Anyway, we had saved $2500 for a short trip to Disneyland while the kids are still young (my daughter loves princesses and everything Frozen). We could use the money to go to the cruise, but the outside costs are staggering, can it be done????
What outside costs are staggering you? Others have suggested ideas of what you're worried about, but I don't know what YOU are worrying about.
Our first cruise was Royal in Alaska for our honeymoon. We did exactly ONE official excursion, and even it wasn't necessary. Juneau we took the cheap "big blue bus" up to the glacier area and wandered around for free. IN Skagway we did the excursion (tea at Jewell Gardens, which I'm not sure is even offered as an excursion on any cruiseline anymore) then later wandered around town on foot. In Ketchikan we got off the ship, wandered, saw we hadn't seen in Juneau or Skagway, and we were NOT interested in the lumberjack show, so inside an hour went back to the ship and enjoyed it.
Although we did spend money in Vancouver on hotels, we spent almost NO money on the cruise or in the towns. Oh wait...shirt in one of the towns, a few things at a bookstore in Skagway, had lunch at a Mexican place in Juneau...
Oh, my parents were planning on paying for the airfare, they aren't really in a position to do any more, and I don't think I could bring myself to ask anyway...
That's a hefty portion of the costs right there!
If they don't have passports (I'm guessing they don't from the description) that is $500(ish) right there.
Good point.
Don't forget travel insurance! Add $200.
Most of their costs are zero. That said, adding airfare and a possible hotel to outside trip insurance would possibly be less than $200 as a premium.
None of us have ever left the country, and there is a thread that keeps coming up where everyone seems to be saying that only awful parents would leave their country with their kids without proper passports. (that's $480) and the hotels for the summer are all more than 100 a night
What thread are you talking about?
And really, FWIW, if you're flying in to Canada, you *have to* have passports. This isn't a situation like Caribbean closed-loop cruises.
And you're next to Alaska for almost the whole cruise, which means your American health insurance would cover problems. Not sure how things work in Canada, but my husband fell and hit his head while in England, and was able to go to an urgent care AND a hospital to get checked out, and incurred NO costs.
Passport cards are also much less costly than full passports.
But they only work if driving in.
The passports, hotel, we don't even own a camera better than the one on my phone, so I'd really like to get a decent cheap one and that's about $100 so we can have pictures to remember
First research the camera on your phone, and then see if you can get a better one at that price point. It's entirely possible that you can't get a better one!
The only time we have ever made a claim with our travel insurance was when our cruise was fogged in, we could not debark for hours, we missed our flight and our car to the airport, we had to pay for a hotel room that night because we could not get on another flight, and it paid for all that and the changes to the air. So the only time we've ever used travel insurance was not for the cruise but for the associated travel costs with interrupted trip.
DH has flat out missed flights before and wasn't charged extra money for getting on another flight. You were charged?
Flying--if you fly to Canada you'll need passport books. If you fly to Seattle and then go over the border by land (rental car, bus, or train) the adults can have passport cards, and kids can use birth certificates.
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/passport-travel-documentation/
True.
Don't get travel insurance as the cruise cost is already covered by someone else and the active portion of your trip will take place in the USA, where your regular medical insurance will still apply.
Agreed.
I believed you can get a Nexus card ($50.00 for each adult and free for kids) for travel in and out of Canada via air.
There are no enrollment centers in Colorado according to the GOES website. So that would be an even bigger burden on them.
We were ready to stay somewhere gross and cheap at Disneyland because we know our kids wont remember it, and we would hopefully just sleep there (DS is really good at stroller sleep, DD wont nap with that much stimulation).
OH gosh, if you do go to Disneyland please don't stay at a 'gross" place. First, there are no gross places nearby, so you would then have to take taxis to the park. At the very least check out the maingate Motel 6 that's in walking distance (about 20 minutes walk). It's actually not bad at all.
And IF you do go on the cruise and if you do need a hotel, there are relatively reasonably-priced hotels there. Downtown Vancouver is very small, and you really do not have to be *right there* at the pier.
I think a big part of what makes me so overwhelmed is the posts I've been reading for the last week on here where people are saying that if you cant afford "x" you don't belong on a
Disney Cruise. A lot of the time, I cant, but I still want to go.
What posts are you reading, LOL? You need to choose your threads better, WishingStar.
The ONLY "if you can't afford this you shouldn't go" part of cruising is gratuities. Beyond that, there's not one extra thing you *need to* purchase or do onboard or it's not worth cruising.
