how to lessen the amount of $$ spent

[FairyGrandmother]

we're cruising disney for the first time, and are wondering if we can still have alot of fun without doing any excursions? are there things to do onboard when the ship is in port??

Yes there many things to do on the ship. On port days the ship is pretty quiet, that is the time to enjoy the pools. On sea days the kids clubs have many activites for for the kids and there are adult activities planed also. There are usualy more activities then there is time to fit them in. Mostly I enjoy having time to just relax.

 

[ldo]

we try iced tea instaed of soda.

 

[ibouncetoo]

we try iced tea instaed of soda.

?? You can get free soda 24 hours a day.

The only time I've ever paid for it is when I've been disinclined to leave Diversions and walk to the other end of the ship!

.

 

[TDC Nala]

I don't do spa treatments, nor do I buy water (you can get filtered water from the drink station if you want filtered water) or photographs. Main expenditures on the last cruise were excursions (in Europe, so I did want to get off the ship in port. I did a private tour in one port and no excursion in one other but Disney excursions in all other ports), souvenirs and gratuities besides the bar bill (I'm on vacation so yes I'm getting the drink of the day and wine and this time I really did want the $50 sweatshirt). It was a 12 night cruise so all that was higher.

 

[NancyIL]

Yes there many things to do on the ship. On port days the ship is pretty quiet, that is the time to enjoy the pools. On sea days the kids clubs have many activites for for the kids and there are adult activities planed also. There are usualy more activities then there is time to fit them in. Mostly I enjoy having time to just relax.

On port days, organized activities on the ship are few and far between for adults. You need to enjoy lounging by the pool, going to the spa, etc. I don't enjoy those things, so thank goodness I wanted to see the 1:00 movie on Nassau and Castaway Cay days!

 

[Pluto 2]

we try iced tea instaed of soda.

how does ice tea save you money on a dcl cruise?

 

[TDC Nala]

how does ice tea save you money on a dcl cruise?

It won't, as soda is free on DCL cruises unless you order it at a bar or from room service. I don't know what would happen if you order iced tea at a bar, if they'd charge you for it or not. But there is no charge to order soda in the dining rooms or to get it from the drink station on Deck 9 or at the buffet.

I understand that is not the case on all cruise lines, many of them charge for soda no matter where you get it.

 

[starchef]

With there being 5 of us, one of the easiest ways to save money is to book 2 inside staterooms rather than a room with a balcony. Set a budget and don't go over it, we have to keep an eye on the kids. They have pending rules and we don't allow them to charge to the room. We did a 4 night, with spa treatment and wine package and didn't spend $700. We save on the room as we don't spend anytime there, with 2 rooms we have 2 showers so cleanup is easier. We book all of our excursions ahead so we know how much that costs. Pictures are some of the best souvenirs and we take plenty of them.

 

[THUNDERMOUNTAINMOMMA]

I think everybody has great ideas on how to save. I know on my first cruise I spent way too much on photos. I'm glad I have them, but I really didn't need all of them. From that cruise on, I cut way back on those and took tons with my own camera.

 

[Jey12]

Thanks for the great $$ saving tips! I'm hoping we don't spend too much on photos for our first cruise. I often like the pictures I take just fine and plan on bringing my laptop so I can edit and see the pictures every night. I'm hoping if I get the shots I want I won't be tempted to buy but just a couple pics from Disney.

We also hadn't planned on any excursions. We were just planning on enjoying the ship and the beach and honestly we would be just fine with that. I did see where someone posted that you can get a room at the Comfort Suites and get full access to Atlantis. Is this correct? If that's true we may need to rethink our Nassau schedule.

 

[misseulalie]

How to save money...

Don't buy photo's from Shutters.
Don't drink alcoholic drinks
Do your own excurisons
Don't do spa treatments.

You gotta shop. Give yourself a limit. For example $50 for shopping.
Don't bring home gifts for everyone. That consumes so much money. It's nice, but if you need to cut some costs- save here. Or buy things in ports for gifts. Things are much cheaper in the ports than a DCL item.

Tip your servers!!!

 

[Daisy5115]

We stayed on the ship our second cruise at Grand Cayman. The Goofy pool was closed due to a special program Disney gave to the school children of Grand Cayman. It was nice of Disney to do so, but I was hoping to swim. The rest of the ship was nice to have less people all over though.

 

[bumblebeeRN]

I'm a little confused about this. Why were you automatically charged gratuties in addition to the recommended amount of tips?

There are general gratuities for all staff that is automatically charged for each person of your cabin,
then there are recommended gratuities for the head server, server and assistant server, and room service person (the one who makes the beds and cleans your room)

I don't know how you were automatically charged gratuities, they give you a form to fill out with the suggested amounts and then you add that per person in your party and that's how you get the total. This is only a suggested gratuity, you don't have to give the full amount if you don't feel they deserve it. My parents went on a different cruise line and they automatically put it on your bill at the suggested amount. When my dad saw it on the bill he had them remove it and nobody got a gratuity (I felt that was wrong).

the general gratuities where automatically charged, which for us it was $51/pp in our room.
then the gratuities for the head server, assistant server, server and room service person (those 4 ppl mentioned above had an envelope where we put the little cards with the amount of money we gave them as a tip)-- recommended amount was about $45-50 per person, and for the head server I gave him the minimum of $9 because he did not do anything for us except welcome us to the restaurants and asked us if we were okay.

 

[bumblebeeRN]

Just say no. You document about $450 in spending, where did the rest go?

lol where did it not go!

on pictures, drinks & smoothies, snacks, and of course the little trips to the gift shop!
a lot of stuff really added up!

I want to make sure that this doesn't happen again!! lol

 

[bumblebeeRN]

How to save money...

Don't buy photo's from Shutters.
Don't drink alcoholic drinks
Do your own excurisons
Don't do spa treatments.

You gotta shop. Give yourself a limit. For example $50 for shopping.
Don't bring home gifts for everyone. That consumes so much money. It's nice, but if you need to cut some costs- save here. Or buy things in ports for gifts. Things are much cheaper in the ports than a DCL item.

Tip your servers!!!

oh yes! I am definitely budgeting for tips for next trip which I added up to be $300

and I will definitely do what you said in your list, those photos are $19/each!! amazing!

I even bought $16/sandals!!

 

[bumblebeeRN]

DCL does not automatically charge gratuities. If you are on a CM or TA rate, I've been told that you are reqired to pay the standard gratuities at the time of booking, but you're sailing on a much reduced rate and you know that you have that little item already covered. Some TAs will offer packages with the tips "paid," but that is their/your choice and is usually done instead of an onboard credit that other TAs give as a "thanks for booking."

If you are a "normal" rate person like me, there is no way they ever automatically charge the gratuities. You must fill out and sign the form to have them charged. And, as above, the tips on a 3 night would be $36 per person....I have NO idea how you could get $304 for tips.

There is an auto-gratuity added to any bar item (this includes bottled water, candy in boxes from Preludes or outside a movie theater, smoothies, etc). You can choose to add extra to those tabs, but the 15% is automatic. Maybe you are adding all of those to whatever tips you authorized to get to $304.

I agree with the above--just say no. There is no reason to do bottled water on the ship. You could have saved big time by renting a car one way to drive to the port (instead of DCL bus) and stopping at a Walmart or grocery store for a case of water if DH wouldn't drink the ship's water (which is very good). $98 for a princess dress--we all like to indulge our children, but I look at the Disney store on the day after Halloween, or usually made my own. Memory stick--probably would have been 1/2 the cost at Best Buy before sailing, or bring a laptop to download photos.

I am adding everyone's tip.
On my bill at the end of the ship, it charged me gratuities $51/pp on my room, and on top of that, I paid $50 for the head server $45 assistant server, $50 for room service person.

I agree, the water tasted fine to me, but my husband would not drink the tap water, I don't get why, he grew up with it all his life and all of the sudden at 33 years old he decides that it is not good, and mind you he is 35 now, so 2 years without tap water.

I will definitely buy costumes at cheap prices!

the things you learn after the trip!!

 

[diane648]

There are no "general gratuities" that I am aware of ... only recommended gratuities to the Stateroom Host, Head Server, Server & Asst. Server. $12 per person per day is the total recommended amount (excluding room service & bar tips). I'm thinking you may have overpaid....

Another way to save is to buy costumes at yard sales, consignment sales & after halloween. We found a darling pirate dress for my daugther -- $1.99 at Target after Halloween, and big enough to last a couple of years!

 

[bumblebeeRN]

I forgot to mention the excursions were so expensive!

$145 per person to use the pool, beach and slides and lunch in nassau!!!

 

[bumblebeeRN]

Definitely don't buy water on the ship. If you can't bear (literally!) to bring a lot of water bottles in your carryon buy a Brita (or similar brand) filtrating water pitcher and fill it with tap water on the ship each day. You can then use that filtered water to drink.

We brought 5 bottles of wine for our b2b 5 nighters and our own cork screw. We got wine glasses from the bar each day and just drank our own wine. Much cheaper.

You can buy 8gb memory cards from places like Costco and for that same $34 you paid you can get two in a dual pack. 8gb is enough to store over 1k photos so that should help a lot

Wait to do any shopping till the end of the cruise. They typically don't run out of things in the stores and I've found I buy less when I am buying it all at once. It's the repeat trips to the stores that kills me! I end up spending less each trip but in the end it adds up big time!

Of course we always end up spending way too much even when we try to be good.

Jim

awesome tips!

We did the 3 night in December. I shopped around and chose the travel agent with the best obc. He gave us $100, then we got $25 for him booking it online for us, and then we got $50 for using our Disney Visa to pay for the cruise. So total of $175 obc. Not bad for a 3 nighter!

I had several drinks of the day, dh had a few beers and the kids got a smoothie on one evening. I purchased about $40 worth of stuff at the gift shop and then our tips were added to our account. We didn't do any excursions or spa treatments. I paid my inlaws some cash for half of the picture package they purchased and we split the photos. After the obc was applied we owed $98. I thought that was super cheap since we racked up $700 on our previous 4 night cruise.

It sounds like you paid double the amount in tips. Our tips for the 3 night were $144 plus we left some additional cash for our asst server who was wonderful!

I probably did pay too much for tips! but I am definitely will not do that this time and keep an eye on those stateroom charges!

 

[Anal Annie]

There are general gratuities for all staff that is automatically charged for each person of your cabin,then there are recommended gratuities for the head server, server and assistant server, and room service person (the one who makes the beds and cleans your room)



the general gratuities where automatically charged, which for us it was $51/pp in our room.
then the gratuities for the head server, assistant server, server and room service person (those 4 ppl mentioned above had an envelope where we put the little cards with the amount of money we gave them as a tip)-- recommended amount was about $45-50 per person, and for the head server I gave him the minimum of $9 because he did not do anything for us except welcome us to the restaurants and asked us if we were okay.

Then you are the ONLY family that has ever been automatically charged for gratuities!

(ie that info. is wrong! something is MESSED UP!)