How much money do we really need?

[DisneyMom92]

Assuming we are going to charge everything on the ship and not counting excursions, how much cash money do we realistically need for a 7 night cruise? I know a lot of this is a personal thing but some experienced advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[eva]

Hmm, I am trying to think of anything besides room service tips that we paid cash for. We charged all other tips and didn't eat anything while at port. Cash is pretty useless in most areas of the ship. Oh, we did tip cash for the persons running our excursion. I think we might have used $25 in cash the whole 7-day cruise.

 

[dreamcometrue]

a lot! Seriously, I have never been on a cruise, but this question has been asked a few times, and people have spent from $0 to thousands extra! Are you usually big vacation spenders? We'll be going on a 7 day Eastern, and I am budgeting about $3,000 on spending money! However, we plan on doing the dolphin excursion, so that's almost $800 right there! We are not HUGE on pictures when we go to the parks, so I suspect we won't spend a bunch at Shutters, but we are big tshirts, towels, other souveniers shoppers! We don't plan on any spa treatments, but will do at least a Palo brunch!

 

[dreamcometrue]

oh, didn't see that you said cash! I think you can take traveller's checks, that guest services can cash for you and there are always ATM's in ports, I am sure. I think we'll bring along $100 onboard, for roomservice, excursion tips, and maybe for port purchases. If we need more, we'll use our ATM card!

 

[shelleyr25]

Very little- use your credit card. All we paid for in cash was our car service to and from the airport. Everything on the ship went on our KTTW card and then on the credit card. Easier to keep track of everything spent and no worries about loosing cash.

 

[crisi]

Room service tips
Baggage tips
Excursion tips
Food and stuff off the boat (I think everyplace DCL stops is happy to take your dollars). For us, this was a coke or two, but if you want to spend the afternoon at Senor Frog's it might be a little more.

We tip our servers in cash, but you can put it on your room.

 

[IzzysMom]

I think we spent about $400 in cash on a 7-night Western Cruise last month - we tipped our servers and stateroom attendent with cash and when we went to Cozumel we took a cab to a beach and paid cash both ways, also got some food at beach - more cash. I guess we spent some cash in Key West, too.

Tipped porters who took our luggage at the port (about $2 per bag) and then tipped the porters again after the cruise (about $2 per bag - maybe a little extra 'cuz they were nice.)

If you want to tip in cash I believe it's about $78 per person for the week (divided up among those you tip.)

That's what we spent in cash. Hope it helps.

 

[Indea88]

$1500.00 should do it, with change to spare

 

[BoardwalkBabe]

We usually bring around $700 in cash.

We pay cash for breakfast on the way to the port, gas for the car, parking at the port and the luggage porters.

We pay cash for room service tips and then add cash to our regular tips at the end of the week. I usually bring some cash on our excursions, but we don't always spend it ($100). Mid week, I usually plunk some cash down on our account and at the end of the week, add some cash to our tip envelopes on top of what is already in there.

You also need cash for the porter who brings your bags to the car when you return to the port.

 

[eva]

I guess I should have said that we bring more than $25 in cash. And I didn't include the tips for the porters. So you could add another $10 dollars. We usually tip $5 each way for our two bags. We usually drive and spend some time at WDW before or after the cruise. So we probably bring $1,000 in cash. But we charge pretty much everything and normally bring quite a bit of cash home with us.

 

[Qball]

Assuming we are going to charge everything on the ship and not counting excursions, how much cash money do we realistically need for a 7 night cruise? I know a lot of this is a personal thing but some experienced advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

We took 1000USD in cash for our 7 night cruise and only used 154 dollars of it over the full two weeks we were in the US (we're from Canada). If you are planning to charge everything to your credit card you won't need much. Everything on the ship, we charged to our card, including tips. We used cash to tip the shuttle drivers, the porters before and after the cruise. We used room service a couple of times and charged the tip to the account as well.

 

[PatricenPete]

I am bringing $800 cash. $400 to use as a shipboard credit and then another $400 for cabs and the like off the ship and server tips. Of course there is always AMEX if this runs out, but we plan on eating most of our meals on the ship and exploring most places on our own in lieu of Disney excursions.....

 

[tvguy]

We took $700 cash, and $700 in travelers checks. Didn't use a single travelers check. Charged all excursions and $120 in beverages to my credit card, paid all on board tips in cash.
Biggest expense cash wise was airport meals for the 4 of us coming to and returning from Orlando and the morning of the cruise. Hard to spend less than $30 for 4 on any meal in an airport. Close to $300 there. Tips came next, just over $200 then parking for my car back my home airport for 8 days, $80.

 

[Anal Annie]

Tips, tips, tips. We usually have an early flight so we get a room at a hotel near the airport....then leave our car at the hotel & take their shuttle van straight to our skycaps 'cuz it's easy - but I pack a LOT (overpack DH likes to say). But so we figure $1 / bag for whoever handles them (the van driver, the skycap etc.) We use cash a lot on excursions when we shop at little tiny kiosk type places where you wheel & deal...everything on the ship goes to the credit card to be dealt with at home...but some places it's just more convenient to have cash...I think our bill last time ran around $1,500 - but that was for EVERYTHING Magic related!

 

[LisaBi]

We left home with $300.00 cash and came home with nearly $100.00 left. That covered tips for porters at the airports and port, tips for room service, taxi on Cozumel, a few small $ things on Cozumel, and car service from port (we did a one-way car rental to the port). Other than tips, taxis, and the car (accepted cash only), there really isn't anything to spend cash on. You could use cash instead of other payment forms for things you buy in ports if you wanted.

Now, if only the amount I put on my stateroom account was that low! I had no idea it would be possible to spend so much!

 

[Tink rules]

Ok... so if you have cash or travelers checks... can you give it to them for your on board credit or is it always a credit card? I can use either or all... Can you also go towards the end of your trip and pay your bill with cash or travelers checks or does it just stay on your card and you pay it that way?

 

[Selket]

You can somehow use your KTTW card to leave tips at the end of the cruise right? Some place gives you a receipt to put in an envelope?

 

[eva]

Tink rules, Yes, you can pay cash for your room credits. I would try to get down to Guest Services as early as possible to this. They are usually packed the last day.

Selket, That is the way that we did it. We went down to Guest Services and had them charge the tips to our room. They gave us slips to put in the tip envelopes for each person. We did this mid-way through the cruise. By then we pretty much knew what we wanted to give. Don't wait until the later part of the cruise to do this. Guest Services is packed later in the cruise.

 

[BoardwalkBabe]

Yes, you can put cash down on your account as often as you would like and then they will bill your credit card for the rest. On our last trip, I put down $ every couple of days and ended up with just $11 being charged to our card.