"Affording" DCL

[bethy]

We have been on 10 with number 11 coming up. We are by no means rich, but always seem to manage to get a pretty good deal. We just booked for the 7 day Southern Caribbean on the Wonder. 5 ports. For the 4 of us with an Oceanview, it will cost $2985!!! Could NOT pass it up. That was with the DVC member cash deal. If we would've booked a GTY inside room, it would've been $3085. Yes, it is January, but it will be far enough South that the weather will be great. We also save up any rebate checks, dividend checks, Christmas money, birthday money, etc. I also will sell stuff on ebay and use my paypal account money from what I've sold. We usually do the inside rooms, go off season and don't do excursions. But yes, I priced out a summer cruise once and was STUNNED.

Holy cow! What is the DVC cash deal???? I need to look into that - must have totally missed it. That is an amazing cruise - would love to do that cruise someday.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Holy cow! What is the DVC cash deal???? I need to look into that - must have totally missed it. That is an amazing cruise - would love to do that cruise someday.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/special-offers/disney-vacation-club-cruise-offer/

 

[bethy]

Thank you! Wow! Too bad we are not able to cruise in January this year. But I will be on the lookout for future such deals in the future. Plus we are a family of 5 which always makes things disproportionately more expensive when it comes to travel. Have a blast!!

 

[Winston Wolf]

Ways to bring down the cost:

1) Get a Disney credit card and build up points. 3.5 years of charges brought the cost of our DCL cruise down to be comparable with other lines
2) Use points for hotels and flights
3) Putting funds into a Disney Vacation Account will yield you 2% in rewards for every $1000 saved in there and spent on a Disney vacation
4) Purchase Target Gift Cards at a discount (online sites) to use in buying Disney Gift cards (which you then load into your DVA) can save you upwards of 12% if bought at the right time.

And obviously travel in non-peak times. The costs to go during the summer or Spring Break are outrageous.

 

[WIFamily]

Winston Wolf just said what I came in to say.

1) Chase Disney
2) We pull the kids out of school so we shop the off-peak rates.
3) Discount Target Cards (carpool, raise, giftcardzen, etc)
4) Target Red Card for stacked 5% off for Disney Gift Cards (stacks with the discounted target cards)
5) Disney Vacation Account = 2% as stated
6) Rebook on-board for discounted deposit and 10% savings.
7) Shop 3rd party travel insurance
8) Shop around for car rental rates, hotel rates, airline rates. I usually look for flights within a few days before the cruise and after. We're flying 6 down two days before the cruise in April, and saving about 400 in airline tickets. We'll spend that in rooms I know, but we'll be in Florday two days earlier! The beach is free!

Just with 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, I figure I've saved almost $2000 (about 25%) from the list price of the cruise back when it was first released. It was a lot more effort on my part, but well worth that amount!

 

[blondietink]

Wow, how come we never get notified of deals like this? We have been DVC members for 10 years and have also been on DCL before, so we are in their system, too. Too bad it goes out of San Juan, though. Flights there in the winter are pretty high. Also, the Wonder is not very accessible for us with a person in a wheelchair. Will have to keep an eye out for future deals like this, though.

 

[Ofinn]

We did the San Juan cruise last Sept. We got a great interline rate. I couldn't get a room for four, but I was able to book a cat 7a and a 11b across the hall from each for 3k total for both rooms. Next to Hawaii it's been my favorite. The cruises out of San Juan just don't sell. We cant take advantage of the interline rates this year, but hopefully next year the cruises won't sell again.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We personally budget $10k/year for vacation (family of 5).

We always book our vacations a year out, and just make monthly payments to pay off the balance before our trip. Vacation payments are a line item in our monthly budget.

I'm going to be making our final cruise payment tomorrow (for our April cruise) and I cannot wait!!!

 

[NancyIL]

I have wondered how families with children (especially) afford a Disney cruise vacation. I wonder even more about the families who go on Adventures By Disney trips. Land tours are generally more expensive than cruises, and ABD ranks up there pricewise with other luxury tour companies. It's obvious that there are quite a few Disney fans with high incomes.

I have been on multiple cruises in a year, but most weren't Disney cruises, and there weren't more than 2 of us cruising at a time. My family of 5 has never cruised at the same time, but I have cruised with my husband and each of my kids several times.

To the person who posted about charging their cruises to a credit card and paying off the trips after the fact - even at 0% interest, it's not a sound financial habit to continue.

 

[lpandorf]

1) Chase Disney
2) We pull the kids out of school so we shop the off-peak rates.
3) Discount Target Cards (carpool, raise, giftcardzen, etc)
4) Target Red Card for stacked 5% off for Disney Gift Cards (stacks with the discounted target cards)
5) Disney Vacation Account = 2% as stated
6) Rebook on-board for discounted deposit and 10% savings.
7) Shop 3rd party travel insurance
8) Shop around for car rental rates, hotel rates, airline rates.

We do much of the above. We only have three traveling so a bit easier on the wallet though. We went on our 1st seven day on the Fantasy last summer and we thought it was our best vacation ever and want to go again this summer. We only have the time to do one vacation/year so save up for one nice trip. One of my children is in High School with demanding coursework and does not want to miss school. We are able to save some though by going in late May since they are out of school by then. I noticed even the late May trips on the Fantasy are lower priced than going in June or July. I travel some during the year for work and have enough Hilton points to stay free at the Cocoa Beach Hampton Inn the night before the cruise. I found a one day rental car on Costco for only $20 from MCO to Port Canaveral. I also have enough frequent flyer miles through business trips we flew free last summer and will fly free again this summer. I use my Target credit card to buy Disney Gift cards and put those in my DVA to save money. I purchased additional Disney gift cards last week at Target when they offered $5 Target gift card for every two gift cards you buy. I plan to buy additional Target gift cards on December 20 when they offer 10% off. Target gift cards will be used to buy Disney gift cards to pay on the trip. I also have a Chase Disney Visa and use the accumulated points to pay for tips on-board. We don't spend much beyond the cruise fare once on board other than tips and popcorn in the movie theater. The excursions we took last summer were not through Disney so some savings there. All these things do take some extra effort on my part, but since we all want to take another Disney trip willing to put in the time. A lot of little ways to save and it all adds up and brings the price somewhat more in line with other lines.

 

[COASTIEandMATE]

Check the Budget Board, another thread on the Dis. I gave up my Starbucks habit and saved $5 per day times 5 days a week is $25 a week times 52 weeks a year and there you have enough for our plane fare!! It can be done!!

 

[cgolf]

Check the Budget Board, another thread on the Dis. I gave up my Starbucks habit and saved $5 per day times 5 days a week is $25 a week times 52 weeks a year and there you have enough for our plane fare!! It can be done!!

The only problem that we run into is that we already live like that. We even go to the length of keeping our house much cooler during the winter too to keep bills low and minimizing how much we run the air conditioner in the summer. At some point there really is nothing more you can do. I will say my wife and here coupons and stocking up on non perishable items when they are on sale and/or you can get a gift card when purchasing them has really helped us afford the vacations we have taken.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

The prices I am seeing are just blowing my mind. We travel quite a few times a year, so overall, DCL is just too expensive for us at this point. I am curious...do you think people save and save to afford one magical DCL dream vacation or am I just poor compared to the average DCL passenger (haha, probably this one!), or are people going in to debt for a vacation?

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. We could not afford one Alaska cruise on DCL with this budget. We are a small family of 3.

So, I am not asking how YOU do it, but how do you think most people "afford" DCL?

Seriously, I have no idea! We live 20 minutes from Port Canaveral so no airfare and we still can't afford it. We've been on 2 last-minute cruises that cost us around $1300/3 nights for a family of 4, but they haven't run that deal in 2 years now. When we look at the regular prices we cringe. Not going to happen at the prices they want, but obviously tons of people pay that cost. The ships always look full when we are eating dinner at the port!

 

[kiford]

I am curious...do you think people save and save to afford one magical DCL dream vacation or am I just poor compared to the average DCL passenger (haha, probably this one!), or are people going in to debt for a vacation?

I think the short answer to the question is: yes. People who cruise DCL who come from a wide variety of income brackets, stage of life, number of people sailing, do one major vacation a year or who do several a year, have or do not have other financial commitments, etc. I doubt that there's a single, average DCL passenger in terms of how they are able to afford it. Some cruise lines cater specifically to younger people who are less likely to have lots of disposable income (low cost, party ship, little to no children's programs), some which target a retired, financially well-off crowd generally without children and others target small families in a middle price-range. DCL seems to cover a wider range of families than some other cruise lines, however "family" might be defined - from couples without children, to extended multi-generational families, to young families with small children, to empty nesters without children - so I suspect that there's as many ways that people afford it as there are different demographics on board ship.