How much do I need to go on a cruise?

[amanda12404]

I need help. I have been on these boards constantly. Since this would be our first cruise and not sure how everybody would do we are planning on a 4 night Bahamas cruise. Besides the cost of the cruise, how much more do I need to budget for? My husband is afraid there wouldn't be much for him to do. He is not a pool person. My kids would be 12 and 9 so I am worried that I waited too long and we should have done this a couple of years ago when they were younger. I really want them to experience this, so I just have to get my husband on board.

Thank you

Amanda

 

[annacali]

We just did our first cruise last week. My girls are 10 and 12 and LOVED it! They spent almost no time in the kids clubs (my 12 yo was too intimidated by edge by herself and they both felt too old for the club/lab). That said, they watched many a movie by the pool, went to movies in the theater, did the Great Detective agency several times, and there are shows and programs throughout the ship in various places at all times. We generally had the problem of too much to do---not bored at all ever!

As far as budgets---if you plan to do shore excursions you need to plan for those. Your 12 yo will be adult prices. Spa services extra as well. Classes like mixology, wine and beer tastings, bingo all are extra. Alcoholic beverages, specialty coffees, specialty drinks (smoothies etc) are all extra. The coffee on the ship was AWFUL so we spent $5 per day per person for the adults on a specialty coffee each day. Other splurges would include the professional pictures taken by the ship or excursion photographers. We saved up our Disney Visa points, got onboard credit from our travel agent and bought gift cards at Target at 5% off (by using RedCard) to pay for all the extras on our cruise.

Enjoy your cruise. We loved every minute and can't wait to go back!

 

[ludari]

Your budget depends on what you plan on doing or spend while on your cruise. One thing you should keep in mind are the tips required for each person in your party but you can pay for the tips ahead of time if you choose and I would suggest you contact DCL or your travel agent. Some of the other things you might spend money on but is not mandatory are port adventures, specialty coffees/drinks at the Cove Café or bars, meals at Palo/Remy, photo packages, spa treatments, and souvenirs. I travel alone and after paying for my tips and port adventures I usually budget $100 a day. There is also a lot to do aside from the pool (I'm not a pool person either) and one of my favorite things to do is sit near the pool or Cove Café and read or nap. I also enjoy the shows, exploring the ship, working out, going to presentations, movies, etc... believe me there is much more to cruising than just the pool.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Tips, http://cruisetip.tpkeller.com/

Port adventures,

Booze.

Palo and it Remy meals.

Shopping.

Bingo.

Photos.

 

[Saamh]

I think 12 and 9 are perfect ages to go on a first DCL cruise. My husband was also one who didn't think he would enjoy a cruise. He was very hesitant to agree to give it a try but at the end of the 4 days, he was hooked. He said it was the best family vacation ever. We're taking our 10th Disney cruise in October and still feel like there are things we haven't been able to do onboard since there is always so much to choose from.

Some budget items in addition to the cruise fare you'll need to consider:

• Airfare
• Hotel the night before your cruise (it is recommended to fly in the day before to avoid missing the ship due to flight delays, etc.)
• Transportation to the port (we usually rent a car at MCO and drop it in Port Canaveral and then do the same on the return)
• Gratuities ($12 per person per day is the recommended amount. We have always received such amazing service we include more)
• Specialty drinks; alcohol and smoothies are not included so you would want to include this in your budget if you plan on drinking
• Professional photos. We usually buy 1 or 2 of the DCL photos. I think they are about $15 for a 5x7 and $20 for an 8X10. Photo packages are available if you want more but they are quite pricey.
• Pre-packages snacks. Popcorn sold before the shows is not included
• Shore excursions. In my opinion I don't think they're necessary on a 4 night itinerary. Castaway Cay is beautiful and there's plenty to do w/o spending extra. We stayed on the ship in Nassau on our first cruise since there was so much to do and it was great to experience the pools, slides, etc. when they were pretty empty.
• Souvenirs

My husband is an accountant so we have all of our trips in spreadsheets. I looked at our first 4 night cruise in 2010 and to give you an idea here is what we spent;

• $100 on alcohol
• $240 on souvenirs (we thought we would only cruise once so we went a little heavy on souvenirs!)
• $350 gratuity
• $120 hotel
• $60 car rentals

If you book through a travel agent like Dreams Unlimited, they will provide you with an onboard credit to thank you for your business. This will help to cover some of your onboard expenses.

 

[Barbydoll8]

I've been on 3 cruises. 2 three day and 1 five day. DH and I are not pool or beach people as we live in FL and have access to these things all the time. DH drinks and I do not. I do drink the specialty coffee though. I do not get the pricey pro pictures or play bingo. Plenty to do all day/evening. We spent about $125 before tips for a 3 day and about $200 for a 5 day. This is total not each. This does not count excursions. You can do it for hardly anything extra though after tips. Just depends on if you want to spend the extra.
I suggest looking at some old Navigators and see what things have $$ attached to them. Most things are included except what others have called out.

 

[amanda12404]

You guys are amazing. Neither of us drink alcohol. We could play bingo but not sure if the kids would want to do that when there are so many other things to do. I was thinking of doing an excursion in Nassau but not on Castaway Cay. How do I get a hold of old Navigators? I tried doing a search but I would like to see a couple to show him. My husband is an accountant too so he needs to be able to see a budget and put in his little excel spreadsheet!!

 

[SillyInventor]

My husband is afraid there wouldn't be much for him to do. He is not a pool person.

There is a LOT to do for people who don't hang in the pool all day, both adults and children.
You can check out some past navigators here (scroll a bit down to navigators):
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/cruise-planning/itineraries/itinerary-summary/?itinerary=2
They will give you a good impression of what will be going on. These change from cruise to cruise, so always study the navigator you receive every day.
Have a great cruise!

 

[MinnieMouse64]

I agree with all the others that have posted on here. Can I recommend a really good excursion in Nassau…..Blue Lagoon!! We purchased it on the ship. You can do a swim or interaction with the dolphins. They also have an interaction with sea lions. Look it up on youtube. The ride over is awesome. Once you are done, they have a private beach area to swim. We stayed about an hour longer to swim in the beach area and came back and took a quick shower so we could do some quick shopping in Nassau. Bring extra money for pictures or the video. We only bought the pictures but could kick myself for not bringing enough money to purchase the video. If it helps, my hubby didn't want to go on a Disney Cruise (he thought all it would be is TONS of kids and nothing to do for adults) but decided it would be fun to take our 1 year old grandson since he loves Mickey Mouse Club on TV. Well that was three years ago. Guess what, we are getting ready to book our third Disney Cruise this year. There are TONS of kid clubs so we didn't see that many kids (we seen more on our Carnival cruise). Disney is the only cruise line that has fireworks on their cruise ships, they do this on pirate night. Oh and for a basically a free souvenirs, you can drop off a pillowcase or picture frame mat along with colored sharpie markers and the characters will sign them for you. You drop these off at customer service on your first day on the ship and they deliver it back to your stateroom on your last night. We order my grandson a pillowcase from Etsy.com. Here is a picture of a pillowcase we did. One last thing if you have a Kroger grocery store, you can purchase Disney gift cards there and you earn gas points. I feel that I am earning some of my money back by purchasing the gift cards and saving on my gas.

 

[amanda12404]

Yes I have been looking at the Blue Lagoon excursions for the dolphin experience. Good grief that looks amazing. How long are you actually with a dolphin? Some of them seemed like 15 minutes which seems so short for how expensive it is. It seems like there are different levels of dolphin experiences. Can you tell me the difference? Also thank you for including the photo and video because I wouldn't have thought of that. Do you remember about how much those were? Sorry I think of a new question every 5 minutes!

 

[thumpie's mom]

There are so many activities for adults, families and kids that the hardest thing is deciding which one to do! Most of the activities are included in your fare, other than what has already been noted. My husband had the same concerns as yours, but 6 cruises later, they are his favorite vacations. Take a look at the Navigators SillyInventor posted the link to...they are a great source of information. Have a wonderful and magical cruise!

 

[tltay2005]

The only thing you HAVE to budget for is the automatic tips and parking at the port, everything else would be elective. We did not plan any excursions, stayed on the ship in Nassau, and had plenty to keep us busy. We brought our own alcohol, and the coffee was fine (with sugar and cream) and did not do the adult specialty dining, so we had no drink or food bill. The only elective expenses were bingo as a family (lots of fun, the CMs make it very entertaining) and something small in the gift shop. Our total bill, including the tips, was $133.00. The parking was $60.00 for the three nights, which is paid when you arrive. There are so many activities that do not cost anything: miniature golf, detective agency game, chip it golf (in the main lobby), musical entertainment in the main lobby, shuffleboard, family games shows & karaoke. That is just a few. Castaway Cay is also great, lunch is included, and again, you do not have to spend any money there if you don't want to. You and your family (including your husband (mine was also reluctant to go) will have a great time.

 

[MinnieMouse64]

It seems like we were actually interacting with the dolphins for approximately 15-20 mins. They have you climb down on this platform (which is kinda slick..so be careful) and they have everyone in your family have there picture taken with the dolphin. Next they have you shake hands (and fins), kiss, pet, and dance with the dolphin. Dancing with the dolphin had me laughing so hard, I had to stop. The girl that did ours starting singing for each person when your dancing with the dolphin in her bahama slang, she sung "I like the way you move it", when it was my turn and the dolphin looked like he was humping instead of dancing…LOL. It was a hoot!!!!! I can not remember what it actually cost, maybe $135? Maybe someone else that has done it recently can tell you. My grandson was only one when we did it, so he was unable to do it so my hubby watched him while my daughter and I did it. They charged for my grandson and hubby to go but not full price, maybe $65? But they were able to use the beach area. Honestly, my hubby enjoyed the ride over and back. The water is beautiful and the guys driving the boat showed us who's movie stars homes we were driving by. Have your camera ready. As far as the different levels the only thing I can think of is one is interacting and the other is actually swimming with the dolphins. Again, someone that has done it recently might be able to answer those questions. One word of advice that customers service told me while booking our excursions, you might be able to get the excursion cheaper if you book it yourself ,but if you book it on the ship they know you are on that excursion and the ship will wait on you if your late getting back. Whether that is true or not it gave me a piece of mind that the ship wasn't going to leave me until I got back from my excursion.

 

[MinnieMouse64]

The only thing you HAVE to budget for is the automatic tips

You can opt to pre-pay for your gratuity when you book your cruise. This is what we do. And if the person did an awesome job, we opt to give them more at the end. We have even tipped some staff that were not even our waitress or waiters because they went out of their way to help us when my grandson was so little and they grabbed our trays to help us when we had to carry our grandson. These people work from daylight to dark. I agree you can do lots of things without hardly spending any money after you get on the ship. One word of advice, is always keep a check on your key to the world card (its your room key, plus it allows you to charge things to your room in the dining rooms and shops) balance at the customer service desk. If you opt to buy gift cards, I would cash them in at customer service and apply the balance to your key to the world card. Our first cruise I used the gift cards in the shops and when I went to check on our room balance the next night everything I purchased showed up as a balance to our room. Thank God, I saved the receipts and showed them to the girl working the customer service desk showing the zero balance because of the gift cards. The girl working the shop didn't know how to apply it correctly this is why it showed up. The girl at customer service said if I had anymore to just apply them to our room at customer service because they know how to do it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How do I get a hold of old Navigators? I tried doing a search but I would like to see a couple to show him

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/personal-navigators/

 

[DizneyNutz]

You guys are amazing. Neither of us drink alcohol. We could play bingo but not sure if the kids would want to do that when there are so many other things to do. I was thinking of doing an excursion in Nassau but not on Castaway Cay. How do I get a hold of old Navigators? I tried doing a search but I would like to see a couple to show him. My husband is an accountant too so he needs to be able to see a budget and put in his little excel spreadsheet!!

The Bingo is an added expense to play but the reward can be more than the expense should you be the lucky one.

 

[Carie Baker]

This isn't really going to answer your question about $ but... I'm a single parent with a now 13 yr old boy and we started out on a 4 night Bahama cruise for our first cruise too. We had never cruised before but are huge Disney fans so we did a short cruise to see if we would like it. We are getting ready to take our third cruise this summer to Alaska so needless to say we did. My only regret on our first cruise is that I scheduled an excursion in Nassau. Don't get me wrong we had a blast on our Atlantis excursion but I feel like we missed so much of what was being offered on the boat. If I could do it again... I would stay on the boat and enjoy all there is to do there. You will fall so in love with cruising with Disney that you'll do more and more cruises and more than likely will end up doing a Bahama cruise again where you can do excursions. I'm not at all a pool person and even on our next cruise which was a 5 nights to Mexico I still felt like I couldn't do all that I wanted to do.

Enjoy

 

[timrousbeastie]

[..] My only regret on our first cruise is that I scheduled an excursion in Nassau. Don't get me wrong [...]

I felt exactly the same way: our first 3 day cruise felt way too short and there were so many things on the Dream that we missed completely. 4 days would be excellent for a first cruise, but I wouldn't think twice about cutting a port adventure in Nassau, saving the money, and relaxing on the ship instead. Castaway Cay will make up for it and you can have a great time there for free, except for souvenirs or perhaps a cheap bike rental (which we really enjoyed). Once Amanda's DH is on board, they can always book more port adventures on their next cruise. A nice thing about DCL is that we've never felt any pressure whatsoever to spend extra money on the ship (aside from the spa and personal training in the fitness center, neither of which would have been any priority on our first cruise). Oh, and 9-12 years is indeed a perfect age for a Disney cruise. Good luck, Amanda, please let us know how it turns out.