how to afford a Disney cruise

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Watch the series Breaking Bad to pick up tips.... Hey presto concierge lol...

I agree with PP sail off season. Plus I find DCL more honest about actual cost. Like others have said it includes everything except tips. Also we book another cruise onboard to get 10% off and use TA to get OBC we use that yo pay tips.

We sailed with NCL. We got the nora virus free of charge. Never again...

 

[Texans_loyal]

First, it helps to have a lot of money. I always tell my children that to be financially independent it helps to have selected wealthy parents. Next, marry into wealth. However, if you don't have a lot of money, I would suggest sailing during the off-season, book inside cabins, and move to Florida and join the military so you can get instate or military discounts and be able to drive to PC. You can save a ton of money if you don't have to fly to the port.

MUN

 

[Sytrace]

Thanks for all of your advice. How do people know when the GT rates are available to book?

There have been threads on this board as to GTY rates as well as military and FL resident rates (if applicable)
Also,it seems that they come out when a cruise reaches the 75 day out mark. Most folks will have paid in full alreadt and there might be a handful of unbooked cabins.

 

[Sytrace]

First, it helps to have a lot of money. I always tell my children that to be financially independent it helps to have selected wealthy parents. Next, marry into wealth. However, if you don't have a lot of money, I would suggest sailing during the off-season, book inside cabins, and move to Florida and join the military so you can get instate or military discounts and be able to drive to PC. You can save a ton of money if you don't have to fly to the port.

MUN

Oh my goodness, you just made my whole morning. Thank you!

 

[Rabb it]

Traveling in the offseason really cuts down on the price of the cruise and airfare.

But as far as getting the money for the cruise, one thing my girlfriend and I did was buy a little glass jar and whenever we have extra cash we toss it in there. I try to put twenty bucks in there every pay check, and if I have like 8 bucks in my pocket after the weekend I toss it in there. We did that for about 6 months and when it came time to pay for the trip we had around 800 bucks. Not enough for the trip but it definitely lessened the load!

 

[RedSox68]

Watch the series Breaking Bad to pick up tips.... Hey presto concierge lol...

 

[Partyof4LA]

Vacations are very important to us and we prioritize our budget to reflect what we want. We have a separate savings account for vacations and have it set to automatically deposit a certain amount from our checking account every month. By doing this, we have a set amount put aside every year for vacationing and don't have to think twice about it.
Some years we take several trips throughout the year that may not cost much. For the years we do DCL or another very expensive trip, we may do a few weekend getaways and a cheapish beach trip during the summer and otherwise don't spend from the vacation fund.
At this point in our lives, DCL is worth the expense to my family so we make it happen even if that means fewer and less extravagant trips the rest of the year (or even the year before).

 

[Ofinn]

Watch the series Breaking Bad to pick up tips.... Hey presto concierge lol...

I agree with PP sail off season. Plus I find DCL more honest about actual cost. Like others have said it includes everything except tips. Also we book another cruise onboard to get 10% off and use TA to get OBC we use that yo pay tips.

We sailed with NCL. We got the nora virus free of charge. Never again...

Plenty of people get norovirus on DCL. Didn't they just have a couple of outbreaks, and those people paid big money to get it. In all seriousness Noro virus happens on all cruise lines.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Plenty of people get norovirus on DCL. Didn't they just have a couple of outbreaks, and those people paid big money to get it. In all seriousness Noro virus happens on all cruise lines.

That is a fair comment but the difference was NCL knew of the virus when we got on and did not clean the ship as they should have done. We were told that good practice after 3 weeks of the virus being onboard should have made them dry dock and decomtaminent the ship. Nobody went to the restaurants at night, folks throwing up on the decks. You had to see it to believe it. It was pure negligence. You should have seen the state of the bathrooms. They should have warned passengers on getting on. I have a comprimised immune system and nearly died.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

That is a fair comment but the difference was NCL knew of the virus when we got on and did not clean the ship as they should have done. We were told that good practice after 3 weeks of the virus being onboard should have made them dry dock and decomtaminent the ship. Nobody went to the restaurants at night, folks throwing up on the decks. You had to see it to believe it. It was pure negligence. You should have seen the state of the bathrooms. They should have warned passengers on getting on. I have a comprimised immune system and nearly died.

Hmmm..........Deep cleaning...YES, Dry Dock.....no! It would serve no purpose.


AKK

 

[timrousbeastie]

One thing, I've found to be very helpful, is to educate myself about what the nicest alternatives to Disney are, in particular by reading trip reports on various message boards and watching vlogs on YouTube. When I started out cruising 3 years ago, I would only consider Disney because it was the only cruise line where I felt certain that my family would have a safe and pleasant vacation. Although I still prefer Disney, I recently came to a point where I felt sufficiently reassured to make a booking with another company. Although I am privileged to be able to afford DCL thanks to my job, I felt that the prices had become so high that I started comparing what I could get elsewhere for the cost of our next Fantasy cruise in February. I was shocked to see the results and, after showing the family a YouTube video, ended up booking a cruise in October 2017 on a ship that everyone is very excited about. In early 2018, we'll probably cruise DCL again, but, after that, I have my eyes on a cruise from Sydney to the islands in the South Pacific for later in 2018. There are some really cool options out there once you dig deeper. And exciting next-gen ships are entering the market all the time.

 

[GPaLarry]

We (wife & I, grandparents) have been on five Disney cruises, even one without kids & grandkids. Our next cruises are in September when we go, just us, on the Magic to the Mediterranean and b2b across the Atlantic to NYC. We also have booked an Alaska cruise with nearly everyone for next June with the Mouse. In our family, we don't look at other cruise lines...how can you when DCL is so unique. What other cruise line has magical, interactive pictures in the halls? Who else would think of the idea to create a "live" porthole in their inside staterooms? Where else can you become a pirate for a night with fireworks? And what other cruise line has a cool horn? DCL is truly one of a kind and the imagineering is awesome to see/experience. And the kids never say, "are we there yet?" because you are taking the park with you. You can save money with repositioning cruises and, sometimes overlooked, is the fact that DCL has no casino on board. It's absence helps you save money for your next cruise. We can't wait for the two new ships to come on line...hope one of them will come over to the west coast, where we live.

 

[tinkerone]

We (wife & I, grandparents) have been on five Disney cruises, even one without kids & grandkids. Our next cruises are in September when we go, just us, on the Magic to the Mediterranean and b2b across the Atlantic to NYC. We also have booked an Alaska cruise with nearly everyone for next June with the Mouse. In our family, we don't look at other cruise lines...how can you when DCL is so unique. What other cruise line has magical, interactive pictures in the halls? Who else would think of the idea to create a "live" porthole in their inside staterooms? Where else can you become a pirate for a night with fireworks? And what other cruise line has a cool horn? DCL is truly one of a kind and the imagineering is awesome to see/experience. And the kids never say, "are we there yet?" because you are taking the park with you. You can save money with repositioning cruises and, sometimes overlooked, is the fact that DCL has no casino on board. It's absence helps you save money for your next cruise. We can't wait for the two new ships to come on line...hope one of them will come over to the west coast, where we live.

Royal has live Virtual Balcony's. I think that's pretty cool. They have some other features as well that top the innovations list. I know lots of teens would prefer the flow rider to the aquaduck. I would expect with the two new ships there will be some new cool stuff however its becoming more and more of a cruise ship war and the other brands are coming up with interesting things just as fast as DCL now.
To each our own. We have never sailed anything other than DCL but I'm very very excited for our next cruise which will be on the Oasis, and can't wait to see what RCL and DCL come up with on their new ships. We may be back however chances are we won't.
Happy cruising to all, were all different but we all deserve a great vaca!

 

[Hundredacre]

Plenty of people get norovirus on DCL. Didn't they just have a couple of outbreaks, and those people paid big money to get it. In all seriousness Noro virus happens on all cruise lines.

I actually think our son caught it once on dcl.

 

[ravensterling3]

We started getting 25 dollar gift cards each week to help cover the tips and alcohol drinks on board. Plus we also have a disney visa card so we are using the points that we have saved up.

 

[Transit]

We discovered rebooking while on board gets you a discounted rate and an onboard credit, plus booking with an agent can get you an onboard credit.

As to getting sick on board, I go into germ phobic mode while on board. I wash my hands a lot, try not to touch my face, wipe my hands while walking into the buffet, and get an extra hand wipe at the entrance to the buffet. If there's a section of the buffet getting less traffic, I use that one. After I get my food, I sanitize my hands again and try to only eat things with utensils rather than hands.

 

[Ofinn]

My biggest savings on cruises is not doing excursions. Ive never understood why people will pay 75.00 pp to go to a beach when you can just take a cab for 20.00 bucks.
This really befuddled me on our Iceland cruise. So much cheaper on your own especially since kids were free or half price on many things.
If you do decide to cruise, and you need help on how to save money in port just ask.

 

[Vijoge]

We sailed with NCL. We got the nora virus free of charge. Never again...

Plenty of people get norovirus on DCL. Didn't they just have a couple of outbreaks, and those people paid big money to get it. In all seriousness Noro virus happens on all cruise lines.

I got Noro Virus at work. They didn't charge me, either lol Noro outbreaks are found anywhere there are a lot of people. Not just cruises. And definitely not just one cruise line.

 

[Ofinn]

I got Noro Virus at work. They didn't charge me, either lol Noro outbreaks are found anywhere there are a lot of people. Not just cruises. And definitely not just one cruise line.

I had it about 10 years ago. I have no idea where I got it. I wasn't on vacation though so I could have picked it up anywhere.

 

[dinoscope]

This probably doesn't count, but my MIL is paying for our upcoming cruise. She paid for the cruise itself, and we're covering everything else- travel to Florida, the photo package, a photo book as a Thank You to her. We aren't doing excursions, so there's a cost saving. I have also converted a lot of Target Gift Cards earned from Swagbucks into Disney Gift Cards to use while we're there.