so many questions

[bobsuzla]

how late can you order room service? How much do you really tip and whom do you tip? Besides excursions, how much money did an average family of three spend, alcoholic beverages included, (this is a vacation after all... I think I'll have a daquiri ) I have a long way to go but I am absolutely obsessed with this whole thing right now, I will probably calm down once I get something to have in my hands, and my passporters guide. Geez, I hope I do, I can't go on like this for almost a year and a half, my co workers might kill me... One good thing is my husband is just as addicted as I am, and I am going to get my sisters and Mom hooked too, (they are cruising also)

 

[UMTerp]

bobsuzla - Welcome to the craziness!

I don't know how late you can order from room service. I'm sure someone will have that answer for you. Many of your questions can be answered at Dave's Tribute Site: dcltribute.com.

Enjoy!

UMTerp

 

[MarkRG]

Boy, lots of questions, I'll break it down and try to answer what i can:
how late can you order room service?

Once room service begins on the cruise(which I am not sure when, but think 1pm of sailing day), it is 24 hour with the exception of the lifeboat drill at 4pm first day.

How much do you really tip and whom do you tip?
This is quite complicated. You only tip once to your room steward and your three dining servers on the last night of the cruise. You will be provided inroom with envelopes. and instructions as to how, you can do cash or charge it to the room. The only other tipping onboard is for drink servers and room service, them you can tip cash, even though the food is free for room service and the drinks are charge only. The only tipping offboard is if you use one of the porters when you leave the ship.

One thing of note here too- the ship itself is cashless- all drinks, and anything bought onboard can only be charged back to the room. .

Besides excursions, how much money did an average family of three spend, alcoholic beverages included, (this is a vacation after all... I think I'll have a daquiri )

Sorry can't help with this one, family of two and neither of us drink.

I have a long way to go but I am absolutely obsessed with this whole thing right now, I will probably calm down once I get something to have in my hands, and my passporters guide. Geez, I hope I do, I can't go on like this for almost a year and a half, my co workers might kill me... One good thing is my husband is just as addicted as I am, and I am going to get my sisters and Mom hooked too, (they are cruising also)

Read your passporter guide when you get it first - it has all these answers and many, many more.

 

[bobsuzla]

Wow, Thanks a heap for the advice and the welcomes!!! There is something special about people who enjoy Disney as much as we do... talk about a kinder gentler nation Mickey for Pres. Sounds Good To Me

Thanks again!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Welcome to Dis Bobsuzla! On our 3 day cruise last summer our family of 3 spent about $500 for excursions, drinks and souveniers. We are doing the 7 day eastern in Nov, and plan on having about $1200 available to spend. We will also have 1 extra person traveling with us this year so we'll be able to answer your $$ question better right around Thanksgiving. Is it November yet?

 

[pittcrew]

You can cut the size of your alcohol bill down by doing the 2 for 1 drink specials offered at sail away parties, the drinks of the day, and the free drinks available before dinner on the Formal and Semi-Formal nights. We sailed 2 years ago and our bar bill for a 7 night cruise was far less than $100 and we had drinks every night.

 

[ksjayhawks]

Actually, if I remember correctly, when you get any type of drink, a tip is automatically added in. So the only cash tipping is for room service and the porter at the terminal when you disembark. Take along ones for this.

As for money you will spend--figure $6 or so for drinks. The rest depends on souveniers, excursions, photos at Shutters, wine package, Palo reservations. It is really up to you.

We probably spent about $900-1000 with excursions, souveniers, Palo.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

 

[tvguy]

We are a family of 4, DD is 13 and DS is 17,a dn were on on the 12-27-03 Eastern, New Year's Eve cruise.
Our ship board charges came to $1050.
That was our tab for shore excursions*, 4 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of Martinelli's sparkling cider, 4 tee shirts, and wine tasting.
We paid about $200 in cash for tips at the end.
Other than the wine at dinner, and a bottle of champagne for NYE's eve, we did not buy any other drinks of any kind. The free beverages offered at the buffet, in the dining room, and at the beverage station keep all of us happy.

*Shore Excurions make up about $750 of the charges.

St. Martin: 6 Metre sailboat Regatta

St. Thomas: tickets for the skytram, and the Coral World/City tour shore excutions

Castaway Cay: The everything package, 1 hour bike rentals and snorkel rental for the entire day.

 

[bobsuzla]

Thanks so much for all of the useful info, My husband likes his beer, (he would kill me for saying that) but really, I just don't want to have to go "no, we can't buy that" I want to be VERY prepared. And if I come home with money... even better!

 

[aprilgail2]

For me and my 4 year old daughter we spent just over 1,000.....ok, well I spent most of it LOL...she bought a couple things in the store but most of it was spent on the spa, pictures and gifts since I don't drink. Thats not including the 750.00 I spent to rebook while on board. I had about 400.00 disney dollars I put on my account the first day, then I won 330 at Bingo so that covered most of my deposit!

 

[traycie2201]

Free drinks before dinner on semi / formal, i'd not heard about that anyone know anything else.

We are a family of 3 going on 7 day western in october, first cruise. the passporter is indespensible and so are these boards for advice and to ease the waiting, yes you will talk about it and drive everyone mad for a year and a half my colleagues routinely ask now how many days
Room service is 24/7 and tip $1/$2 per person i believe for room service, the other recommended tip amounts are on the dcl website along with lots of other useful info.
When you say a family of 3 is it adults or do you have a child with you ?
We are me , DH and DS 13 , we are not doing any disney excursions, we'd planned to do one in every port but after reading these boards and the passporter have booked independent excursions and saved $$$$ check out nativewaywatersports, shoretrips.com , captain marvins etc for ideas. We plan to take around $1200 but would hope to come home with some , We are buying DS a soda sticker and a $25 arcade card and then anything else he wants he gets out of his savings for himself.
We are not big drinkers but are planning on having the drink of the day each at $3.50 a go, we have also ordered the sailaway platter with a selection of petit fours and a bottle of wine and will be taking on board some cans of coke to keep in the room.
Our tentative plans are
Key west day - brunch at Palo, parasailing $48 through sebago watersports, have a walk round, visit ripleys museum, visit mallory square and head back to ship for sunset celebrations.
Grand Cayman - Stingray Sandbar and Snorkel tour $30 pp through nativewaywatersports, couple of hours at 7 mile beach and back to ship.
Cozumel - taxi to paradise beach $12 , time at the beach free entry with lunch $30 , mini golf at sallys then back to the ship.
Castaway Cay - bottom fishing trip for DH and DS , snorkelling for me , buying own snorkel gear at walmart before we board, cheaper and more hygenic.
Have a great cruise.

 

[bobsuzla]

Wow, sounds like you have it all together. I want to book excursions seperately, but I am not sure about transportation etc. how does that all work out? anyone know?

 

[tkd lisa]

On the 7 night cruises, there are free drinks (not just anything, but a couple different types of things) at the Captains Gala. I think it was semi-formal night. There are waiters wandering around the atrium with drinks on trays. I had my first and last cosmopolitan there, because that was the drink they had.

If you are a returning cruiser, there are also free drinks at the Castaway Club reception.

Don't assume that just because they ask you if you would like a drink that it's free. They typically whip out the slip after they ask and you give them your KTTW card to pay for it.

 

[Bethipooh4]

As far as beer goes, my DS(yes he is 21, I still can't believe it) purchased a beer mug for 9.99. refills aren't free, however it holds 22 oz compared to the 12-16 oz you would regularly get. So to fill his mug, he(we...lol) would pay between 3-5 dollars depending on the type of beer he got,more beer in the mug vs if he just walked up and ordered one.. It is a very nice glass with the DCL logo on it. To me worth the 10.00 alone.
So that could be a option for your DH.

 

[TheWog]

Welcome and you are only as crazy as everyone else here when it come to planning a Disney Cruise...

how late can you order room service?

24 hours... use it often its great, cheese platters, cookies, milk, breakfast on the verandah before you go for the "real" breakfast, mickey bars (they are not listed on the menu), alcoholic drinks (for a charge)

How much do you really tip and whom do you tip?

$2-3 bucks each time for room service, find a favorite bartender and give him a little something and your drinks will be perfect all cruise long, tipping is an often discussed topic, but I say tip at least the recommended if they earn it and if you think they went above and beyond give 'em more (we loved our Servers and Steward and gave each more, Head Server different story and there are many theories on what they "earn"), porters at the port after your cruise expect a buck or two per bag

Besides excursions, how much money did an average family of three spend, alcoholic beverages included, (this is a vacation after all... I think I'll have a daquiri ) It's vacation, and its Disney, so bring a big budget.. my family of three spent over $1,200.00 just on board if I remember correctly. That includes one excursion for two of us, but no tips, we did that in cash. We didn't say no to much.

As far as excursions go we need to know where you are headed? Western.... Eastern, some are better done on your own, some are better done privately... stingray city for example. Let us know.

You think you are hooked now, wait til you are actually onboard, remember to bring the deposit for your next cruise you will book onboard. (and yes co-workers WILL kill you )

Have a great time.

 

[CAMICKEY]

bobsuzla - Just wanted to welcome you to this board and hope you find all of the info you are looking for. Seems like most of your questions have already been answered. - Mike

 

[bobsuzla]

Well, First let me say Thank you again for all the advice, I am pretty much planning on paying for my excursions up front, and having about 1200.00 for on board and another 1000.00 on hand for shore days...Not that I am rich or anything, but I took the money for the trip out of my 401k (i have 30 years before I can retire plenty of time to build that little bit back up) I have also put the 1200.00 aside so it won't burn a hole...
When we were planning for WDW in 2003 we paid my daughter's allowance every week for 6 mos in Disney Dollars and awarded her good grades with them too (also bribed her to do extra's)
This worked out well, and one time when she gave my her little 8 yrold attitude about something I took some $$ back!!! That worked out even better!!! I hope that we can use all of her dollars this trip to pre pay a charge acct for her for the arcade etc.
any one Know?

 

[Michelle2]

Hello! We are going on the Eastern Cruise at about the same time...about a year and a half. When is your departure date? We are leaning towards either the Nov. 26th 2005, or December 3rd 2005 date. This is also the first DCL cruise or first ever cruise for us, and we are soo excited just like you guys are! Especially me, since I am doing all the planning. We barely took our first WDW trip last October and loved it so much, that hubby and kids want to give it a try again. Getting ready for the counter now! Hope our dates are the same!

 

[bobsuzla]

My DD9 wants to know what the arcade is like (what kind of games etc...)

 

[TheWog]

There is Jurrasic Park III, a shark hunting game, Crazy Taxi, air hockey, some racing games, its not too too big, probably about 20 games total. They are all about .75 or 1.00 each. There are a couple for .50 but not many. You need your KTTW card and you will get arcade cards in the amounts of $5.00, $10.00 or $20.00. Have fun.