Is everyone that cruises with DCL rich?

[Im_A_Princess]

I also am not rich! I'm a solo traveler some of the too. I have to pay almost double when I cruise alone. I try to book as far out as I can and pay off as much as I can every paycheck. That is the nice thing about Disney in general that you can pay it off over time.

aspen37
Changes In Latitudes,
Changes In Attitudes.

Are you a Parrothead????

 

[aspen37]

aspen37
Changes In Latitudes,
Changes In Attitudes.

Are you a Parrothead????

I love Jimmy! He is not playing in Denver so far this year.
I will be at WDW from 5-08-09 till 05-21-09. Then I'm going strait to Las Vegas to visit family for Memorial weekend. I'm going to just miss the concert there.

How about you? Do you like Jimmy?

 

[joksten2000]

Anything so great as DCL is worth sacrificing for. Glad to see so many feel that strongly about a great product

 

[frdeb1999]

Deffinately not rich here. Just book way in advance and pay on it little by little. We cherish our "family time" on vacation and it's what we work our butts off for.

 

[tvguy]

both our cars are 10 years old (and both bought used).

See, by my standards you ARE rich. I bought my car new....22 1/2 years ago.

 

[trimix]

I am really curious how much the "average" "not rich" and "middle class" families on this board really earn.

I saw an article today on layoffs in New York City, where the 2007 median household income was $48,631. One family told the reporter how hard it is to live in NYC on less than $400,000 per year - a family that considered themselves normal, average, middle class people.

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

As I said before, almost nobody is rich. I have met people with eight figure incomes who don't consider themselves rich, even though most people I know would consider a family with a $200,000 annual income rich. Then again, in much of Southern California, $200,000 is not enough money to buy a house!

So I hope some of you following this thread will indulge my curiosity. How many not rich people are in the top 5%? The top 20%? The bottom half?
I recognize I should not ask without confessing, so I will state I just barely missed making the top 20% last year but I expect to be in that group this year.

 

[tvguy]

I am really curious how much the "average" "not rich" and "middle class" families on this board really earn.

I saw an article today on layoffs in New York City, where the 2007 median household income was $48,631. One family told the reporter how hard it is to live in NYC on less than $400,000 per year - a family that considered themselves normal, average, middle class people.

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

As I said before, almost nobody is rich. I have met people with eight figure incomes who don't consider themselves rich, even though most people I know would consider a family with a $200,000 annual income rich. Then again, in much of Southern California, $200,000 is not enough money to buy a house!

So I hope some of you following this thread will indulge my curiosity. How many not rich people are in the top 5%? The top 20%? The bottom half?
I recognize I should not ask without confessing, so I will state I just barely missed making the top 20% last year but I expect to be in that group this year.

Top 40% here, DW and I both work full time. Is that rich? I'll have two kids in college starting in August, and the tuition/room board and book bill between them will be about $55,000....more than half our GROSS annual pay.
Glad we started college savings accounts 22 years ago and set asside money every year!!
My income will be lower this year, company made us take 5 days off without pay in the first quarter, and just announced we'll have to take another 5 in the second quarter. It has been interesting since we are already short staffed. So my work pattern of late has been 6 days one week, 4 the next. Managers are tearing their hair out, they can't pay ANYONE to cover a shift that is open due to a furlough, but they can pay overtime to over the shifts that are open due to the position being vacant.

 

[atinkerbellmom]

The tips on the Wonder for a 4 night cruise is $48.00 for the cruise. That is $12.00 a day. That is per person. I don't know how they came up with $36.00 a day PP. I have been on 6 cruises and have never been charged that much.

Here are the suggestions right from the DCL site. I have copied and pasted them directly from the site, only changing the color of the font for quoting purposes:

What about gratuities?

It is customary to give gratuities in recognition of service, which you will most likely be treated to in abundance aboard the ship. As a guideline, may we suggest the following:

Per Guest per cruise 3-Night 4-Night 7-Night
Dining Room Server $12.00 $16.00 $28.00
Dining Room Asst. Server $9.00 $12.00 $21.00
Dining Room Head Server $3.00 $4.00 $7.00
Stateroom Host/Hostess $12.00 $16.00 $28.00
Dining Manager Your Discretion
Room Service Your Discretion
Palo Gratuity included
Vista Spa & Salon Your Discretion
Babysitting Gratuity not expected
Shore Excursions Optional; not included in shore excursion price.
For your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine and deck service tabs. All gratuities can be charged to your room charge.

At the Walt Disney World® Resort, 15% is the customary gratuity at restaurants and bars.


So she can do the math herself.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

I am really curious how much the "average" "not rich" and "middle class" families on this board really earn.

I saw an article today on layoffs in New York City, where the 2007 median household income was $48,631. One family told the reporter how hard it is to live in NYC on less than $400,000 per year - a family that considered themselves normal, average, middle class people.

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

As I said before, almost nobody is rich. I have met people with eight figure incomes who don't consider themselves rich, even though most people I know would consider a family with a $200,000 annual income rich. Then again, in much of Southern California, $200,000 is not enough money to buy a house!

So I hope some of you following this thread will indulge my curiosity. How many not rich people are in the top 5%? The top 20%? The bottom half?
I recognize I should not ask without confessing, so I will state I just barely missed making the top 20% last year but I expect to be in that group this year.

Okay, just to ballpark you on NYC prices there is an add for a studio apartment here at the office. Its in a nice area of the East Village. All this space can be had for ONLY $2100/month. I don't know about you but that's more then my mortgage. Its relative. I work in NYC but could never afford to live here. I also work with many young people that live in NYC. I work for an international firm so most of my co-workers are from France. They put 7 - 8 people in one apartment to afford it. So yes, it's relative. NYC is very expensive.

 

[cmhand30]

I am really curious how much the "average" "not rich" and "middle class" families on this board really earn.

I saw an article today on layoffs in New York City, where the 2007 median household income was $48,631. One family told the reporter how hard it is to live in NYC on less than $400,000 per year - a family that considered themselves normal, average, middle class people.

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

As I said before, almost nobody is rich. I have met people with eight figure incomes who don't consider themselves rich, even though most people I know would consider a family with a $200,000 annual income rich. Then again, in much of Southern California, $200,000 is not enough money to buy a house!

So I hope some of you following this thread will indulge my curiosity. How many not rich people are in the top 5%? The top 20%? The bottom half?
I recognize I should not ask without confessing, so I will state I just barely missed making the top 20% last year but I expect to be in that group this year.

Currently we are at about the median income for the US. But before we moved to GA and lived in MD. I had a well paying gov't job (with locality bonus) and DH's pay was supplimented for locality differences. So we were making in about the top 25%. So just moving and losing a job we have suffered a big cut. But we have adjusted. Our son is in a public school now and loves it. Still driving the same cars. And honestly we have a nicer house here in GA than what twice the money would get us in MD.

Going to WDW is our family time. Maybe we won't be able to renew our AP's next year? who knows? But we will enjoy our cruise.

 

[bourgie]

I never thought we would be doing a cruise with DCL EVER. but all i have to say is SAVE, SAVE, SAVE and it is so doable!!!!!!!!

 

[disneychic]

Um, not rich - but, we don't have any children yet, so it's only the 2 of us. Makes taking multiple vacations per year a lot easier.

 

[kimknight1011]

It is all relative. I am 25 years old and my husband and I bring home around 75K a year. In our area that is a lot of money. We live near disney world and the average family income in our county is 25K a year. Cruising is my favorite thing to do in the world and now that we have a little girl I had to take her on the Disney Cruise. Disney is quite more than any other cruise line. We kept looking around for months until I found the best deal for our family ($1200 for Cat 9) on the 4 night cruise. My suggestion is to book far out in advance and keep looking for deals along the way.

 

[Im_A_Princess]

I love Jimmy! He is not playing in Denver so far this year.
I will be at WDW from 5-08-09 till 05-21-09. Then I'm going strait to Las Vegas to visit family for Memorial weekend. I'm going to just miss the concert there.

How about you? Do you like Jimmy?

I a HUGE Jimmy fan!!!!
Magaritaville is on my tool bar and when we cruise DCL if there is a Margaritaville in port we are visiting you can find me there-LOL
I lived in Boulder for 2 1/2 years. Love Colorado! Lucky you!!!!

 

[NancyIL]

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

We're between the 20% and the 5% level. However, I'm a frugal traveler - and that's why I won't pay substantially more to cruise with Disney. I'd rather take more economical trips than fewer expensive ones.

 

[perdidobay]

I am really curious how much the "average" "not rich" and "middle class" families on this board really earn.

I saw an article today on layoffs in New York City, where the 2007 median household income was $48,631. One family told the reporter how hard it is to live in NYC on less than $400,000 per year - a family that considered themselves normal, average, middle class people.

Here's what the US Census Bureau has to say for 2007:
The median household income was $50,233 - half of all households earned less, half more.
If your household income was $62,000 or more, you were in the top 40%.
If your household income was $100,000 or more, you were in the top 20%.
If your household income was $177,000 or more, you were in the top 5%.

As I said before, almost nobody is rich. I have met people with eight figure incomes who don't consider themselves rich, even though most people I know would consider a family with a $200,000 annual income rich. Then again, in much of Southern California, $200,000 is not enough money to buy a house!

So I hope some of you following this thread will indulge my curiosity. How many not rich people are in the top 5%? The top 20%? The bottom half?
I recognize I should not ask without confessing, so I will state I just barely missed making the top 20% last year but I expect to be in that group this year.

Ok, I'll bite. DH and I make over 400k a year, we live where the cost of living is cheap. We are rich, no doubt about that. Of course after Uncle Sam takes his share we live on 280K. We have a very nice 4400 sq ft home, a 2800 sq ft home in the mountains, and a 1200 sq ft gulf front condo. Our remaining principal balance on all three is 380K.
Our two other homes are investment properties that we rent out for income.

Our kids are grown- we paid their way thru college and paid for their weddings. We got married at 18 and 19, and we were broke.
We made the smart choice to continue our educations, live below our means, go without until we could afford cash for something. We had no credit cards. We got no money from our parents- what we got was by our own effort.
Gee, we were doing Dave Ramsey before there was a Dave Ramsey!

We took no vacations for the first 5 years of our marrige. After that it was camping trips for a week in state parks.

34 years later we still live below our income even as it has risen over the years. We drive our cars till the wheels fall off, then buy with cash used cars. I shop at Walmart, Target and Kohls. We don't eat out very often, and then it's Chili's Outback, etc. We have no yard service, maids or any other type of hired help. Just 3 years ago I started getting mani and -pedicures-I get one about every 4 months!

As I have since we got married, I clip coupons, shop sales (I love Kohls!)and do minor appliance repairs, etc myself.

We love to travel and and so we budget a good amount for it. That said, I'll still look for deals on hotels, airfare and food.

It seems that most people here, no matter their income, are like DH and I and love to travel, so will give up some things to indulge their passion!

Edited to add: our first cruise ever was with DCL in 2002. After 9-11 travel industry was suffering and DCL offered cat.6 4 day (2 adults)for $988 and then we got a 3 day for $99 pp in the fall. We were hooked!

 

[jrabbit]

I don't know if I can say this with the "new" DIS guidelines but ... The President / CEO of the company I work for (was very unhappy on Nov 4/5) thinks that "middle class" salary range goes from $25,000 to AT LEAST $500,000 . We are in a rural / agriculture area and it appears to me that most people make between $25,000 to $60,000. My family is fortunate in that we both earn good $$. Puts us in the top 20%. By no means rich, but not living paycheck to paycheck either.

How do we afford our DCL cruises: we get to go only about ever 18-24 months (I know, many of you have to wait 3+years) - It takes us that long to save enough $$$. 6 years ago we "Upgraded" to a cat 9 - we like / need the natural light - can't afford the verandahs.

*We run our cars usually about 10 years (so TV Guy has us beat - even with our 16yo car) and started buying "program" cars - nice discount from the new price with 2-3 years of waranty left.
*We don't eat out much (and Applebies is as expensive as it gets - more frequently the dollar menu at McD / BK, TB, etc). Confession Alert: On our last cruse we ate dinner at Palo and between the service fee and extra gratuity that we left - THAT was the most expensive meal we have ever had ... untill last week and we went out to a very very nice dinner and spent about $150 for the two of us - so that is the most we've ever spent on a meal. (when we told the kids how much our meal was they totally freaked out )
*basic cable
*Old TV's - the new one is at least 8 yo and the old one (17") is over 20 (don't know WHY it still works!! - daddy want's a nice new flat screen )
*Carpet in the house is over $20yo, but we had to replace the furnace and water heater in the last couple of years
*Appliances are "original" except for the ones that died.
*If we can't pay for it we don't buy it.
*We do put all that we can on our Disney VISA - we rack up 200-300 points per year - and we PAY IT OFF every month.
*No loans except for mortgage. No refinancing to "pull equity out" to spend on our wants.
*Computer over 5 years old - it works ok on the internet

and that's how we do it.

 

[disneynewbee]

I guess we would be in the top 30% for last year. Where we live in PA that is a good income and we have a nice house. However I have 4 children and they are expensive. One will be headed to college in a few short years and another I'm still buying diapers and formula for. Right now I am a SAHM and we would like to keep it that way until our youngest is in school (about 5 yrs from now) so we make our budget work as best we can.

 

[tvguy]

*We run our cars usually about 10 years (so TV Guy has us beat - even with our 16yo car) and started buying "program" cars - nice discount from the new price with 2-3 years of waranty left. .

I bought my kids former rental cars. 2 years ago I got my son a 2006 Taurus with 25,000 miles on it for $9,999 from Hertz. Last year I got my daughter a 2007 Taurus with 29,000 miles on it for $9,500. Still under factory warranty, spend $1,000 more and got a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty. Perfect sized cars to go away to college in. Told both of them if they keep them up they won't need to buy another car for another 15 years.

 

[Elphie&Me]

I find the honesty and interesting stories and details of peoples lives on the last few postings to be, well, very interesting. (Using the word interesting a lot). Very constructive conversation on a topic that I think could have gone badly very easily.

Wish I had more to add. Rich? Haha. No kids so that saves a lot of money. We place a great deal of importance on 2 weeks off a year. Some brag /whine about only going someplace once every 10 years and we say nothing. Then they go spend 35k on a car. I'm on my 3rd Hyundi Accent in 15 years. Every 5 years when it's paid off, I get a new one. Never spend more then 13k. And it gets me where I'm going. P.S. The first and second now about 8 and 13 years old both still work and are being used by the eldest members of the family who live in the seniour housing projects on Social Security. So again, Rich? Haha. But we work what we have as best we can.