"Affording" DCL

[Savikins]

This is kind of what I was thinking when I asked the original question. I wasn't so much wanting to debate the rising costs of the cruise, but how on earth are people paying for these cruises? especially multiple cruises a year sometimes. Was it something they saved and saved for...or was a $12,000 vacation to Alaska for a week just a drop in the bucket for them? I think I saw a recent post where the family was coming from Australia and their vacation budget was around $30,000 USD! I feel like we are of average income, maybe even above average income compared to the US population as a whole and I just can't afford that kind of a vacation nor would I be willing to pay that rate for a vacation at this point in our financial lives; I mean we live comfortably in one of the most expensive cities in the US...so I was curious how the average cruiser was affording the lifestyle. I also wondered if it had to do with the Euro being stronger? But no one mentioned that. No matter what the case, I think that it is great that so many people are out there traveling and enjoying all that DCL has to offer!

In addition to booking off season with FLR/GT rates and saving on airfare, I think the biggest money saver for me is my lifestyle choice. I don't have children and I will never have children. The average child costs $250k to raise to 18, not including college - that's nearly $14k a year per kid. Plus, there's no way I'd be able to live in a one bedroom with a kid, so I'd have to pay more in rent, my bf and I would need a second car so he could get to work and I could take the kid to school, etc etc. If I ever had a child there'd be no way I could afford DCL or really any vacation ever unless I started making a lot more and working a lot more!

I'm not sure how families with kids do it... But I'm guessing they either save save save or are very wealthy.

 

[Madame]

In addition to booking off season with FLR/GT rates and saving on airfare, I think the biggest money saver for me is my lifestyle choice. I don't have children and I will never have children. The average child costs $250k to raise to 18, not including college - that's nearly $14k a year per kid. Plus, there's no way I'd be able to live in a one bedroom with a kid, so I'd have to pay more in rent, my bf and I would need a second car so he could get to work and I could take the kid to school, etc etc. If I ever had a child there'd be no way I could afford DCL or really any vacation ever unless I started making a lot more and working a lot more!

I'm not sure how families with kids do it... But I'm guessing they either save save save or are very wealthy.

You nailed it. Kids are massively expensive. Over $10 000 of our net goes to university savings for our kids each year & our post-secondary is government subsidized. Many our age are scrambling to pay for retirement & kids' schooling which will happen simultaneously.

Then if you're in the US there's healthcare to consider. We are by no means wealthy (especially considering we have 3 kids), but without universal health care we would never vacation given the health issues one of our kids had the first 3 years of his life.

 

[aggiedog]

You nailed it. Kids are massively expensive.

Yup, hence my group #2! We have twins, looking at colleges for 2017. They were looking at a private university. Um, unless they can up with the $500,000 it would cost to get them both thru 4 years, then no freaking way!

And once you get over 2, maybe 3, kids, it gets more expensive to travel, since you need larger/multiple rooms, etc.

 

[cgolf]

One thing that we have found that works for us is to limit the times we eat out to only when they are necessary, shop more for the essentials and not splurge on every new thing out there, drive reasonably priced cars (not sure there are anymore lol), and to work the cruise into the budget and work on paying it off monthly up until the paid in full date.

We would rather vacation than have more and nicer stuff at home, and have also figured out that eating out at even fast food resteraunts can now get expensive. I would also stress coupon clipping, I have seen us save ridiculous amounts of money at Target between the red card, cartwheel, and coupons. Also if you are lucky and have lots of stores in a small area you can by stuff at the cheapest price by going to a couple of stores too. Sounds like a lot of work, but over a year the savings can add up.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Each Paycheck I set a certain amount aside for vacations WDW, DCL, or other. For Disney cruises we book on-board for the discount; we put a place holder for a cruise as far out as we can with the dates DCL already has published. We will figure out a date in the future that we actually want to go (within their guidelines) and when those dates are published we jump on them immediately and transfer them to the new date. Whenever I checked on the price as the cruise approached I have always seen the price go up and up. Some people ask how we can plan so far out, what if something comes up? Attention people; even if you plan your vacation a week away from departure date, something can come up. And both DW's and my job allow us the opportunity to do this.

Except for our last cruise, Christmas 2014 on the Disney Fantasy (best cruise ever) we always go in the fall or winter when demand is lower so we save money that way. We are lucky that when our son was younger; our school district allowed families to take their children out of school for vacations. Took him out for a week while in grade school and chose a week in either October or November when they had a week with both Thursday & Friday off so he missed just three days from Jr. high on.

Now he is 23, DW and I can pick a date just for us. While we do love DCL we do not love it enough to go into debt for one. We are lucky that we have always had plenty of time to save up for our DCL vacations because we do plan so far in advance for them. By booking a place holder while cruising and pushing it out at least once, all of our cruises have been booked 1.5 years or more out which gives us 18 or more months to save. We got use to those long waits.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

We book way in advance. usually close to 2 years and save up for it by putting aside all the overtime pay and through the holiday savings account. Have it auto deposit 40 bucks on each pay. For airfare we choose price over city. We could spend 3000 flying out of Toronto or 800 flying out of Detroit. And for transportation we get rental cars through our airmiles. Those miles are loyalties from regular gas and groceries anyways.

 

[bethy]

Yup, hence my group #2! We have twins, looking at colleges for 2017. They were looking at a private university. Um, unless they can up with the $500,000 it would cost to get them both thru 4 years, then no freaking way!

And once you get over 2, maybe 3, kids, it gets more expensive to travel, since you need larger/multiple rooms, etc.

Yes, having 3 kids REALLY impacts overall travel costs. We knew this before deciding to have DD#3 but it admittedly did give us pause. It affects everything - rooms, taxis, even little things like airline companion fare programs (which are multiples of 2)

 

[msb578]

Yes, having 3 kids REALLY impacts overall travel costs. We knew this before deciding to have DD#3 but it admittedly did give us pause. It affects everything - rooms, taxis, even little things like airline companion fare programs (which are multiples of 2)

Sometimes you plan on 2 but end up with twins the second time (like us)

 

[bethy]

Sometimes you plan on 2 but end up with twins the second time (like us)

Yes - definitely! A bonus!

My good friend had 2 - that's what she and her hubby had planned on. But they were loving parenthood so much that after much debate they decided to change their minds and do it one more time. So they had a third. And THEN shortly after that: SURPRISE! They were pregnant again. And then SURPRISE again: it's . . . . . TWINS!!!!!

They went from 2-5 just like THAT! And it's going great for them

 

[Madame]

Sometimes you plan on 2 but end up with twins the second time (like us)

Same here. We got an extra when my DD wasn't yet 2 1/2. And both boys so I can't even re-use most of her clothing .

 

[DCLDVC1]

We started cruising on Disney in 2014 and did 2 that year. We did 3 this year, have 2 reservations next year and 2 more placeholders booked.

I think a lot of it comes down to making smart financial decisions throughout the years. We make a very good living but we also live way below our means and have made vacationing a priority. When we bought our house 5 years ago, we didn't pay anywhere near our approval amount and our only debt is the house. We only buy used cars and currently drive a 2001 and 2007. We don't own a camper, boat, jet skis, horses, vacation home/condo/cabin, etc that a lot of our friends do. We spend a lot of our discretionary income on Disney cruises and other Disney vacations. As the kids get older that may change but for now we're happy with that decision.

 

[DCLDVC1]

And once you get over 2, maybe 3, kids, it gets more expensive to travel, since you need larger/multiple rooms, etc.

I agree. Disney is much more financially friendly to families of 3 or 4 than 5+.

 

[dclpluto]

Times are tough. Next year I'm going on the Panama Canal. Already did that back in 08 but the prices were cheap I can go for 2 weeks what the fantasy will be for one week. Would like to go to Europe again but not with the ot being less and less at work

 

[ludari]

I'm able to afford cruising with Disney because I have a decent job, my schedule is flexible, single and no kids. I also think I do a pretty good job on finding deals on hotels, transportation and airfares. My situation and planning has afforded me the opportunity to sail with Disney 8 times in the past 5 years. I also do other various Disney trips and non-Disney trips throughout the year in addition to Disney cruises and I consider myself very lucky.

 

[losfp]

The Australians are an interesting group. They do save up for a bunch of years and then take a blowout vacation. I would meet them in Europe and they would be in the middle of a month or longer vacation. They said with the price of flight out of Australia being so high they would pile up a few years vacation time and money and then just go for it.

Pretty much this. We just came home from a big 5.5 week holiday. 2 weeks WDW/Universal in Orlando, 1 week cruise on the Disney Fantasy, 1 week Disneyland, 1 week Aulani. Wasn't cheap, I can tell you that. But given that flights cost so much, we always figure that we'll go only every 2-3 years and make it a good one. Our flights alone (SYD-DFW, DFW-MCO, MCO-DFW, DFW-LAX, LAX-HNL, HNL-SYD) cost about $6000 USD for the 4 of us.

For us it doesn't make any sense at all to take a 16 hour flight to the US and only stay a week. Of course for this trip, we stayed at really nice places (Grand Floridian, Grand Californian, Aulani, Disney Cruise), and for the next one we will likely tighten the purse and go for cheaper accomodation and activities.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Pretty much this. We just came home from a big 5.5 week holiday. 2 weeks WDW/Universal in Orlando, 1 week cruise on the Disney Fantasy, 1 week Disneyland, 1 week Aulani. Wasn't cheap, I can tell you that. But given that flights cost so much, we always figure that we'll go only every 2-3 years and make it a good one. Our flights alone (SYD-DFW, DFW-MCO, MCO-DFW, DFW-LAX, LAX-HNL, HNL-SYD) cost about $6000 USD for the 4 of us.

For us it doesn't make any sense at all to take a 16 hour flight to the US and only stay a week. Of course for this trip, we stayed at really nice places (Grand Floridian, Grand Californian, Aulani, Disney Cruise), and for the next one we will likely tighten the purse and go for cheaper accomodation and activities.

 

[bumbershoot]

how do you think most people "afford" DCL?

Well, see, that question doesn't really interest me. We have NO idea how other people do it, so the answers do end up becoming what you said you didn't want, a conversation about how WE make it work. I'm not interested in that convo, either.

So all we should really be doing is figuring out if/how it works for our own traveling group.

Also comparing notes; is that a decent price? Can I do that cheaper? HOW can I do that?

We budget about $5,000-$7,000 a year for vacations. As a corporate travel agent, this gives us about 30 nights of "discounted vacations" a year.

And that is awesome. Wow.

We could not afford one Alaska cruise on DCL with this budget.

DCL's Alaska is crazy-expensive, and they aren't the best line for Alaska. Everything I've read about the normal lines says that Princess is the #1. I personally enjoyed our Royal Alaska cruise and see no need to look further than Royal. But the Alaska cruises are expensive! We had one scheduled for this summer but it was just TOO much; we changed it over to a cruise out of San Juan for *next* December for a lot cheaper. (not really horribly painful for us, as royal and disney seem to love Ketchikan vs Skagway, and we could not stand Ketchikan so it wasn't a draw)

We are a family of 3 as well and spend between $5-7k on our yearly disney vacation

If you budget the same amount, I'd be curious to understand why you dont think you can afford it?

That's ONE vacation vs the OP's 30 days of vacation.

Our first cruise is a month from now. It's off-season, Bahamas, 4 nights. We are going into it with the expectation that it'll be our first and last.

I'm sure you know this, but I'd just like to remind you...there are plenty of other cruise lines out there. We personally like Royal better than Disney in all the important-to-us ways. Customer service, service overall, etc, are better in our opinions than Disney. And the prices are "more right".

They need to charge what the market will support.

Nah; they could choose to charge what they need. They don't actually have to go to the limit.

some nice perks because of my DH's job. He travels a lot so we can literally go to Disney World with free use of a company car, we have gobs of hotel points so can stay at suites with free breakfasts and kitchens. All we have to buy is tickets for parks and the rest is practically free.

Crying. That's DH's current job. So many free flights, so many partially paid for hotels (we book through hotels.com so it's not truly free nights unless the prices align perfectly, and we still pay taxes)... And he's now transitioning to a non-traveling role. I've got to focus on the part where he will actually be HERE, but I cannot help but seeing our vacation time diminishing b/c of the reality of boring things like paying CASH for airfare. UGH.

Well it was the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken with kids.

I also remind you that the relaxation of a cruise is pretty much across the board on the different lines. It's not exclusive to Disney. And other lines are often a lot less expensive than Disney.

early December Eastern Carribean on the Magic out of Miami for $4500 after all the discounts for a family of 5.

That's a really decent rate. I would move heaven and earth to save up that $375/month to make that cruise happen. (OK it would be more b/c you have to pay before December) Watch airline prices; Bing and Kayak have things you can sign up for to watch prices. Fort Lauderdale airport isn't *that* far from Miami, so look at flying in/out through FLL and getting to the Port of Miami. (Embassy Suites on 17th in Fort L is a good hotel if that situation would work out)

And I also have to tell you that people with allergies say that Royal does a good job, too. There was a family of 5, with at least 2 of the kids having allergies, next to us during our first family (vs honeymoon) cruise on Freedom of the Seas. Each night the servers brought out menus and paperwork, and the parents reviewed it all and chose what the allergic kids would have the next evening. Seemed really awesome to me!

However, we can spend an extra $1000 or so per month towards a credit card payment, so that's what we do. We finish paying off one vacation and then we take another, and then pay it off over time. We use balance transfers to keep the APR at 0% for the duration of paying it off. Our credit card company only charges 1% to do a balance transfer, so we see it as a VERY low interest loan.

And should you ever have a year where no trips are possible, you could put that 1K/month into an account instead of on the CC, and then you'd be ahead of the game!

Was it something they saved and saved for...or was a $12,000 vacation to Alaska for a week just a drop in the bucket for them?

OK but a 12K trip isn't what everyone is doing.

I think I saw a recent post where the family was coming from Australia and their vacation budget was around $30,000 USD!

All the people we *know* in real life from overseas have so much more money than we do. They travel often. I'm always amazed, because America thinks that high taxes destroy you, but those with higher taxes seem to make it work so well.

Yes, having 3 kids REALLY impacts overall travel costs. We knew this before deciding to have DD#3 but it admittedly did give us pause. It affects everything - rooms, taxis, even little things like airline companion fare programs (which are multiples of 2)

The companion fare even impacts a family of 3. If we book all together, no one gets upgraded. We have to book 2 and 1 for an upgrade to be possible.


Side note:

Flights to/from Australia...someone was listing it all out. Weirdly, the two or three times DH has been sent to Australia, booking under 3 weeks out has resulted in AMAZING fares. Not sure I could handle gambling on that, but his work travel has really opened my eyes to booking much closer to travel than I might used to have done. We only recently booked for January in Anaheim, I only booked for February's solo/Princess trip earlier b/c some amazing (mileage) fares came up on a line where DH didn't have enough points for all 3 of us. Our March trip we haven't even booked airfare for (that one's a cruise). We booked to follow DH to Ireland and England on a work trip summer of 2014 about a month out, and DS and I got a terrific fare going into Dublin and out of Shannon. There was even a discount for the kid fare!

 

[Ofinn]

[

The Australians are an interesting group. They do save up for a bunch of years and then take a blowout vacation. I would meet them in Europe and they would be in the middle of a month or longer vacation. They said with the price of flight out of Australia being so high they would pile up a few years vacation time and money and then just go for it.

By the way median household income in the US is about $54,000. So if you make above that more than half of households make less. The 20% point is $106,000, 10% 145,000, top 5% above 205,000. Might be a little higher since these numbers are a few years old.

There are also many Americans that take month long vacations in Europe, Australia and elsewhere. I think we are by far the biggest spender across the globe. America is a very wealthy nation compared to the rest of the world. 54,000 is a whole lot of money in a lot of countries.

 

[Divslp]

Pretty much this. We just came home from a big 5.5 week holiday. 2 weeks WDW/Universal in Orlando, 1 week cruise on the Disney Fantasy, 1 week Disneyland, 1 week Aulani. Wasn't cheap, I can tell you that. But given that flights cost so much, we always figure that we'll go only every 2-3 years and make it a good one. Our flights alone (SYD-DFW, DFW-MCO, MCO-DFW, DFW-LAX, LAX-HNL, HNL-SYD) cost about $6000 USD for the 4 of us.

For us it doesn't make any sense at all to take a 16 hour flight to the US and only stay a week. Of course for this trip, we stayed at really nice places (Grand Floridian, Grand Californian, Aulani, Disney Cruise), and for the next one we will likely tighten the purse and go for cheaper accomodation and activities.

I have to say, that sounds like such a spectacular vacation! Wow

 

[deanimal]

Hmm.... one thing that just occurred to me while reading this thread was perhaps one factor is the fact that many cruisers are Americans who get far fewer vacations days on average than anyone else in the world. Two weeks per year is pretty typical in the states, right? (Maybe this is just a stereotype; feel free to correct me.) If I only travelled one or two weeks per year I'd probably be prepared to pay a premium to get as much as I could out of that week. I'd probably also be less inclined to try something new which may be why some people just keep doing DCL year after year; if you try something else and you don't like it that's it for the year.

If you have 4-6 weeks for vacations per year, as is typical in many other parts of the world, then you'll want to stretch your vacation dollars out a bit more and may be willing to try something different to save a bit of money. If you don't like your spring trip you can do something different in summer, etc. Just a thought.

Of course, there are still those who cruise with Disney multiple times per year and this theory doesn't say anything about that!