Big fam (6 kids.) Can someone give me the short version of most affordable way to do this?

[olookasquirrel]

I hate to say it, but I'd second looking into RCCL. Other tips and tricks:

-Yes, book on release day. If prices drop, you can always re-book at the lower price
-Book through Costco travel - they give you a significant portion of your cruise fare back after your trip in the form of a Costco gift card. For 2 cabins, for a week, on the Fantasy, you could be looking at $500 back. With 6 kids, that's a lot of bulk purchasing! (or gas, or more travel).
-Look at other ports - I've seen Galveston mentioned. We went out of Miami on the Wonder and it was cheaper than going out of PC.
-Take advantage of credit card promotions/Target card/DVA/etc. It seems, oh 5%, not worth it...but at the end of the day you can cover your tips & some expenses without dipping back into your wallet for a minimum of effort.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Just a warning... when you look on the Costco site (unless the glitch is fixed), they give you a price that appears higher than on the DCL site. Once you get to the part about entering the travelling party, the price changes to be the same as at DCL, but you get the discount back in Costco gift cards, so it will come out cheaper, eventually. You still front the whole price, but get some back after your cruise, when you may need a little extra cash the most.

 

[deanimal]

But the Disney ships still have the "free" ice cream station on the pool deck, in addition to Vanellope's (on the Dream only currently).

Most cruise lines have free soft serve stations. NCL had a sundae station in the buffet that was open all day and evening with someone scooping hard ice cream and lots of yummy toppings. And yet people still lined up at the "premium gelato" counter in the area with the pay restaurants. Go figure.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

In all honesty there is no 'cheap' way to do Disney but you can make it affordable by planning a trip in 2019. OMG...that is so far away, I know BUT you get to start planning now. Why so long? You can begin saving money in Disney giftcards (so it doesn't get spent on anything else). There will be no HUGE chunk for a deposit or even for the final payment because you will be spreading out to make it possible.

1. Get an idea of when you want to cruise and pretend to book it on the DCL site. Now you have a rough estimate of what the cost will be (prices will go up but this is a rough idea). Mainly get the info on how much you will need to make for the deposit.

2. Find out around when that cruise will begin booking and print up a calendar of that year and month and mark that day on the calendar.

3. Begin to collect gift cards. Make it a weekly or a bi-weekly thing even if it's as little as 25.00. You can get them everywhere but look into places where you can get them with a discount. We buy gift cards every single week and make it out to be a bill in our budget so that we can always do it.

4. Buy a current cruise line planning book or just use the internet but these are AWESOME to use just to begin planning, learning information and being prepared. It helps the LOOOOONNNGGG countdown go by fast.

5. Keep a vacation notebook or binder with print outs, your gift cards (use the gift card website to constantly put all the cards on 1 card to manage them better), notes and fun things you keep track of.

6. Always keep your booking date on your mind so you know how much you want to be sure you have in gift cards at that point.

7. Begin a Disney savings jar (Think Paradise Falls jar from UP). Put in change or dollar bills anything but do it daily, make it a habit. When we started we NEVER EVER spent change and it all went in the change jar, now we are up to not spending singles or fives and off they go into the jar. We use a milk jug and made it a family craft night to decorate it.

8. Find a print out of every single Disney movie ever made and get familiar with them and your local library. It's time to make a countdown to your cruise and countdown by having a family movie night EACH week where you watch 1 Disney movie and use your sheet to check it off from the list. We put the list in our vacation binder and in a page protector to re-use it by just marking them off before each vacation with a dry-erase marker.

9. Think about things you can cut out of your budget and keep applying that money to your savings account!

There are so many ways to countdown to a Disney trip no matter how far away it is, the idea is to make it most affordable for you!

 

[aggiedog]

I feel your pain. We have 4 kids, so while not quite as many, we still require two rooms for most things. Since we usually travel with my parents, that makes 8 anyways. I've sailed DCL twice with the whole family, and Oceania once without kids, so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt.

If cruising is the bottom line, find another line. I have read countless reports of people having great family trips on other lines. No, it's not Disney, and there will be differences. Difference doesn't necessarily equal worse, but if you are ok with parts of the ship being more adult centered, you'll most likely find you'll be able to stretch your dollar much further. If Disney is required, find any means you can of going during off season. I have 3 teens, and missing school is not to be taken lightly with AP classes, etc. That said, our Baltic cruise was 30% cheaper if we left 3 days before school got out. The school district was willing to work with us and they made up their final exams after we got back. Not everyone has that option, though. Off season is anytime that is not summer, spring break, or Christmas break. Our Merrytime cruise was 50% more expensive the week we sailed than the week prior, due to that being the only sailing that didn't mean missing a significant amount of school.

Everyone touts the DCL kids clubs. My 13yo liked the video game tournaments. My 16yos didn't really gel with the kids in theirs, and my 10 yo only liked that he could check himself in and out and go get ice-cream. For our family, they were not the draw I was hoping the clubs to be. That said, one of the perks of a big family is my kids like to hang out with each other, so we don't really need the clubs to keep the kids happy.

From what I've seen, the Caribbean is cheaper than Alaska on DCL, but you can price that out yourself.

Inside cabins are always the cheapest. Portholes are not bad, and the windows are very large. I like a verandah, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. I believe the larger ships (Dream and Fantasy) have "magic" portholes in the inside rooms, screens with real time pictures of outside.

 

[timrousbeastie]

The previous posters have given really good advice. I'd just like to add a few thoughts and observations from my own experience.

A couple of months ago, when I approached my sister's family about a cruise in October 2017, I expected they would want to do an Eastern Caribbean on the Disney Fantasy since everyone has loved our Dream and Fantasy cruises so far. However, I had done a little bit of research on other cruise lines and showed them YouTube videos of Royal Caribbean's "Allure of the Seas" and Norwegian's "Epic" just to give them an idea of what else was out there. To my complete surprise, the kids were extremely excited about the Allure videos and all said that they would much rather try that than another Fantasy cruise. The adults agreed after seeing the videos, so I ended up booking RCI for the first time. So, it wasn't even a matter of saving money: they just preferred to explore a new and exciting ship. We saw the Allure across the dock in Falmouth during our last cruise and that probably also made a difference.

One problem with Disney is that they have an extremely limited supply and rapidly growing demand. Recently, I was looking at a graph of DCL prices on another website that showed how they, on average, have gone up around 40% since 2012. That means we are paying a lot more today for exactly the same experience you could have had 4-5 years ago. At the same time, other cruise lines have launched a lot of exciting new ships, including the Allure and the Epic, and new ones are entering the market every few months.

Before our first cruise, I was thinking that Disney was the only cruise line that I'd ever feel comfortable taking my family on. Today, though, I think that was a completely wrong way to look at it: There are very exciting and much less pricey alternatives, you just need to do a little research.

 

[Quellman]

The short version is, there's no affordable way to sail DCL in the summer with 6 kids, as others have said . We have 4 kids, so I sympathize. We moved to the Freedom of the Seas, which was less than half of DCL for the same week/room type. That would buy a LOT of Diet Coke . Other than soda, there's nothing else you would pay for on Royal that you wouldn't also pay for on DCL.
But if DCL is the only way to go for you, the others have given you the best advice: book on opening day. You may have to book 2018 to be able to afford it--that's what lots of people do. They save up two or more years for the cruise. But I have 4 kids at home all day with me. I can't wait two years between vacations!

Agree, it can eb hard to divorce the Disney product, but there are many other options out there. Specifically if you want to sail Alaska.

For the original poster, it sounds like you guys need a no cost travel agent to start presenting you with options as you don't even know where you want to sail. They can price out all sorts of combinations, 2 inside rooms, 1 verandah, 1 inside, concierge suite. who knows. They can also compare across cruise lines. Good ones will help you answer any questions your have about itineraries etc. I hope you find what you are looking for.