What does your family do to afford Disney Cruises?

[Anal Annie]

Never did I think that finding a stateroom for a family of 5 would be so darn challenging! I am not "that" behind the 8ball lloking into a late march early April cruse am I?? Either the cruises are booked up for that occupancy allowance or they dont llo 4 in a room!? I keep getting bumped up to a suite totaling $7500 for a week long eastern/wetsern carribean trip. I may as well do DCL if thats the case...

Any ideas or advice out there??

That would be spring break time for most districts so yeah, sorta. Most people would probably book that a year in advance. (At least I would.) Did you try looking for 2 connecting cabins instead of a suite?

 

[Grendalynn]

That would be spring break time for most districts so yeah, sorta. Most people would probably book that a year in advance. (At least I would.) Did you try looking for 2 connecting cabins instead of a suite?

Well,now that you mention it.... Maybe earlier is better? February vacation instead of Late March/early April... I guess I wasn't thinking as I dont have college aged kids or colleges in our town, an we dont have Spring break (march early April) here, so by yanking my kids from school on a non-vacation week, I thought I was being smart!! Not so much! So much for thinking, A?!

I have given up for tonight. I will rethink my vacaton ideas tomorrow! Sweet Dreams!

 

[Live4FW]

This has been a great thread. Thanks everyone for your ideas! Hopefully, we can put some of them to work, and get cruising sooner rather than later.

We are looking at restructering where are vacation dollars are going to.

We have an RV and are thinking about selling it so that we could move all the money spent there (trailer pmt, insurance, storage, mtce, extra gas, campsite rental, and tow vehicle) to use for DVC and/or DCL Cruising.

We are finding that as our kids grow older it is harder and harder to use the RV like we used to (once a month and two weeks per year), we are getting to the point of only being able to do our one to two weeks. If we can get away for a weekend it is now more like one night for which a hotel room works better than all the prep and planning needed for the RV.

 

[Pluto 2]

overtime,ot,ot and more ot. but all this was put to an end because of this bad economy. but im still going thanks to dvc

 

[brucechase]

My one and only cruise (so far) - which is in 2 weeks - was bought and paid for by Uncle Sam. I used the economic stimulus rebate check that we got earlier in the year to pay for this cruise. Couple that with the Disney reward dollars and OBC and I won't have to pay much out of pocket.

Now only if we can get this gas shortage done before the next 2 weeks. I'd still say 25% of the gas station around here do not have gas on a regular basis. The good news is the prices are now below $4. 4 weeks ago prices were $3.30.

 

[TonytheWop]

Kind of a weird question, but I have been budgeting for our bi-annual Disney trips for a long time. Beinga family of 5 we can barely get out of WDW for less that $4000 or more depending on our desires/dining plan/accomodations and so on. DCL is even more pricy... I am wondering how other families out there afford doing the Disney thing. Not just WDW bute DCL too. We are a family of 5, DH works full time for his own company and makes decent money, I am almost full time and work for the school district, so my pay isnt amazing . I have a son in kindergarten and pay for daycare for him 1/2 time, full time daycare for DS2 and DS9 is into sports (partcipation fees). Being that Disney is so expensive no matter how you look at it, I am curious to know if you skimp and save every extra penny, is it a matter of having a great job or amazing inlaws who pay your way? I hope I am not being too nosey, just curious how other Disney Families do it!

I agree with almost all of the suggestions you have received up to now. I can add the following :

As to WDW:
(1) Most important savings for us is that we drive to Florida. It may be a 24 hour drive but I think of the $2000 savings and it doesn't seem as far.
(2) We have booked our stays and Disney tickets through online auction sites and saved hundreds.
(3) We always book condos and cook our own meals and prepare drinks and sandwiches / snacks for the day at WDW. The prices of food and drinks at WDW are crazy. Hint: We have often stayed in the Daytona area so as to combine a beach vacation with WDW and you can get great accomodations for a cheap price.
(4) Souvenirs: Instead of paying WDW prices we go to the Disney outlet in Orlando and save a bundle.

As to DCL: We finally booked our first Disney cruise and a 7 day to boot by taking advantage of a great price by going the week before Labor Day..so my kids might miss the first day or two of school. Certainly better than missing a whole week. We booked 2 adjoining cat.9 and after OBC it came to $4900 for a 7 day on the MAGIC.
How are we paying for it ?? Firstly like most of the PP, we rarely eat out , buy on sale and bulk and cut out those fancy $4.00 coffees (saved $20/week or $1000/year). Also, as my answer to the ridiculous price of gas , for the first time in 20 years I'm taking public transport to work and that alone is saving us over $150 per month ($1800/year) plus I get to nap !

 

[HFC1969]

Book on board! Use your Disney Card til it hurts.... we put everything on it...

 

[Gr00vyChc]

We also live close to Disneyland so we own AP. We take my DD4 often, like the other poster said to get our "Disney Fix". Although we're a family of just 3, I"m a SAHM and living in south county (o.c.) is very expensive. We usually take 3-4 vacations,a year, 1 or 2 of which are abroad and the others domestically. We've been on the Magic for 7 nights in '07 and now we're eager to go again. We're planning on 2010 for the baltic itinerary if they have it, so what we're doing to save for it is.... we're only going to Maui next year and the rest of our vacation will be local, i.e. drive up north etc.. I'm not sure if we can get used to it though, but at least we have hawaii to look forward to and of course the Disney cruise in 2010.

 

[jnadelman]

We use our Disney Visa for EVERY purchase over $5. We have been doing this for about 6 to 7 years and will have about $2000 to use to pay for the cruise by the time we go in 2009. Sure, there was a time that we are able to charge day care and that helped a ton. We charge as many bills as we can as well, besides making it easier to pay them, we get Disney dollars for it.

We have been planning this trip for years (the reason we got the visa in the first place). By having the Disney dollars and the OBC, this vacation will run us about the same cost of every other vacation.

Problem now is how to go back next time when we won't have 6+ years to save up those Disney dollars again.

 

[PigletsPal2]

DH and I feel extremely lucky. while we're retired, we do contracting work w/the gov't approximately 4-6 months of the year (2 on, 2 off), which pays obscenely well. This is our play money. We both have more than adequate annuities to pay bills and unexpected expenses. Lest anyone wants one of these jobs, you must have a prior working relationship w/this gov't agency and have a top secret security clearance.


Queen Colleen

 

[rhondamccollough@hot]

We use our Disney Visa for EVERY purchase over $5. We have been doing this for about 6 to 7 years and will have about $2000 to use to pay for the cruise by the time we go in 2009. Sure, there was a time that we are able to charge day care and that helped a ton. We charge as many bills as we can as well, besides making it easier to pay them, we get Disney dollars for it.

We have been planning this trip for years (the reason we got the visa in the first place). By having the Disney dollars and the OBC, this vacation will run us about the same cost of every other vacation.

Problem now is how to go back next time when we won't have 6+ years to save up those Disney dollars again.

Just wondering exactly how to use Disney Dollars to pay for the cruise. We have the Disney Visa also but didn't realize you could pay for things with your rewards. I thought you only got gift cards with it!

 

[jnadelman]

You pay with those gift cards. When you order them, they have numbers on them just like a credit card. Then you can pay for the cruise with that. You just need to order them a few weeks before you want to use it. But once you have one, you don't need a new one. You can just call and they will transfer any new disney dollars you earned right to that card.

If you plan things right you can even pay for some of the cruise with the points from paying for some of the cruise. All you have to do is run the numbers and pay a few months before the due date.

For us it is working out something like this
So lets just say that the cruise is $4000. A late as possible, we pay with what disney dollars we have. So lets say it is $500. Balance is now $3500. At that same time, pay a good portion of that, say $3000. That $3000 is now $30 of disney dollars. When you go to pay the remaining amount ($500), you first pay with that new $30 leaving you with a balance of only $470.
So instead of paying $4000. We pay $3470. Saving $530, all for using the CC. If you then generate any more points on the card between when you pay off everything and you leave, get those dollars transfered to the reward card before you leave and you can use it on board just like an OBC.

 

[LakeAriel]

We are a family of 6. DH, me, dds 17, 15, 12 & 8.
Besides that DH works him little bum off-LOL - I tried to list what I could think of below.

BTW-We used to go to DW every year. Now we do DCL. We figured by the time we added in food, Deluxe resort, and all the extras it costs us about the same. Maybe a bit more. But it is what we save for and choose to do now.

It is cheaper to get 2 cat 11s next to each other than to get suite for 5 or more.
Here is what I do:
(1) I have found the Passporter's DCL book almost invaluable (no I do not work for them-LOL). It has a great section that tells you what rooms cats are and how many they sleep. This helps me plan the best room confirguration for what we can spend.
It also has a budget worksheet.
(2) The biggest thing we do to aford DCL is (except for the EB Panama) we cruise in the off season and take the girls out of school. We have never had a problem with this and their teachers seem to see what a great learning experience this is for them to visit other countries.
(3) We book while on board to get the discount
(4) Then we learned to transfer the on board booking to a TA such as Dreams Unlimited (Tracy) when they are havining good On Board Credit Offers. This money pays for everything for some of the tips to drinks. Hey every dollar counts to me.
(5) I use my Disney Chase Visa to book and pay for the cruises which gives me Disney Rewards Dollars on the DR Card to spend on the ship. Again this can be used for tips, gifts, drinks,...you get it. Every Dollar... Also I put lots of stuff on this card and pay it off every month to accumulate dollars. I had about $500 in Reward Dollars for the EB Repo!
They offer a 6 months same as cash so that gives me 6 months to pay off the card with no interest. I always pay it off before the cruise so the cruise is paid off on the card before it occurs. I do not charge the cruise if we can not afford or pay it off.
(6) If the price drops lower than what I paid I let DCL know it and get refunded.
(7) I book confirmed rooms so I know exactly what rooms and how many they sleep so we are next to or across the hall from our "kids". I am not brave enough to do GTY. I am to much of a planner and detailed.
(8) I buy things on sale at the stores and stock up on basics so I do not have to pay full price. And we get books at the wonderful used books sale store our library has. I never pay more than $3 for the recent hardbacks, buy clothes on sale, BUY ON SALE ...you get the idea.
(9) We do not do excursions. I have found that even after 9 cruises there is still plenty to find to do that does not cost a thing extra or minimal amount done on our own after researching what to do.
(10) We have DVC and although it is not the best way to use DVC points we do.

I am not saying we do not have a good income. We do. But I find that it is so much easier to save here and there. It really does all add up.
For example after all our expenses on the EB Repo (tips, Palos and everything including gifts) I only owed 44 cents after all the room credits. We tipped well to!
I hope at least one idea will be helpful in helping you all afford DCL more.

My strategies are very similiar..If you add up the cost of the resort, the meals, and the the park passes a cruise is NOT that much more. As I get older doing all the walking in those parks is very difficult..So..after doing the 4 night cruise in August I decided to book the 7 night..I am sorry I didn't book on board and save the 10%..I, too, use DU for the OBC and the Disney Visa for more OBC as well as Disney dollars..My son in law is a travel agent and they booked their stateroom at 15% off.

As far as DVC I rented out my points and it paid for nearly the entire cruise!
I have met a few marvelous people who are repeat renters as well as my friends and family..They get a great resort deal, I get to cruise!

 

[brucechase]

We use our Disney Visa for EVERY purchase over $5. We have been doing this for about 6 to 7 years and will have about $2000 to use to pay for the cruise by the time we go in 2009.

I think you might be off a little on your time.

Just so everyone knows, Disney rewards EXPIRE after 5 years. You can not accrue them on your statement for more than 5 years. The only way to make rewards last more than 5 years is to transfer them to a reward card and then they have to be used within 1 year. So there is no way to get reward dollars for more than 6 years.

Also, the Disney card has only been available for 5.5 years (April 2003) if I remember correctly.

 

[jnadelman]

I think you might be off a little on your time.

Just so everyone knows, Disney rewards EXPIRE after 5 years. You can not accrue them on your statement for more than 5 years. The only way to make rewards last more than 5 years is to transfer them to a reward card and then they have to be used within 1 year. So there is no way to get reward dollars for more than 6 years.

Also, the Disney card has only been available for 5.5 years (April 2003) if I remember correctly.

I might be off on my timing, that is possible. I can barely remember what I just ate for lunch, how can I remember a few years ago.
We do check our statement to make sure that nothing is going to expire, but since you just mentioned this, I am going to check again. If anything is close, I can easily just pay for some of my cruise now. I have no intent of losing those dollards

 

[Candy Apple]

We gave the kids a cruise for Christmas. This was the only gift from us. Of course, they had to wait 3 months before they could go. They still got their 3 gifts from Santa (3 gifts because that is how many gifts Baby Jesus received from the Magi). They still had fun "opening" the gift. I made a puzzle where they had to unscramble words related to Disney. Then each word had one letter circled in it. When those letters were put in order it spelled "We are going on a Disney cruise". So, our Christmas expenses were a lot less than usual.

We also tell the kids to think "Would you rather have that toy or save money for another Disney cruise?" They always pick the cruise.

Both of these strategies help decrease the amount of money we spend and the amount of toy clutter! So more money for the cruise.

 

[disneykelly73]

The only way I can afford to go to WDW is through my DVC. I bought it almost 10 yrs ago, and its has more than paid for itsself.

I have used it to book countless trips to the world, including weekend jaunts and 10 day vacations. I have used it to book 3 cruises.

I can not say enough about DVC!

 

[skiingwife]

My husband and I both work and have very good incomes, but you wouldn't know it because we live very frugally. Here's how we afford to cruise:

1. We don't have a car payment. We save up and pay cash for a car and put that $400 that would have been a payment into savings.
2. I buy everything on sale. If my kids want new clothes, I make them wait until it goes on sale.
3. In the past few weeks, we sold over $300 of stuff on ebay. Nothing of real high value, just a lot of little things that add up (kids clothes, small electronics, toys).
4. Every year or so we sit down and talk about ways to cut. We recently changed to a new cable company that combines phone/internet/cable tv which meant we cut out our old phone bill. This saved at least $25 a month. We called our cell phone carrier and asked about a lower rate plan and saved about $50 a month on our bill (even with adding another phone and unlimited texting. We had been paying for each text.).
5. We save our change in a jar. It's one of those big clear pretzel jars that we plastered with Disney stickers. When we go to the bank to change it to cash, they know where we're going!
6. We also use the Disney visa and have earned over $400. We'll use that for drinks, excursions, and BINGO! (yeah Pikey!)
7. We fly from Michigan to Florida, and each time I've been able to get flights for the 5 of us for around $750. We always take Allegiant or AirTran.

 

[Knittingqueen]

I know. It seems far fetched for my family to do the disney cruise. Family of five is hard. Any suggestions?

 

[jship210]

We are a family of 6. DH, me, dds 17, 15, 12 & 8.
Besides that DH works him little bum off-LOL - I tried to list what I could think of below.

BTW-We used to go to DW every year. Now we do DCL. We figured by the time we added in food, Deluxe resort, and all the extras it costs us about the same. Maybe a bit more. But it is what we save for and choose to do now.

It is cheaper to get 2 cat 11s next to each other than to get suite for 5 or more.
Here is what I do:
(1) I have found the Passporter's DCL book almost invaluable (no I do not work for them-LOL). It has a great section that tells you what rooms cats are and how many they sleep. This helps me plan the best room confirguration for what we can spend.
It also has a budget worksheet.
(2) The biggest thing we do to aford DCL is (except for the EB Panama) we cruise in the off season and take the girls out of school. We have never had a problem with this and their teachers seem to see what a great learning experience this is for them to visit other countries.
(3) We book while on board to get the discount
(4) Then we learned to transfer the on board booking to a TA such as Dreams Unlimited (Tracy) when they are havining good On Board Credit Offers. This money pays for everything for some of the tips to drinks. Hey every dollar counts to me.
(5) I use my Disney Chase Visa to book and pay for the cruises which gives me Disney Rewards Dollars on the DR Card to spend on the ship. Again this can be used for tips, gifts, drinks,...you get it. Every Dollar... Also I put lots of stuff on this card and pay it off every month to accumulate dollars. I had about $500 in Reward Dollars for the EB Repo!
They offer a 6 months same as cash so that gives me 6 months to pay off the card with no interest. I always pay it off before the cruise so the cruise is paid off on the card before it occurs. I do not charge the cruise if we can not afford or pay it off.
(6) If the price drops lower than what I paid I let DCL know it and get refunded.
(7) I book confirmed rooms so I know exactly what rooms and how many they sleep so we are next to or across the hall from our "kids". I am not brave enough to do GTY. I am to much of a planner and detailed.
(8) I buy things on sale at the stores and stock up on basics so I do not have to pay full price. And we get books at the wonderful used books sale store our library has. I never pay more than $3 for the recent hardbacks, buy clothes on sale, BUY ON SALE ...you get the idea.
(9) We do not do excursions. I have found that even after 9 cruises there is still plenty to find to do that does not cost a thing extra or minimal amount done on our own after researching what to do.
(10) We have DVC and although it is not the best way to use DVC points we do.

I am not saying we do not have a good income. We do. But I find that it is so much easier to save here and there. It really does all add up.
For example after all our expenses on the EB Repo (tips, Palos and everything including gifts) I only owed 44 cents after all the room credits. We tipped well to!
I hope at least one idea will be helpful in helping you all afford DCL more.

We pretty much do the same here, we're not DVC members (our choice) but do the excursions we really want to do. I get as much OT at work as I want, so I'll rack up some hours to help offset the excursions.

The room credits, along with the Disney Visa points add up. Try using the Disney Visa card when gasing up the car the Disney Visa will get you more points. (just remember it's no good if you carry a balance the % negates the bonus point)