Is everyone that cruises with DCL rich?

[orlandothebeagle]

OP. I just wanted to say, It's not how much money you make, Its how much you spend/save. I make 6 figures (own a financial services office) and I have saved the majority of what we make. BUT I work with people that make over 700k a year and they are BROKE! So by no means does taking a Disney Cruise constitute you as Rich, but just a way of life. I LOVE Disney, and we always find ways to go. Perhaps I am a big saver but spending 6k on Disney is when I get the bill. But like you said, book out as far as you can, and save. Get a huge water jug and put all of your loose change in it. You will save an extra 800 before then. YOU CAN DO IT. Getting into debt for it, is not worth it though. Hope this helps. Have fun on your cruise.

So true, depends on what you spend it on, I can be so miserable with some things, but will go on a disney cruise (cat 11/12 )

 

[MINNIE OF TWO MICE]

Have you looked into a 7 day in the first two weeks of December? The ships are decorated for the holidays and the price has been lower like September rates when we have cruised then the past few years.

This is when we travel. I booked both cruise trips with Dreams Unlimited. We booked the land portions separate so we could get the resort we wanted and the category we wanted on the ship. I used Sue Ellen and she was very helpful. Looking at the age of your children I would start planning and saving because before you know it they will be gone off and have families of their own. Christmastime at Disney is wonderful. Happy planning and saving..... YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!

 

[tvguy]

How about enlisting the kids to help with making contributions to a vacation fund. Maybe some can get a paper route or do chores for neighbors.

Around here, the newspapers don't use kids anymore. When I was a kid, if you were good, you might get a route with 150 customers, now I don't think there is a route smaller than 2,000, and the carriers are all adults driving mini-vans. I have to be at work at 3 am and I encounter these carriers every morning, driving down the wrong side of the road, weaving back and forth.

As for the incomes of Disney cruisers......for us it was a special event, made possible by an inheritance. We figured it would be one of our last family vacations. Our HAL cruise the year before cost half what Disney cost. Our NCL America cruise 3 years later was a gift (but cost 1/3 of a Disney cruise).

I don't doubt that the vast majority of Disney cruises make either above average incomes, (U.S. Census says the average household income in 2007, the last year available was $50,233) or are willing to take on a lot more debt than I would ever consider taking on.
I do understand, as posted, that folks with only $20,000 income can cruise. Just depends on your expenses. My mom is in the category, and she has more disposable income that we do, and we earn a lot more. But her house has been paid for for 49 years, her total normal living expenses are about $6,000 a year (yes, she is a child of the depression and can get blood from a turnip). She bought a brand new Pinto in 1976 and drove it 27 trouble free years, and decided to treat herself to a new car in 2003 when it needed a major repair.

 

[disneynewbee]

We're also middle class. This will be our first cruise and we are a family of 6. We booked 2 cat 12's to save money. We are only doing the 4 day though and combining it with a wk at the parks since my kids can't imagine being in FL and not doing the parks. If we decide we like cruising we will do a non disney cruise next year that leaves from a port close enough to drive to since flying is a large portion of our cost. We get a large tax return every year and that pays for our yearly vacation.

 

[HallsofVA]

Have you looked into a 7 day in the first two weeks of December? The ships are decorated for the holidays and the price has been lower like September rates when we have cruised then the past few years.

I was just going to suggest the same thing. All of our past and planned cruises have been the first or second week of december. While it does involve taking the kids out of school, you get the benefit of a vacation during the holiday season without the steep prices of the cruises that actually include a holiday day.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Not rich by no means. Middles class family. We save up for our vacations. Have sailed 2x before & we did it in 'off' season, my DD was younger. Now that she is older, not an option to take her out of school. We found a GREAT deal for June of this year. The price is about what we paid in 2004 in Dec. Just keep looking around, they have great deals that come up!

Hey, is it June 13th? If so, come on by the cruise meets board. We have an active thread there.

 

[TifffanyD]

We do OK but since we have no kids we can go in the off season and book as cheap as possible. Our cruise last jan was $670 and included $125 OBC. Same thing with our upcoming cruise in November. We'll use the OBC for tips, hopefully Palo, and maybe a little something extra. We don't have 7 people tho...

 

[trimix]

Keep in mind that almost nobody is rich, and almost nobody is poor. You talk to somebody with a family annual income of $20,000 or $400,000 and they twill tell you they are just average middle class.

Very few people at either income extreme have enough money to just drop cash for a cruise, so you have two choices - the smart choice is to make your reservation well in advance and save so you can pay most or all the expense before leaving; the foolish choice is to think of your credit card as 'free money' and charge the full amount then pay it off later.

Life is full of little lies people think they need. Some time back I saw a poll that said over 1/3 of people "need" leather seats in a new car, in my area over half of adults "need" one or two expensive espressos each morning, most of my coworkers need to buy lunch each day because they don't have enough time to stop at the store and buy food for lunch (after spending 15 minutes getting their espresso). People need a new car because used just isn't good enough, and five years old is 'too old'.
I know people who "need" to go out to dinner at least once or twice a week to relax, but I'll bet they could relax just the same picking up a pizza on the way home from work.
Most people I know 'need' to be health club members to stay healthy, but they never go work out. Save $60 a month if you aren't going to use it!

As for me, I know we are above average. But I just bought my first house 18 months ago - nothing special, an "average" house of about average size at a median price for this county. I pay about $30,000 per year towards mortgage and insurance, and I accept that in my part of the country you need to be very much above average or you will never own your own property. If my income were cut by $40,000 per year I would have to sell the house or declare bankruptcy, so I know I am nowhere near as well off as others on this board. But I can put $30,000 to the house, $5500 to the car payment, $4200 to student loans, and still save for a cruise so I must be doing well.

 

[Ware Bears]

We're not rich by any means!!

We have to save hard for our Disney holidays and like others have said its also a case of prioritising what we choose to spend our money on. We are a one car family, own a modest home, take packed lunches to work/school, and only eat out in restaurants as an occasional treat rather than a regular weekly date.

I am sure we're going to love our DCL cruise and am sooooo hoping that it will become a regular habit for us!

Good luck with your planning and saving, and I hope it all works out for you.

 

[ubermama]

We are also middle class but believe in making sacrifices in order to do Disney. I will do without a new winter coat again, forget about buying lunch when I'm at the office. If we make little changes that nobody really feels we've always found the money. We fly from Canada, stay on site for a week after the cruise and the joy on our DD's face makes it all worth while. If we only do WDW for two weeks I can save that money in a year. We go for two weeks and it's easy to control costs on land. The cruise meant having to skip a year instead of our usual yearly trip. Hard saving of a year means we can have it all.

Bottom line is this, not rich, willing to give up a lot in order to go and a save hard. Don't be discouraged, you could look at a different cruise line and go to WDW after. There are the shorter cruises too, they are less expensive. You can tell yourself that this is a once in a lifetime because of the costs of taking a large family and just go for it.

One thing is for sure. For my family we are addicted to DCL and missing out on a few things doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice. Whatever you do just enjoy it all.

 

[miztigg]

Go on the off season. I only sail in hurricane season or this year im going the 2nd week in dec . You can do it the people on here taught me so many ways to save mone on diffrent things my vactions cost were almost cut in half i now sail once a year. I works night shift and if its slow ill get on the computer and just start plugging in diffrent dates i did see a 7 day for 599!!!. It will be the best money you ever spent and no it wont cost you 7 grand

 

[TraciM]

Nope, not rich by any means. We are just comfortable. Well, as comfortable as the Navy pays. I am a SAHM but I have a “make my own schedule” job. All of what I earn goes towards any trips we may take. DCL or other.

 

[Macavity]

Please don't take any of this the wrong way but is there anyone of modest incomes that cruises regularly with Disney?
I have been playing around with dates, lenghts of cruise, you name it and no matter what I do it comes out to like 6 grand for my famiy of 7.
Granted I realize my family is not the average size but its just so much more expensive then I could have ever guest. Espeically when you compare them to other cruiselines.
I am just curious how any of you do it.
I want to take the kids so badly but its starting to look like we will never be able too.
Any help or insight? Maybe DCL is only for people who make 6 figures.

I am a public school teacher in Texas, so I can assure you my salary is not anywhere near six figures, nor will it ever be. My school has an after school detention, that I work at, for $18 an hour (usually 4 - 8 times a month). Each summer I also try to teach summer school when I can. I save that money, and about every 4 to 5 years, I can afford an inside cabinet on DCL.

Have you tried maybe selling tupperware or something like that and just saving that money for your cruise?

 

[LindaBabe]

Retired. No income besides modest pensions. But also no kids. Which, the op has probably noticed already - have a way of consuming lots and lots of resources just in daily life.

 

[jbm02]

We're certainly not rich either. ROFL (that's my checkbook talking!!!) And since we have school age kids, the only time we can go is over the summer. So we choose to go in August - when the rates go down a bit. And we booked almost 2 years ago and have been paying it off the whole time. I am amazed at all the people who do this cruise alot more often that we do (our first cruise was in 2006 and this is our 2d) but I figure they might be better money managers than we are.

 

[cakesnjammom]

not us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NancyIL]

There are Disney cruises, and there are Di$ney Crui$e$! Based on the number of people willing to pay what Disney is asking for their 2010 Europe cruises (with the exception of the Transatlantics), I've wondered the same thing as the OP! I am looking at 2010 Europe cruises for my 2 daughters and me. DCL's 12-night Baltic cruise would cost the 3 of us $8835.16 - and that's in the least expensive cat. 11 cabin on the least expensive of the 4 sailing dates. Can I afford to pay that? Yes. Would I pay that? No! I am still waiting for a few more cruise lines to come out with their 2010 Europe itineraries, but so far none of the mass market cruise lines have prices that rival DCL's Europe prices.

 

[tvguy]

I am a public school teacher in Texas, so I can assure you my salary is not anywhere near six figures, nor will it ever be.

Move to California. In our school district, San Juan Unified, starting pay for a 9 month contract is $38,109.00; highest possible base salary is $74,094.00 after 7 years. Got your Masters? Add $5,000 a year to the base. Teach summer school? Add $3,000 per session you teach (there are 2). Coach a sport? Add $3,500.
Retirement benefits? 2% of your base salary for every year you work. Start working at age 22 and work 30 years....retire at 52 with 60% of your base pay as pension. Work 40 years get 80% of your base pay as pension, and take early social security of about $15,000 a year. Work 45 years, retire at age 67 at 90 % of your base pay, and full social security of about $21,000 a year.
What do they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

 

[ToodlesRN]

I wouldn't say were rich, but we live comfortable. We both work, I work part time in the health care field and DH is self employed. We go on our trips during off season since our lil one is 3, we use our miles to fly for free and our DVC points for resorts. We do have a mortgage that we just refi to do a huge house renovation (since our house is almost paid off, it was smarter to do this than buy new and double our mortgage) I have a car payment plus student loans. I have the advantage over my husband cause I can pick up extra shifts for time in a half, if I want to buy something. I work 1 extra shift a month to pay for our DVC. I do have to admit one thing, my retirement sucks, I really need to start focusing on contributing more than the small % that I am doing now!

 

[tow-mater-1]

I totally feel your pain. We are a middle class family of 7 and are cruising in Jan 2010. To top it off we are Canadian and our dollar is the pits right now But the plan you mentioned about paying monthly is what we are doing and it doesn't seem to hurt as much. It also gives you lots of time to research here.