DVCers..question on cruise costs

[Bethshaya]

We plan on taking the 7 day Disney cruise using our points next year.

We are trying to plan a budget so we can save up enough money.

Can you share with me how much you spent on gratutities and spending money. I dont want to go cheap and want to plan to have enough money so we can do what we want to without watching the budget too carefully.

I dont know how much to plan for tips and extras though.

Any thoughts?

 

[Mulljac]

Hi, we also just came back last month using our DVC points for our cruise. We spent $1500 on board and that didn't include our gratuities. It did include 2 excursions for 4, bingo, arcade, spa, Palo brunch and dinner and stuff from the shops. We only bought 1 picture from Shutters and 1 drink. We did spend $400 cash and that included jewelry at the ports, car rental, airport parking and food before we got to the ship. This was for a family of 4. I'm sure glad we have our DVC because I don't know if we would be able to come up with all this money plus the price of a cruise on top of that. Hope this helps.

 

[kcashner]

The suggested tips are about $76 per person on the 7 day. There is a $75 fee when you book with points. Beyond that, it really is whatever you want to spend. We are 10 time Magic veterans, and generally spend about $200 - $300 in addition to the tips. This allows DD to do both teen excursions, me to do the unlimited rainforest, and just a little more. I bring my own snorkel equipment--sometimes get floats on CC. We take our own photos, very rarely buy the professional ones....and I don't drink alcohol. I usually do tea at Palo.

Those are the big places to drop money--excursions (which we tend to do on our own), photos, alcohol, souveniers. It really is very individual. Smoothies are about $3.50 each (including the tip). How many days do your kids really need them? I put DD on a budget--a very tight one. She has $20 from me for the cruise, plus any of her own money that she wants. I buy her the 2 excursions. The $20 will buy ONE smoothie per day OR a trip to the shops...but forces her to decide whether she wants to shop and run to deck 9 for soda or be lazy and drink smoothies in The Stack.

 

[crisi]

We spent about $100 a day - not including tips. But I have a rather nice watch, my daughter has a princess dress and my son a new Hook costume. The ten picture package, plus an 8x10. An excursion on each stop. And (dare I say it) quite a few rum drinks.

 

[O'BWV]

Hi!

We just returned from the 10 day 8/28 Magic. This was more of a no hold barred 20th anniversary cruise and we did everything we wanted but did not book excursions through DCL. We are 2 adults 1 teen (14) & 1 tween (11). Our total for the 10 days was right around $1950. This includes $480 for tips. 5 games of bingo $175. 5 6x8 photos in Shutters $50. 5 8x10's $100. Photo Christmas Cards $60. Crystal Photo with base $100. Palo bunch & dinner w/drinks $100. Spa $170. Coffee drinks EVERYDAY $75. Arcade $50 Souveniers (sp) $400. Drinks & misc. $300. If I were to remove tips from the total we spent about $150 per day. I don't thinks that's too bad for a family of 4 to do anything they wanted.

Sorry if this is TMI, I know I liked details when I was planning our cruise. If figured around $200 per day, so I came out ahead. Well not really because of the extra days but that's another story LOL!

Happy planning!
Mary Rose

 

[Mulljac]

Also, when I planned our cruise I thought that we wouldn't really need that much money. Practically everything is taken care of right? But once on board I realized that I wanted to buy more things than I had planned on. I was sure that I wasn't going to do any spa treatments this time but I was given a free massage on the first day and then got hooked. I made an appt. for another one during the week and so did my husband. The massage was $175 each w/o tips so that really threw my budget off. But who care! It's vacation. We only do one big vacation a year. I'm not going to penny pinch and then be sorry that I didn't do this or that. Going over budget isn't the worse thing in the world. So my point is, just plan to spend a little extra than you really think. And if you don't go over budget, good for you. You'll have more money for your next cruise. You're going to love it! Happy cruising.

 

[Doctor P]

For DW, myself, and DSD last year our onboard bill was about $2000 for a 7 night cruise. We spent about $750 on shore excursions, $150 on pictures, $200 on the spa, $200 on tips, $100 on bingo, $100 on alcohol, and most of the rest on souveniers (including winning one of the silent auction items for about $80).