What the Lowest Room Bill

[StephenKay]

Hi there,

I have cruised a few times this year with my family and solo on the Transatlantic and when chatting to various friends I thought it's really strange that when it comes to the end and you look at your bill and it all mounts up. Then someone told me a story of someone doing a long cruise and only spending a $100 or so over the tips. Mine was around the $800 mark on the 4 Christmas cruise.

What's the lowest you have managed?

 

[sarahgirl]

When I travel solo, most of mine are only tips. Except on my 11 night med cruise where I splurged.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Last month we had $400 in onboard credit (half from the travel agent, half for booking the cruise onboard.) After a nice shore excursion and paying tips I still "had" to buy a t-shirt so we wouldn't end up with a credit balance at the end of the cruise.

 

[ArmandXG]

Wow! I would love to have a small bill at the end of our trip. My sister usually manages to have a low bill, as she is on a tight budget. She doesn't drink and always budgets her cash for specific souvenirs. I, on the other hand, drink like a fish while on vacay (I'm not driving ) and can run up a pretty hefty bill at the end. In comparison, My sister's bill:$200+. Me:$1000+.

 

[gomagic]

Before the days of auto gratuties(paid those with cash), we had a final bill of $70 for 7 days and that was with no OBC.

 

[jahber]

On our last-minute FL resident rate cruise last year our bill was $6.75 (not including tips). We bought my son a pen. I had purchased a pen and autograph book in advance for my daughter (thank goodness for sales on Disney.com!) and when I presented it to her, my son was so sad I hadn't gotten him one. I had ordered him other items, but I felt bad so we bought the pen. The customs officer thought our customs declaration was funny and he even asked what we bought.

By the way, this is how we always keep our bill low. I order small items on sale in advance and the "Castaway Cay Fairy" leaves them for the kids each night . We also buy Disney gift cards at Target with the 5% off to pay tips and sometimes give one to each kid. But they know not to expect it. The cruise itself is a splurge for us!

 

[lilpooh108]

My parents cruise DCL and they don't like Palo and they don't drink. They might buy a tshirt or 2 for us when they cruise. So without excursions, it's usually tip for 2 people, laundry room stuff, minus the OBC. So.... at most $100 for the bill.

 

[jennileigh]

... I didn't cruise dcl so I don't know if this would count.. I was in Hawaii on ncl 7 day - I had a $25 obc (I prepaid my tips and shore excursions) and the cruise owes me .90 cents at the end... I didn't drink and ended up spending all my money off the ship..

I'm on the dream in September and I know I'm not going to get away with that this time - I'm preparing for at least a $500 bill..

 

[ImprovGal]

In January, I did B2B on the Wonder 4-night/5-night out of Miami. The first cruise was a transferred onboard booking that I thought qualified under the new $100 OBC. On the final morning when the folio was slipped under the door, I discovered that after charging tips, the few drinks I had (mostly tea at the Cove), and perhaps a bit of internet time, I discovered I had somewhere around a -$10 balance on the folio as it had apparently been grandfathered under the old $200 OBC. I quickly ran up to the Cove that morning to purchase another cup of tea and wrote my calculated remainder of the OBC in the gratuity line for the server.

 

[sullins5]

Not Disney, but in 2005, I took my dd on her first cruise (RCCL) and at the end went to pay my bill. The lady looked at me funny and laughed when she said "Hon, your bill is $70.00". I said "Why so funny? All I bought was a T shirt and my daughter bought a ring". She then said "My last cruiser's bill was over $1500. and that was alcohol alone...THAT is how we make our money."...
OOps...not on us they didn't...

 

[rescuetink]

We don't drink much on a cruise, or at all, but we usually spend a few hundred dollars on pictures that they take!!

 

[jjje]

The bill on our first (and so far only) cruise was less than $100. Each kid bought a t-shirt and over the course of the cruise I had a few drinks of the day but that's it. It helped that our of our three port days one was CC and we were unable to dock, one was at Disney World and the ticket price was included and one was Key West and we didn't book an excursion. (Of course we paid our tips. I'm not including that in our total.)

 

[canadiandisneyfamof4]

I don't ever expect that I will see a low bill
We aren't big drinkers, but do see our bill creep up with pics, palo, remy lunch and a few souvenirs for the kids.

 

[mom x4 grandma x4]

We do not drink.
We always bring cash for our tips which means I have to go to Guest Services to take the tips off our room bill but they always do it with no problem.

We have a few ones put aside for room service tips.
Small bills for island souvenirs.
If we do excursions they are of course on the bill but we usually have some room credit that covers all or almost all of that cost.

We have no kids to buy souvenirs for.

We have been on 20+ DCL cruises so unless they have something new we rarely buy a souvenir accept the boarding photo.
So usually we have a $20 or $30 bill.

 

[UCFGrad01]

I usually run around $30 - 50, excluding tips with no OBC. It's usually one Palo meal, a float rental on CC, and maybe a small thing or two from the gift shops.

I bring my own alcohol and don't typically do shore excursions.

 

[SeaNana]

We dined with a couple on one of our DCL who were retired and sailed almost continuously, going from one line to another. They stayed in the least expensive rooms and never spent one additional cent. That is not our family!

 

[EPCOTatNight]

First and second cruise was $0 after tips. We won $200 on second cruise and HAD to buy things.

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