when do you pay in full?

[Chirple]

is it a shorter cruise than 7 days?

It's a 7 day on the Fantasy.

 

[kiford]

We pay just a few days prior to the PIF just to make sure there's no timing issues. I see no reason to give anyone my money prior to when it's required. I get the interest (yes, it's quite minimal if at all but it's mine, not theirs) and I don't have to get it back if I cancel. I understand that some people like to know that it's paid off, but if the money is put aside, it's as good as being paid off without the hassle of having to retrieve it if you cancel. We pay our bills at work just before due date, never earlier which is good business/accounting practice. I do the exact same thing at home.

 

[mevelandry]

I always pay my cruises in full, sometimes over a year in advance!

 

[lklgoodman]

I usually pay it off 3 or 4 months before the PIF date. Once it's paid off, I will buy gift cards from Meijer's when they have their mperks deal. I will then apply the gc to our OBA. I try to have enough in the OBA to pay for everything (tips, excursions, etc) by the time our cruise begins.

 

[squirk]

That's still before you have to yes it's definitely an emotional thing, I do not feel like it is "mine" until it has been paid for... and I want it! Also the longer the money sits in my account the more it hurts to spend it, lol.

Well, technically, 11:55 p.m. on my PIF is before I have to. I sure hope no one’s doing that.

 

[bcwife76]

We make sure to be PIF about a week before our booking window opens. Our vacation money is a budget line and it goes into a separate account and earns interest until we're ready to pay. I realize people like to have it done and dusted early so they don't have to think about it but we usually have several trips booked at once and I'd rather earn money on my vacation money than give it over to Disney early.

 

[katmigordon]

Just clarifying for folks that may be new that your PIF date may be significantly earlier than your booking window. We are silver so our booking window opens at 90 days pre-cruise, but for 7-day sailings the PIF date is now 120 days pre-cruise.



Changes to port fees/taxes. Those are set by the ports, not DCL, so sometimes they get changed and that changes your cruise price.

To answer the original question, I have a credit card that has 3% bonus on travel for the first $2,500 spent each quarter. So I made sure to spread out my payments a bit to maximize that benefit. The gift card thing doesn't work for me because I'd worry too much about being refunded to gift card if anything came up, and I don't like holding on to thousands of dollars in what is basically cash that anybody could spend if I misplaced it or if it were stolen.

Gift cards actually work really well for us, if the end up refunding money to the gift cards, I can turn around and add that money towards the next Disney vacation we already have planned. Heck at this point we're looking at 7 Mexican Rivera next Sept, a 7 Day Alaska in June after that, and hopefully either Disney World or a Merrytime Cruise December after that - that's the next two years planned.

 

[katmigordon]

We pay just a few days prior to the PIF just to make sure there's no timing issues. I see no reason to give anyone my money prior to when it's required. I get the interest (yes, it's quite minimal if at all but it's mine, not theirs) and I don't have to get it back if I cancel. I understand that some people like to know that it's paid off, but if the money is put aside, it's as good as being paid off without the hassle of having to retrieve it if you cancel. We pay our bills at work just before due date, never earlier which is good business/accounting practice. I do the exact same thing at home.

Yeah, I WISH I could do this. If it's in my account I have a bad habit of saying "well, I really wanna do this thing NOW all of a sudden, and I can always make it up later and add it back if I take it NOW...." better for me to get it out of my grubby little spendy hands.

 

[Bonnie1222]

I pay in full the day before I can start my online check in. And while I know I can save a little extra with the Disney Gift cards by buying them at BJ's I opt for the free 6 month free financing with my Disney Visa instead. As a PP said - I don't like giving Disney (or any other cruise line) my money any sooner than I need to; and I plan my monthly budget to include cruise payments or putting money away for the next cruise. Plus, my credit union has a Christmas Club that I have been earning 2-4% so I dump my vacation money there. Between that and the CC % I'm doing as well if not better than the gift cards and I can keep my money a lot longer.

 

[FSU Girl]

If I know I'm 100% going on the cruise I pay in full at time of booking. If I'm unsure if I'll go or if I know I might change my mind a few times and move it around I wait until right before the PIF date.

 

[mab2012]

Regular installments spread out between booking and PIF date, mostly to average out any currency exchange fluctuations. If I think the CAD is on a temporary upswing, I'll sometimes cheat and up the payment amount, but I recognize that for the sucker's game that it is. If it weren't for the currency issue I would wait until shortly before PIF, which is what I do with any other bill.