Cruise is booked!!!

[IrishSmiley]

That is it!
We have booked, well paid the deposit, for our honeymoon cruise.

HAL, Rotterdam, Baltic Fantasy, 24 nights, June 11th! :D

Still plenty of time, but at least it is done!

To all of you, experienced cruisers on HAL ships, any estimated costs on board you could share? I'd like to start some pocket funds!!! But have NO clues on stuff like cocktails, martinis, tux rental, shore excursions, any stuff I am missing???

Thanks in advance!!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Congratulations on booking your honeymoon cruise.

24 days??? You will need a bundle!!

Don't forget that HAL automatically puts $10 per day per person on your shipboard account - right there you have $480.

[unclerich]

We'll actually be on the Rotterdam just before you - "Best of the Baltic".

Here's the link for tuxedo rental:

http://www.cruiselineformal.com/prod_hal_m.html

[doone]

I have used the cruiselineformal.com for my dad's tux rental, they are very reputible and everything has always worked out fine.

[Grumpy1]

Shore excursions through HAL $40per person and up. Some ports you may just wander around on your own, so you could save there... except that the lovely bride will undoubtably find the jewelry stores that way... just for budget, I would start at $200 per port (total, not per person)

Drink prices vary but figure about $6 per drink.

Formal wear... you can rent a black tux/white dinner jacket combo set with all of the trimmings for $150 to $200 for the length of the cruise.

$20 auto tip per day for the two of you as mentioned.

I won't even try to put in a figure for casino or bingo, bottles of wine or champagne with dinner, etc...

For a 24 day cruise, you could easily spend an extra $7500 or more between shipboard expense and shore excursions, but you can also cut that in half and still have a very enjoyable cruise.

[PRINSENDAM]

[quote=IrishSmiley]That is it!
We have booked, well paid the deposit, for our honeymoon cruise.

HAL, Rotterdam, Baltic Fantasy, 24 nights, June 11th! :D

Still plenty of time, but at least it is done!

To all of you, experienced cruisers on HAL ships, any estimated costs on board you could share? I'd like to start some pocket funds!!! But have NO clues on stuff like cocktails, martinis, tux rental, shore excursions, any stuff I am missing???



How long is a piece of string!

Much depends on your own social habits... like drinking and how many shore excursions you might do in 24 days.

It would not be outrageous to allow $200 per day ($100 pp) as an 'average'. If you like to drink nice wines in the evening and plan to make lots of excursions then you can easily double the above.

Have fun and best of luck!

Stephen

[kryos]

Congratulations on booking your honeymoon cruise.

24 days??? You will need a bundle!!

Don't forget that HAL automatically puts $10 per day per person on your shipboard account - right there you have $480.
LOL ... not necessarily. Depends on their shipboard lifestyle. My onboard charges (not including shore excursions) for a 30-day cruise only amounted to a little over a grand. That was for 30-days. Believe me, I wasn't cheap ... but I didn't go hog wild either. I never visit the casino ... on land or at sea, don't play Bingo, and am not a spendthrift. I did enjoy several cocktails, but not multiple ones every day. I also usually had a specialty coffee at the Explorations Cafe just about every day. I spent a bundle on film developing (going digital for my upcoming Panama Canal cruise), and bought some $79 five-carton packs of Marlboro. As for the shops, except for a few logo items (clearance tee-shirts, coffee mugs, photo albums and refrigerator magnets), I didn't dump a whole lot of cash on stuff that I would only have to figure out how to get into my luggage for the flight home. I only made one visit to the spa ... to get my hair styled and cut. No massages or anything like that.

My big expense ... which I made sure to mostly pay for in advance ... was shore excursions. I paid almost a grand for HAL excursions and perhaps another $500 for independent ones. But this is unusual for me ... I normally would never spend this kind of money on touring. I only did it because I have no idea when I'll get back to those ports again, and wanted to really see and do as much as possible. For comparison purposes, on my upcoming Panama Canal cruise, I am spending less than $200 on shore excursions, and will be doing pretty much everything I want to do.

But, no ... I don't think a long cruise necessarily means a huge onboard bill. It really all depends on what you enjoy doing ... both on the ship and in port ... and how expensive those preferences are.

Blue skies ...

--rita

[IrishSmiley]

thanks for all your replies so far and particularly to Rita who made my heart slow down, as I was reading the previous replies!

I was asking for ideas on some costs and althought we might indulge ourselves with a couple of martinis and massages and excursions, I really don't see myself, ourselves spending thousands and thousands!

but it is interesting to see estimated costs, I guess I wanted costs per items, and not an overall estimated spending, because I do realise that people are going to behave differenlty

the way I see it, we will have a good idea (thanks to you!) on our spending to not let it go out of control!

thanks again! :)

[Atomica]

One other thing you can do as well is to give yourself an onboard credit. I've done this a couple of times now and it really helps. I normally do mine as a lump-sum, but I don't see why you couldn't add $100 one month, $50 the next..etc etc. You can do this by filling out the gift order form here:

http://hollandamerica.com/pdfs/onboard/Gift_Order_Polar.pdf

I did this for our upcoming Alaska cruise because my girlfriend and I both want to use the Hydro pool, and I knew that was going to cost me some $$! This way it's already paid for, and I don't have to worry about it.

Something that I also do to save money on a cruise is if I want a martini or something like that, I will usually get the drink of the day, which runs for about $4.25 if I remember correctly.

But like everyone says, it's entirely personal how much you spend and if you don't see yourself spending thousands and thousands, chances are you won't :)

[AlohaPride]

thanks for all your replies so far and particularly to Rita who made my heart slow down, as I was reading the previous replies!

I was asking for ideas on some costs and althought we might indulge ourselves with a couple of martinis and massages and excursions, I really don't see myself, ourselves spending thousands and thousands!

but it is interesting to see estimated costs, I guess I wanted costs per items, and not an overall estimated spending, because I do realise that people are going to behave differenlty

the way I see it, we will have a good idea (thanks to you!) on our spending to not let it go out of control!

thanks again! :)

Hi!
My DH (celebrating 2 years in September) and I have found out that HAL recommends you budget about $60 pp/day (this 60 includes the $10 pp/day for gratuity). Sooo...if you are going on a 24 day cruise thats roughly $2880 that HAL will ask you for a "deposit" when you board the ship. You have two options when setting up your "credit limit." You can provide a credit card, and that's how payments can be made; or you can provide cash or traveler's checks thus making an absolute limit (we will be using the traveler's checks option).

Also, to make things easier, as you save money you can also make your shore excursion payments online. I have already paid for the shore excursions we intend on taking during the trip, thus allowing us to carry less $$.

Next, if you plan on using the spa/pinnacle grill you can ALSO pay for those a head of time. You have pleanty of time. You could easily make one or two reservations a month and have practically everything paid for before you even board :o

Best wishes on your marriage, have fun planning EVERYTHING! And have a GREAT cruise!!