HONESTLY- How much do you spend on a cruise other than cruise fare???

HI. I am just wondering (just curious) how much people are spending on their cruise not including cruise fare. Many financial experts say people spend 2X as much as they think. I am going to figure out my own. I think it is interesting. So on tips, speciality dining, insurence, drinks, photos, souveniours, excursions, either through the ship or on your own.

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HI. I am just wondering (just curious) how much people are spending on their cruise not including cruise fare. Many financial experts say people spend 2X as much as they think. I am going to figure out my own. I think it is interesting. So on tips, speciality dining, insurence, drinks, photos, souveniours, excursions, either through the ship or on your own.

 

 

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I think we spend less than most and certainly not as much as NCL would like.

We do buy insurance, the UDP and have drinks whenever we like. For me 2 drinks per day is average but others in the family sometimes drink more. We don't do much in the way of excursions unless it something very special and few if any souvenirs. We take our own photos and only DD will splurge at the spa.

Of course we do pay the discretionary service charge and tip extra when appropriate.

We book our excursions online and do not drink and at 71 don't care for photos and no dining extras. So other than our tips, zip line and snorkeling at every port, 0.

HI. I am just wondering (just curious) how much people are spending on their cruise not including cruise fare. Many financial experts say people spend 2X as much as they think. I am going to figure out my own. I think it is interesting. So on tips, speciality dining, insurence, drinks, photos, souveniours, excursions, either through the ship or on your own.

 

 

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That sounds about right. "Everything else" usually costs us more than the cruise itself! It's still the cheapest vacation one can take, IMO. We are spending gazillions on two upcoming vacations - 1 is a resort for 6 nights, and the other is disney for 5 nights (and we are FL residents). Can't get any cheaper than taking a cruise.

I'm a solo cruiser, and usually don't get any on-board credit. Beyond the DSC, it's rare for me to spend much more than $50 or so. I take few or no ship excursions, don't eat in the specialty restaurants, and don't drink alcohol. I could spend less, but I drink an awful lot of diet coke.

The two of us spent $1,200 on tours, $288 on service charges, $400 on other shopping on our 12 day Grand Med cruise. Our outside cabin was $2414 and taxes and ports about $450. It was worth every day and every penny.

My budget for any 7 day cruise trip is $300 on the credit card and about $100 (more or less) in cash. For the 2 upcoming trips, I prepay the gratuities and buying onboard credit for Christmas gift shopping so I might not even use the credit card that much except for drinks at least 3 or 5 times during the week and specialty restuarant(s) at least once or twice. Its not hard to budget for myself; its when family is physically with me that spending gets out of control - at any given moment I'm shelling out for transport, meals, extras for 3-7 people at best, 11 in total and thats the immediate family, for extended family; might as well get a catering hall for them...

Our On-board account on our August cruise was ~$800. It can certainly add up.

This included:

- 8 bottle wine package

- other drinks at various bars

- dinner at Le Bistro

- couple of items in the store (less than $30)

- extra tips on various bar bills

- one excursion booked through the ship (~$59 each)

- A few cigars (DH likes his cigars)

This does not include extra money we paid on Bermuda for Scuba diving, transportation passes, food. We pre-paid DSC before we sailed.

I've also sailed where I paid significantly less. It can be done.

On my first cruise last year I spent an additional $99 for excursions, $20 for parking and $9 for a shuttle on a four day cruise. The cruise was about $600. On my last 7 day cruise, I spent probably $800 on 2 hotel nights, food, one excursion, one $89 souvenir, and the rest was for taxis, shuttles, airport parking, and tips. So it was probably double. But there was a port stop everyday. And I was watching my spending and it was that much. We didn't even eat or buy anything at ports, the food was purchased on the hotel days. On the ship I only had one $7 drink. The cruise line only got the $7 drink and the one $59 excursion from me the rest was just extra that I couldn't cut out do to planning.

Last cruise we spent about $700 on board, including a few drinks, gratuities, one specialty restaurant night and one cruise reward! We spent about $300 in cash on Bermuda, for extra tips and for parking.

HI. I am just wondering (just curious) how much people are spending on their cruise not including cruise fare. Many financial experts say people spend 2X as much as they think. I am going to figure out my own. I think it is interesting. So on tips, speciality dining, insurence, drinks, photos, souveniours, excursions, either through the ship or on your own.

 

 

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Im sure we arent the people NCL hopes for in cruisers. We dont drink, gamble, or buy photos. We buy one small trinket, and may spend one night in a specialty restaurant. Most of our money goes to excursions (probably purchased beforehand), and honestly its not all that much since we plan on spending it. Insurance and service charges are included in the initial price, so they dont really count towards any excess fees.

Our last cruise cost me 35$ on the final bill. All of which were fresh squeezed orange juices. ;)

If you want to include airport parking and food, its an extra 100-200$.

Thank you for all our responses. I was curious for many reasons, one being that I was wondering about the all inclusive for my upcoming cruise. It would cost me 550 a person for me and my friend. (My kids are under 21 so they don't offer it for them.) It's 550 due to the discount for the cruise. (I am doing the Haven so the price for the first 2 people is pricey). I was really trying to figure out if it is worth it. I usually do most of the excursions on my own, and don't drink much so I thought, no way. But when I added up what I really spend, it seemed to be a value. 2 different friends had different reactions, one said they hardly spend any money on the cruise, the other said they do.

So I figured 550- DSC brings me to 466. I usually buy 2-3 photos, I think they are about 20 each, down to 400. You get 200 for shore excursions, and while I usually do them on my own, I would do them through the cruise line, so now I am down to 200. I usually eat half my meals in the speciality restaurants, adding about 75, so now I am at 125. I usually play bingo once. Now at 70. Like I said I don't drink much, but do have maybe 1 a day on vacation, occasionally having 2. That would add up to 70.

I couldn't believe how much extras I spend. (I know a lot of people say experienced cruisers don't buy photos, but I have been on a lot of cruises , and usually buy one.

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For us it can vary depending on the itinerary. Obviously, for a cruise in the Mediterranean, the airfare can easily be at least as much as the cruise itself. Excursions are also more expensive (but usually booked well in advance) and we're more likely to spend time pre-and/or post-cruise in hotels. That adds up pretty quickly. On the ship, OBC is usually enough to mostly cover our meager ship-board expenditures. So, Europe I think we can safely say, probably costs us 3 times the price of the cruise, easily (we book aft-facing balconies, but do look for bargains).

The Caribbean, I'd have to say maybe double the cruise cost, with airfare, excursions, etc. included.

However, most of our spending is not on the ship, so the all-inclusive package isn't for us. On our last cruise, to Norway, I think our final bill was $7. (gratuities pre-paid, excursions pre-purchased, OBC applied for drinks and whatever)

We just got back from the Jewel 4 days ago, so it's fresh in my mind. For DH and I we spent $319 over our cruise fare, not including travel insurance.

We had quite a lot of on board credit, so above that we only spent $10 more on the ship. The rest of the $319 was for tips and for the few items that we bought in the different ports. We've been to those ports before and didn't need to spend a lot there this time.

We're totally cheap! :D Last cruise from New York on Breakaway: airline tickets paid for with miles, three hotel nights with free breakfast paid with credit card points, all taxis, car fares and bag fees also paid with credit card points.

All drinks and souvenirs onboard paid for with OBC -- went over by 36 cents on NCL bill. Paid for about three meals in New York -- again on the cheap. New York bus tour on a Groupon for about $19.

So that leaves cruise fare including taxes and port fees ($1,942 Cat BA) plus $168 gratuities, and trip insurance of about $138. Just remembered did a slot pull with meet & greet group for $9.

We're not really into excursions anymore and don't need specialty restaurants.:)

on Breakaway, we bought the UBP, ate in Ocean Blu raw bar, Teppanyaki and OB on the waterfront (lobster rolls!). Also a couple of snacks from Carlos. So for 2 people we spent $996.53 according to my credit card bill. I did have some OBC, so we probably spent a little more than that total because I prepaid a cabana in GSC. This doesn't include what we spent in Nassau (Sheraton/Melia on our own) and Port Canaveral (Cocoa Beach). Probably $1500 for the week.

DH says he remembers $1700 (approx.) on board account for our first ever 7 day cruise (includes gratuities, but not port charges, etc...). Seems about right. We did all our excursions thru the ship, ate at the specialty restaurants (this was well before the UDP), drank great wine (again pre UBP), and bought cruise photos.

This also did not include our extra tipping..room steward, waiters, etc.

I am about to embark on a 4 day cruise with 3 girlfriends. We have bought

the UDP, the UBP but no excursions (yet). It will be interesting to see what purchasing those two packages will mean to the bottom line.

And I thought we were cheap, lol!

We do buy ship's excursions if we are not in a CC roll call tour or in an easy "do it yourself" port like Barcelona, Rome, etc where we've been before.

That adds up.

We enjoy our platinum dinners at Le Bistro and limit our drinks to 1 or 2 each per day, happy hour if available.

No photos, bingo, spa, expensive gift shop purchases. We bought photos and played bingo on our first cruises but no more and no casino. And absolutely no bidding at an art auction!

Mostly it's excursions plus daily service charge and a moderate bar bill. Never had what I considered a huge onboard bill to pay although it's been over $1000 a time or two, depending on the length of the cruise.

I bring some cash to give stewards and others who've given great service an extra tip.

My thought is "Why spend on a once in a lifetime itinerary and then be cheap and not go to the best things to see?" Our travel friends thought the excursion to the Alhambra cost too much.....it was the best thing we did on that cruise, even if a bit pricey. Our overnight to Jerusalem was not cheap, but the best money we ever spent....and we were late and waited on by the Jade in Haifa.

I am loving these responses. It is interesting. Even some people who say they don't spend much on the cruise, still prepay DSC, and dining and some excursions, so while there bill at the end of the cruise is still not high, there are still charges above the cruise itself. It is just interesting to see how much we really spend. I am thinking about doing the all inclusive, it would be nice to not have to think about anything.

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My husband and I were pretty cheap on our last cruise but had a blast...did everything we wanted to do but didn't spend a lot. The most expensive fare seemed to be our cabin, we had prime real estate when it came to our balcony cabin. For the cruise fare it was about $2600 including pre paid gratuity. Outside of that between specialty restaurants, 2 photos, buying liquor to take home, a couple of drinks on board for me, exploring 4 ports...we spent an extra $600. If u include travel...we live in GA, add an additional $450....it averaged 1825 per person. I think that's pretty reasonable. All of this was on Carnival Breeze. We cruise NCL for the first time in November on the Getaway and I plan on keeping the costs down then too.

We would have made out like bandits if we had a cheaper cabin!!!!

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For our family of 4 we do the Specialty restaurants a couple of times a cruise. Usually a couple of Spa passes and usually 1 excursion through NCL. A few drinks throughout the cruise and money for the casino. We have run about 2K for our spending.

Spent approx $1500 above cruise fair for 2, including excursions, drinks, specialty dining, shopping and meals offboard. Excluding airfaire and hotel.

For our 12-day Tampa to Boston repo in April 2013 our onboard account ended up being around the $2500 mark for the two of us in a DOS.

That amount also includes the DSC and our tips for the butler, concierge, and the room steward. We put their tips on our account and gave them a slip on the last day of the cruise. I think we gave $200 each to the butler and steward, and $100 to the concierge.

I'm thinking we had $300 OBC to start with. We did a ships excursion at each port, bought many photos (I don't know why we always get so many, but my wife enjoys them so that's good enough reason for me), and ate in a specialty restaurant 5 or 6 times.

I don't drink much alcohol. I recall getting a bucket of beer on the first day, drank 1, and I put the remaining 5 in the cabin refrigerator. They lasted me the entire cruise. I also purchased 3 or 4 fruity girly drinks scattered throughout those 12 beautiful days. My wife, on the other hand, probably purchased 3 or 4 drinks each day.

Even some people who say they don't spend much on the cruise, still prepay DSC, and dining and some excursions, so while there bill at the end of the cruise is still not high, there are still charges above the cruise itself.

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Good point. They pre-paid a lot of things so the real cost is much higher than only cruise fare.

We are frugal and never book without perks or OBC. The OBC must cover the DSC. We don't drink alcohol. Maybe 1 drink each for the week, maybe. We use OBC to cover specialty restaurants too. We book excursion on our own. If we bring the kids, that can add up but usually we are struggling to use up the OBCs. Last trip we bought two FCCs with our OBCs. How many acronyms can I use in this post? Lol

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