Budgeting for 2 people; 9 nights

[Sonicked]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to budget for my upcoming cruise in November: We will be travelling out of Sydney on a 9 night cruise up to the south pacific on Rhapsody (RCI). I am struggling to figure out exactly how much to put aside.

 

A bit of info:

• We've paid our gratuities up front
  
• We're contemplating a wine package - probably the 5 or 7 bottle one
  
• We're likely to only book shore excursions if it really appeals to us or if something sounds good whilst at the port
  
• We're drinkers, but not huge ones. Aside from the occasional, we're unlikely to indulge in froofroo drinks, mainly beer, wine and soda
  
• We are a couple, 23 and 24 (turning 25 on the cruise)
  
• There is a possibility that we may visit the casino, but this is unlikely to happen every night unless we earn some winnings which we can then play with.
  

 

If anyone has any ideas as to how much we should be putting aside for the trip, it'd be great :)

[cb at sea]

Wine is VERY expensive...soda runs $2.25 per can (or you can buy the soda package, but you have to drink the equivilent of 3+ cans daily to make it pay) and beer is in the $4 range.

 

It's hard to determine how much YOU should bring...how much do you have? I'd bring about $1200.00 for the entire vacation....and hope I don't spend it all....take it back to the bank if you don't need it!

[trish1c]

CW says budget $100 per day per person. That figure takes tips & excursions into consideration.

Bascially, if you have paid all your tips, look at the costs of your excursions, think about how much you can afford to lose in the casino, & look deeply into your liver to determine how much you drink (figure about $5/drink). Add it all up round up by 10-20% & you have your budget.

[Beopthtuh]

i,d budget to around $70 a day each and what u dont spend put aside for the

end of the cruise and go into the casino near the end of cruise .

have a good look at the excursions and list a few you would really want to do and try do at least a couple

[Sonicked]

Thanks everyone. I had set aside $100pp per day so I'm glad that I'm at least on track with that. Might be worthwhile to put aside a couple of extra hundred for just in case. It would be horrible to end up running out! :(

[PrettyHazardous]

Hey my hubby and I always do $100 pp per day. And always end up having $$ left over. We like foo foo drinks, spend about 20 pp in casino per day (hubby usually makes his money back... me on the other hand:rolleyes:) maybe ab 3 or 4 days of playing on a 7 day cruise. Also we cruise Carnival and always visit the Supper club maybe 2x and we always have a no planned excursion day where we end up on a quick/cheap taxi tour to lunch/beach etc inexpensively. Also we're pretty close to your age so... Hope this helps.

[Sonicked]

Hey my hubby and I always do $100 pp per day. And always end up having $$ left over. We like foo foo drinks, spend about 20 pp in casino per day (hubby usually makes his money back... me on the other hand:rolleyes:) maybe ab 3 or 4 days of playing on a 7 day cruise. Also we cruise Carnival and always visit the Supper club maybe 2x and we always have a no planned excursion day where we end up on a quick/cheap taxi tour to lunch/beach etc inexpensively. Also we're pretty close to your age so... Hope this helps.

 

Thanks so much, Ashley. This sounds like what our usual day on board would be like, so I'm glad to hear that we're on the right track with our budgetting =)

[navybankerteacher]

We always figure $100 per person per day total-- which we never exceed. Because some is on credit card and the rest cash -- we bring about half in travelers checks, which can be cashed at purser's desk. Since savings accounts pay so little, we just keep the unused travelers checks as a reserve, and buy just enough to additional at the time of our next cruise/trip.

[fischymom]

We just got back from a 7 day to Alaska, and what I did was a little different from what others have posted here, but it was what really worked for us.

I made an envelope for each day that we would be at port, then put into that envelope the exact amount needed for the excursions. Then added $100 per day. That envelope was then sealed and all of them were put into the room safe. I put $100 per day for us onto our sign and sail (cash) then had cc only for a backup if we absolulty needed it. I wanted to really stay on budget, and knowing I only had so much to spend before I ran out of cash kept me on that. We had cash left over at the end of the trip. Total we took $1000 for 2 people for a week

[KKB]

6 cruises, and our bill was almost spot on for that one. BUT that did NOT include port $ or gambling. We always bring about $1K in cash just to cover.

Now, we do enjoy our cocktails; we put tips on the bill; we buy 1 or 2 photos; we do not typically pay for excursions but will sometimes. We do not shop on the ship much if at all.

[CourtneyLovesCruising]

I am budgeting $500 for two on a 4 day cruise. I am going to assume it will be more than enough and anticipate bringing some home. :D

[griffy116]

With tips and excursions already chosen and paid for, including the soda card, you can get by with minimal spending. We've stopped buying the overpriced photos. We take our own and put them on a DVD when we get home..and we can add the music, titles, etc. We set a pre-determined amount to spend in the casino. We buy very few souveniors, although we have to buy a few. We take advantage of the laundry special, even if some feel it's not necessary. The amount of t-shirts we used to buy at each port is greatly reduced now. These are the areas we considered a waste of money. We no longer visit the spa. We however, still don't like to be deprived of the frozen drinks, the cupcakes and a few mixed drinks/beers.

[KirkNC]

$100 / day for us, that includes tips but no excursions. We find the amount is lower on port intensive cruises and higher on TA's and other cruises with more sea days.

 

Kirk

[Ima Cruiser]

I agree with about $100pp/ per day but we usually have some cash left over to pay off some of our cabin bill. Your big wild cards are the excursions, gambling and any spa stuff and shopping you do. Drinks are drinks and a body can only do so many of them a day - suggest looking to see if you like the daily drink specials and imbibe.

[mmento]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to budget for my upcoming cruise in November: We will be travelling out of Sydney on a 9 night cruise up to the south pacific on Rhapsody (RCI). I am struggling to figure out exactly how much to put aside.

 

 

A bit of info:

• We've paid our gratuities up front
  
• We're contemplating a wine package - probably the 5 or 7 bottle one
  
• We're likely to only book shore excursions if it really appeals to us or if something sounds good whilst at the port
  
• We're drinkers, but not huge ones. Aside from the occasional, we're unlikely to indulge in froofroo drinks, mainly beer, wine and soda
  
• We are a couple, 23 and 24 (turning 25 on the cruise)
  
• There is a possibility that we may visit the casino, but this is unlikely to happen every night unless we earn some winnings which we can then play with.
  

If anyone has any ideas as to how much we should be putting aside for the trip, it'd be great :)

 

 

 

HEY! its so nice to read a post from someone around my age! I too am having the same problem budgeting for my boyfriend and I. We are both in our 20's looking to have a good time but not go crazy..I see people writing 100$ a day does that include tips and money for the ports ? we don’t plan on doing many ship excursions as we travel through Europe there is a lot we can do on our own.

I have originally budgeted

100 pp a day for on the ship (tips, drinks, whatever we do no gambling or spa though)

100 per person per port (hoping to come back with a little extra)

 

Any thoughts?

thanks in advance