Average Final Bill for On Board Purchases?

[kitkat4622]

$500 for tips:eek:

[LuvMyBasset]

Usually between $800-1000. We never plan to spend very much, but I can't turn down the pictures the ship takes. I'm a photo maniac, so I usually spend at least $300 on the ship's pictures, usually more (yeah, I know). Another $100 or so on shopping and souvenirs, then our tips charged to our seapass account, and there you have it.

[justaknucklehead]

On my last cruise, our bill was over $4,000, p.s., don't tell my husband.

[cmyers]

How do you guys get away so cheap???? By the time I figure tips for the week, extra tips for services, bar tab, professional photos, spa massage, portofinos, bingo, and the casino I've already run up a tab of way over a $1000 and that doesn't even include shore excursions and shopping. I'm on vacation - I've saved up for it and I'm gonna have fun with out the worries of extra spending. For the two of us we usually plan on an additional $2,500 at least.

[VCLvr]

I am well over $2000 also, my casino tab alone is over $500 plus drinks, pictures, tips, misc!!!! I am there to have fun and not worry about $$$$.

[#1BradyFan]

Just back from the Mariner 5/15/05 sailing and our bill was

$879.00- with out excusrions- we prepaid those!!!:eek:

[Emmabelle]

I'm so proud of myself $373.41 for a four night cruise, two adults and two children, then again I don't drink and we didn't go to the casino or art auction so that may be the reason. :)

[1corona4u]

[quote name='cmyers']How do you guys get away so cheap???? By the time I figure tips for the week, extra tips for services, bar tab, professional photos, spa massage, portofinos, bingo, and the casino I've already run up a tab of way over a $1000 and that doesn't even include shore excursions and shopping. I'm on vacation - I've saved up for it and I'm gonna have fun with out the worries of extra spending. For the two of us we usually plan on an additional $2,500 at least.[/QUOTE]

I took $700.00 in cash, and spent $90.00 for a tour in St. Maarten, 3 drinks at Maho Beach, 1 other cab ride in St. Thomas, $20.00 donation to the casino, some shopping, (mostly on my credit cards though) tram ride, lunch at Paradise Point, a wind chime there, just small stuff, and came home with $180.00. Some of it, like about $120.00 went out for tips. But the seapass had photos, drinks, and cybercabin on it. I am not a big drinker though. So that's what the $461.00 was for...

At any rate, I was not watching my money really either, but just spent it whenever I saw something worth buying/doing. The biggest expense of the cruise for me, was the cruise itself. (since I paid for 2 people, in a JS)

[jimbulger]

my bill is usually in the 1500 range but that includes a horse, the casino, on board shopping, and a few excursions But lately i have been pre booking those on a montly basis to cut down on my on board bill!!!

[Dihead]

wow! i just viewed the results on the poll, and i better start saving. I've never cruised before, and figured about $200 would cover it....
i guess $200 would cover if you didn't drink, but i need to get "chick drink drunk" once or twice. :p

[MOSTEEL]

IMO, vacations are meant for relaxation and leaving your worries behind. It is easier said than done when the DW purchases every picture taken and in a temporary lapse of judgment you go and buy a $1200 bottle of cognac from the ships duty free. Plus side was, no $9.95 fee to take to the room. :D Oh well, live and learn.

[maloha04]

wow! i just viewed the results on the poll, and i better start saving. I've never cruised before, and figured about $200 would cover it....

i guess $200 would cover if you didn't drink, but i need to get "chick drink drunk" once or twice. :p

 

 

ditto for me...my first cruise is this december and i thought a couple of hundred would in spending cash be good enough...i didn't realize how much i'd likely spend (other than what the cruise cost me...for 2 people)....oh well...should be awesome!

[Heyitsrick]

Usually between $800-1000. We never plan to spend very much, but I can't turn down the pictures the ship takes. I'm a photo maniac, so I usually spend at least $300 on the ship's pictures, usually more (yeah, I know). Another $100 or so on shopping and souvenirs, then our tips charged to our seapass account, and there you have it.

 

So you're the one who bought our pictures! :mad: (just kiddin)

[wrp96]

Because I usually get multiple spa treatments, and drink, and get souvenirs my charges are usually close to $1,000. If I didn't get the spa treatments or didn't drink (not gonna happen), then it would be alot less.

[susanNjay]

We have cruised twice and each time our stateroom account/Sea Pass cards have not been $200.00. Here is how:

I don't drink alcohol, hubby does, but only one or two beers a day. (We have yet to take our children on a cruise, but they will be going with us next April on a 5 night)

We take a case of bottled water in our suitcases to drink--we love water (makes for more room and they are lighter on the way home)

We take quarters for the slots in the casinos (also lightens the load going home)

One of our suitcases is a mini-medicine cabinet with small amounts of any medicines that I can think of so that if we are feeling badly, we don't have to buy something.

We don't buy the photos (actually they haven't taken one yet that we liked well enough to buy) -- but when we return home I usually have five or more rolls of film to develop!

Of course, we booked our excursions ahead of time and so we didn't have to add them to the Sea Pass. We take cash for the tips--we keep it separated and put it in the room safe on the first day. We have also taken $150.00 in cash to spend on gifts and keepsakes each time, but we always have cash to spare at the end of the trip...

By the way, on our last cruise, when we received our bill two days before the end of the cruise, we looked at it carefully and noticed a bar charge for $18.98. We knew that we hadn't made that charge, so I went to the purser's desk to ask about it and they said there must have been an error with the bartender accidentally charging someone else's drinks on our card. They credited the amount back to our account when they researched and discovered that someone else had signed the receipt--so it wasn't our charge. My husband does most of the charging, and he is always careful about looking at his ticket before signing it to be sure it is his and he keeps them until we get the final bill and we can ensure it is correct. Now, I don't mean to say that he sits and compares each and every receipt to the bill, but he checks it over to see if there are any major errors. Anyone can make a mistake.:)

All in all, we have spent approximately 1700.00 on each of our cruises, including the cruise, souvenirs, gifts, excursions, tipping, and the Sea Pass. I am already saving for the cruise next year with our girls. I am sure we will spend more on the "extras."

--Susan

[love2vacation]

Some of you are so good, I envy you your small tabs. Last year on a Carnival Miracle cruise for 6 nights this includes tips, drinks, photos, some shopping and a couple shore excursions for the three of us (me, husband, and 17 yr old daughter) it was about 900.00. Now my husband won a 900.00 jackpot in the casino the first night so he had his gambling money for the trip and I did not do anything in the spa- which I normally do. I think I figured out of this total about 300.00 was for drinks. I think we got by pretty well. I could not even tell you what our total was for the Explorer cruise the year before- much more than this but we gave tips in cash and booked one of the shore excursions on line before we left. I am pretty sure our drink tab was more than 300.00 because that trip we had wine at dinner a couple nights. We figure we are on vacation- have fun- it's only money!!!

[love2vacation]

By the way - we keep all our receipts in one of the drawers and go over the bill a day or two before departure checking bill against receipts. Sometimes they accidently charge you for something you didn't use. Everyone just knows to put the receipts in the drawer.

[melissa593]

maloha04, MOSTEEL, & dihead,

I know what you mean, I thought the ship credits from my RCI card would be enough but obviously $200 for 5 of us won't do! I am going to book excursions ahead of time (still trying to decide if thru RCI or on my own ..eeek) so won't have that...but it is my vaca too and I do like a cocktail or 2!

Wondering what drink costs are??? Still considering 1 drink card for kids to share (prob against the rules but we'll give it a try)

So, piggy bank, here I come (the kids don't have to go to college do they?)

Melissa

[Frankiesmom]

just got off the Voyager 5 day to Bermuda today-$1552.75. We had a lot of fun and i think my liver needs to detox:D

[tinsel57]

Wow! I had no idea people were spending so much money! I guess I am really low maintenance!

 

Our bill 7 day shipboard account bill was incredibly low.

 

We don't gamble, we don't do the spa treatments, i spend the day before the cruise at our local spa just getting in the mood to depart for the ship!

We had a bottle of wine and a few drinks but did buy 2 bottles at the duty free shop to take home, bought one bottle and kept in our cabin to have a cocktail on our balcony in the evening. I bought one bottle of water, two cokes.

 

We prebook all our excursions which I book privately, except this last trip was cruising with Ivan and our itineary got all turned around so we did book one excursion on the ship as my originals were of course cancelled since we ended up in a totally different area! Still it wasn't that bad.

 

We bought a few pics, two mugs, and a rum cake. That was it. We pay our tips ourselves in cash.

 

OH, I got my hair done the first formal night. All in all, total bill, a few hundred, certainly way less than $500, probably less than $400.

 

Ontop of that would be the 4.5 hour drive, the pre-cruise hotel and breakfast, things I purchased on the islands for the kids as gifts. But that was all the extras.

[VernRDH]

We don't drink very much, don't go to the spa, book our excursions on our own and don't smoke so we really don't spend that much. We do all our tips in cash, but even with that we are usually WAY below $500. Only spend about $50 in the casino too.

 

I guess that I spend so much just to GET to the ship that I don't have too much more to spend on board. But then again I am a low maintenance gal, which my DH just loves. I am happy just to be on the ship.

[syndyj]

Our bill came up to just under $200.00, that is with tips, dry cleaning and two drinks at Johnny Rockets. We were not charged a corkage fee for our wine (which we brought with us) at dinner, had a really good waiter! We booked all our trips independently and we liked supporting the local economy by having a beer or two or three in port, didn't cost more than $1.50 for a beer at any port we went to. Oh yeah we also made a small donation to the casino, lost about $40.00 before I said enough!

[ald3114]

For a family of 4 on a nine day RCI cruise on VOS- our final bill was $489. That didn't include gratuities which we had our cash envelopes we gave to the attendants/employees. Most of the adult part of the bill was gift shop purchases. Most of the kid part of the bill was arcade and Johnny Rockets.

[melissa593]

I know what you mean!

Family of 5 in 2 cabins, I am figuring it might even be more than $500 just for tips!

[melissa593]

Seriously, the kids don't need to go to college? Isn't vacation an education enough:p

So, bring cash for tips (still about $500:eek: 7 nights on Mariner 12/4/05 for 5 people) Book excursions in advance (thinking of only doing 2 -dunns river falls and swim w/ stingrays), buy a bottle from duty free for the cabin or bring my own to cut down on bar bill. Bring quarters for slots.

Hey, do the kids get to charge stuff on their seapass card:eek: That could really mess up my planning.

 

Any other tips?

This vaca is going to cost us about $10K, really is a "once in a lifetime" thing when you have kids! I have to get a better paying job!

Thanks

Melissa