Super tight budget in Alaska

[WishingStar78]

so, I recently made my first post here (https://www.disboards.com/threads/it-is-possible-dream-or-nightmare.3594177/)

I have a crazy situation (as far as I am concerned). Anyway, if you had $400 to spend on a family of 4 for souvenirs, alcohol, excursions, Palo, or anything else you would use money for on an Alaska cruise, how would you use it best?

Bonus points to people who actually went and did stuff.

I know that my family may have different preferences to yours, but I gotta start somewhere, and everything looks so amazing, but also so expensive... How do I pick?

 

[saxmangeoff]

Palo for 2. $60 + wine + tip.

What are the kids' ages? 9 or under will cost less for excursions, though with that budget I'd be inclined to skip excursions and do walking tours at the ports.

The cruise itself is amazing. Add a Palo dinner date and some souvenirs and you've got yourself a fantastic vacation!

 

[Henlady]

You don't have to buy wine. A $20-25 tip would be sufficient. You could set a budget amount for souvenirs and stick to it. If you went a drink or two if you average $7 per each drink that should work. It could be more for top shelf or "fancy" mixed drinks. Are onboard tips included in your prize? If not that will be a total of $168. I have heard that it is possible to not spend anything extra. Just depends how strict you can be with yourselves.

 

[WestFamily]

Hi,
We did Alaska with a very tight budget a couple of years ago. It was a blast. My recommenddation: Get off at every port. Walk around at least. Go to Palo. That's a must. Do the brunch and if you can do it on the glacier day mid day for the (what some people think are) best views.

That leaves you with about $300. At this point do you use that for trinkets at each stop? Or do you go spend the 300 in each port at different food stops? We wen to Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau for about $125 (since my older child needed more crab). Then went to some dive restaurant in Ketchikan for about $40. So now you've got about $135 left. Which isn't much but enough for a fun memory at any of the ports or on the boat either as a gift or neat food you may not have at home.

Or: Are your kids into minecraft or mining? Mine was (still is). If our younger son was old enough for it we were going to do the gold mining tour in Juneau. I think it was round $75 for adults and 60 for kids.

Or: Green Jeep Rentals in Skagway. That was the thing I really wanted to do but the wife vetoed it. It was a couple hours of a jeep rental that allowed us to explore on our own.

Or: Nothing but Palo and enjoy the ship. Use your normal weekly budget on a few trinkets like magnets and enjoy everything that is relaxing about the ship and Alaska.

I'm sure others will chime in. Not all of us go all out on excursions, I for one, like just relaxing and not worrying about what I need to go do next.

 

[kid-at-heart]

This is our second trip to Alaska. Last time we did whale watching in Juneau (spouse & child loved it, I thought it was way overpriced) and we rented a "Green Jeep" in Skagway (the "Green Jeep" could be fun for your family, not nearly as expensive as the whale watching gig), then just walked around Ketchikan. You do not have to spend a ton of money to have fun. Decide what your family most enjoys. For us, it is Palo, "good eats", nature and just being together. This trip we are eating at Palos and hiking about at Skagway and Ketchikan, pretty much free or close to it. Spouse and daughter are planning to kayak in Juneau and I plan to take a bus to Mendenhall Glacier and hike around down the trails at Mendenhall while they play in the water. I doubt we will spend more than $400 unless we decided to add in extra alcohol tastings. Here are two/three of the sites I looked at when trying to decide.

https://skagwayshoretours.com/best-short-hikes-in-skagway/

https://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm

http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles-4.html

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

As far as souvenirs go, if you want to give any Disney toys or costumes to your kids, buy them before and take them with you. They are much cheaper online! And if you can pack them without the kids seeing, they will never know the difference. That way you can just pick up a couple of small souvenirs while on the ship. And really, photos are the best keepsakes!

Every adult is allowed either two bottles of wine, two bottles of champagne, or six beers. Bring them for your alcohol! You can restock at every port if you need more.

Just get off and walk around at the ports. Don't bother with the expensive excursions. Or focus on one excursion that you really want to do and just walk around at the other ports.

If you are on a tight budget, skip Palo. Sure it is awesome, but so are the main dining rooms that are included in your ship fare.

 

[dcassetta]

Ketchikan is a very walkable town, and I think also a pretty one. In Juneau, you can visit Mendenhall glacier relatively inexpensively. One way taxi ride from the pier to the glacier will be about $30. Admission for adults is $3, kids under 16 are free. They have a nice visitor center and beautiful walking and hiking trails.

 

[tlprice]

I gave my daughter a $50 gift card when we started our trip. She never once asked me for a souvenir since she had her own money to spend. She was also very careful and very particular about what she wanted to spend "her" money on. She is never that way with "my" money! That really helped cut down on the souvenir costs.

 

[WishingStar78]

Hi,
We did Alaska with a very tight budget a couple of years ago. It was a blast. My recommenddation: Get off at every port. Walk around at least. Go to Palo. That's a must. Do the brunch and if you can do it on the glacier day mid day for the (what some people think are) best views.

That leaves you with about $300. At this point do you use that for trinkets at each stop? Or do you go spend the 300 in each port at different food stops? We wen to Tracy's Crab Shack in Juneau for about $125 (since my older child needed more crab). Then went to some dive restaurant in Ketchikan for about $40. So now you've got about $135 left. Which isn't much but enough for a fun memory at any of the ports or on the boat either as a gift or neat food you may not have at home.

Or: Are your kids into minecraft or mining? Mine was (still is). If our younger son was old enough for it we were going to do the gold mining tour in Juneau. I think it was round $75 for adults and 60 for kids.

Or: Green Jeep Rentals in Skagway. That was the thing I really wanted to do but the wife vetoed it. It was a couple hours of a jeep rental that allowed us to explore on our own.

Or: Nothing but Palo and enjoy the ship. Use your normal weekly budget on a few trinkets like magnets and enjoy everything that is relaxing about the ship and Alaska.

I'm sure others will chime in. Not all of us go all out on excursions, I for one, like just relaxing and not worrying about what I need to go do next.

Wow! this is such a comprehensive answer! I love it! I'm trying to keep the Disney Crazyness to myself as much as possible, but this is a post one I'll need to show DH!

 

[Chica1581]

We don't pay for excursions and do self walking tours of the ports. We set a $25 budget for our daughter for an on board trinket. We don't do Palo and only eat at the MDRs or the included buffet/quick service. I bring my daughter's princess dresses and accessories and will gift her the small package at BBB ($65). We buy a wine package of five bottles for $200 so we can have wine each night. We don't spend on anything else other than gratuities.

 

[WishingStar78]

I gave my daughter a $50 gift card when we started our trip. She never once asked me for a souvenir since she had her own money to spend. She was also very careful and very particular about what she wanted to spend "her" money on. She is never that way with "my" money! That really helped cut down on the souvenir costs.

LOL, I love this

 

[Geomom]

We didn't go to Palo, it was our first cruise and we wanted to enjoy all the MDR menus. We have no regrets! I gave you some of my excursion ideas in your other post, so this one is lighter on excursion ideas. You will have a bill at the end of your cruise for gratuities for your head server, assistant server, server, and stateroom host--the total will be $336 for your family--$12/person/day.

$400 spending money:

• $75--Ship souvenirs...$25 for you and $25/kid--they're going to want a stuffed Captain Mickey or Alaskan Minnie.
• $50--port shopping--find cheap souvenirs at Alaska T Shirt Company in Juneau-
• $25--various tips--for example: room service is free, but you should tip them!
• $100--alcoholic drinks for you and your husband. Drinks of the Day are cheaper, as are mimosas before Noon. (Note that the drink of the day is NOT the one listed in the menu each night...it is a drink that should be listed on the navigator somewhere.) 15% gratuity is added to each bill.
• $110 or $70?--Juneau--transportation to Mendenhall Glacier--the $110 is taking a glacier shuttle for the 4 of you. The $70 is if you use Juneau car rental, I included the $5/adult fee at the glacier.
• FREE--Skagway: visit the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic park--they have a building just for kids, they also offer free walking tours

 

[msmama]

Are you a drinker st home? If so you're probably going to want to have some on the ship. I had one alcoholic drink and some fancy coffee ONLY becaue I had an on board credit.

I could tell you exactly what my kid would want - a stuffie so that was the only purchase we had to make (also got myself a shirt and a Xmas ornament).

On a 5 day cruise we did room service once so that was a couple $$ for tips.

If you're a big foodie then may PAlo is worth it. It I wouldn't do it (especially on a budget).

If it were me, I'd use it for excursions. Most likely Alaska is somewhere you will not go again (at least any time soon) so I would want to see something I couldn't see anywhere else.

I did an Alaskan cruise for my honeymoon and 15 year so (and a divorce) later the whale watching trip I didn't there is still one of the most amazing things I've ever done.

But your family may be different.

 

[WestFamily]

Wow! this is such a comprehensive answer! I love it! I'm trying to keep the Disney Crazyness to myself as much as possible, but this is a post one I'll need to show DH!

Hah. Thanks! Well I may secretly be hoping we can do it again in 2019 and some of the pictures are used on my computer and phone as backgrounds. So it's all fresh in the mind (all the time).

 

[Disneyteachers]

Okay...last year we went to Alaska on the Wonder. We are from the east coast, so we did Seattle/Vancouver and the DL/LA in addition to the cruise so my budget was limited. Here's what we did for excursions:

Juneau: Shuttle to Mendenhall and then the Mount Roberts Tramway (if I had to pick, Mendenhall is a must do.)

Skagway: Self guided hike to smugglers cove and yakatunia point. Our non-hiking kids liked it. You can walk to the trails from the ship in 10 min

Ketchikan: We booked a tour through viator but the day was windy and most water based excursions from DCL booked or not were canceled. That would've been our splurge.


We don't do souvenirs and the kids know it needs to be their own money if they want something. They had a gift card or two (from holiday gifts -- I think I did one in their Easter baskets.)

I'd do Palo and we like to have a few drinks...we did the mixology class -- fun and a good value. Aside from that, bring alcohol on board with you.

 

[lklgoodman]

My family went on an Alaska cruise 2 years ago. Dh and I had gone to Palo on a previous cruise and thought it was good, but really not something that we cared to do again. It's adults only so your kids would have to go to the club during that time, our dinner there was nearly 3 hours long. When we took the Alaska tour we didn't know if we'd be able to afford another cruise, so we chose to spend our money on excursions that our whole family could enjoy and not on a dinner for just dh and me. There are so many different types of excursions in Alaska. We chose ones that included 2-3 activities at each port. In Ketchikan we went to the lumber jack show and then to a Native Alaska village that told about the history of the people and included a totem pole activity for the children to do. My dd had just turned 6 and loved both. I would have loved to do a dog musher excursion, but they were just too expensive. Look for excursions that include doing several activities, a lot of them are cheaper than some of the more thrilling ones(helicopter ride to a glacier). I always buy a Christmas ornament from the ship's gift store and from the ports we go to. Oh and you might as well start thinking about ways to save for your next cruise, because you WILL want to go on another before your first is even over! Guaranteed!!!

 

[lanejudy]

I would skip excursions. Those would likely eat your budget in one day. If I recall, your kids are young. There may even be minimal options for the youngest. I would get off the ship in ports, walk around a bit, maybe pick up a small souvenir (do you collect spoons or other such knick-knacks?) so you can say "we've been there." Be back onboard in time for lunch and enjoy activities onboard.

Alcohol really depends on your own preferences. We aren't big drinkers, so maybe a few drinks during the week. The drink of the day is usually around $5 or $7. If you drink wine, you can get a wine package (any size, does not have to be 7 bottles unless you want that). Or there is a beer mug program which offers larger refills for the regular price. Alcohol is something that can easily eat into your budget unless you watch it carefully; maybe carry on a couple bottles of wine or 6-packs to help with funds.

I don't think Palo is necessary for a first cruise if budget is tight. Enjoy the MDRs. But if you are skipping excursions and not big drinkers or souvenirs, you would certainly have enough for Palo.

Souvenir budget stays below $50 per person. If you want, you can buy less expensive Disney items at home and squirrel them away in your luggage to give to the kids onboard. Maybe Mickey PJs or princess nightgown, a character t-shirt or two for each, smaller trinkets. Much less expensive than onboard. And be aware that the shops onboard will only be open during time at-sea, all onboard shopping is closed while the ship is in port.

I'm glad you're finding a way to make this trip happen. A whole year of saving and planning! Enjoy!

 

[WishingStar78]

Thank you everyone! I haven't been around here that long, but I've seen ideas for no cost port stuff that I didn't see on any other threads, this is great! (not surprisingly I'd love to do an extreme excursion like the dog mushers but I don't think our budget is big enough for 2 of us to do something like that let alone all of us)

 

[BruinEd03]

Another way to stretch your $400 just a little bit more. If you know how much you are going to spend on the ship, you can buy some gift cards ahead of time. For example, you can get $100 Disney GC for $94.99 (no membership required for online orders). You can can also use ebates with BJ's. Check out this thread in the Budget Board (https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-gift-card-deals.2941964/), or post in it (go to the last 20-30 pages or so as the beginning won't be relevant). If you are going to use some of your other budget for flights, be sure to get a credit card (with no fees) that gives you rewards (e.g., Discover IT card, Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited, etc). You can check out this thread in the Budget Board (and post in it) (https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/).

 

[BruinEd03]

Also check out http://disneycruiselineblog.com. They've got personal navigators (basically schedules of activities) for past Alaska Cruise sailings. E.g., I've just selected a random June 2017 sailing and you can see the past navigators below. Thus, you can see what activities are already available for your family on the ship that will be free: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/cruise-planning/itineraries/sail-date-summary/?saildate=4097.