What should we expect to have to pay extra for?

[poohnpiglet3]

Being a cruise newbie and also trying to conserve as much $$ as we can to put toward our DVC purchase (!!), I'm wondering what to plan for as far as "extras" go.

Is ALL food included, no matter what, on the cruise and when you go to Castaway Cay?

I realize that off the ship you'll have to pay for what you do, but we don't plan on going on any excursions with two 1-year olds in tow.

So I mean, can you have ice cream when you want it, pop when you want it, order from room service when you want it?

Can you order extra of an item if you want at dinner? Or dessert? Or pop?

What about at the pool areas? Is all of that included as well (I do realize that all alcohol sales are extra, but DH and I don't plan on drinking.)

Any and all advice is welcome! Thank you in advance!!

Sherri

 

[two-foxes]

Others can probably elaborate on this, but this is what is NOT included in your cruise price....

Soda outside of the dining rooms
alcohol
speciality drinks (smoothies, virgin drinks, specialty coffee drinks)
Palo fee

As far as I have read and remember, everything else is included as far as food goes on the ship and CC, and you can order as many of anything at dinner (but don't forget to tip for room service!)

Have fun!

 

[QueenTrident]

Also not included (and what we spent money on):

Spa Treatments
Souvenirs
Internet time
Tips
Souvenirs
Photos
Bingo
Did I mention, souvenirs?

Hopefully your 1 year olds will be more merciful than my 3 year old.


You can order extra things at dinner. In fact, you'll find your servers bringing more food than you could ever want. Soda in the dining rooms is included, but not at the bars, by the pool or through room service.

For the most part, room service is included, but there are some snacks and drinks that are extra.

Really, you can go as inexpensive or extravagant as you want. We spent way more money thanwe expected, but that was due to the spa and the souvenirs. If we had curbed our spending there, we would have been within our budget.

HTH!

 

[jwann]

Originally posted by poohnpiglet3
So I mean, can you have ice cream when you want it, pop when you want it, order from room service when you want it?

Can you order extra of an item if you want at dinner? Or dessert? Or pop?

What about at the pool areas? Is all of that included as well (I do realize that all alcohol sales are extra, but DH and I don't plan on drinking.)

Pop is only included during the meals and you can order as many as you want. As far as drinks at all other times, there is a beverage station with water, lemonade, and tea on deck 9 (same as the pools).

You can have ice cream whenever Plutos is open (check the navigators on castawayclub.com) but its most of the day. You can order from room service 24 hours a day.

At dinner, you can really order how much you want. I usually get 2 appetizers, entree, and a dessert. My sister usually orders an appetizer, soup, and two desserts. Your servers are glad to get you what you want.

Extra $$ we needed:
tips, pictures at Shutters, smoothies at the shows, souveniers, and money for the arcade.

 

[DVCajun]

For the most part, room service is included, but there are some snacks and drinks that are extra.

I'm curious-- can you think of what snacks were extra?

 

[bekkiz]

Things like bottled water, M&Ms, candy, chips etc all cost extra on the room service menu

 

[denise5374]

I can't really add anything new here but i wanted to tell you that you babies are adorable! I bet they keep your busy!!

 

[val2001]

"M&Ms, candy, chips etc all cost extra on the room service menu"

Are these items available other places for free? That's all I need is for DDs to have unlimited access to M&Ms.

 

[The4OfUs]

My kids got chips with lunch in the Kids Club, and I think (THINK, cause I didnt' have room for ice cream at any time other than the YUMMY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Soft Serve on Castaway Cay) DD told me there were M&Ms at Scoops?? Otherwise I didn't see the junk food around...honestly, I saw so much fruit out there for the taking that this is what my kids snacked on cause they knew they didn't have to ask.

 

[NCRedding]

There are snacks and candy located outside of the theater where my DD spent a little bit of money. I always found the food available to be more than enough for me, so I never spent any money on food on ship. There was a bowl of M & Ms at scoops, but it wa a topping for the ice cream. I also think that pop/soda is not available for free at Topsiders/BBB, but I could definitely be wrong.

 

[torontodisney]

Can't add anything either, the only think I needed to do was tell you how beautiful your children are. I would love to have a couple more that age. Good luck with your trip, we leave tomorrow!! Take care.

 

[jrabbit]

Tipping
Tips are THE "required" payment item you will run across on the ship. You have paid for all other "common" activities. The wait staff and room stewards are paid only a very small amount ($50/month) by DCL. The rest of their wages come from tips. The DCL brochure has a chart of recommended tips for each person to be tipped (others have posted this info on threads regarding tipping). The amount listed is PER PERSON.

I really believe in tipping these folks generously. They work hard to make our trips magical and memorable. With you having two 1 yo's with you on the cruise, I'm not sure how I feel about that PER PERSON tipping for the wait staff. For your room steward, I would think that tipping even for the babies seems reasonable, since they will be cleaning up after you all.

There is an opportunity to tip when arriving and departing from the port. There are porters available to help you with your bags. They don't get paid, so they are working for tips (1-2 bucks per bag - more if they are taking you way out to the far parking lot).

Anyone else with thoughts on tipping the waitstaff "by" babies/very young children? If you think it's OK to not tip for the babies, at what age do you think it becomes "manditory"

Other Stuff
With your young ones, you may want to take advantage of Flounders Nursery. They watch the babies for a fee. Don't have any babies, so don't know how much they charge and how long / many times you can sign them up for.

Since you don't plan on shore excursions, you will be saving a lot of money. Beware of Shutters (the photo place) That's where our budget goes to heck. We walk through, look for our pictures and usually cannot resist!! The photos are 6x8 or 8x10. Pretty spendy!!

If you don't "drink" much that will save on your alcohol bill. There is a wine tasting "class" that has a charge if you are interested. The spa, arcade, speciality drinks have a charge (Coffee, water, ice tea, lemonade, punch do not and soda doesn't at dinner), snacks/junk food for purchase outside of the Walt DIsney Theater (why would anyone want to buy this stuff - when there is a ton of nummy food available for "free" - like the ice cream, chocolate chip cookies), and the other "snack" food up on deck 9?

So what does that leave to do for "free"
Swimming, the kids age 4-18 in their clubs, ping pong, shuffle board, shows, movies, relaxing in a deck chair, the "adult educational series" (Navigators, Art of Entertaining, Art of ENtertainment), Activities (like racing a vegitable car, golf chipping tourney, learning to draw Disney characters, family kariokee, game shows, etc), demonstrations: ice carving, bridge tour, galley tour, the "art of the ship" tour, eating, relaxing, whispering "sweet nothing's" to your sweety while walking around deck 4, there's the sports deck up on deck 10 (basketball, volleyball), the sail away parties, and the list goes ever on. Lots to do, not enough time to do it all and this part of the list is 100% free for the price of booking the cruise.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

In addition to the cost of the cruise itself, the major expense that you need to budget is tip money.

Unfortunately, the mainstream cruise industry in the United States tends to hide the fact that you the passenger -- not the cruise line -- must pay the vast majority of what your server, assistant server, head server, and stateroom steward earn. This comes as a rude shock to many first time cruisers. Disney Cruise Line is no exception.

The upside of this system is that your service crew works extremely hard to make sure that you're happy and well taken care of. And it keeps the cruise prices under control. It's really not a bad system, but the cruise lines should make this clear in their price quotes, rather than burying their "tipping guidelines" somewhere in the fine print.

See What about gratuities? at the official Disney Cruise Line site.

The guidelines for a family of 4 on a 7-night cruise works out to a total of $305 in tips for the 4 main people who take care of you. And after you experience the service, it's likely you'll want to tip more.

Beyond that, it's really up to you. Once you get on the ship, you can keep your other expenses to near zero -- if you drink only the provided non-alcoholic drinks, take your own pictures, wander around the ports on you own (with just a cabfare or two), avoid bingo and shopping, and stay away from the spa. Or you can spend a fortune on fine wines and other drinks, deluxe excursions, lots of photos, a bunch of souvenirs, fabulous spa treatments, and perhaps some fine jewelry in one of the shops in port.

In either case, you'll have fancy multi-course meals, great entertainment, and as many or few activities as you want.

 

[poohnpiglet3]

Wow!!! You guys are awesome! Thanks so much for all the details!

Those tipping guidelines are great. Being a former server, I am a pretty good tipper, but those are handy because otherwise I'd be clueless!!

THanks for the compliments on my babies, too!! Of course, I believe they're the cutest in all the world, but I'm sooo biased.

As for the "whys" of this question, I ask this primarily because I had stomach surgery and can't eat a huge amount at one sitting. I can eat probably a kids size meal, plus dessert if a wait about 15 minutes!! heehee I wanted to know what to expect as far as snacks, etc. went so I could plan accordingly. I plan on eating two times for lunch each day, to really get the whole experience I otherwise wouldn't be able to get!

THank you all again so much. If there are any other tips that I'm missing, please feel free to add them. I'm just starting to learn all this stuff and have sooo much more to read and glean from all of you with so much experience!

Sherri

 

[tevagirl]

Cute Babies!