How do you afford these cruises??

[Alicia Gist]

We have cruised with Disney three times now. The first two cruises we were a family of four. The last cruise we were a family of five. It was cheaper to book 2 rooms and bring my mother than for the five of us to share one room. I can't believe how expensive Disney has gotten. We want to go again, but it will be a few years before we can go. I have looked at different web sites that have group cruises. Mouseearsvacations, dreamsunlimited.... This seem to be cheaper.

 

[lbgraves]

Steve, we used to be able to keep the kids in school while stealing away on vacation, but then Bush came along and put the kibosh on that with his "No Child Left Behind" program - now we have to bring them with us.

ROFL!!!! That is wonderful logic!

 

[stevechase]

Hi again

as someone else mentioned, it is frightening how much you spend on holidays. But still, we all only pass this way once, so why not. We are going to Cuba in august for 3 weeks, which has cost almost £ 4000.00, add that to the £3000.00 for last years trip to Tunisia. £1500.00 the year before for 4 days at Euro Disney, and the £5000.00 in 2002 to WDW. Finally *** the £6000.00 + it will cost us next year, it is a hell of a lot of money, but when I see the vidoe of the girls being invited into the parade in front of the Castle, it makes it all worthwhile.

Have a great holiday, where ever you go

Steve

 

[StuartMI]

As my one friend (that will be cruising with us in 2006) says, "There are no luggage racks on the hearse."

 

[ericamanda01]

As my one friend (that will be cruising with us in 2006) says, "There are no luggage racks on the hearse."

I love that! I will use that the next time my DH looks upset because I am asking him a thousand little questions about our next cruise!

 

[spencersmom]

In addition to the other great ideas that I read on here my husband and I also gave up giving each other gifts for Valentines, our anniversary, birthdays and Christmas for 2004 to offset the cost for the cruise last November. We both would do it again and agree that we would rather have the experiences of the cruise (the islands and all that goes with it!) to getting each other gifts that may or maynot want. That alone helped pay for the cruise.

We also did the coin jar-do it! It's scary how much money that adds up! I put a little extra money in savings each month and we found it didn't hurt us at all.

The best thing we did and I'm so excited about though is EBAY! We are moving this year and so we were clearing out crap from our house-listed 26 auctions and made $698 last week. We were $52 shy of putting a downpayment on our next cruise so we took that out of savings (which will be offset by April's yard sale) and I booked with DU two days ago. We used allearsvacation too look up the cheapest rates and almost went with them until I got a quote back from DU and it was $200 cheaper.

We are like a lot of people on this board and just value the cruise more than the day to day stuff that we can easily waste money on! (I keep a Disney Magic screensaver on my computer to constantly remind me of that is my goal-not the crap that I am finding to buy online.)

Sorry enough! Ginny

 

[cjsmith]

$100 fine for taking kids out of school... nice to know at least some government out there takes an interest in education!

sorry.. just found that interesting. I can imagine going overseas would be very expensive. I am very lucky to live in Florida, and can take advantage of the FLA rates.

Shelley

Going overseas does add greatly to the cost, however it can be cheaper to purchase airfare from the UK to the USA than from here to the UK. My plane tickets for us to take out trip on The Golden Princess this summer out of Southampton, UK was $5122 on British Airways out of NY and then another $800 for the 5 of us to go from Fort Myers into NY. That was still cheaper by $800 than flying directly from Miami. (This way we also get to see my parents in NY on the back end of the trip.)

 

[ambushangel]

My DS (9) and I are traveling in two weeks. When I heard what the trip was going to cost me, to be honest, I was a little taken back. But considering that 15 months ago he was hit by a truck and was not expected to make it through, any cost for this trip was well worth the smile on his face that he'll have to whole time.

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

As long as I can pay my bills.....My DD and I will go to WDW or cruise whenever we can... Life is too short! I lost my Sister at 27 and she never got too see her 19 month old and 5 year old grow up or take them to WDW...It is just not fair.....So I say if it makes you happy then find a way to go....

 

[ambushangel]

Nicely said BABYJOSIE98!

 

[lbgraves]

My thoughts exactly! Life is too short.

 

[mbw12]

My DS (9) and I are traveling in two weeks. When I heard what the trip was going to cost me, to be honest, I was a little taken back. But considering that 15 months ago he was hit by a truck and was not expected to make it through, any cost for this trip was well worth the smile on his face that he'll have to whole time.

Have a wonderful time.......you both deserve it!!!!! That is miraculous!!!!

 

[marv]

As long as I can pay my bills.....My DD and I will go to WDW or cruise whenever we can... Life is too short! I lost my Sister at 27 and she never got too see her 19 month old and 5 year old grow up or take them to WDW...It is just not fair.....So I say if it makes you happy then find a way to go....

I have never felt so happy when we were in WDW last year i just cant put into words how myself and my family felt. We were only there a couple of days and swore we would go back.
Our 2006 trip will be costing over £8,000 and thats not including all the park tickets and spending money.
Ime not sure wether we will ever go again but we wanted to make this trip the best so we will be staying in a villa for 3 weeks and then taking a 4 night cruise on the wonder which is very expensive but we just wanted to have an apsolute ball this time.
Disney is a magical place and our family fell in love with it, so what if we have to carry on paying for the holiday in 2007 it will be worth every penny.

 

[ambushangel]

Have a wonderful time.......you both deserve it!!!!! That is miraculous!!!!

Thank you very much, we can't wait.

 

[jillane88]

I just joined the boards today but have been lurking for awhile. I just booked our May 6, 06 Western two days ago for 12 of us. I thought it was a good deal until I read what some of you guys are paying. I've already put down my deposit but am second guessing my quote now. My travel agent is a very good personal friend, that is why I went with her but if I could have saved money, I probably would have booked elsewhere.

For 4 of us in a Cat. 9, it is costing just under $4000. For all 12 of us (3 cat 9 cabins and 1 cat 12 cabin) the total is going to be $12800.

I thought $4000 for 4 of us was a good deal, considering my husband and I cruised Raddison Seven Seas to Tahiti last year and it cost $6000 just for the two of us.

Am I way over-paying for a cat. 9?

Heather

1st Disney Cruise, 1st time to Florida

 

[Tigger&Belle]

For 4 of us in a Cat. 9, it is costing just under $4000. For all 12 of us (3 cat 9 cabins and 1 cat 12 cabin) the total is going to be $12800.

I just checked on the allseastravel website and their price for your cruise was $3453. I think that's based on 2 adults and 2 children (3-12yo).

T&B

 

[StuartMI]

Am I way over-paying for a cat. 9?

Puh-leeze call Dana at MICDAN.COM -- 1-800-385-8233. Tell her Stuart and the rest of the DIS gang referred you. She's wonderful and is ALWAYS the lowest price I can find.

 

[jillane88]

Puh-leeze call Dana at MICDAN.COM -- 1-800-385-8233. Tell her Stuart and the rest of the DIS gang referred you. She's wonderful and is ALWAYS the lowest price I can find.

Can I do this even though I've already booked and made a deposit on the cruise through someone else? We have 2 families of 5 (2 adults 3 kids under 10 each) and two other aldults - one of whom will have their own cabin.

Thanks for the tip. I just didn't know if I could do this since the cruise is already booked and deposited.
Heather

 

[StuartMI]

Well, yeah.

But you'd have to call up your current TA, tell them you didn't want to go or something and convince them to give you your money back. They should - at this stage the refund is 100% from Disney. The reservation as it exists right now can't be transferred from one TA to another. The only time it can be transferred is when it's booked by DCL proper, then a TA can take it over.

Just explain your situation to Dana - she'll answer all your questions and then some. You don't need to hide the fact that you're booked through another agent; Im sure she has this happen all the time.

I know she will tell you that she can't transfer it though and the only way to do it through her would be to have her book it and cancel the old reservation with the first TA. It may be worth your while to do this, it may not be. Try and see.

 

[lbgraves]

With our first cruise we did have the reservation transferred from one TA to another. They have to cooperate with you of course. We were getting terrible service from the first, then found a better rate with another and she took it over. It isn't common, but was done for us.