Cruise Budgeting on HAL

[sobore]

This has been a tough one to figure out. When you break down expenses by day, what is your total daily budget on HAL? This would include cabin price per day, tips per day and drinks etc...

[gizmo]

I don't have a daily budget. When we book a cruise we do look at the price per person, per day. You can find the same cruise at different prices depending on the date. I do a lot of research up front.

 

There are lots of other things to consider when you talk about cost, excursions, drinks, spa, lunch in port, shopping, buying booze to take home if we go to St.Thomas, etc. This list can go on and on.

[judyzoo]

We generally average around $100 per day in addition to the cruise fare, no matter what we do differently from one cruise to another.

[grannynurse]

We don't have a daily average either. We don't choose a suite for our long trips but do on our shorter trips. At sea days are obviously less exspensive than port days. Some trips include on-board credits but some don't so it's varies quite a bit for us. We also prepay our shorex and other items so our on board charges are not very high.

 

We have friends that ran up $3000+ in onboard charges (yes that's thousand) for the first half of a 35 day trip. I won't give a breakdown of that, but we don't even come close to that figure.

 

GN

[Grumpy1]

At sea days are obviously less exspensive than port days. GN

 

Not necessarily so! Spa treatments, the jewelry shop, art auctions, the casino... those sea days can be very expensive... not that Grumpy has any personal knowledge of ALL of those items... just passing along info from others:D

[geoherb]

It all depends on what you want to do. We don't indulge in spa treatments, drink a lot, play bingo, gamble much, or buy art. Our total will be a lot less than passengers who do.

 

Ideally, we like to keep it to less than $150 per person per day--including all costs: cruise price, tips, drinks, airfare, excursions, souvenirs, parking, etc. Being able to drive to Norfolk for our Maasdam holiday cruise saved us a bunch. It worked out closer to $120 pp per day.

 

Our Alaskan cruise on Princess was the most expensive one we've been on. It was closer to $200 pp per day. And I had to work hard to keep it that low.

[flashdog_1]

Shoot. I thought this was going to be tips for reducing the onboard cost of your trip, like where and when you can get free capuccino, ice cream, use of sauna, 1/2 price at Pinnacle Grill first night on board, where to go to buy a wine package, making your own arrangements for shore excursions (not booking them with the ship unless time to get back to the ship is a real issue), tip not to play bingo until the end of the cruise when the "pot" will be bigger etc.

 

I also read on HAL's website that each person is automatically allowed to charge $60 per person today. Does that mean that you may not charge more than $60? i usually buy my cigarettes first thing, and possibly some alcohol. There's $60 and no more left for a spa treatment. And Spa treatments are more than $60. If you bought a wine package you'd blow more than the $60 max. Someone please explain this $60 pp per day restriction. Thanks.

 

Anyone have any comments on that?

[CateW]

Excluding tips and casino, we probably spend about $100 per day maybe a little more. We like to have a nice bottle of wine with dinner so that's primarily where we spend our money. Go to the gym daily and don't do the spa. We've been to the Caribbean soooo many times that we don't do excursions through the ship - normally just hop in a taxi and head for the beach. Going to the Mediterrean this summer so will likely spend more but planning to book the excursions before we go.

[tjcox9]

This is the amount that you need to have available on the credit card you give them. They run an authorization for $60 a day. Of course, at the end of the cruise if you only spent $45 a day, that would be the actual charge. It's just to make sure there's enough on the credit card to cover the final charges.

[satchiesmom]

On our Westerdam cruise last week our bill for the cruise (just onboard purchases such as drinks, casino, ship store etc.) was $1200 for two. I use the spa, which can add up really quickly. I don't think our bill was unreasonable at all as we go on vacation to enjoy what we want to when we want to. I have heard of people who spend much, much more though.

[Randyk47]

Our average is about $100 per day and that includes our bar bill, a few trinkets from the gift shop, and maybe a shore tour or two. We carry separate money for the casino and, up until now, tips were paid separately out of pocket. DW has discovered the spa....and even talked me into a couple things on our last cruise.....so the daily average is probably going up for the Volendam. :o

[lougee1043]

Our average is about $100 per day and that includes our bar bill, a few trinkets from the gift shop, and maybe a shore tour or two. We carry separate money for the casino and, up until now, tips were paid separately out of pocket. DW has discovered the spa....and even talked me into a couple things on our last cruise.....so the daily average is probably going up for the Volendam. :o

 

ive cruised with randy two times and the hundred dollars per day is his wine and bar bill ----he needs another 100 for the rest of the stuff--lol

[Randyk47]

OK Lou, so I had a little bit more fun on our last cruise than normal. :o

[lougee1043]

OK Lou, so I had a little bit more fun on our last cruise than normal. :o

 

i'll drink to that

[RevNeal]

In January on the Oosterdam my total onboard charge was: $402.75. For 7 days that comes out to an average of $57.54 per day. This includes the auto-gratuity AND three shore excursions. The rest are my cocktail charges, my dinner wine charges, and my coke charges. Oh ... and a hair salon visit (I got my 2 hairs cut).

[blue whale]

We spend very little on board for the average Caribbean cruise. We don't do the spa or casino. At our ages we don't need more jewelry. And I never learned to like the taste of alcohol. A few sips of wine for a toast is all I can take. The main expenses are the tips—10 dollars per person per day, plus a cash tip of a little more to the stewards in the dining room and in the cabin. We never stint on tips; the service is always so great.

 

On longer cruises that we take to see this great world of ours, we do spend more on tours. Remember the ship board credit, too, if you own Carnival stock—100 dollars for short cruises; 250 for long cruises. That helps.

[ekerr19]

We are on vacation and just wing it... we usually spend a couple hundred per day for us and the two kids... including wine, tips, drinks, gambling, bingo, excursions etc. - if you add in all you'd like to do on shore, it can definitely add up.

 

We just don't worry all that much about anymore. :)

 

The one thing I really hate to hear people "stiff" on are the gratuities...

[blue whale]

I guess we each carry our spending patterns from land unto a ship. If we are careful about the "pennies" at home, we are probably as careful when at sea. If we are givers to charities at home, we give gratuities to the stewards who are working so hard for us, realizing that most come from poorer countries and send much of their earnings home to their families. And if we spend at home and run up big credit card debts that probably happens at sea as well. We saw Dr. Phil on his program advising people how to watch their pennies. He said that he never spent (as a poor boy) until he could pay cash and he drove cheap second hand cars until he had saved up for a better one. Interesting.

[caltnl]

How do you get the Carnival credit when you have Carnival Stock?

[chasetf]

Not necessarily so! Spa treatments, the jewelry shop, art auctions, the casino... those sea days can be very expensive... not that Grumpy has any personal knowledge of ALL of those items... just passing along info from others:D

Those have just not gotten to be a necessary part of our cruising experience. My wife likes a nice massage, but not at cruise line prices. And we are not gamblers. Cruise casinos have the tightest machines possible anyway.

 

It also helps not being a big drinker. We normally get by for both of us for between $50 to $100 per day including tips and tours.

[Kathyh1313]

DH and I got a copy of our onboard account several times during the cruise and thought, WOW, we are not spending that much money. I thought it was because I had a cold and was not having many cocktails and was not interested in wine with dinner the first few nights.

 

Well, lo and behold, HAL does not total the bill!!!! They totalled my purchases and they totalled DH purchases. But they did not add those together for a "grand total"! Yikes, a bit of a surprise on the last day when I went to the pursers to pay off my bill with travelers checks.

 

Now, I do want to say that we spent what we usually spend per day on a cruise. So, overall it was ok. But I think that it doesn't make sense not to have a "grand total" on the bill. Maybe it was all the sudafed I was taking, I probably would have noticed. But I think that stinks!

 

DH and I have sailed on several other cruise lines and there has always been a grand total on the onboard account.

 

So keep your eyes open and your calculator (or a pencil) near by.

 

Let the buyer beware!

 

Happy cruising, Kathy

[cruisingagainsoon]

This is the amount that you need to have available on the credit card you give them. They run an authorization for $60 a day. Of course, at the end of the cruise if you only spent $45 a day, that would be the actual charge. It's just to make sure there's enough on the credit card to cover the final charges.

 

Is this $60 per day per person or per cabin? If DH and I are both using the same credit card would it be a $120 per day for the authorization?

[blue whale]

catnyl: We learned on one of these threads last year that if you own 100 sh of Carnival Cruise Line, you can get a ship board credit of 100 dollars for medium length cruises and 250 dollars for cruises longer than 14 nights. That's per cabin, not per person, and only one credit per cabin per cruise. When we sail on Noordam in March, we will get the 100 dollar credit for the 10 night cruise, which will pay the tips for one of us that are added to the bill. That leaves us only the tips for the other one of us—100 dollars—plus what we will give extra to our stewards. Of course, to make this worth while, you must buy your stock when the market is down. Carnival Corp also pays a small yearly dividend, so that helps, too.

[RuthC]

Is this $60 per day per person or per cabin? If DH and I are both using the same credit card would it be a $120 per day for the authorization?

Per person. Yes, for a couple---using the same credit card---the "hold" is $120/day.

Your final bill is what you spent on board. Back in the good old days, when you had to book shore excursions on board, the hold charge was in a reasonable (IMHO) amount. Now that you can book on-line, in advance, and pay the excursions off long before you even board, I think it's possible for the hold charge to be extremely excessive.

[PrincessYoga]

I am planning to partake in my fair share of beauty treatments and yoga classes and want to make sure I budget for them. Does anyone know where i can get a price for them? Cheers