"Affording" DCL

[blondietink]

We did DCL once when it was reasonably priced. It was just OK. The prices now are out of our comfort zone. Could we afford it? Yes. But when I look at other vacations, I cannot justify the cost vs. what you get. For example, I can get (and am booked on) another cruise line for a Panama Canal partial transit 14 day cruise and it is $2,000 less for our family of 4 in an extended balcony vs. a 7 day Caribbean on DCL in a family ocean view. We are out for value for our vacation buck, not to break the bank. Just MHO.

 

[mom4fun]

We are also a family of 3 which I'm noticing seems to be very common for cruising. If we had to take 4 kids there would be no way we could cruise every year. We also, spend around $5000- $7000 a year on vacations. Our cruise budget is $4500 but will be $5500 in 2017. I am a stay at home mom so we only have one income. We are not rich but have some nice perks because of my DH's job. He travels a lot so we can literally go to Disney World with free use of a company car, we have gobs of hotel points so can stay at suites with free breakfasts and kitchens. All we have to buy is tickets for parks and the rest is practically free. Using our grocery budget we can go for up to 2 weeks for $1500. We also plan for those cruises way ahead. We have had our 2016 cruise paid off since summer and now are working on paying for 2017 cruise. I'm sure everyone has different ways of affording it but this is our unique way of doing it.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I also don't understand how some people can cruise so often. Their normal daily expenses must be a lot lower than mine. I'm paying a little less than $3500. for 2 people to cruise to Alaska in a few months on DCL. When I see people quoting prices like $11K for a DCL Alaska cruise, it blows my mind. I guess it's a matter of what is an acceptable vacation to each person. I am fine on deck 2 with a window. Other people have to have concierge or a verandah. I'd probably be a one time cruiser if my standards were that high.

 

[NCConch]

We did not start cruising until we had jobs that provided for "luxuries" such as this. If we had the time (the kids are still in school and I am busy during the summer) I think we might be tempted to cruise twice a year.

 

[aggiedog]

My very unofficial guess: Three groups of people - 1) people with a lot of disposable income who are able to sail multiple times a year, 2) are able to sail off-season, w/o kids, etc, that make the cost a bit cheaper, and 3) those who save for that one big vacation that might happen every 1-4 years.

Obviously, "disposable" income is pretty variable, but I wonder too about the folks that cruise DCL multiple times a year. I also have a family of 6 and can only cruise during peak off-school times, and not on short notice due to my job. So most cruises are just too darn expensive for what I'd get. I'd rather spend that chunk of money split into a few different vacations, or go somewhere other than the carribean.

 

[keaster]

The most we've done was two cruises a year around 2009/2010, but the economy was in crash and recovery mode and the deals were incredible (in 2009 we got a bounce back for $99/per person and in 2010 we got more than 20 percent off our Med cruise plus on board spending money). Also just a few years ago DCL offered quite a few "Kids Sail Free" offers so we took advantage of those as well.

These days we are down to one a year or every other year because our Canadian exchange rate is brutal and keeps getting worse for the time being. We can't justify paying an extra 30-34 percent due to the exchange.

 

[Ofinn]

My very unofficial guess: Three groups of people - 1) people with a lot of disposable income who are able to sail multiple times a year, 2) are able to sail off-season, w/o kids, etc, that make the cost a bit cheaper, and 3) those who save for that one big vacation that might happen every 1-4 years.

Obviously, "disposable" income is pretty variable, but I wonder too about the folks that cruise DCL multiple times a year. I also have a family of 6 and can only cruise during peak off-school times, and not on short notice due to my job. So most cruises are just too darn expensive for what I'd get. I'd rather spend that chunk of money split into a few different vacations, or go somewhere other than the carribean.

We are fortunate to qualify for 1) and 2) We do have kids though(homeschooled) plus we don't have to pay for flights. On our Hawaii cruise almost every kid in the Edge was platinum some had been on over 20 cruises one kid had been on 23 cruises in 4 years. So there are obviously a lot of families that that have the means to pull off multiple cruises a year. The Galveston cruise was completely different it was mostly first time cruisers. I think we may have been the only platinum on the cruise. If I was limited to cruising in the Summer I would have never been on a DCL cruise. Just not worth the money IMHO. I feel I can say that after 11 cruises. If someone asked me if taking there kids to Alaska or the Caribbean in July for 10k+ was worth the money I would tell them "No Way"

 

[ldo]

Even if we had lots of income, I still wouldn't spend it on a $10K Disney cruise--that's a semester of college. We cruise DCL when the price is either very good (rarely nowdays) or a feel it is a still a good value. For ex., a week-long OV Magic cruise to Norway is $6K for 4 persons with OBB. We were planning a trip to Europe (using FF miles saved up) and the Norway cruise ticked off DH's bucket list and kids will be thrilled that we are going on DCL. That price is about the same as other cruiselines for a week-long European cruise. OTOH, Alaska is a crazy price, IMHO. There is no way I would pay $10K for any cruise that's only 1 week, esp. with alternatives. I priced Alaska for future years. Princess/HA/RCCL/NCL all are $6K or less for 4 persons in an OV.
My ceiling for a week-long trip anywhere is $5K for a family of 4, not including airfare. I like it to be more in the $2-3K range. If we have a "big" year, like DCL or Europe, our next summer is a "down" year with a driving trip to the beach or maybe WDW staying in a condo, with base tickets and eating most meals in.

 

[bethy]

This is a discussion very close to our hearts right now. We just did our "one and done" disney cruise in October. It was more than we usually spend per night for a vacation but we were going to be in Florida during the offseason anyway and have always wanted to try DCL and cruising in general so we took the opportunity.

Well it was the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken with kids. We have had a brutal past 5 years and the relaxation felt soooo good. Everybody was happy and content most of the time, etc. Plus the Disney Magic (both the ship itself and the pixie dust) was amazing. After that experience i don't think I'd care if we never went to WDW again.

Anyway, of course we decided we wanted to do it again and booked on board - at what I thought was a decent price for these days. A Seven night, early December Eastern Carribean on the Magic out of Miami for $4500 after all the discounts for a family of 5. But now that we are home my husband wants to cancel. He just doesn't feel like we can afford it and meet other financial goals like saving more for college, etc.

I am clinging to the reservation right now and finding creative ways to pay for Just. One. More. I feel like if I can manage one more then I'll be good. My kids are still young enough that I really need a break from them via the entertainment and the kids club. And they are young enough to miss school. I figure from then out it will be easier for me to get a mommy break duirng other types of cheaper vacations - like a condo on the beach, etc.

ALSO, the other critical factor for us is that we have 2 food allergies and the way Disney - espeically DCL - helps with that is priceless. Exposure to the tiniest bit of milk can make my DH bedridden for a week and ruin the entire vacation.

BTW, regarding the OP's question I know oodles of family who could easily afford a DCL once per year plus a trip for the adults, plus a girls' weekend for the mom. It just depends on their income, family money etc. A lot people out there have a lot of money. I will say that on our cruise (miami) I felt that a large majority of cruises were regular middle class families and retired people.

Soooo please send me some pixie dust that we can manage to pull this one last time before we need to set aside most of our disposable income for college!

 

[Sytrace]

We have been lucky to have taken six Disney cruises since November of 2013 and already have two more booked for 2016. Of those six cruises, four have been seven night voyages on the Fantasy and two have been four night to the Bahamas on the Dream. I homeschool my two teens and are happy about the flexibility in going in the offseason too.
We live in Orlando, so PC is the closest port to us and we have no additional expenses like airfare or hotels to consider.
Our first few cruises were good prices and on one of the Bahamas cruises we actually paid LESS for the cruise than the planned weekend staycation at a Disney hotel for two nights not including food. That was one of our best vacations on the Dream yet. lol

This being said, when we got off the Fantasy this past September with a placeholder for a 2016 cruise and then saw the prices for the upcoming year we decided (with much determination I might add) that we would only take ONE cruise a year and it would be a seven night.
Then our AP came up for renewal and the price hike for the same exact pass we have had for four years added to our determination to try new lines and not renew our passes.

Flash forward to November 2015 and a stressed out husband who only gets a true vacation on a Disney cruise (no phones, no internet, no email...etc) and we decided that a nice little four night cruise might not be a horrible thing. And that renewing the pass with the least amount of blackout dates (gold) and the photopass package (which I initially HATED) would be okay.
That four nighter changed to a seven nighter when we found a VGT rate that was too good to pass up.

The bottom line for us (and I am sorry for the long post, I am getting to the point, I promise) is that Disney cruises are the best value for our family of four in regards to my husbands relaxation and that we love the service, details and the CM's who remember us from one cruise to the next. The kids/teen clubs are fantastic and I get a little time off too.
Yes, we could take a Carnival cruise or even a RC who both depart from PC, but we love Disney and will pay more for the experiences they offer.
I guess in the long run, we took the dollar amount and figured out the true value of what you get when you pay for a DCL cruise. And for us it still works out.

 

[Sytrace]

This is a discussion very close to our hearts right now. We just did our "one and done" disney cruise in October. It was more than we usually spend per night for a vacation but we were going to be in Florida during the offseason anyway and have always wanted to try DCL and cruising in general so we took the opportunity.

Well it was the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken with kids. We have had a brutal past 5 years and the relaxation felt soooo good. Everybody was happy and content most of the time, etc. Plus the Disney Magic (both the ship itself and the pixie dust) was amazing. After that experience i don't think I'd care if we never went to WDW again.

Anyway, of course we decided we wanted to do it again and booked on board - at what I thought was a decent price for these days. A Seven night, early December Eastern Carribean on the Magic out of Miami for $4500 after all the discounts for a family of 5. But now that we are home my husband wants to cancel. He just doesn't feel like we can afford it and meet other financial goals like saving more for college, etc.

I am clinging to the reservation right now and finding creative ways to pay for Just. One. More. I feel like if I can manage one more then I'll be good. My kids are still young enough that I really need a break from them via the entertainment and the kids club. And they are young enough to miss school. I figure from then out it will be easier for me to get a mommy break duirng other types of cheaper vacations - like a condo on the beach, etc.

ALSO, the other critical factor for us is that we have 2 food allergies and the way Disney - espeically DCL - helps with that is priceless. Exposure to the tiniest bit of milk can make my DH bedridden for a week and ruin the entire vacation.

BTW, regarding the OP's question I know oodles of family who could easily afford a DCL once per year plus a trip for the adults, plus a girls' weekend for the mom. It just depends on their income, family money etc. A lot people out there have a lot of money. I will say that on our cruise (miami) I felt that a large majority of cruises were regular middle class families and retired people.

Soooo please send me some pixie dust that we can manage to pull this one last time before we need to set aside most of our disposable income for college!

I am sending you a TON of pixie dust that you can take just one more. I admire your husbands goals of wanting to save for college, and you mentioned that they are still young enough to not worry about missing school. 4500 is a fantastic rate for a seven night cruise.
I sure hope you can work it out.

 

[bethy]

I am sending you a TON of pixie dust that you can take just one more. I admire your husbands goals of wanting to save for college, and you mentioned that they are still young enough to not worry about missing school. 4500 is a fantastic rate for a seven night cruise.
I sure hope you can work it out.

Awww thanks for reading through my saga and for your lovely reply. It does help to hear that I'm not imagining things and that I'm getting a (relatively) decent rate.

(We are saving for college, FWIW, but one can always save more - esp for 3 kiddos!)

 

[DLgal]

I know this response will make some people's heads spin, but we routinely "go into debt" to vacation. It's the ONLY debt we have though. We save so much money for college, retirement, etc that we don't have extra to put aside for vacations ahead of time. However, we can spend an extra $1000 or so per month towards a credit card payment, so that's what we do. We finish paying off one vacation and then we take another, and then pay it off over time. We use balance transfers to keep the APR at 0% for the duration of paying it off. Our credit card company only charges 1% to do a balance transfer, so we see it as a VERY low interest loan. We have a guaranteed income stream (and a guaranteed lifetime pension after retirement) so we have the security of knowing there will always be incoming money.

My husband has a very stressful job that takes him away from the family for extended periods of time often. Vacations and Disneyland APs are our only splurges. We want to enjoy our lives and not worry about a little bit of debt. As long as we keep our total debt under $10k, we are comfortable. And that's how we do it.

That said, I REALLY want to go on the Fantasy, but we will probably have to wait another year or two for that. We have done Dream twice so far, one time with a super low MTO rate-$3000 total for a 5 night double dip in a category 4D (2 adults, 2 kids). We paid rack rate for the second cruise and probably won't pay full price again.

 

[Ofinn]

Awww thanks for reading through my saga and for your lovely reply. It does help to hear that I'm not imagining things and that I'm getting a (relatively) decent rate.

(We are saving for college, FWIW, but one can always save more - esp for 3 kiddos!)

That is a great rate for a family of 5. I would take advantage of it. Im probably in the minority but I wouldnt sacrafice vacation and traveling just to pay for kids college. The tuition rates are so ridiculous if I planned on paying 100% of their college we would never do anything. I plan on paying for some of it, but their going to need to apply for some scholorships and loans. Your kids are such a great age for traveling especially for Disney. It goes so fast. I cant believe my oldest will be in college in 5 years. I wish I could turn the clock back 5 years, and do it all over again.Its all so much fun. Good luck with your descision.

 

[rcchello]

If you can afford a DCL vacation, other than a once in a lifetime vacation your household income is probably in the top 25%, probably top 20%. Just look up the numbers.

It may be less if you live in Florida and only go when there is a deal. I know there are some frugal people and this is their only splurge but I have met quite a number of 5%ers on Disney Cruises, even some 1%ers.

 

[MunFam]

If you can afford a DCL vacation, other than a once in a lifetime vacation your household income is probably in the top 25%, probably top 20%. Just look up the numbers.

It may be less if you live in Florida and only go when there is a deal. I know there are some frugal people and this is their only splurge but I have met quite a number of 5%ers on Disney Cruises, even some 1%ers.

This is kind of what I was thinking when I asked the original question. I wasn't so much wanting to debate the rising costs of the cruise, but how on earth are people paying for these cruises? especially multiple cruises a year sometimes. Was it something they saved and saved for...or was a $12,000 vacation to Alaska for a week just a drop in the bucket for them? I think I saw a recent post where the family was coming from Australia and their vacation budget was around $30,000 USD! I feel like we are of average income, maybe even above average income compared to the US population as a whole and I just can't afford that kind of a vacation nor would I be willing to pay that rate for a vacation at this point in our financial lives; I mean we live comfortably in one of the most expensive cities in the US...so I was curious how the average cruiser was affording the lifestyle. I also wondered if it had to do with the Euro being stronger? But no one mentioned that. No matter what the case, I think that it is great that so many people are out there traveling and enjoying all that DCL has to offer!

 

[cedricandsophie]

We are blessed that we can go on a number of vacations a year without real worrying about price. That said, DCL cruises are expensive compared to many of the other trips we do. However, we have a disabled adult daughter who loves the Disney cruise still. We always bring her best friend and they have a blast with the crew and the characters. We migjt be able to recreate some of that on another cruise line but frankly I don't want to just chance it. So for
us it is much easier to keep on doing one or two DCL cruises a year knowing they will be enjoyed and our daughter will always have a wonderful time. We are also lucky that the rest od ur family still loves Disney too, so, as long as we are willing to pay, we can get our whole family together. The last few years we have done a Disney cruise in Europe for the family every summer. That includes two or three rooms plus air, excursions, liquor, etc for seven oe eight people. Not inexpensive but as long as we can do it we will. I would rather spend some of the money they might get after we die today while we can all enjoy it together.

 

[rcchello]

The Australians are an interesting group. They do save up for a bunch of years and then take a blowout vacation. I would meet them in Europe and they would be in the middle of a month or longer vacation. They said with the price of flight out of Australia being so high they would pile up a few years vacation time and money and then just go for it.

By the way median household income in the US is about $54,000. So if you make above that more than half of households make less. The 20% point is $106,000, 10% 145,000, top 5% above 205,000. Might be a little higher since these numbers are a few years old.

 

[cgolf]

We have mostly sailed off season cruises or last minute deals like our trip on the Magic post dry dock. We have sailed in concierge down to an inside room. Next year will probably be our last DCL trip for a multitude of reasons, one of which is our daughter is now an adult, and it will be interesting to see if she enjoys it as much with not being able to hang out in the kids clubs. We will still cruise, just finally on a different line. We will have done all our cruises on DCL, so it won't hurt to try another line to see what it is like at least once.

I will say our favorite rooms on a DCL ship have been the sideways inside room, which will be in next year

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

This is a discussion very close to our hearts right now. We just did our "one and done" disney cruise in October. It was more than we usually spend per night for a vacation but we were going to be in Florida during the offseason anyway and have always wanted to try DCL and cruising in general so we took the opportunity.

Well it was the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken with kids. We have had a brutal past 5 years and the relaxation felt soooo good. Everybody was happy and content most of the time, etc. Plus the Disney Magic (both the ship itself and the pixie dust) was amazing. After that experience i don't think I'd care if we never went to WDW again.

Anyway, of course we decided we wanted to do it again and booked on board - at what I thought was a decent price for these days. A Seven night, early December Eastern Carribean on the Magic out of Miami for $4500 after all the discounts for a family of 5. But now that we are home my husband wants to cancel. He just doesn't feel like we can afford it and meet other financial goals like saving more for college, etc.

I am clinging to the reservation right now and finding creative ways to pay for Just. One. More. I feel like if I can manage one more then I'll be good. My kids are still young enough that I really need a break from them via the entertainment and the kids club. And they are young enough to miss school. I figure from then out it will be easier for me to get a mommy break duirng other types of cheaper vacations - like a condo on the beach, etc.

ALSO, the other critical factor for us is that we have 2 food allergies and the way Disney - espeically DCL - helps with that is priceless. Exposure to the tiniest bit of milk can make my DH bedridden for a week and ruin the entire vacation.

BTW, regarding the OP's question I know oodles of family who could easily afford a DCL once per year plus a trip for the adults, plus a girls' weekend for the mom. It just depends on their income, family money etc. A lot people out there have a lot of money. I will say that on our cruise (miami) I felt that a large majority of cruises were regular middle class families and retired people.

Soooo please send me some pixie dust that we can manage to pull this one last time before we need to set aside most of our disposable income for college!

Do what you can to keep that cruise, that's an amazing price!

We recently finished our 4th DCL cruise which was supposed to be our last but I know for sure it won't be. Our kids our teenagers now and we love the family time we spend on our cruises, and in my opinion is priceless for now. It's the only time they aren't buried in their iPhones and we spend so much time playing trivia, bingo, doing crafts, etc. We don't have many more years of that left so I'll take as much as we can get now.

As to @MunFam original post, I don't know how some people can do so many cruises, it blows my mind! We make a very good living but I can't imagine paying what some people do for cruises.

We are trying Carnival next summer in the Mediterranean because we got a great deal on the new Vista, but I know we would have cancelled it if we hadn't already paid for our flights. I also just cancelled a RCCL cruise for fall 2016 and going to Disneyland instead so we can put the money towards a 2017 DCL cruise.