How much?

[CoachMinnie]

How much do you typically spend on a 7 day cruise? Can you please break it down as to photo's, spa treatments, beverages, etc.?

Thanks,
CoachMinnie

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I'm sure it varies greatly, especially depending on your bar tab. I think photos were $14.99 for 8x10 and $9.99 for 6x8's. Spa treatments tend to be fairly expensive. Probably average about $50-75. Shore excursions are usually $30-50 per person, with some being as much as $100/each.

We (2 adults, no kids) generally spend around $700 on a 7-day cruise. We've come close to $1000 once, too. It really can vary. We try not to worry about it and just work it off when we get home. You can save money by planning your own excursions, skipping the spa (or opting for less expensive treatments), going easy on the drinks (for some reason, we order Heineken instead of Bud), and we usually ask one of the cruise staff to take our pictures at the photo ops where the ship's photographers are. The photographers themselves won't do this, but there is usually a member of the cruise staff available who will. If not, we usually make a deal with someone in line to take their picture with their camera if they'll do the same for us. We've only ever purchased photos once.

 

[mcnuss]

We spent just shy of $1000 on our 7 day. By far the largest expense was wine with dinner, cappucinos, etc...probably $300 of it. Ouch. We bought the photo package for $149 and then some 8x10's which are not part of the package and cost $19.95 each.- so abut $200 there. If I had to do again, I would not have gotten the package. I ended up taking pix I was not thrilled with just to come up with 10. We spent about $50 at our 2 meals at Palo. About $200 on misc. stuff like hair braiding ($36), souvenirs, Castaway Cay floats (which we did not use), arcade. Tips are a big expense too. We did all the ports independently. We spent $50 for the 3 of us to take the trolley in Key West, $180 on a sailing trip on GC and $50 for our day in Cozumel. I spent the most money shopping on Cozumel, maybe $200. All told it was the most expensive vacation we've ever done, and while I loved it, it may have been a once in a lifetime for us. I am pretty sure that if I added up every expense I'd have a heart attack but we did pay a premium to have a verandah (worth it) and to go over a holiday (not worth it).

Hope this helps.

 

[jgalecpa]

I am a frequent traveller, and A CPA with one of my Master's degrees in the field of "Cost Accounting" (Don't ask).

A vacation of a lifetime for the previous poster and they spent a total of $1,000 for two people.

It sounds like a lot (and it is: $1,000 is $1,000), but:

Two people = $500/each

7 days = $71.43/day.

16 waking hours = $4.46/hr

$71.43/day for a once in a lifetime vacation is truly a bargain.

Now, Lets save for it:

Two people need to save $1,000 for spending money and let's take one year to save for it:

That's $500 each or $1.37 per day.

If we save $1.37 per day we can have the vacation of a lifetime.

Start saving and start dreaming!

I think this is a very resonable budget for two people (including spending money)

Told you I was a nerdy accountant. I drive my DW crazy with this stuff, but it does work.

 

[peg2001]

But, it wasn't $1000 total for a 7 day vacation for 2 people. It was an additional $1000 over the cost of the cruise, tips, transportation, and lodging and meals between home and the ship.

Tally up the TOTAL cost, divide by 2 people and 7 days, for a true daily cost.

Peggy

 

[mcnuss]

jgalecpa - I'm trying not to be rude to you, but you misunderstood my post. If you are a frequest traveller, then you must know that there is NO WAY that a family of 3 could take a cruise over a holiday period for 7 days and only spend $1000!

I believe CoachMinnie's question was not "how much did your cruise cost" but how much did you spend on stuff on the ship. (Coach, if I've misunderstood, I apologize.) Hence my answer was for that limited request.

The $1000 was only what we spent on the ship, it did not include:

- cost of the cruise
- hotel for the night before
- rental car for the day after
- the shopping on Cozumel, GC, & KW
- the excursions on COZ, GC & KW

Not to mention all the stuff I bought for us beforehand, the new camera, the film & developing, etc....

As it happened I had FF points for the airfare, so shave off the $600 that would have cost for the 3 of us.

Add all this together and jgalecpa the total for 3 of us was about 8-9x what you came up with. Like I said, I don't really want to figure out the true total or I will have a coronary.

Now do you understand why it was the probably a once in a lifetime for us?