How much to Budget

[thlarock]

Hi all,

Going on a 5 day 4 night cruise which we have paid for and trying to get an idea of approximately how much additional money you spend on the cruise? Just trying to budget out an approximate amount. There are three of us going on the trip.

Thx - Tom

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi all,

Going on a 5 day 4 night cruise which we have paid for and trying to get an idea of approximately how much additional money you spend on the cruise? Just trying to budget out an approximate amount. There are three of us going on the trip.

Thx - Tom

It really depends. Are you talking about excursions? That would be added to your onboard account (to be paid before leaving the ship).

Tips for excursion guides/drivers? Drinks? Souvenirs? Adult dining? Photos? Plan on using Room Service?

Sadly, we can't tell you how much your're going to spend.

 

[a1tinkfans]

One 7 nite cruise we had charges about $900
Which added up faster than I thought lol.
Last cruise was 8 nites and it was only about $260. However, that didn’t account for costs Off the ship, in ports ( where it didn’t go on our acct) We spent More in one port than the entire cost of the cruise. Yes a Big Splurge!

 

[bbn1122]

Agree with previous posters. Do your drinks? Cocktail$$
Will you use the Spa? Palo or Remy?
Excursions, etc

Besides tips for dining room and cabin steward. You can have very few costs, if you just stay on the ship or your excursion are just walking around the port. No souvenirs etc.

 

[Aby]

I know it’s geeky but I like to start up a rough spreadsheet with anticipate extra costs so that I can see what ballpark I’m looking at. If there are things I know for sure how much the cost will be, such as excursions, Palo, and beverage seminars, I will use those numbers. For things I’m not sure about, I’ll take my best guess. At the end I usually add 10-15% as miscellaneous because I always forget a few things.

For our next cruise, we are 2 adults on the 14 day EBPC in November. We plan on doing Palo 3x, 2 excursions, a couple beverage seminars, and some drinks and souvenirs, which we calculate at approximately $1000. We like to pre-purchase this in the form of onboard credit ahead of the cruise so that it’s all paid for in advance.

Aby

 

[luv2cruisedisney]

My rule of thumb is pack 1/2 the amount of clothes and take 2x the amount of money I think I'll need

 

[MrsInsG]

When I cruise I estimate $1000 for seven nights (2 adults). I don't do spa treatments, but I do like wine and will splurge there. That said, there have been times I have come home with hundreds of dollars unspent, and then there was a time when the bar bill was more than the cost of the cruise (I like good wine...) For my upcoming seven night, I'll be bringing two of my daughters for a party of four, total. I am estimating $2000, and I fully expect to bring home a large portion of that, though the siren song of Disney souvenirs will likely be their (my) downfall on this trip. It's such a subjective topic!

 

[Geomom]

Your tips for the server/assistant server/head server and stateroom host will total $162 for the 3 of you for 4 nts. Those are automatically added to your account. (They can be lowered or raised at guest services, but the 'suggested' $13.50/day for each of you is a pretty standard cruise tip amount.)

Everything else is up to you...all 'regular' food is included (upcharge for Palo/Remy adult restaurants, the ice cream/sweet shop, movie candy/popcorn, and some food in the bars.) Non alcoholic drinks on the pool deck/buffet/ and the main dining rooms are free. Anything from a bar will cost $. Basic coffee in the MDR/buffet/and self service beverage area is free...if you get it from Cove Cafe or Vista Cafe, that'll cost $ (note that while the drinks cost $ in those places, the snacks there are free!)

I generally budget $25/day for 'extra' beverages--1-2 alcoholic ones for me, 1-2 specialty non-alcoholic ones for DH and the kids--like smoothies, etc.

When you book stuff during your online checkin, you'll see the prices for any drink tastings/spa treatments/port adventures, etc.

And only you know what your family is like for souvenir shopping...is everyone going to buy a $40 shirt or a Tervis mug...or just a magnet/ornament...or all of the above. I have 1 kid that is a 'shopper' and 1 that is very picky and will get 1 thing. For myself, I might spend $50 total. You can set a budget for everyone...I think that $50/person in the shops is reasonable.

 

[AnonDC]

Need some more context.

 

[MichelleCanada]

Hi all,

Going on a 5 day 4 night cruise which we have paid for and trying to get an idea of approximately how much additional money you spend on the cruise? Just trying to budget out an approximate amount. There are three of us going on the trip.

Thx - Tom

There are 3 (husband and 8 yr old son) of us going to Alaska for 7 nights. We have an occasional drink, a Palo brunch, tips, some tasting classes and 3 excursions (not even the super expensive ones). I have estimated it will be over $2500 to cover all of that. $1700 of that is just excursions. So I agree with other posters - more information is needed to help you.

 

[CamColt]

It is hard to give you a figure without knowing your plans. Our bill for a 7 night cruise for 4 is usually over $1000.00. Our main charges are tips and drinks. Then some small stuff that adds up like, we get a few souvenirs, maybe a photo, a few loads of laundry, Palo tip, etc... We don't often do excursions however those can add up. The last time we did one was in Jamaica and for 4 it was around $600.00 so that pushed our total up pretty high that cruise.

 

[coast2coastmickey]

Here is my "extras" budget for our upcoming cruise. It's a 7 night, 2 stops Castaway Cay and Key west out of Galveston. It adds up to just over $2000 for 2 adults, 1 toddler.

$ 567.00	cruise tips (I budget double the amount in case of great service)
$ 336.70	spa treatment (probably will do a couples massage)
$ 144.00	nursery (a few stints for our 2.5 year old)
$ 100.00	palo (hoping to do one meal here at some point)
$ 68.00	castaway snorkel rental (we didn't do it on our last cruise and want to do it this time)
$ 26.00	castaway bike rental (loved doing this last time)
$ 237.00	key west lunch and activities (not sure what we'll do for sure but budgeting some money here)
$ 300.00	misc (alcohol and souvenirs and coffee drinks)
$ 40.00	extra tips (for things like porters and whatnot)
$ 250.00	placeholder (for the next cruise)

 

[MomOTwins]

For my family, we spent around $1,000 on our 3-day cruise consisting of (1) tips (always more than the minimum); (2) alcohol (around 3-4 drinks each per day including at the pool or bars and meals); (3) one spa massage for my DH (4) one palo brunch for the two of us; (4) castaway cay snorkel rental for 3; (5) souvenir beach toys at CC plus a pair of goggles at the gift shop to replace one that broke; (6) two games of bingo; (7) popcorn and soda at the theater each night; (8) specialty coffees--love that cappuccino with the mickey on top of the foam; (8) one mixology class for me. We could easily have spent a lot more. Or we could have skipped all of that. Just giving you an idea of some of the stuff that is an upcharge.

 

[kiford]

You can spend almost nothing or lots and it's totally under your control. There are so many options and everyone is different. My response to how much you should budget may be wildly different from what you will need/want or the costs may turn out to be relatively similar but for vastly different things.

We're two adults and we've spent anything from an average of $100/day to $500/day (plus the standard gratuities) depending on:

• excursions (which can vary from inexpensive short jaunts to more full-day higher priced ones though those are typically on European cruises),
• spa (usually the couples massage),
• drinks (we might buy a reasonably priced glass of wine/cocktail or an unreasonably priced bottle of champagne or glass of whiskey or the wine/champagne pairing at Palo/Remy),
• speciality coffees,
• theatre snacks,
• alcohol tastings,
• purchases at the gift shop (DH likes the Nike DCL-logo shirts. On one cruise, he bought one of every one they had - 5 in all I think. Other cruises we've purchased nothing because he didn't like anything),
• Palo and Remy.

We never buy the photo package - or any photos.

I typically budget for somewhere in between those daily averages but if we overspend, so be it. We don't worry about it and it all gets charged to the credit card so we have no concerns about requiring an appropriate amoubnt of cash on hand. Your method of payment and level of determination to stick to, or not, a budget will also inform how much you want to set aside or bring.

I think your best bet is to determine what you will want to do and then do an estimate based on the average prices of those items or specific prices if, for example, you know what excursions you want to book. Then perhaps add a bit more for safety and just keep an eye on what you are spending so you don't go outrageously over. If you have a good idea what you want to spend it on, you'll pretty much know if you've gone outside the budget based on what you actually end up doing.

 

[Kate_45]

We didn't feel the need to pay for drinks or food onboard, so apart from tips (which I thought of as part of the cruise cost as opposed to spending money) we bought a toy for the kids and an emergency hairbrush for me. Total - about $40

But then we also had to spend over a hundred dollars on a visit to the ship's doctor :-(

Edited to add: We had budgeted for drinks but found the range of soft drinks far greater than we thought. I don't drink and my other half never ended up fancying a beer. We had early dining and so went into the show full from dinner and with young children we tended to head to the cabin after instead of to a bar. But even then we took on a six pack of beer and only drank half of them.

 

[rcchello]

Our budget has been all over the place. In our first 4 day cruise it was about $50/day excluding the standard tip. This amount includes souvenirs, walking to the zoo on Nassau and a couple of specialty coffees. We wanted to try all the normal dining having never done it before.

The next trip we added Palo once and a spa treatment and a liquor tasting which added $250 to the cost.

Next trip dropped the spa and added an excursion, keep Palo -still $250 additional.

then my wife discovered the ice cream on the fantasy and we tried Remys - got up to 500 additional for a total of $750. That included lunches on each island we stopped.