Spending Money..

[msnmom]

We are cruising in just a few weeks. We cruised 2 years ago and spent alot of $$ on the ship. Between purchasing pins, playing bingo, drinks and Shutters, we spent a fortune. (It was worth every penny and we don't regret it, but it was ALOT!!) The family we cruised with spent just as much. I was curious to see how much other families spend on the "non-essentials"...

 

[mommasita]

Here is one right here... Last trip I said, we won't buy as much, as it is our 3rd time.... I think we spent more....I buy soooo many pictures also, hit the gift shops several times, then the stuff near the pool...It just adds up quickly..

But, hey, I don't do that at home, and that is my idea of a vacation..I definitely hear you on the spending...

 

[nordkin]

We try to limit our spending as well, but Shutters does us in everytime. I was a bit concerned about how much we would spend on the August Repo cruise and was very delighted when I settled the account at the end of the trip. We did limit the amount of Bingo we played to twice and did not by any drinks other than the sodas as we do not drink alchol. This trip the down fall was Shutters and all the Panama Canal items in the gift shop. With shore excursions, Shutters, the gift shop, and tips for 4 of us we spent about $3,000. I was please because someone we met on the trip spent almost $8,000 for 3 people, but they were heavy drinkers. I am planning on about $3,000 for our 11 day as well.

 

[MelissaE1]

My family of four is cruising the Magic Oct 22nd and we have budgeted about $2,000 for spending -- this includes tips, excursions, drinks, bingo, shutters, souvenirs, hair braiding, pins, etc. Last time (Eastern 1/03) we spent about $1,500, but we did not do planned excursions as my dd was too young for many of them.

I am also going on a 4 day in January with a dear friend of mine and I will probably spend about $300 total, which sounds like a lot less... but either way I guess it works out in the neighborhood of $75 per person, per day.

 

[tvguy]

$1300 for 4 on a 7 Day Eastern for tips, excurisons, pictures, alcohol, and Tee shirts. $800 of that was excursions, $125 for 4 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of Martinelli's Sparking Cider for the kids for New Years Eve.

Most important thing to remember is keep a reserve, either in traveler's checks, or available credit on your credit card for AFTER the cruise. Enough to cover one way air fare home (at the highest, last minute, one way fares), a night's hotel for your group, and meals for a day is a good reserve amount.
While airlines are obligated to help you out if a delay is due to mechanical problems are something that is there fault, but with a weather delay, you are at their mercy. And not all airlines honor each other's tickets. Southwest tickets are good only on Southwest, and Southwest doesn't honor other airlines tickets.
And even if you have travel insurance, you still have to pay the expenses, and then submit them for reimbursement.

 

[imlazar]

We are cruising in just a few weeks. We cruised 2 years ago and spent alot of $$ on the ship. Between purchasing pins, playing bingo, drinks and Shutters, we spent a fortune. (It was worth every penny and we don't regret it, but it was ALOT!!) The family we cruised with spent just as much. I was curious to see how much other families spend on the "non-essentials"...

We spent $850, $350 of which was for tips, the rest was drinks, one excursion, and photos.

We were told the average bill is $1-2,000 per family.

 

[EMMOM]

hello there msnmom, I guess we aren't the only ones spending lots of time in shutters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And as for our DH's complaining about that I am sure they will be the first ones in there again.

 

[lbgraves]

On both of our cruises we got the 10 picture package. We also went to Palo for brunch & dinner & left a nice tip in addition to the service charge on the last cruise. With tips & everything else our bill was just around $600.00 for each 7 day cruise. That is for a family of 4.

 

[pdarrah]

Not counting tips & excursions (we booked those separate from DCL), we spent under $200. We don't drink much (DH had 1 drink the whole cruise and did the wine tasting -$15 I think), the photos at shutters didn't impress us that much - we bought 1. DH played bingo once. We didn't know about smoothies (that may cost us more this time!). We're not big shoppers - we didn't buy anything at Key West, Costa Maya or Castaway Cay. At Cozumel we spent about $50 on rum and a few souveniers for DS. We spent a little bit at the onboard gift shop - a couple pins, coloring book, photo album - that's about it.

We may spend a little more this time since DH may have a couple more drinks (maybe 4 or 5 for the cruise!) and we now know about smoothies which DS and I might get a few (probably not everyday). Since we are going to the same ports (mostly - hopefully, we'll make it to Grand Cayman this year) I don't expect we'll do any more shopping.

Our outside excursions last year (1 at Cozumel & 1 at Costa Maya) cost us about $250 total for the 3 of us. This year's excursions are pretty similar. We spent the suggested amount on tips - I think just over $200. So I think our total "spending money" was about $650 for a 7-night Western.

These amounts in the thousands just amaze me!

pdarrah

 

[mom+3girls]

My DDs 17, 12 and 10 and I cruised on Sept 10 Magic Western, spending money for excursions, drinks, gifts and photos $305, tips $309, parking at port $70. That was on the ship, in Key West we did the island tour $74(wouldn't do it again) and the Aquarium $30, Grand Cayman spent maybe 20 on a couple of suvies, about the same in Cozumel, so lets just say $850 total in case I forgot something.

Just a side note
the $30 that we spent on the Aquarium in Key West was the best value for your buck, we loved it, best Aquarium I have been to, this one in Key West wasn't much to look at from the outside. My kids loved it, we waited for the guided tour to start and we learned so much about the marine life they have there, the guide was very good and knew her stuff, and we even got to touch a live shark. well it was a baby shark.

Have fun on your trip!!!!

 

[hawaii5o]

We were on the 3 day wonder and didnt spend as much as I thought we would. We probably spent if I can remember about $400 give or take some, that was for drinks, pics at shutters, tips and souveniers. Had a couple drinks, I think I got the 10 pic package and I kept souveniers to a beach towel, a t shirt for dd, 2 magnets and I think that is it.

 

[MelissaE1]

After reading everyone else's amounts it sure seems like we spent alot, so I thought back. I should note that the $1,500 we spent last time was not just our shipboard account, I think that was around $1,000 and that included 2 bottles of wine we drank on the ship and six we took home (we rarely drink but we fell in love with this stuff.) Also my kids were introduced to pin trading on this cruise by a wonderful CM and we ended up spending a bit more than we realized for that! That also included ALL the spending/lunch/souvenir money we used at our ports, and I think possibly our gas/parking/hotel. This time we added to the budget for a couple of rather pricey excursions... but we have saved a long time to go and our attitude is have some fun while you're there!

I do think you could do it for less and still have a good time, though.

 

[Otimon]

We'll be cruising the 4-night later this month and plan to do as we always did on previous cruises. Upon check-in we indicate we plan to pay cash and they limit us (3) to $200.00. On the 7-night we were limited to $400.00. We don't drink so that helps a lot and usually do our own excursions. Always get a picture or two at Shutters and a few items from the gift shops for friends and family. For us this works well and we avoid "sticker shock" at the end of the cruise.

Of course, once on board you can always add cash (we carry traveller's checks) to your account anytime if something special comes up.

 

[Grendalynn]

The timing of this thread is great!!! DH and I have been trying to plan and budget just how much cash (spending money) to have available on our upcoming Land & Sea trip... We thought about $2,000 cash for everything, including the 3 days at WDW/Polynesian that isnt included in our already-paid-for part of the trip. Well, the rooms and tickets are included, I should say, but not meals and such. And the reserve Credit Cards of course! Having never been on a cruise, I hope this should be enough. Without hijacking this thread, hoping all the info that follows is helpful to all - what other helpful info can you all pass on to a first time cruiser with 2 DS's (almost 3 and 6 1/2) and my third child, DH (31)?? .... What things are a rip off and what is worth the $$? What are the must sees and don't bothers? What are the ins and outs of late dining (got the 8:30 slot Thanks so much and happy vacationing!

 

[Cinderella]

I would like to know what other typically spend too - and as the previous poster asked - what is worth spending on and what is not.

Initially when i booked i was going to strictly limit my spending. We are travelling from the UK - haven't been for almost five years and doing 3 nights poly, 1 night Radisson at the port (after visiting Kennedy), 4 nights cruise, then 6 nights SSR (using DVC points for this part). But, now i am thinking well i haven't visited in so long and i work hard - may not be able to go again for a few years, so lets have fun. There's so many tempting excursions, spa treatments etc - and we have to have wine with dinner every night.

So i would love to know the average spend - and what was worth it and what not?

 

[kfeuer]

I just got my credit card bill for our 9/11 cruise so this info is still fresh in my mind! We spent about $485 on our shipboard account (4-night cruise) which included:

massage for me (heavenly and totally worth it)
Palo brunch surcharge and tip
Tips for everybody else
a couple pictures from Shutters
3 bottles of liquor
4 or 5 drinks (the Konk Koolers on Castaway Cay are dee-licious!)
Sterling rolo link Mickey Head necklace for me $60 (also totally worth it--I love it and it reminds me of the cruise every time I wear it)
couple small gifts
Cruise line bag with bottled water for Castaway Cay

Apart from this, we also spent $170 or $180 (don't remember exact amount) to do the dolphin excursion. We saved about $50 by booking it ourselves. We LOVED it, would recommend it to anyone and it was worth every penny.
In addition, we toured the Pirate Museum in Nassau and found it quite interesting. If you liked the POTC movie, you'd probably like it. Admission was $12/person and it took about an hour.

I can't imagine spending thousands but then again we don't drink much, we don't play bingo and we haven't brought our kids yet so Shutters hasn't been a major temptation.

 

[DisneyDianne]

how much is the 10 picture package?
Disney Dianne

 

[mom+3girls]

how much is the 10 picture package?
Disney Dianne

I think it was $85.00 or right around that