I know everyone is different, but, how much $$

[desamnik]

do you typically spend each day while on the ship? I'm curious how much we should plan on. We are on a 4 night and are a family of 4.

Can the kids get their own KTTW card with a set amount to spend on it? Or do they have to have access to "ours"?

I think I read somewhere that Disney Dollars arent accepted on the ship, is that true? Typically at WDW we give the kids each $15 each to spend per day.

Is 100 dollars per day a reasonable amount of money, unless we splurge on something extra?

Thanks for any thoughts on this....

 

[tinkmom2]

Hi,
I think our shipboard charges ended up being just under $600.00 for a family of 4 on a 4 nighter. That was including tips, pictures, drinks, souvies and Flounders charges and Palo. We also had a shipboard credit which took about $90.00 off. I didn't give my dd charging privileges. If she needed something she could come to me. All your cards are linked to your room and you can decide whether or not to give them privileges or not. Also you can see your room activity at any time by going to the service desk. We did it around the 2nd day just to be sure we didn't go "overboard" so to speak

 

[enchanted72]

We didn't give our kids charging privileges. We were 4 on a 3 day and spent aprox. $50 on pictures, $120 at the spa, $75 on drinks and on excursions maybe $200 (Carriage ride in Nassau and Stingray/float rentals at CC). I know our bill came out to under $500. But, realistically I didn't have to do the spa and we didn't have to do any excursions and still would have had a WONDERFUL time. So easily $100/day is an attainable budget goal.

 

[djd7292]

Wow, $100/day! On what? This will be our 2nd cruise (7 nighter)~ I bring my own camera, free beverages at the drink station (I might have the special of the day), & only booked 1 excursion. I spent enough for the cruise.. maybe I am being unrealistic.

My DD (16) will have privileges but knows she has to clear everything through me first.

 

[tjbaggott]

Except for a new camera bought on board (because I forgot our battery charger for the camera we brought with us), and excluding tips, I'd say we spent $200.00 total for our 4 day cruise 3 years ago. That included excursions for 4 of my family of 6, a few pictures purchased from shutters and a couple of small souvenires from the gift shop.
The spa is nice I'm sure, but I'm not interested in it. We didn't do Palo's last time, but will be doing that this coming trip. We aren't doing shore excursions this trip, so I imagine we'll spend less this time around.

 

[MelissaE1]

For a 7 night we budget $1000 for shipboard charges (not including tips), and that is about what it usually is. I do budget about $200 for pictures, as this is the ONLY time we get family pictures, and they come out so nice. It's a deal when you consider you can make as many copies as you want with the photo release. We are not big drinkers, but we do have the occasional bottle of wine, do Palo twice (dinner and brunch) and tip well, etc. We let the kids have one $4 smoothie with dinner each night. My DD and I usually get a sweatshirt (expensive, but we wear the heck out of them). I am sure we could do it for less, but we save for a long time for vacation, and we figure it in so we don't have to worry.

For a four night I would budget about $500-600, but you could definitely do it for $400 depending on what you spend money on.

Our kids are 14 and 10, and they do have charging privileges with the understanding that they check with us first. They think it's cool and have never abused it. We would revoke it if they were irresponsible.

 

[kimkreis]

Ok we just got off a three day and we spent $1400. We did the couples massage on CC and the Rasul so there was $450 in spa charges. We did the wine package, $100. We did Stingray Adenture - $170 for the 4 of us. $160 in gratuities for servers. $130 at Shutters (and whoever said it above, the family photos turned out great.) And lots of truly enjoyable overpriced drinks we enjoyed to the fullest, plus tons of fun souvies for the kids.

Over budget but enjoyed ever dime. We had a FABULOUS deal on the cruise so I assume we just gave Disney back the money they deducted of the initial price!

So so so very worth every minute.

 

[nenner1]

Yikes.....we spent a LOT!

We were on a 4 night and we spent $1800 onboard. This included our excursions in Nassau (Dolphins at Blue Lagoon) and on Castaway Cay (Banana Boat, wish those were still around!) and float/snorkel packages (4).

Do keep in mind this amount included all of our tips...as well as drinks, onboard purchases, etc. It was our first cruise and we did not restrain ourselves AT ALL (obviously, lol). The biggest single expenditure for us was Shutters, we bought a whole lot of pics and spent over $600.

On our second cruise, a 3-nighter we spent $1200 (again, including a very expensive excursion...this time Aquaventure). On our 7 night we spent $1600. On the 7 night we did our own excursions but by that cruise we had a decent amount of Flounder's time to pay for, in addition to the tips, which were much larger due to the length of the cruise being longer (and one more member of our party.)

LOL, we must have bought a whole lotta souvenirs!

 

[disneylove69]

You can use Disney dollars to pay towards room charges. Just go to guest services when your ready to settle your account.

 

[tvguy]

Your tips, if you tip by the guidelines, will work out to $48 a day for a family of 4 on a 4 day., so yes $100 is doable.
The biggest temptation is going to be photos from Shutters. Once you see them, you'll want them, and they aren't cheap.

I don't think there are any excursions for less than $25 a day per person, so if you go on an excursion, that alone will blow your $100 a day budget.

Everything in the spa will likely break your budget since the cheapest activity there is $40 plus tip, the next cheapest is $83 per person, and it goes up from there, mostly above $100.. Some folks on this board plan on $1,000 at the spa. (love massages, but not from strangers).

Long answer, but, yes, you can have a great cruise and spend less than $100 a day,

 

[Scooby3x1y]

Yes, you can set spending limits. We also got a special card just for the arcade on our first cruise. Once the money was gone, it was gone. On later cruises, we allowed the kids one "smoothie" or that type of specialty drink per day. The really didn't need to purchase anything otherwise. On CC or any other excursion, we were there and could purchase for them. If the kids wanted anything from the on ship stores, they would ask permission, and could charge, or we would go get it for them. However, we didn't allow them to just go pick out souveniers.

We bought a few pictures, but not the packages. One formal night, one of the ship entry...etc.

I don't know if the OP meant to include tips in the daily allotment. If not, $100 I believe is doable.

Excursions would be way above that, even if you booked outside the DCL.

I think our out of pocket, excluding tips for a 7 day cruise was about $600.

 

[kcashner]

You cannot set an amount for your kids on the KTTW card--any discussion of amounts is between parent and child. Thru DCL they either do or do not have charging.

We've done inexpensive cruises and "otherwise" cruises. My "best" was when my 4 day cruise exceeded my OBC by $20...but we obviously didn't spend much at all on that one. We did Palo and tips and a very little shopping. On the expensive end, $100 per day for the 2 of us is high end for me in addition to my OBC.

I always try to have enough OBC to handle tips if possible.....rebooking on board goes a long way.

 

[Uno Mas]

We just returned from a 4-day and spent $1200 - includes adult beverages, a couple souvenirs, and tips. No excursions, no photos. Guess you can say we over indulged on the beverages but it was well worth it! We did do the premium wine package and also had several bottles of very good wine at Palo.

 

[disneycrazzzy]

I agree with kcashner; you cannot set a spending limit for your kids. You either have to give your kids the ability to charge or not. If you have any reason to be concerned, you need to go to guest services and check their charges periodically throughout the cruise. You can remove charging privileges at any time.

Our budget for our upcoming cruise for three (myself, DS15, DS11):

PALO: $40
Key West Excursion: $285
Grand Cayman Excursion: $285
Cozumel Excursion: $186
Castaway Cay Excursion: $104
Photos/Shutters: $0 (if we can resist)
Tips: $252
Souveniers/Drinks/Room Service: $150 (I don't drink alcohol)
Spa: $0
Internet: $0
Bingo: $0
Arcade: $0
Laundry: $30 (send boys suits/shirts out 1st night + self-service)

Total $1332
Per Person $444
Per Day: $190
Per Day/Per Person $63

The other things that might cost us will be souveniers we might buy in port. We don't buy alcohol or jewelry or clothes....but we might buy some knicks knacks. My budget breaker will probably be buying photos or pins. The extent of my sons charges have been Shirley Temples at Diversions in the past.....

 

[Bracy]

Here's the breakdown for our upcoming 7 nighter for 4 (2 kids incl.).

gratuities 280 (but probably more)
other tips 30
tortola taxi to beach 58 (incl. tip)
st. thomas taxi to beach 90 (incl. tip)
cc bike rental 18
palo brunch 20
shutters 25
souvenirs 100
adult drinks 0 (we bring our own & don't drink much anyways)

total 621 or less than $100 per day

This will be our 6th cruise and it is very doable.

 

[Momof4girls]

We are budgeting about $100/day.

We've decided to not do any excursions (with our kids' ages, it's just not that easy and SUPER expensive) and our kids are staying with us in lieu of kids' club activities.

We are also not doing any adult-only dining. We're kind of a *stick together* crew when it comes to vacations.

Honestly, I don't know what we'd spend $100 a day on. I do plan to send some of DH's linen shirts off to be pressed. And, of course, we'll have tips for room service and general cruise tips. I would like to get a picture package. And, uh - I don't know. Maybe some lattes

 

[Momof4girls]

OH - and I do plan to get a case of water in our room(s). That costs extra

 

[dta87]

OH - and I do plan to get a case of water in our room(s). That costs extra

I am assuming you have seen this thread concerning picture packages:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2144614

And if you can, I would bring your own case of water unless you like Evian and don't mind paying 30 something a case.

 

[Momof4girls]

I figured I pay that much per bottle for evian anyway. We're already pretty pinched for space with six kids.

I saw the pre-pay photo packages, but I couldn't decipher them - there were different prices one some packages and others didn't have a price listed at all.


Are they cheaper if you prepay or something? If not, I'm not concerned.

 

[nenner1]

I figured I pay that much per bottle for evian anyway. We're already pretty pinched for space with six kids.

I saw the pre-pay photo packages, but I couldn't decipher them - there were different prices one some packages and others didn't have a price listed at all.


Are they cheaper if you prepay or something? If not, I'm not concerned.

Yes, but the options for the prepay packages seem rather limited.

Onboard iirc (and I should know b/c I promised on my last cruise I would buy the cheapest package and stick to it) the cheapest photo package is $189.95..I think that was eight 8x10's and two 6x8. This may have changed since they implemented photopass onboard, so don't quote me...but it used to be they only printed photos in two sizes 8x10 and 6x8. Most of the character shots were 6x8 and the lifestyle photos (white and ship backgrounds) were in 8x10's.

The photos are extremely expensive. You can always buy them a la carte. When I was onboard the price of a 6x8 was around $10-$14 apiece and the 8x10's were aound $20 apiece. (keep in mind these are estimates, just what I remember the cost being about, and again-this was prior to photopass implementation)

HTH a bit!