How much do you put on your shipboard charge?

[jkovick]

How much did you / do you put on your ship charge account? I am thinking that I could rack up quite a bit pretty quick!

 

[Masonpips]

I'll be bold and answer you! About $1500 in total. I have the breakdown at home, but over $500 of that was spa (massages at CC, Surial Bath + products). We also spent more than $200 on photos; I am horrible about taking my kids to get annual pics so I used the trip and Shutters to satisfy that need.

The remainder included: treasures (including great windbreakers at 1/2-price on ship), drinks (probably not more than $150 in total, including bottle of wine at Palo), tips (standard + Palo = $350 or so).

 

[markey]

We always average around $900, this year it was $932 (but I had $600 Disney Dollars so only $332 was actually charged.)and that includes the suggested tips plus a little extra for them. Break down was tips $360, Bingo $120, $272 excursions, $20 Shutters, and the rest drinks and gift shop.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

how much should be put on the accounts?? I'm passing info along to my mom

 

[jkovick]

Thanks for the replies-- I was figuring somewhere between $1000. and 1500. (Hopefully I will be able to control myself--although it is our first DCL cruise- so who knows!)

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Originally posted by CourtasanSatine
how much should be put on the accounts?? I'm passing info along to my mom

If I understand your question, you're asking about pre-paying? If so, you don't have to do that. You can secure your room account with a credit card. When it reaches a certain amount (I think $400), they will charge the card. You can also pay it off in part or in full at any time with a traveler's check (possibly even with personal check and proper ID).

You can go to guest services at any time during the trip and have them print out your current statement. It's easy to run up a pretty hefty tab as everything is just signed for, no money changes hands on board.

There are ways to limit spending. We usually plan or arrange our own shore excursions, rather than purchasing them through the cruise line. We do charge our tips to the room, that accounts for a fair amount of the final bill. Limiting spa spending and photo spending will help. At most of the photo ops on board, there's a crew member who will take your picture with your camera after the ship's photographer takes one. The photographers themselves will not, or are not allowed to, do this. At the spa, after treatments, you'll probably get a high-pressure sales pitch to drop some more cash on their products. That can get expensive in a hurry.

 

[HundredAcreWoods]

It is pretty hysterical to see some folks walk away from Guest Services with their room charge print out in hand.

Their facial expressions are precious. It is not part of the scheduled entertainment on the cruise, but funny just the same.

 

[moinab]

If you're not using a credit card, Guest Services will call you when your tab hits $200, at which time you can go to Guest Services to pay. At least, this is what was explained to us on our 3-day cruise in July. We actually didn't spend $200. I went to Guest Services the second night to pay $100, just in case we went over, but I think our final total was $170. We gave cash tips.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

our total was $582 including tips,pictures and 2 excrusions. oh yeah 3 shirts and that was on a 3 day but it was our first cruise. we figure to only spend $600-700 on our next cruise which is a 7 day eastern thanks

 

[Johnathan's Mom]

Our first cruise we spent about $1500. and it was a 4 day. Needless to say we were one of those guests who walked away with the entertaining facial expression. We have been on 4 other cruises since then and have not spent so much. Most of our expenses the first time was spent on pictures. When we got home and had our film developed we had pictures as good or better than some from the ship. We did live and learn and now have a digital camera that we can view our pictures immediately and see if we even need to purchase those. That has been great rationalization for the camera too.
Nov. 8 will be our 6th cruise. We spend less and less each time and seem to have a better time each time we go. We are true addicts!
Good luck with your first cruise! You may come away as a Disney Cruise addict the way we did!

Carla