Is everyone that cruises with DCL rich?

[Roveer]

This is one of those posts that when you first see it you are somehow offended, but once you start reading it, everything changes.

I first saw this post before we left on our 7 night to Tortola in April. We stayed in the Walt Suite so you can imagine that this post peaked my curisoity. Our family is far from rich, but I will not deny myself something I want even if it means working side jobs by myself for weeks and weeks to collect enough money to get what "I want".

I saw this thread come up tonight and thought, wow, that thread is still kicking around. Well, it keeps coming up for a reason, and not a bad one. While it's a provacative title, it seems to bring out some of the best comments I've seen in quite a while. Not something I'd expect for it's title. That makes me feel good.

This has turned out to be a thread where there is little to no flaming and people can actually express their opinions without getting put down. For such a provocative title, you'd think the flames would be flying. Doesn't seeem to be the case.

it's good to see that DIS'rs can have these civial discords and not have it devolve into caos. I for one appreciate all the responses that I've read including those who have said "yes, I'm rich". I don't count myself amont them, and the gov't might say differently, but I have to commend the discusion for being far above what I would have expected based on the title. There were far too many opportunities for this to go way wrong, but it didn't. that's a good thing.

Would love to hear from the OP on their feelings on what has become of their topic. Bet they never throught it'd take off like it did.

 

[JohnO]

We can't take a vacation without the overtime, and extra jobs I work throughout the year. We book a trip and make payments as the O.T. money comes in.

 

[taswira]

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.

That prompts me to plug our Dec. 4 2010 Chip 'n' Dale's Cruisin' Nuts cruise! The price is reasonable (for DCL - lol), there will already be the Christmas holiday decor, and we have lots of friendly DISers and their kids joining in our Cruisin' Nuts fun. Just a thought - for any here looking for a holiday-time sailing for less.

 

[KSandbergFL]

Ha, not rich by any means.

Yet, we will find a way to make it on that boat.

Many of us (Disney people) drive 10 year old cars. (Mine is 18 years old) Many of us do not get regular manicures and pedicures and massages and facials. Many of us clip coupons and go to Goodwill and go to rummage sales. It just slays me when people I know ask how we can afford a Disney Cruise, and here they are driving a brand new car, paying a huge mortgage, having salon appointments weekly, and only buying brand name, top of the line items.

Exactly! Our two cars are 18 yrs old and 12 yrs old. We buy clothes at Goodwill and other thrift stores... we do our shopping at stores that make Walmart look like Bloomingdales. We don't even have cable TV. Not because we HAVE to, but because we love family vacations... and all that money that COULD go to car payments and cable TV -- we put into our family trips instead. A single $200/m car payment ($2400/yr) and a $99/m cable TV bill ($1200/yr) can instead add up to some nice family vacations. We have gone to Paris - twice! - and taken 4 DCL cruises, all in the past 5 years.

Whenever I start to yearn for a new car.. my wife asks "how many Disney cruises will it cost?".... and that gets me to change my mind real quick. I can drive my 1991 Honda a little while longer. hahahahaha

 

[VeroBeach]

Plus the fact that every phone call the travel agent told us Disney never discounts because "they don't have to." My DW was persistent and kept calling a variety of places (DCL, Orbitz, Travelocity, COSTCO, VISA Membership Rewards, etc) COSTCO ended up being the winner. Lesson learned here, DCL always the highest, but with some research and persistency discounts can be found.

What you are seeing from COSTCO etc that give you an Onboard Credit or other discount is the travel agent rebating part of their commission (that Disney pays them) back to you to entice you to book.

 

[tigger2002]

My definition of Rich is "You don't HAVE to go to work tomorrow"

.

 

[wcw57]

I tell everyone that I am filthy rich.

My wife says I am half-right...........

 

[Figment_Fan]

KSandbergFL wrote:

Whenever I start to yearn for a new car.. my wife asks "how many Disney cruises will it cost?".... and that gets me to change my mind real quick. I can drive my 1991 Honda a little while longer. hahahahaha [/QUOTE]



I'm glad our family is not the only ones who measure purchases in "Disney Trip Costs". --- I want that, but we could go to Disney for 5 days for that price . . . Could we do "X", but we that would be a Disney trip . . . , etc.

As a family, we do well. Got a little house rich, but money poor about 4 years ago, but it is getting easier. [couldn't pass up the deal on the house!] We save for Disney. Generally, we go every other year as that is the general time line for saving. Our first cruise (we have been on 2) was through DVC points. When we bought, we recieved the previous years worth of points, the current year, we were on our Disney vacation, and we borrowed from the following year. Our recent cruise was with the kids sale free deal. Disney Visa (yeah, for interest free Disney purchases!! ) which will take another couple of months to pay off.

Next late June/July, DVC with annual passes, then the following year early June while the annual pass is still good.

Money just helps us acquire things, experience makes us rich. The Disney experiences with our families make us rich beyond any bankruptcy could take us down.

 

[seashell724]

Not rich by any means but we prioritize.
Older car, no cable, small home etc.
My husband and I like to "do" things rather than "have" things. (Although, okay, I do sometimes fall off the wagon and love to shop once and a while for pricey items.)

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

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.

Not rich at all. DW, DS(4) and I are going on the 7-night Western Oct. 31, with transfers from/to WDW and trip insurance, Cat. 11, ~ $2200 (after our surprise $800 after we paid in full). That is far less than we would spend for a week almost anywhere else, considering we don't need airfare (which makes WDW much cheaper too), especially when you consider that food is included and that can be one of the big hidden vacation costs.

 

[Rogillio]

It all comes down to priorities and where/how you spend your money. Personally I believe people live in way too much house. I see families of 3 or 4 living in 3,000+ sqft all time. That is twice as much house as is "needed" and it means your elec/gas bill to heat/cool the place is 2x as big as it needs to be also. Your home insurance is higher and your property taxes are higher too.

Squarefootage aside, most people want to live in as much house as they can afford. A young couple will buy a house and be right on the hairy edge of what they can afford each month. Then they get some bills paid off, get a few raises at work, build a little equity in the house and they decide they can afford MORE house. So they sell their house and buy a bigger, nicer, more expensive house. AND THEY DO THIS THEIR WHOLE LIFE! The average time a family keeps a house in America is less than 7 years!

My reccomendations to young couples is, buy as much house and you can afford and then stay there for as long as you can. I was talking to a banker one time about home prices and he said he currently had a constrution loan out on a house for $800k and they were only about 70% done with the house. This was when mortgage intesest rates were 11%. I asked him how the heck anyone could affored a place like that. He said the guy was a doctor. I said, 'well that explains it'. He said "But know what? he doesn't have any more money in his pockets at the end of the month than you or I do. He pays a $4k mortage every month on that huge house, he pays $900 a month for electric and he pays leases on two Mercedes Benz....and at the end of the month, he's just as broke as you and I are."

It was at that point when I resolved to live in a modest house and get it paid off. We've been in the same house now for 20 years and it's been paid for for some time. Could we afford a bigger, nicer house? You bet. But we enjoy taking big vacations and spend money on our hobbies and being able to afford decent (safe) cars for our kids. So we got a home equity loan and are improving the place we have. And we can afford to take ski trips and cruises and such.

We're taking the Balic cruise next June and it's gonna cost us a bundle. But we live in a modest house and I told my wife instead of having a mid-life crises and buying a Corvette, I'll continue to drive my pick-up truck and we'd take a Baltic cruise on DCL. Oh yeah, we're also a two income family.

~Mike

 

[NancyIL]

We're taking the Balic cruise next June and it's gonna cost us a bundle. But we live in a modest house and I told my wife instead of having a mid-life crises and buying a Corvette, I'll continue to drive my pick-up truck and we'd take a Baltic cruise on DCL. Oh yeah, we're also a two income family.

~Mike

I agree with you 100% in philosophy, Mike! I just differ with you on the practicalities, because I'm not willing to drop as big of a bundle on one cruise as you are for the DCL Baltic one.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I agree with you 100% in philosophy, Mike! I just differ with you on the practicalities, because I'm not willing to drop as big of a bundle on one cruise as you are for the DCL Baltic one.

How much is a "bundle"? My med cruise is not cheap. However, its a once in a lifetime trip. Were I to spend this once ever year or two, hmmm....no. I agree with NancyIL on this one.

 

[Rogillio]

How much is a "bundle"? My med cruise is not cheap. However, its a once in a lifetime trip. Were I to spend this once ever year or two, hmmm....no. I agree with NancyIL on this one.

Just be careful. We sailed the Med cruise in '07 and it was our 'trip of a lifetime'. And it was, it really was! We have 800 digital photographs to help of remember that trip the rest of our lives. And now we're taking another 'trip of a life time'....

My kids are growing up and soon will be off to college and starting their own families and the opportunities to take more Grand Rogillio Family Adventures is coming to a close...the end of an era. So maybe we can put off remodeling the bathroom one more year....maybe we just put new tires on the Yukon and get a few more years out of it.

Frankly, I saw a huge chunck of my 401k vaporize last year....enough for many Med/Baltic cruises...just gone like a wisp of smoke. But nobody can EVER take away our Med cruise memories. Our house can burn to the gound and everything we own get blown away and all our savings evaporate in the market....but that Med Cruise is ours and always will be.

~Mike

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Just be careful. We sailed the Med cruise in '07 and it was our 'trip of a lifetime'. And it was, it really was! We have 800 digital photographs to help of remember that trip the rest of our lives. And now we're taking another 'trip of a life time'....

My kids are growing up and soon will be off to college and starting their own families and the opportunities to take more Grand Rogillio Family Adventures is coming to a close...the end of an era. So maybe we can put off remodeling the bathroom one more year....maybe we just put new tires on the Yukon and get a few more years out of it.

Frankly, I saw a huge chunck of my 401k vaporize last year....enough for many Med/Baltic cruises...just gone like a wisp of smoke. But nobody can EVER take away our Med cruise memories. Our house can burn to the gound and everything we own get blown away and all our savings evaporate in the market....but that Med Cruise is ours and always will be.

~Mike

Aaawwww...... I have tears in my eyes.......

 

[NancyIL]

How much is a "bundle"? My med cruise is not cheap. However, its a once in a lifetime trip. Were I to spend this once ever year or two, hmmm....no. I agree with NancyIL on this one.

I would define a "bundle" as whatever DCL is charging! The DCL Baltic cruises start at $3649/pp plus taxes for a cat. 11 cabin. That's more than I am willing to pay for a 12-night cruise. A number of cruise lines do basically the same cruise for considerably less money - sans the MOUSE. We did a Baltic cruise on Jewel of the Seas (beautiful ship) in 2005, and that ship still does Baltic cruises in the summer.

 

[NancyIL]

My kids are growing up and soon will be off to college and starting their own families and the opportunities to take more Grand Rogillio Family Adventures is coming to a close...the end of an era. So maybe we can put off remodeling the bathroom one more year....maybe we just put new tires on the Yukon and get a few more years out of it.

Frankly, I saw a huge chunck of my 401k vaporize last year....enough for many Med/Baltic cruises...just gone like a wisp of smoke. But nobody can EVER take away our Med cruise memories. Our house can burn to the gound and everything we own get blown away and all our savings evaporate in the market....but that Med Cruise is ours and always will be.

~Mike

I agree again. We've taken a number of trips with the whole family - and the last was a Thanksgiving trip to Florida in 2007 to visit my mom and go to WDW for a few days. I'm very glad we made that trip, because my mom died in Jan. 2009. I have cruised with everyone in my family, but the 5 of us have never cruised at the same time. We were going to take the whole family on our Baltic cruise in 2005, but it came down to a choice between taking the kids on the cruise, or daughter #2 going to college that fall (we had two kids in college that year) - and we chose the latter. But after reading your comment, I would like to book a cruise the whole family can go on before my kids (who are 19, 22, and 25 now) get much older.

 

[insureman]

I usually don't post, but I just wanted to throw my two cents in. It is definitely about family time with us also. Financialy we are doing better than alot of people, but we also live within our means. For me, it is spending as much free time with my wife and our 14 and 12 year old daughters. Life is way too short and kids grow way too fast. On a Disney cruise we get the best of both worlds, adult time for my wife and I and quality family time with the kids.

 

[scuba]

I suppose that we will take our fair share of Disney cruises when our DDs get older, Our DD3 has been on 3 cruises already and our DD1 has been on 2, we are taking our first Disney cruise in Feb after they announced the kids free program. Once the girls get older we will get into the longer cruises, the kids free program just couldn't be passed up...just enough to wet our appetites for the cruise line. I have to agree with most posters, Disney from what I have heard does offer the most for the money, certainly most do indeed see the value based on service/cost of cruise. I have cruises 11 times before on other cruise lines and i'm certainly looking to compare. But i've heard once you've been on Disney you'll never go back...I think thats the way the saying goes as for being rich, my 1997 Ford F-150 that has 75,000 miles on it, it looks somewhat out of place in Beverly Hills

 

[NancyIL]

But i've heard once you've been on Disney you'll never go back...I think thats the way the saying goes

That wasn't my feeling after my first Disney cruise, but I didn't cruise with young kids.