How to you afford to cruise?

[NanCan]

Watching for bargains and being willing to drive to a port, or my destination, has allowed me to take 2 major vacations a year. This time I found one for 329 (409 with all fees and taxes) pp and leaving out of Charleston, which is a 14 hour drive. Bam book it! lol Planning on very little booze and NO CASINO ( I have to keep saying this over and over) I think cruises are an extremely affordable way to vacation, at least for my personal desires. I pick up extra shifts and I don't live an expensive life. I consider taking vacations a priority over other extravagances. :)

[enveno1]

Family vacations were one of my favorite memories as a child. So, when I had a family of my own I wanted to make sure my children were afforded the same opportunities. My DH did not take vacations as a child so when were married almost 10 yrs ago, he fell in love with traveling.

 

DH works full time with dialysis patients and part time at Best Buy a couple days a week (a few hours at a time) just to get his "toys" at heavily discounted prices. I own and operate a childcare center and am in school nights to become a RN. Besides our savings we have a college fund, Christmas saving fund, and timeshare dues fund. So much is allotted to each=no credit card use. You will be amazed at how fast it adds up. I'm talking for ex $15 a week toward our Christmas acct = about $800 (with interest) for our kids. Since we have a timeshare we do a lot of land based trips. The resort is paid for so we have a budget in mind for food & entertainment and split up how much we need to save each month. We have an upcoming July cruise we booked 9 months prior and I split up the total and tucked the money away so much at a time in an acct DH and I do not have a debit card for and is across town.

 

We are blessed beyond measure and we never forget it.

[98Charlie]

1. Set your priorities.
   
2. Live below your means.
   

 

And really cruising every 1-2 years can be a routine:p

 

Charlie

[michelle1836]

we put away $50-$150 each month depending on what is left after bills. we cruise once a year and it is paid for before we even step on the ship. driving to the port also helps

[norcal2]

Cruising is a very reasonable vacation in terms of cost for whatever cruise anyone picks versus taking a vacation to any one of the ports where you fly in and pay for hotels, food, etc. Many cruisers take very short cruises that makes it affordable for anyone.

 

The good news is everyone can afford a cruise if they select a cruise that fits their pocketbook. Time is more of a dictator than money. Cruises have always been for anyone who wants to travel on limited or unlimited incomes. It is false to think only larger incomes apply. You see more families on budgets on cruises than unlimited spending. That is why cruise lines have a smaller amount of suites - they know their customers. Some cruise on 4 day weekends a couple of times. Some are retired and have the time. Has nothing much to do with income. Think about it...some who live in LA cruise to Encinada. Cost: Not much. Fun factor: High.

[ib4cruzn]

Hilarious! The lawyer I can see. It's the man part that got me also! Not sure why though? :) Guess I just assumed!

 

I thought he was a woman too. I think it was the "continence" thread.

[Perfect Stranger]

The bickering with people = woman (and I AM one-LOL!).

 

Misspellings = not a lawyer.

 

Numerous (sometimes frivolous) threads and polls = woman and not a lawyer.

 

A member only eight months and over 900 posts = not a lawyer. This is someone with lots of time on their hands.

[swimmom32]

I am and have been a stay at home mom for 16 years..I was also a Realtor up North for 7 years...DH and I have an online blog and internet marketing business..DH is in IT Management Consulting we cruise 1x a year but trying to make it 2..We have a Vacation Fund we contribute too and always putting money away from his paycheck..We also pay with our checking account for our cruises and or other vacations..We also live 1 hour from Miami Port and 30 min to Fort Lauderdale and 2.5 hours to Port Canaveral..so yes Location of course plays a very big part...

[deadmoney]

One thing we do that helps is... our credit card pays 5% cash-back for purchases made in supermarkets, drugstores, and gas stations, and 1% on everything else. We charge *everything*, but of course we pay our bill in full at the end of the month. Carrying a balance and paying interest are not terms in our vocabulary! Anyway, that $ adds up, and it does help.

 

Ding, Ding, Ding.......we have a winner.

 

Last May's cruise we used our AMEX points this year we are using our Carnival MC points.

Like you we charge EVERYTHING and have never carried a balance.

[trptplayer22]

We use our tax money and save all year. We do live within 40 min of the Port. We figure, we could go to OC, MD 900-1200 for a condo or Deep Creek same pricing. Then we have to buy groceries and if it rains we can stare at each other. Cruising we can both have fun and for the past 2 years we've spent less than 2K for the whole week.

 

Oh and thank you to whoever posted about the $20 a week. That's a good plan for us, I'm going to start that today.:)

[lhanson38]

Having lost my mom at the age of 62 made me relize just how short life can be. My mom was always saving for when she retired. She put off travleing till later. well later never came.

While i never go in debt for my trips and always have them paid for before we leave. I'm not waiting for later..My daughter who is in her 20s feels the same way. It works for us.:)

[Warm Breezes]

Family vacations are a priority for us. DH and I work full time. DS(16) is active in soccer and basketball and DD(14) is involved year round in dance. While DH and I love both land and sea vacations, the kids always want to cruise. So while they are still with us, I try to make cruises our number one vacation choice.

 

I normally get a large bonus in January that goes towards vacations and home improvement projects. How much I get and our home improvement needs determine our vacation plans for the year. I shop around for the best deals in cruises, airlines, rental cars and hotels to make our vacation dollars stretch. Our spending money comes from our cash back mastercard which I cash in right before we cruise. We only have our mortgage debt. We purchase everything on the credit card taking advantage of stores like Kohl's 30% off when I luck out and get that discount for purchasing clothes and use coupons and sales for purchasing groceries. We pay-off all credit cards at the end of the month. We also put away money for college, rainy days, and retirement. All this without touching my bonus so it is free for vacations and home improvement projects.

 

I count myself blessed to have the opportunity to travel as much as we do and to share the experience with my children. As child, my vacations (which consisted of local week-end camping trips in a truck camper) ended when my parents got divorced. My step-father believes that children do not deserve or belong on vacations and that vacations are for adults only. So all vacations ended for me at 12 until I went on my honeymoon with DH at 22.

 

DH and I both love to travel and have always made it a priority. Many of our friends and family told us that once we had kids the traveling would stop. We did a lot of traveling before we started having kids 5 years after we married. But the traveling didn't stop. Both kids are great travelers. They both had their first airplane trip by the time they were 6 months old and were able to travel 24 hours in a car to Florida without making any fuss from the age of 3. We all had our first cruise when they were 4 and 7 and we've been hooked since then. The memories we share of our vacation time together, IMHO is worth every penny we have spent.:)

[Julienatul]

For us, My husband and I are both health professionals (nurse practitioner and pharmacist) we use cruising as our form of entertainment in the budget. We rarely go to the movies, shows, land based vacations, concernts etc. We use cruising as a way to get away from it all, reconnect as a family and relax a few times a year. Now that our oldest is starting school it's becoming a little more difficult since we are bound to school schedules but we "budget" for cruises. We also have the Carnival cruise credit card which we put everything on and pay off each month. This allows us a few "free" cruises every few years. We are thrifty spenders. We dont have the newest house or cars. We clip coupons for groceries, eat out on nights that "kids eat free". We buy clothing on sale or at consignment shops for our kids. We dont spend above our means. This all translates into more money for our vacation budget. We also look for cheaper times of the year to sail and sail on cheaper lines. We would love to try Oasis of the seas or one of the fancy new ships but we can sail 3 times on an older Carnival ship for what we would pay for one cruise on that ship and still have a great time. We are lucky that we live in Fl and drive to the ports so airfare is not a factor for us.

[Justsyd]

I set up a separate savings account for vacations, and deposit money every month.

 

We do this, too, but we deposit every week. The last cruise that we took on Carnival was $164 per person, so if you watch the fares, it's really affordable!

[swimmom32]

I am and have been a stay at home mom for 16 years..I was also a Realtor up North for 7 years...DH and I have an online blog and internet marketing business..DH is in IT Management Consulting we cruise 1x a year but trying to make it 2..We have a Vacation Fund we contribute too and always putting money away from his paycheck..We also pay with our checking account for our cruises and or other vacations..We also live 1 hour from Miami Port and 30 min to Fort Lauderdale and 2.5 hours to Port Canaveral..so yes Location of course plays a very big part...

 

lost connection..Our Son is 16 and our daughter is 12 both Swim Competitively as well as our son swims high school and as they were younger my DH worked alot of hours and we never took very many vacations as they started to get older and he started to work from home it was a bit easier for us..We only started cruising recently, and our last cruise were our Children's 1st..They loved it so much and we had so much fun as a family neither one of our kids were in the Circle C or Teen Club, we decided we were going to try and Cruise 2x a year...so we will see...Right now we have our Liberty trip scheduled for Thanksgiving Week and planning the next one for Next Year sometime and another one during thanksgiving week...We have been very fortunate and Im a definitely very thankful :)

[bobkamusician]

Let's face it: every time you take a full-fledged cruise vacation, you spend at least a couple thousand dollars. And I know lot's of people here take 3+ cruises per year. So my question it, How do you afford it? What kinds of things have you given up? What kind of jobs allow you to cruise in the beginning, anyway?

 

I myself am a lawyer, and my wife is a doctor, but cruising is only a very small part of our "budget" (we don't actually have a budget - I don't think I could survive with one...:eek:). We consider cruising a "treat", rather than "routine" (We cruise every 1-2 years)

 

And as always, let's remember to use the new vocabulary we learned from member bobkamusician:

 

:)

 

Wow, you QUOTED me! I am honored, really. Gosh, I now feel like I have to put "really" in all my posts so people don't think I'm being sarcastic.

 

How to say this without embarrassment? We are not rolling in the dough. But homilies like "life's too short" buzz around our home like flies in a Mexican restaurant. And I mean a restaurant in Mexico...

 

We had planned on going out to see what's left of my family in California this summer, but then we realized that doing that would actually be more expensive than a cruise, and my wife (I cruised quite a bit with my ex-, but not the nice, late-model wife who actually deserves to cruise) has never been to sea. It's our 15th anniversary, and I thought we'd do something special.

 

We don't have a budget, either. If we did, it would be too depressing to manage! <GRIN>

 

So I guess that the bottom line about why folks cruise is this: Cruising isn't really an expensive travel option when you assess the bang-for-the-buck. That said, drive to Montana and camp, or sail the Caribbean? I think you know the answer to that. Happy cruising!

[dogsx3]

We try and take 2 trips a year. My wife and I do not go out to eat very often we don't have expensive cars and we don't spend a lot of money on "stuff" Our only extravagence is travel. We both have good jobs and put money into our IRA's. Some people like to live high on the hog and have lots of pricey toys. We would rather spend our money on travel and have the memories from our trips.:)

[Kristi Williamson]

Homeschooling has given us the luxury of traveling in off seasons and we live well within our means. I own a real estate company that I run from home and my husband works in his families restaurant businesses (they own the Bantam Chefs in the South). Sounds all fancy, but we don't make extraordinary salaries, so we save, live simple lives and don't have silly things that run up your monthly expenses like the biggest cable package, fancy new cars, and the lastest gadgets.

 

Both of our cars are more than 5 years old, we have basic cable(literally 29.00 bucks a month!) and old cells that still work just like those fancy ones. We also buy the kids play/work clothes from Goodwill. Spend maybe 100 bucks a year on clothes for all 4 of my kids to play/work outside in. They're just going to get all messed up anyway, right? :p

 

I have friends that have every gadget known to man, new cars, houses way too big for their families, 3 sets of China and silly things to impress other people that want to know "how do you cruise so often?" Well, I ditch this goofy stuff you keep spending money on and my 10 and 12 year olds don't have phones! LOL (yes, I have 2 girlfriends who's 10 year olds have phones!!! WHY?!)

 

We cruise 2/3 times a year and typically camp 3/4 times a year. We look for the inexpensive cruises that are going where we want to go. It's all about where your particular priorities are. Mine are with my family, not on stuff that's going to rust away.

[bassmaster150]

We live below our means, have all of our debt (except for house) paid off, and our cash flow is high on the positive side (i.e. more money comes in than goes out). We set goals at the beginning of the year as to what we are going to accomplish and what we are going to see, and then put the money away for it. We live by the principles of Dave Ramsey....live like no one else, so later on you can live like no one else!!! And now we are having fun!! Also, we tend to cruise off peak which is cheaper, and sometimes take quick short cruises just to get away.

[carsastic]

I’m blessed , I have a comfortable life, I have a high stress job ( work about 10-12 hrs a day ) . My cruises tend to run about 3.5k a trip for a 7 day.

We very rarely plan far out ( unless we are doing something with other people )

While costly I find it a total get away, no phones, email , calendar or appointments…. We never budget but when life gets crazy… a 7day cruise makes it all good.. well worth the money and we feel that keeps us going..

Now my brother well he does 3 or 4 ccl cruises a year, a CCL “junkie”, However “Mr VIP” is so tight with his money he squeaks when he walks.. we often joke about it .

He is Always in interior rooms, never has a large bar bill or S&S invoice.. probably costs him 60 -70% less then what I pay.. and he always smiling

Its all about what you want and what makes you smile

[LHP]

We have averaged 7 cruises a year for the past 3 years. (always 3 people, sometimes 4 when our oldest can get away from college) I think this year we will only have 6.

 

How do we do it?

 

We are in our 50's and have NO debt. (house ...cars...everything paid for)

 

We have been blessed with hubby having a great job (I stayed home with the kids) BUT we have always been responsible with those blessings.

 

We were taught by our parents that isn't what you make but what you keep that counts.

 

We live far below our means which affords us the luxury of traveling (not just cruises) .

 

Now that being said....we usually don't get balconies (we will every now and then)....we don't gamble...we don't drink a lot....we don't do shore excursions (we have a son with Autism who can't do most of them)...

we don't cruise in the summer time....or during peak cruise price seasons.

 

Oh...and oldest son got a full academic scholarship for all 4 years (Chemical Engineer)....so we joke that we are cruising on this college fund...since he didn't need it!!!!

[elcuchio24]

We travel allot now. We are in our mid-late 20's, make good money and have jobs that allow us 5-6 weeks of vaca a year. Not having kids helps:). That gives us the flexibility to cruise pretty much whenever during the year, so we can scope for good deals and not be pigeonholed by any timeframe. I'm sure that within a few years we will be lucky to be able to go on any vacations for a while, so we are trying to do as much as we are able to do now.

[hazeleyez3]

My husband and I typically take two vacations a year. The last few years its been two cruises, this year it is a land vacation and a cruise.

 

It all depends on your situation, and your priorities.

 

First, we both have nice jobs and no children. The only "debt" we have is our mortgage - car is paid off, student loans have been paid, and we rarely use a credit card.

 

We save for vacations.

 

We have the initial cost of the cruise, and the airfare, but that is about it. My husband has a ton of Marriott points which we use for the night before. We don't have a lot of costs on board - we don't drink soda at home, don't see a need for the spa, and we have never been disapointed with the food in the dining room. We might have a glass of wine at dinner some nights, but that is about it for alcohol. Now, we do use the Internet because my mother isn't in that great of health so I will check in every few days to see how she is; however, that is not a huge cost. We are also at the point where we don't always do excursions. We don't feel like we are missing out on anything.

 

We still have a wonderful time seeing new cities and experiencing new things.

 

Since we do have the money to travel, we want to as much as possible. While we may only be in our 30s we have learned that life is too short to hold off until we are older - you never know what could happen tomorrow.

[islandwannabee]

We have cruised 4-5 times per year for the last 5 years, all 7-8 day cruises. How can you afford it, it's really not that expensive, cost less than 1500. per trip, somtimes less, never more. We don't drink or gamble. We have been to the islands numerous times, so only reserve 100. for taxi's and misc. We only cruise off season, so cheaper and we live in Flroida.

 

Cindy

[PAcop141]

Well we would like to thank the State Lottery for funding our vacations, sure does make it easy.