Most interesting DCL question I've seen in awhile...

[Msmit002]

So- we booked a private family photo session in the Shutters studio on one of our at sea days, since we have never had professional family portraits done and our girls are 6 and almost 2. The photo session is "free" and since I am a DCL newbie, assumed that those photos would be an option in the "photo package" one can pre-buy before the cruise (10 photos, 20 photos etc.)

Well, they're not.

DH and I were having a huge fight because I took ODD on *just one more* Aquaduck ride that cut it too close to get back to our room and shower and change. Ultimately we showed up to our rescheduled appointment and were still fighting. Once we were at the photo shoot, we learned that any pics from the photo session would be extra, and the lowest priced package was $550. DH wanted to just cancel. I told DH that we'd never had family photos done, and we should at least try it out and see what we got. The photographer took a bunch of pictures. We kept blowing off our session to view the pics until 9pm the night before we had to leave the cruise.

We were blown away by the photos. She came up with about 40-45 black and white photos that really captured the essence of our family, despite the fight. So the $1800 is a 12"x 12" archival quality photo album that holds up to 40 pictures, plus a USB of some of the best pictures of the bunch. We are working with the photographer post-cruise to put together the photo album - it has to be printed elsewhere and then shipped to us. We figured that it would be close to that amount and a lot more time to book someone professionally at home and then get the photos anyway.

I'm SO happy to read this and the details. I had been wondering about the Shutters photo sessions and have been eyeing it up for this cruise. This cruise is for our 20th anniversary and I thought it might be nice to have some professional photos of us to commemorate it. But, $500 is maybe a bit more than I want to spend for photos of just DH and me. If DS was also coming on this trip, then I would have done it in a heartbeat. Nevertheless, we have another cruise planned that DS will be joining us and we will be sure to budget for it then.

 

[com_op_2000]

We plan $100 per day in extras but have a contingency available if needed for something that may come up unexpected.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We have been on 3 7-night sailings and have spent btwn $1500 and $2000 onboard each time. The second 2 included OBC to the tune of a couple hundred bucks too.

 

[Bethany10]

. I never saw the logic of prepaying gratuities hearing of those that did, but this falls into the same bucket in an expense paid (or a credit on your account) so the amount due at the end is less.

For me it's absolutely psychological. I like knowing that what I owe has been dealt with so my "fun" money is exactly that, fun. Our budget is so limited, It literally helps me relax to know it's taken care of. We will pre-pay for just about everything we can on this trip, from the Universal hotel to the gratuities on the boat. Once I know they're paid and done with then I can relax and say yes to having that drink at the sail away party.

 

[kboo]

Thanks for letting me know! I was so curious, so thank you for sharing! I am happy to know you captured such great family photos. You can never get this time back with your children!

Thanks for your post. I'm happy for you that you got beautiful pictures and your honest, candid response brought tears to my eyes. As much as we all envision a 'perfect' vacation, real life happens and kids cry (or when they get older they fight) or there are tense moments with our spouse. Photos are precious and what a wonderful gift and reminder for rest of us to keep it real. Thank you again!!

I'm SO happy to read this and the details. I had been wondering about the Shutters photo sessions and have been eyeing it up for this cruise. This cruise is for our 20th anniversary and I thought it might be nice to have some professional photos of us to commemorate it. But, $500 is maybe a bit more than I want to spend for photos of just DH and me. If DS was also coming on this trip, then I would have done it in a heartbeat. Nevertheless, we have another cruise planned that DS will be joining us and we will be sure to budget for it then.

Thank you for your kind words. We were having one of those whisper/shout fights all over deck 4 in front of our own kids and other kids (and we "never" fight in front of the kids). NOT our finest moment!! It really took us a good 24 hours to recover and work through some stuff. Kudos to the photographer who was able to work with us and actually capture some really amazing shots even though at the start of the session neither DH nor I really felt much like smiling.

In retrospect, I do think it was well worth it - the pictures were slightly retouched so we all look younger and more vibrant. They are a great reminder of all we do have and a great reminder to put our stresses into perspective. If you're a frequent cruiser I wouldn't suggest it for every cruise, but if you have the whole family, or are having a family reunion or celebrating a milestone, I think it's worth it. We are looking at possibly cruising again in 4-5 years when our kids will be 6 and 10; they will have changed a lot and if you prorate it, you'd need to budget $300 a year for it. And the $550 basic package is only 5 digital pictures; the $1800 package you get an album with ~40 pictures (similar quality to a high end professional wedding album) and a USB with (supposedly) 12 high quality digital photos* that you can then make additional prints of, etc. We will have smiling shots and silly shots, and single pics of each of the girls, pics of the girls with each parent, and also of course whole family shots. If we had more wall space we might have opted for framed prints at a lower cost, but then you have to choose only 2-3 photos.

*our USB actually had all 45 pictures on it.

 

[cruisehopeful]

We are out of control. I'd say $2K for a 7 night and up to $1500. for shorter cruises. I think our last 4 night cruise added up around $1500.

We will be on a 2 nighter next weekend. I am guessing we will keep it at a maximum of $500 since we already have Mixology and Palo Brunch booked. It's such a short cruise, we won't waste any time on the spa and we aren't doing any excursions. We will be paying for coffee and probably some other drinks and maybe use room service - who knows. We normally tip more than the recommended or billed amounts for everything. We only play bingo if we are bored and we don't normally buy any pictures.

 

[Bsmitty]

I was just working on our budget for our upcoming cruise. I am figuring to spend about $1100 for the week (1 adult and 1 child). This includes:

Tips
2 pictures
2 mixology classes
specialty coffees for the week
alcohol for the week
souvenirs (love shopping on Castaway)
money for my 11 year old (mostly smoothies)
Spa (budgeting 200)
Tube rental on Castaway
Palo (planning on treating my other family sailing with us so about $250 total)

We are doing outside excursions (not through Disney) of a chartered sailboat in Tortola and ziplining in St Thomas. If we had to add those to our on board account it would be about $600 more. I don't want to go overboard but pretty much spend what I want to. Luckily I have a $200 OBC to spend. I also use my Disney Visa to pre pay some OBC so it isn't quite a painful at the end. This will be our 6th cruise and this is pretty close to what we spent on past cruises. The only exception being the cruise to Alaska. The on board charges were about the same but we did private excursions that added about $2000 to the total. I figured we were only going once so we did whale watching, ziplining, dog sledding and a helicopter tour!

I'm using our Disney visa too. How does prepaying OBC work? And does that still fall under the vacation 6 mo interest free at that point? And does your bill at the end on the Disney visa also fall under that, by chance? I didn't have my Disney visa on the last cruise we did, so I'm not sure. (Which was our first. I'm now addicted.)

We have OBC from the TA of $450, my Disney visa rewards card will have around $400-$500 on it by time of sailing, & some Disney gift cards equaling around $300-$400. So I'm trying to figure out if I should prepay some OBC or not overswing it?

 

[Bsmitty]

I was just working on our budget for our upcoming cruise. I am figuring to spend about $1100 for the week (1 adult and 1 child). This includes:

Tips
2 pictures
2 mixology classes
specialty coffees for the week
alcohol for the week
souvenirs (love shopping on Castaway)
money for my 11 year old (mostly smoothies)
Spa (budgeting 200)
Tube rental on Castaway
Palo (planning on treating my other family sailing with us so about $250 total)

We are doing outside excursions (not through Disney) of a chartered sailboat in Tortola and ziplining in St Thomas. If we had to add those to our on board account it would be about $600 more. I don't want to go overboard but pretty much spend what I want to. Luckily I have a $200 OBC to spend. I also use my Disney Visa to pre pay some OBC so it isn't quite a painful at the end. This will be our 6th cruise and this is pretty close to what we spent on past cruises. The only exception being the cruise to Alaska. The on board charges were about the same but we did private excursions that added about $2000 to the total. I figured we were only going once so we did whale watching, ziplining, dog sledding and a helicopter tour!

Forgot to also ask...did you book with Aristocrat in Tortola? That's who we've booked through & I feel so bad for them with Irma...it's destroyed their boats. Hopefully they're back up & running okay soon. That's their entire livelihood.

 

[Dug720]

Buying OBC is easy. Just call the Gifts and Amenities number and buy it. You can use credit cards or Disney Gift Cards (hopefully combined onto 1 - or 2 if necessary for limits).

I don't know about the interest-free thing - I kind of got from various discussions that it's the cruise itself, but I don't know.

 

[belac]

We (2A,1C) on a 7 day are about the same as many others here. in the realm of 1.5 to 2K, not including gratuities, we prepay them.

 

[sdjen]

Forgot to also ask...did you book with Aristocrat in Tortola? That's who we've booked through & I feel so bad for them with Irma...it's destroyed their boats. Hopefully they're back up & running okay soon. That's their entire livelihood.

We did. I am so sad for them. We don't sail until February but I really doubt that they will be up and running by then. I guess we can hope they are, right? I am sure most of the people that live there rely on tourism and need that money coming in as quickly as possible! I wish there was more we could do to help!

 

[RedSox68]

And this is why I use the Disney Visa with everything for the year before we cruise -- so we can earn onboard credit rewards. Last time we had $200 to transfers to our onboard account.

 

[DisneyGirlMI]

Our recent 7-night, for the 5 of us, we spent about $2700. That included tips, Palo brunch, 3 tastings for hubby and I, drinks, souvenirs, dolphin/stingray excursion in GC, snorkeling on CC. We did have an OBC of $200, so I guess it was *only* $2500.

 

[Bsmitty]

We did. I am so sad for them. We don't sail until February but I really doubt that they will be up and running by then. I guess we can hope they are, right? I am sure most of the people that live there rely on tourism and need that money coming in as quickly as possible! I wish there was more we could do to help!

I know...it's so devastating. I emailed them simply to tell them they were in our thoughts & I hoped the best for getting life put back together. He responded saying thank you. I would seriously have my family sign up for a re-building or relief excursion if they/we could organize it on our stop there/if we stop there. We're on the NYE sailing, so I'll let you know what happens one month before you!

 

[Shanti]

I spent about $800 on our Fantasy cruise, for a CC jet ski excursion for 2, Palo, Remy, and participating in every available round of bingo. I had already prepaid tips, so that wasn't included. I won about $150 at bingo, and no, I didn't spend the money on that planning to win. We hope to win but play it for the fun. I'll probably spend the same amount on bingo on our next cruise, but also a lot more on excursions, as we're going to cruise Alaska on the Wonder.

I also booked a future cruise, but as you pay for that separately, I didn't include it in my total.

 

[taaren]

My family and I are cheapskates on cruises. We may have set the record back in 2013 Panama Canal cruise. We couldn't port in our first two stops because of hurricanes so we only got off the boat twice in Cartegna and Cozumel. No excursions there that interested us. We don't drink, we live in Vegas so Bingo has no interest for us, we don't like fancy dress ups so Palo was out and tips were prepaid. 14 days cruise, $180 bill at the end. One massage for the wife and a couple of shirts in the gift shop. That's the list.

Not big spenders here. $200-$300. Try to keep it to onboard credit. That doesn't include gratuities which we prepay. We have tried palo and remy but have skiped them for years now. Don't do excursions on dcl but we do on other lines.

Add me to the cheapskate list. We prepay our gratuities, and I usually try to set aside $1000 for each cruise in addition to the TA's and rebooking OBC. Never hit it yet:

• 1st cruise - 5 night repo from Vancouver to LA 2011, $700 one excursion in Victoria, 3 ppl. Included Palo 2x, a few drinks, a few toys, few pictures.
• 2nd cruise - 7 night Pixar cruise 2012, -$100, just me and the kiddo. That trip was a last minute booking so we were trying to be cheap then I won a $500 OBC from a DVC presentation on the 2nd to last day, which took care of gratuities, bought the kid a bunch of toys and drinks and my one Palo brunch, still had OBC so bought $100 Disney GC and spent it at Disneyland next trip. That one was lucky! Never thought I'd walk away from a DCL cruise with more than I went on!
• 3rd cruise - 3 night Bahamas 2012, $500, 3 ppl, drinks mostly at mixology and tasting classes (several though), DH got a few spa treatments, rented some equipment on Castaway Cay, one or two pix, and of course Palo.
• 4th cruise - 5 night Cabo 2015, $400, just me and the kiddo again. Palo 2x, couple of mixology classes again, think I let him go to the arcade and because I had a better job/more comfortable income we got more milkshakes, etc that trip.

5th cruise - 4 night Cabo coming up in 2 weeks! We're not really excursion people, just love the ship. I'm guessing with 3 of us we'll spend maybe $500 on a couple of Palos and perhaps a massage with no this time.

 

[bumbershoot]

We did. I am so sad for them. We don't sail until February but I really doubt that they will be up and running by then. I guess we can hope they are, right? I am sure most of the people that live there rely on tourism and need that money coming in as quickly as possible! I wish there was more we could do to help!

I looked, and they have a FB page that gives some ideas on how to help. Fwiw.

 

[RedSox68]

We always pre-pay our gratuities, and my biggest splurge is always a couple of pictures -- the embarkation pic has always been my favorite souvenir as we wear matching themed t-shirts. And I love the framing they do for the port pictures -- giving you dates and information about the port, so they too are a nice buy. I might purchase a pin or two and one package of scrapbooking items themed to that ship or sailing. We drink very little and I did Bingo when my daughter sailed with us as it was fun for the two of us, but haven't done it for years. We never won, but my daughter did win the door prize once.

 

[RedSox68]

Curious (it's been a while), does Disney let you pay for your excursions ahead? Every cruise line we have been on either requires you to do so, or gives you the option to pay ahead or onboard. Personally, I really like paying them ahead as it gives me time to pay them off before the cruise and makes the cruise bill more manageable.

 

[sdjen]

Curious (it's been a while), does Disney let you pay for your excursions ahead? Every cruise line we have been on either requires you to do so, or gives you the option to pay ahead or onboard. Personally, I really like paying them ahead as it gives me time to pay them off before the cruise and makes the cruise bill more manageable.

From my experience you are not charged for excursions until you are on the ship. But, you can prepurchase on board credit in the amount needed to cover those excursions. If you have a Disney Visa and you pre purchase OBC you do get the 6 months no interest which is nice. I calculate tips and other expenses and then call DCL and buy that amount of OBC. That way I can "prepay" it and not feel as bad at the end with a big bill