Extra money spent

[ValerieK]

About how much money did you spend while you where on your cruise? I am talking about shore excursions, activities on board, etc. And what did you spend your money on?

 

[The4OfUs]

I was actually going to look at the bill and do a breakdown, but it's amazing how hard it is getting back into "real life" after this, and I'm still not caught up almost a week later! *sob*

Our additional charges totalled to $1800. That included the following:

-drinks - beer, a few sodas and smoothies, and a couple "Drinks of the day"
-Souvenirs from the onboard stores
-the 15 photo package from Shutters
-The Fury Catamaran excursion for four
-4 "all inclusive" rentals at Castaway Cay (they call it an excursion, but it's not really)
-tips for the "regularly tipped" along with the spa and Palo's, x2
-Internet access at the .75 cents a minute - I THINK that only added up to about $30 the whole trip, I wasn't on it much (amazingly)
-various sundry items such as aloe, suntan lotion, hair elastics that we bought in the store on board (they were surprisingly well stocked for just about anything I might run into CVS to buy! - only one "brand", but still, at least there was something if I needed it)

We spent about $50 in Cozumel buying liquor and a few little things (generally not a fan of the high pressure atmosphere of that place), about $450 in Key West (including a gorgeous Tanzanite ring for $299), $20 in Grand Cayman for the taxi van to the beach...that's about it! I was expecting much worse...I actually CRINGED when I first asked for a copy of the charges thus far, about half way thru the cruise - I expected it to be well over 2000 by that point, as you really dont' THINK when you just have to hand a card over to pay for something...but I was happily surprised!

 

[dheller97]

Our extra charges were $1,600 which included our excursions booked thru DCL and some extra medications because I got so sunburned in Grand Cayman. Instead of being the hit of the party became the sick-o in the corner. It did help me control my bar bill though

But like The4OfUs, I cringed when preparing to see what kind of damage I was in for and ended up being surprised too.

Suggest you try to meet new cruise mates through this board - it made it really enjoyable to have people on board that you actually knew! And, it makes the extra dollars spent seem a little more worth it, IMHO.

Enjoy!
Dean

 

[The4OfUs]

Originally posted by dheller97
Our extra charges were $1,600 which included our excursions booked thru DCL and some extra medications because I got so sunburned in Grand Cayman. Instead of being the hit of the party became the sick-o in the corner. It did help me control my bar bill though

But like The4OfUs, I cringed when preparing to see what kind of damage I was in for and ended up being surprised too.

Suggest you try to meet new cruise mates through this board - it made it really enjoyable to have people on board that you actually knew! And, it makes the extra dollars spent seem a little more worth it, IMHO.

Enjoy!
Dean

Oh no Dean, I didn't know that!! But what are you talking about, you guys always brought a smile when we ran into you, that's enough "life of the party" for me!!

I want to go through our charges and just add them up by "category", cause I wonder how much actually went to each thing...I bet the majority was on souvenirs and tips, although I never seemed to want for a drink, so I know I bought more than enough of those! (although I never once woke up with a hangover, let alone felt "drunk", unless you count trying to walk in the hallways that Thursday night that it was so completely rough out! *grin*)

 

[bostonlass]

Does anyone know about how much the drinks cost? I'm going with my two young daughters and I don't plan on spending anymore than $800 and that's including the two days in Disney before that. We'll do one excursion (it's only a 4 night cruise) and we're going to the Magic Kingdom one day. I'm not sure how I'm gonna budget everything but I refuse to spend a lot on top of the cruise price.

 

[dheller97]

I didn't drink too many of the exotic drinks but it seemed like they were in the neighborhood of $3.50-$4.00 each. Domestic beer was around $3-3.50. Once we found the drink station on deck 9, which had coffee, tea, milk and lemonade, we drank much more lemonade than alcohol.

Hey, Nikki, I forgot that my $1,600 package included pictures too. You remember those? Only the 4" x 6" are included and the nice formal photos are 8" x 10" so they are extra ? Yeah, that's the ones!!

Dean

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

The sodas are $1.50 plus the automatic gratuity (unless any of this has gone up since last summer - I haven't really been paying attention) so really $1.65.

There is an option of the soda package which is $5 per day (you buy it at the beginning of the trip) and you can drink as much soft drink as you like.

We did this for both kids. Had I bothered to ask ahead of time I probably would have purchased for self as well. What I mean is I was thinking coke, diet coke, etc which I don't drink. But discovered half way through it includes club soda which I do drink and did drink a fair bit of.

Ah well - live and learn.

Deb

 

[ValerieK]

Do any of the activities on board cost anything?

Are sodas free or do you pay for those?


I am trying to get Dh to go on the 7 day cruise instead of a 3 day. I need to use whatever I can to convince him.

 

[bostonlass]

I just looked at some of the menus on another site and it looks like the specialty drinks are $4.50 as of November 2003, so I'm gonna guess that a beer is about $3 or so.

 

[The4OfUs]

Originally posted by ValerieK
Do any of the activities on board cost anything?

Are sodas free or do you pay for those?


I am trying to get Dh to go on the 7 day cruise instead of a 3 day. I need to use whatever I can to convince him.

Sodas are free at dinner, in the restaurants....otherwise no. We didn't pay for any onboard activity other than bingo.

We wouldn't let the kids drink soda any other time, except for a few special times...they did well with the free stuff they could get on deck 9.

 

[val2001]

4ofus and dheller97, were your 1600 to 1800 for a 7 day trip? We are only going on 3 nighter, so I'm hoping to spend less about $500. Is that unrealistic?

 

[The4OfUs]

Yes, Dean and I were on the 7 day Western that sailed 1/31.

 

[Donnainnj]

Bottomlass,
Does that $800 include the tips? If not it is very doable, but if the tips are included that will be very tight. Do you have MK admission yet? Approx. $50/day pp. for Mk and food at WDW adds up real quick.
We went on the 4 day with our family of 4 in Nov of 2001, last minute budget trip, had fun and spent between $450-$500 including tips and a carriage tour of Charleston, SC. We didn't go to the normal ports so that may be why we spent less. We also rented bikes on Castaway Cay, and a couple of tubes. Brought most of our charged for beverages onboard with us, so the bar bill was real low. Not real big on souveniers. Kept the photo purchases low. We had a good time, except for very high seas, and colder weather/different port then expected.
Enjoy your trip!
Donna

 

[Cruisin]

We spent approximtely $300 on the 3 day Wonder cruise with 4 people including 2 16 yrolds.
It went to Tips- standard amounts plus extra bonus for dining room servers
internet time approx $25
1 soda package and only 1 extra drink
6 or 7 pictures purchased from Shutters
souvenirs we only spent about $15.00
We did not do any purchased shore excursion, we did walk around in Nassau for about 45 minutes which was plenty enough for us.
The 16 yr olds were not interested in soda packages and drank off of the beverage bar on deck or had sodas for meals only.

We got off pretty easy this time, we have spent more on previous trips.

 

[Cruisin]

Valerie K
There is also a charge to use the arcade.

 

[Scratch42]

$250.00 per person rebooking amount!

Plus check my tag! Oh boy Oh boy! And then they converted it into Candadian!LOL

Scratch

 

[moinab]

We spent around $140 on our 3 day last summer for 2 adults and 2 children under 3 years old. This included a few drinks, 2 kids in Flounder's Nursery for 2 hours, one photo, a few souvenirs, and several bottles of water on CC. We didn't do any excursions, and paid cash for tips.

 

[ValerieK]

Thanks for the information everyone, this has helped a lot.


Valerie

 

[tvguy]

$1080 for 4 on Eastern 7 Day Magic cruise.

Includes tips, 10 photo package from shutters, excusions in St Thomas (plus the sky tram) and St. Martin, bike and snorkeling package on Castaway Cay, Wine tasting for wife and I, 3 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of champagne and 2 bottles of Martinellis for New Years Eve (at $18 per bottle!!!) and $5 to dry clean 1 tie.
About 2/3 was for shore excusions.
We didn't buy a single soda on board, we discussed it with the kids, and thanks to this board, knew ahead of time that there is a "beverage" station near the Mickey pool, that dispenses Lemonade, milk, coffee, tea hot chocolate, and ice water for free from 7 am to 11 pm. Kids got a soda with dinner, but loved the beverage station. Even the milk was a treat because it was whole milk, we drink fat free at home.