up from there.

Now for the souvineers: you can get some small plastic figurine for $5. If you want a tee shirt, think at least $35, polo shirts are well over $50. A DCL frame for one of your 6x8 pictures will run you $18 to $20. Lots of fun stuff to buy for the whole family at Mickey's Mates. Then across the hall is the Treasure Ketch and that stuff is generally way more expensive!!

Some people have a Bingo habit that costs them a ton of $$$$. I believe that it's $35 for 5 or 6 games. Haven't done it so I really don't know. I probably will be giving it a go at the end of the repo cruise - the jackpot is going to be HUGE!!

Hairbrading onboard has a per braid charge.

Other people have talked about spending money onshore. Unless its at Castaway Cay, thats a different bill from your onboard account.

I think thats all of the areas that you can spend money ON the ship.

 

[webray]

We (hubby and I) put $2,000 on shipboard credit before our 7 day western itinerary..lol. According to all the helpful sites, we tried to calculate what we would spend, spa, drinks, palo, souveniers, pins, etc. I think we went about 1k over.

 

[Mr. Moose51]

We went on the 7 day Western last year, just the two of us, with two shore excursions, some shopping, and 3 days of Bingo. With a few drinks and everything we spent about $1100

 

[dizprincess27]

Ok now I'm worried. Can someone please give me a ballpark figure because I didn't think you could spend sooo much money when most everything is included Ok it will be me and my 11 yr old dd and I don't plan on doing any spa packages or massages. I already paid for our dolphin swim excursion and we have our own snorkel equipment for CC. I will have a couple of fun drinks a day but I'm not a wine drinker with dinner. I also plan on doing a brunch/dinner at Palos. So excluding souveniors which I'm assuming they add onto the stateroom credit, is the amount of $500.00 a fairly reasonable estimate of what I should spend? I wouldn't mind if it is $600 or even $700 but I will be doing some major dishes in the galley if the bill comes in too high and dd will not be happy!!! Please let me know if I'm in the ballpark!!! Thanks so much!!

 

[jrabbit]

Ok now I'm worried. Can someone please give me a ballpark figure because I didn't think you could spend sooo much money when most everything is included Ok it will be me and my 11 yr old dd and I don't plan on doing any spa packages or massages. I already paid for our dolphin swim excursion and we have our own snorkel equipment for CC. I will have a couple of fun drinks a day but I'm not a wine drinker with dinner. I also plan on doing a brunch/dinner at Palos. So excluding souveniors which I'm assuming they add onto the stateroom credit, is the amount of $500.00 a fairly reasonable estimate of what I should spend? I wouldn't mind if it is $600 or even $700 but I will be doing some major dishes in the galley if the bill comes in too high and dd will not be happy!!! Please let me know if I'm in the ballpark!!! Thanks so much!!

If you're on a 4 nighter and its only 2 of you (1 adult, 1 Youth) here's what I would budget from the info you've given
Tips (4 positions on board): $90
"Couple" of Drinks for the Adult per day: $60
Smoothies for the DD: $20
Photos from Shutters: $100
1 Arcade card for DD: $10
Souveneers: $150
Palo's once (by yourself - at least w/o DD): $20 ($10 service fee and $10 additional tip)
I come up with $450. It sure adds up fast doesn't it!! That gives you a $50 cushion. Good Luck!!

Remember...
Tips for Porters at Port Canaveral: $20 ($10 before and after - NOT on the KTTW card) I'm assuming two women with two bags each here + carryons

 

[fljelad]

Ok reading these posts put me into kind of shock.

OMG. I'm in shock too. Of course, we are only doing a four day cruise. Understanding that the tips and one excursion have already been allocated, I was figuring on about $100 a day for our family of four. We don't do spas. We're not big soda drinkers. DH and I will probably have a drink with our evening meal. Yikes. I was budgeting $400 plus $100 "for the pot".

Hmmm....

 

[tchoney]

Ok reading these posts put me into kind of a shock. It will be my DH and Me. We do not drink and plan not to do the Spa. We will already have our tips saved in envelops. So what would bring the cost up so high. We are planning on do Nassua not the tours just shopping and the casino though on a budget. So nothing expensive on the excursions. And if we get the pictures it will be a small package. So what am i missing. I thought @400.00 would be safe. Am i wrong. Please let me know what I am missing. Thanks for your help.

I think you should be fine... We spent approx. $900 for 7 people. We didn't use Shutters, we took our own photos (30 rolls!), we purchased drinks 1 night and bought excursions, tips, and small suveniers... My 3 boys had locks put on their cards so that they could not purchase anything without approval, I could only imagine what that would have cost me!!!

 

[mamalle]

I figured $1000 for our 4 day and ours with tipping came to $1100. we bought over $200 in photos, spent like $50 between dh and I for drinks a day, rainforest room for two days for dh and I ,tipping the massage therapists, buying products from the spa, duty free liquor, stuff the kids wanted,water shoes on CC, tshirts from CC,lanyards, DCL mugs and coconut cups for the kiddos, hair braiding, tipping at palos,room service tipping, the arcade, dh bought some cigars, spent like $40 at the straw market on gifts. we didnt do any excursions but it all added up. I did put $200 in our shipboard account and had my tip money in cash so the rest at the end of the cruise was charged to my visa/debit. we had also prepaid for the REAS so we just tipped on top of that. oh than there was that $1000 deposit for our next cruise..

than $40 to park, $20 to tip the luggage porter..

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

We were three and spent $ 900 including a massage for my wife, two kayak trips on Castaway Cay and lots of toys for our daughter and nephew. The three big items were the two mentioned above and the tips. We were all non drinkers.

 

[LiserAnn]

Goodness, the ranges of what people have spend for a 7 day cruise span from $900 to $3K. So, based upon everyone's input (which has been great-thanks...things I didn't think of, like I didn't even know there was an arcade...) this is what I've budgeted...and again THANK YOU all for your input. If I'm too conservative then at least we still have some more time to save some more money:

NOTE: We've already paid for our excursions and we're doing the REAS which is already paid for

Shipboard Account
4 position tips: $400 (suggested is $305 so our amount is 30% over suggested-is this reasonable?)
Palos brunch: $40 (includes the $20 req'd fee)
Palos dinner: $30 (REAS covers the $20 req'd fee)
Room service: $10
Massage tip: $40
Arcade card: $20
Shutters: $100
Specialty drinks/coffee: $60
Souveniers: $50
Misc: $100
Total: $850

As for cash items we've budgeted:
Porters: $20
Tips for our two excursions: $40
Terminal parking: $77 (per the Long Beach website)
Misc: $50

We're bringing $50 in Target or Walmart gift cards (in $10 increments) to give to kids club counselors. We've already paid $350 for our two excursions.


So, in total we're looking at about $1400. We're not doing the wine package and we'll only do the REAS massage. Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks again!
Lisa

 

[disneylover5]

Lisa,
I think you are being reasonable.....I guess I was the high end @ $3000...but I had 9 people charging to my credit card. I guess about $320 per person.

Maybe next time I will leave averyone else home and spend that $3000 just on me!

We spent a lot on Bingo...3 teenagers loved it! My 71 year old FIL had a pedicure...he never would have done that at home and that made me so happy.

Good luck and enjoy,
Lisa

 

[kreedham]

Lots of things to factor but you can make do on your $900. This was our first DCL cruise so we'll probably spend less on photos and the same on other things.

Tips-about $350. We tipped a little extra but not much!
Excursions-$300
Souveniers-$200
Palo-$40 with tips. Loved both the brunch and dinner but if you have to make a choice go with brunch.
Shutters-$200. Buy the 10 picture package. It won't be hard to pick 10. If you want more you can upgrade to 15 or 20 for the $ difference. The cost per picture is a little high if you get less than 10 but the more you buy (10, 15, or 20) the cost per goes down. Portraits are $20 but on Thursday or Friday they offer a deal if you get a portrait holder.

We didn't take the kids in the store for fear of the "buy me this" syndrome but got them some things. Probably saved money there.

Another tip not related. We got to embarkation about 10;30. My wife got in line (it moved pretty quickly) I took the kids to sign up for kids club-too slow but got the form to fill out. It made the registration go quickly when we got to the club. Anyhow have 1 of your party go ahead and get in line to board while the other registers. That way you'll get on pretty quick. Go straight to Rockin Bar D to sign up for Palo while the other goes to the spa if you wish. Like I said Kids club can wait (except for Flounders) so if you have no infants you can do the Kids club anytime! Have fun! We did and we're going to Cali in July! We'll probably wait a year or two after that but I may just try to talk the DW into a 4 day for the two of us!

We are drinkers so no $ there and spent no spa $ but I hope to talk DW into a massage next time. If you've never had one do it! She hasn't but I'm a little afraid once she does she'll want to do it regularly!

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

LisaAnn - looks reasonable except you may not get away with $ 50 for souveneirs. They have so much cool stuff.

 

[LiserAnn]

LisaAnn - looks reasonable except you may not get away with $ 50 for souveneirs. They have so much cool stuff.

I was afraid of that...obviously if we exceed here and there, that's fine, I just don't want to be naive. You know, walking in with $900 when you really need $2000 type of deal.

 

[ljql_5969]

Wow. Reading all these has me in a panic. I guess when I booked, I thought so much was included. I mean, I know souveniers aren't and spa, but I guess I did not think we would need a lot of extras because of what all was included. The last time we cruised, we also ventured off the boat on our own and found our own stuff to hang out and do because we often found that the excursions were priced very high for what they had to offer. We booked category 11 staterooms and still paid a pretty penny for 2 adults and 2 children.

We don't plan to do any spa stuff so no worries there. The kids want to do the clubs and those do not cost extra. Whenever we have cruised with other cruise lines in the past, we have never bought the pictures from the onboard photographer because we have our own cameras.

Hopefully we can be smart, still have fun, but not go broke. It took a lot of arm twisting for me to get my DH to agree to go on this more expensive than usual vacation. I hope I don't send him into shock!

Are there any other frugal people out there that did not do too much extra stuff but still had a good time?

 

[dizprincess27]

If you're on a 4 nighter and its only 2 of you (1 adult, 1 Youth) here's what I would budget from the info you've given
Tips (4 positions on board): $90
"Couple" of Drinks for the Adult per day: $60
Smoothies for the DD: $20
Photos from Shutters: $100
1 Arcade card for DD: $10
Souveneers: $150
Palo's once (by yourself - at least w/o DD): $20 ($10 service fee and $10 additional tip)
I come up with $450. It sure adds up fast doesn't it!! That gives you a $50 cushion. Good Luck!!

Remember...
Tips for Porters at Port Canaveral: $20 ($10 before and after - NOT on the KTTW card) I'm assuming two women with two bags each here + carryons

Thanks so much jrabbit but I do have another question or two First is the $90.00 tip total for both of us for the whole trip??? I thought it was more like $75.00 per person? Didn't think of smoothies for dd. She may like one or two but she's rather pickey and loves soda so who knows with that one. The souveniors is where it gets tricky cause I have a little shopping diva lol and I will assume you are right about shutters and the pictures since I'm not going to bring a video camera (just a disposable so I don't have to worry about lugging it around) So basically $600 should be more than enough then which is what I plan to budget for the ship only. Then I should have about $800 or $900 left for the land (6) nights. I bet I don't come home with much though Thanks again.

 

[littleowensmommy]

I am "Queen of the Budget". I like to 'guestimate' worse case so I can be happy with a lower bill or not too surprised by a higher bill. I expect my onboard bill for our 7-night cruise to be about $1600 including tips for our family of four. I plan on booking shore excursions in every port. We are not big drinkers but I do expect our booze bill to be about $200. I also like Bingo, but I'm not going to play everyday as I did on our last cruise (even though I did win during the week) because it's just too expensive. I will play final Bingo. This figure does not include our REAS package which will be paid in advance. I also plan on making an additional spa appointment for my husband to have a stone massage on his birthday. He had this treatment on our cruise last summer and he loved it. We are not big souvenier buyers.

I just read your other thread about changes in port departure times. I would not feel comfortable booking non-DCL shore excursions.

 

[jrabbit]

First is the $90.00 tip total for both of us for the whole trip??? I thought it was more like $75.00 per person?

For any Disney cruise the "published" gratuity guide works out to about $10.90 per guest per day of the cruise.

Sticking strickly to the gratuity guide, tips for two guests work out to be:
3 nights * 10.83 per day * 2 guests = $64.98
4 nights * 10.94 per day * 2 guests = $87.52
7 nights * 10.89 per day * 2 guests = $152.46

* I believe that the difference per day is because DCL's tipping guide "rounds" everyones (the 4 positions) gratuity for the length of cruise to the nearest 25 cents.

 

[dizprincess27]

Thank you jrabbit I really appreciate the info!! I do have another question for anyone who can answer it (I'm sorry to be a pest) but say then I want to tip $100 total for the 4 servers for both my dd and myself. Does the ship have seperate envelopes for each server and you divide the $$ equally? Or do you put the $$ in an envelope and then Disney splits it up amongst the servers? I would rather put the $$ in envelopes and drop it off at Guest Services on say day 2 or 3 of the cruise then wait and have it on my bill at the end. Is that what everyone does or what? Thanks a lot again!!

 

[jeannief]

We just did the 4 night for just under $400. We bought the 3 day wine package (after our first dinner with 2 glasses of wine and 1 cappucino was $22) and only had the occasional drink on board, we brought our own beer and water as well as bottles of daquiris and margaritas. Plus we bought flavoured rums in nassau and added that to free fruit juice and soda. We didn't do any excursions and bought no souvenirs other than the 2 shutters pictures we liked and the bucket of sandtoys on CC. We bought our souvenirs at downtown disney after the cruise and only walked into the stores on the boat once, just to get an idea. Only thing I regret not getting is a Christmas ornament of the boat....