Do you budget your cruise expenses?

I am interested to know if you budget your cruise expenses, and if so, how closely? I am not talking about saving for a cruise, but rather once you have booked the cruise, and are ready to board, do you have a budget? If so, how closely are you budgeting? Do you micormanage every detail down to X number of drinks per day, X dollars for casino, bingo etc.

I'm asking because it seems to me there are a lot of people on here calculating their on board spending down to the dollar. I'm not judging...just observing. We just don't do it that way...we have an idea of what we will spend based upon past cruises, but don't really give it much though beyond that.

.we have an idea of what we will spend based upon past cruises, but don't really give it much though beyond that.

i am the same way and usually what i spend on all of previous cruises matches to what i spend on board

I have a small pocket notebook that I keep track of expenses in and each category gets it's own page, so photos will be on one page along with what we budgeted for that, souvenirs on another, etc. At the end of each day I make a quick note of how much was spent in each category so we have a rough idea of what is left in each category's budget. It's become a travel journal for how much we spent on vacation.

I do budget, but more with an idea of how much I think we will spend, and then apply that much as credit on our accounts to avoid a big credit charge at the end. I'm fortunate to be able to pre-purchase packages, gratuities, our port activities, so it is really just on board spending I have to worry about. Last time, I planned $100 for on board spending for a 5 day cruise and we spent $89. The cruise line refunded that on my card I had placed for on board charges.

No, we don't keep track of money spent. That said, we aren't big spenders so it's never a problem. Also, we don't drink much, so that helps a lot.

We pay for everything (cheers, gratuities, etc) ahead of time. The only thing we budget for during the cruise is the casino, steakhouse, tips and cash for ports.

We pay attention to what we spend and have a good idea of what that amount will be before we ever embark. With that said, if it makes the cruise more enjoyable and DW happier, I'm all for it.

As this is my first cruise coming up in 2 weeks I will keep an eye on what we spend to help us plan for the future. However, I like to pre pay as much as I can up front so we will see how it goes.

I am interested to know if you budget your cruise expenses, and if so, how closely? I am not talking about saving for a cruise, but rather once you have booked the cruise, and are ready to board, do you have a budget? If so, how closely are you budgeting? Do you micormanage every detail down to X number of drinks per day, X dollars for casino, bingo etc.

However, our budgeting is quite comprehensive - every vacation regardless of its nature of medium, and that includes family visits and our annual religious convention (neither of which is necessarily a vacation <grin>) ... roughly 4-5 trips a year We project out full-year vacation budgets, because our retirement plan only includes a certain amount of money for vacations. If we go over budget, either in terms of the plan or in terms of what we actually spend, that'll prompt us to aim for less expensive vacations starting with the next vacation we decide on, until the gap is filled.

For our upcoming cruise, we've estimated how much we'll spend on-board, how much we'll spend in port, parking, gratuities for the porters in Port Canaveral - even gasoline for the car ride from home to Port Canaveral. I'd say my accuracy is 95%. A lot of this is because we don't try to economize within a vacation. (In other words, I think error in projections is higher if we were to say, "we'll save money by not doing this, or having fewer of that.") We pick a vacation based on what we can afford, in the context of taking full advantage of everything we would want to do on that vacation. If that's too expensive, then we would choose a lower cost vacation (read: step down from an 8 day to a 5 day cruise, just as a for instance).

No we don't budget what we spend onboard. But we are not big spenders on-board either. I cash out my rewards money from my credit cards before we leave and use that for our spending cash. I just looked at my balances for our next 2 cruises (one on NCL in Sept. and one on Carnival in Oct.) and I will have over $600 in free money to spend onboard.

We have the UBP and 4 SDP promos on NCL plus $200 OBC from our TA (which will cover our gratuities). Our on-board spending should be limited to the casino and maybe a few souvenirs. My guess is not more than $200-$400.

For CCL we purchased about $800 in discounted Carnival Gift Cards $300 at 15% off and $500 at 10% off. After paying off our cruise, purchasing a Sail Away Package which includes 2 T-shirts, 2 visors,2 towels, 2 champagne flutes, a tote bag, a bottle of champagne, a $25 Bar Credit, and a $10 Photo Credit for $89, pre-purchasing the On-line Social Plan for $20, and pre-paying our gratuities, I still have about $500 left on my cards. I highly doubt we will come close to spending that on-board in 5 days and expect to come home money left on those cards.

In the end I expect to come home from our 2 cruises with cash left over from our over $600 in credit card rewards that I will stick in the bank to go towards the pre/post cruise hotel bill that have not been prepaid.

I buy discounted Carnival gift cards for my onboard spending which usually consists of casino, maybe a few trinkets in the gift shop, a couple upgraded filet mignons in the MDR, and the occasional girlie drink. I only do a cash account, so when that's gone, that's it. I do check my folio daily via kiosk to make sure there aren't any errors.

As far as spending money in ports, it's cash only. If I don't have the money in cash, it doesn't get bought.

I prepay as much as I can ahead of time like gratuities and BB so that's one less thing I have to factor in on the ship. I start with a clean slate and I like it that way. And no, I don't care about the minuscule "interest" or the fact that I'm giving Carnival a "free loan" because again, they are paid for with discounted Carnival gift cards so the gift card people already had my money to begin with.

Wife and I's first cruise we had no idea what we would spend onboard but brought $900 in gift cards we got from the Verizon points and 20% off eBay purchase. So already ahead we were ahead in savings but knew also we needed to leave $182 something in the S&S account cause our pre-paid gratuities would be coming out towards the end of the the cruise. Day before returning back to port the gratuities came out and we had to add our credit card for one more day but only ended up using maybe another $50 in charges. Basically we kinda had a budget but it wasn't set in stone as we didn't know what we would be spending and we had other money set aside also just encase we had more drinks then we planned.

Next cruise coming up we already paid the gratuities in the cruise cost up front. We already have $50 OBC Carnival gave us when we booked. And we're taking $1000 worth of gift cards same ones you get 10% off through Verizon, aarp and Allstate drive wise app. Going to cut loose a little more this time. Maybe shop a little more in the fun shops onboard, casino, drink prices have gone up a bit since our last cruise also. Wife drinks a lot of iced coffees from the coffee shop. It's our vacation, our budget is what we have in gift cards first then we resort to credit cards but honestly, I don't think we'll go through $1000 between my wife and I for the 7 day cruise. We'll come very close but not much over it if we do.

We have a 5 gallon water bottle that wife and I put all our change into. All coins and most of the time any $1 bills we have in our wallet after the day. Some times $5 bills too. Been doing this for the past 4 months and it almost 1/4 full. Have no idea how much is in there but we have 9 more months till our cruise and the water bottle is for helping buying the gift cards before we leave. Be interesting to see how much ends up in there.

We plan our cruise right after tax return. Tax return pays our flights and hotel night before boarding and the rest is for excursions and spending money.

So we have an idea of we will spend but we don't fret over it. We always go with extra just encase.

Spending money at ports not including excursions we have a separate stash of cash we have set aside. Usually some cash and use of debit card or credit cards. I dont carry much cash when in ports but some. Too easily lost. credit cards if lost I can call and shut off easily and were not responsible for charges after that. Back on board I can get a different credit card out of the room safe or wife gets her debit or credit card from her wallet.

Again in ports we have an idea but don't fret over it.

Yes, I have a budget (with some wiggle room) and I try to stick to it. Generally if I go over, it's in the casino. We don't usually spend what I expect on drinks (because we don't drink much and lately, it's been close to nothing), and I have already pre-purchased soda, water, and excursions. Specialty dining is usually decided upon before we board and I generally plan that my dad will get the steakhouse selection in the dining room a couple of times (though he doesn't; he usually waits to see if I get it free from the casino).

The biggest unplanned expense I had on our last cruise was at the arcade. The arcade on the Sunshine is accessible for wheelchairs (on the Pride you have to go up a set of stairs, on the Sunshine it's on deck 5); my mom and I played the duck grab and the turtle grab game and spent $19 (came home with about 30 of the cute little buggers).

And yes, cash only in the ports. I generally plan that we'll do a tour or two (taxi at the port) and often we don't.

Of course, any extra cash that's not spent at port seems to get sucked into the casino fund.

I voted the second one , save money cruîse more often :cool:

Like many others, we prepay our gratuities and everything that we can ahead of time. I know what we will have to pay our excursion vendors so we budget that much. The casino we give ourselves a set amount. Typically $500 or $1,000 to spend there. We try to stick to the budget for the casino. Everything else on the ship, pictures, port shopping, etc., we just splurge and buy what we want. Never really thought about budgeting to be honest. I do stock up on gift cards through the year at the discounted rate and always have a bunch with me so at the end of the sailing I can go to GS and pay off my S&S balance with gift cards. I never apply them ahead of time, just pay the last day.

I Prepay as much as possible. Fare, hotel, cheers, internet, excursions. The only budget that's strict is the casino budget. Whatever the estimate to spend in port is, I bring double just in case.

We don't budget and we don't spend a lot since we are not big drinkers.

I have never understood pre paying anything? I don't pre pay bills at home so don't pre pay for things on the ship. We pay when things are due and that means at the end of the cruise. I don't buy gift cards either. We have OBC from Carnival stock for each cruise and then if we have price drops we get that too.

Sometimes we do excursions from Carnival and sometimes we book privately.

Sometimes I'll have a massage and sometimes not -it just depends on how I feel. DH will do some gambling but since we live in San Diego which has more than 9 local casinos it is not a big deal for us.

Everyone travels differently and there is no one way that is best. You just have to decide for yourselves what works for you.

We put cash down for the cruise. We don't drink much, don't gamble and don't eat in specialty restaurants. We do buy a few pictures, the kids get a could special drinks and we might buy a t-shirt or two. We have always got a refund because we haven't spent all of our funds.

We don't budget and we don't spend a lot since we are not big drinkers.

I have never understood pre paying anything? I don't pre pay bills at home so don't pre pay for things on the ship. We pay when things are due and that means at the end of the cruise. I don't buy gift cards either. We have OBC from Carnival stock for each cruise and then if we have price drops we get that too.

Sometimes we do excursions from Carnival and sometimes we book privately.

Sometimes I'll have a massage and sometimes not -it just depends on how I feel. DH will do some gambling but since we live in San Diego which has more than 9 local casinos it is not a big deal for us.

Everyone travels differently and there is no one way that is best. You just have to decide for yourselves what works for you.

I have to say that our CCL Fantasy cruise is the first time I have ever pre-paid on our cruises. The reason for that is I had discovered the discounted Carnival Gift Cards from our previous cruise. I purchased the gift cards at 10-15% off before the cruise as they came on sale. Since the cost was already spent to get the discounted price, I went ahead and used the discounted cards to finish paying for my cruise (balance left after deposit), prepay the gratuities, purchase a sail-away package (which I normally get on every CCL cruise), and prepay the social internet package at the discounted online price. Sometimes prepaying pays off with a discount higher than any interest I would get from having that money sit in the bank until cruise time.

I have a small pocket notebook that I keep track of expenses in and each category gets it's own page, so photos will be on one page along with what we budgeted for that, souvenirs on another, etc. At the end of each day I make a quick note of how much was spent in each category so we have a rough idea of what is left in each category's budget. It's become a travel journal for how much we spent on vacation.

On any trip, I pre-pay what I can, and then I keep a balance book such as this. I mainly do it because I have OCD and need that control . . . [emoji5]

~Profile Says Everything~

I have to say that our CCL Fantasy cruise is the first time I have ever pre-paid on our cruises. The reason for that is I had discovered the discounted Carnival Gift Cards from our previous cruise. I purchased the gift cards at 10-15% off before the cruise as they came on sale. Since the cost was already spent to get the discounted price, I went ahead and used the discounted cards to finish paying for my cruise (balance left after deposit), prepay the gratuities, purchase a sail-away package (which I normally get on every CCL cruise), and prepay the social internet package at the discounted online price. Sometimes prepaying pays off with a discount higher than any interest I would get from having that money sit in the bank until cruise time.

Totally agree. Same here.

It is interesting to see peoples' responses and it seems there is a clear division between those that pre-pay as much as they can and those of us that don't. Maybe I should start a poll on that!;)

It is interesting to see peoples' responses and it seems there is a clear division between those that pre-pay as much as they can and those of us that don't. Maybe I should start a poll on that!;)

Polls are interesting ,you should.

It is interesting to see peoples' responses and it seems there is a clear division between those that pre-pay as much as they can and those of us that don't. Maybe I should start a poll on that!;)

You could. One of the big reasons why I do is because of the gift cards. At 10-15-20% off I see no reason not to. One less thing (gift cards) I have to keep track of. No chance of me losing them or having there be an error with balances disappearing like some people have experienced. It's just easier for me. And I like to know that I have a true zero balance when I get on the ship. I owe the money either way, so I just get it over with.