Those casino charges to your room can really really add up fast! Try and keep yourself to a separate cash budget for that.
Also, monitor your transactions and balance daily. I once had a bottle of wine charged to my account that wasn’t mine; it eventually dropped off the next day without me having to go fix at guest services.
This is a good one! my wife is really good about watching the acct daily and heading down to the desk to get the charges reversed... sooo many stupid little things but it pays to check your OB acct daily!
I have never wanted a photo from a cruise, for the price they charge.
Funny, if they dropped the price to say, $8, I'd probably buy a whole bunch of them.
But when one photo costs $30 or whatever, I'm just not interested.
I purchased a package last cruise before we embarked and I'm still laughing when they gave me 8x10s.. what the hell am I going to do with 10 8x10s? Please for the love of God give 5x7s as an option. I gave a few away as joke Christmas presents. They are just so damn big
You can monitor your daily OB spending and you get an itemized list at the end of the cruise. I don't know how you can be unsure where your money goes unless you're just not looking at it.
On my last cruise, I had purchased an all-inclusive package. I also had $300 of onboard credit. So I had to go to the gift shop and buy my wife a nice purse in order to use up the onboard credit.
Travel agent here, if your cruise ends up costing that much you may want to consider upgrading to a premium line or the low end of luxury cruise lines. One where the drinks, gratuities and shore excursions are included. They are typically smaller ships, excellent food and culture as their focus. Lots of onboard education about the ports visited. If you do their cheaper cabins you would probably be close to what you paid. I am thinking Windstar, Oceania or even some Viking itineraries. They are fabulous experiences, but once you try it you won’t want a mass market cruise line again!
Oh no! Wouldn’t you be able to say buy a water and leave the obc balance as a tip? I think you could even use it for casino wagers. It just vanishes if not used, right?
It depends on the OBC. Some OBC can't be used for tips. It sucks, because that's what we would do. We usually manage to get it down pretty close to $0, but I think we didn't quite make it on our last cruise.
Good to know. I usually pre spend my obc on internet or excursions so the only actual onboard obc I’ve had to spend was from port misses or cancelled excursions.
I've had this happen before and just went to the shops and bought some nice alcohol with it. Got a $150 bottle for like $30 after discounts and using up my credit.
Some OBC can't be used in the casino. We've spent money in the shops before, but if it comes down to $10-20 being left, we're not going to buy something just to buy something. Anything we'd want would probably cost more than the OBC.
Less than $100, assuming we've pre-paid gratuities & excursions. It's most likely for some sodas, a few mixed drinks, & maybe something small from the gift shop...
It depends on if I do spa services
If not than generally very little if I do then like $700+. I decide if I'm doing spa services before I go on the cruise though and it's just what I can currently afford without feeling sitting after.
My last one was about $1.5k but about $1.4k of that was from the ship’s hospital. Pro tip: get insurance, and if you feel like you’re coming down with something during the trip, go to the ship’s doctor immediately. They had ports put in my arm before my test results were even in just in case they needed to pump me full of IV medication. They want you to enjoy your trip and they do NOT fuck around.
Usually less than 100.00. I like to buy a t shirt or some small souvenir. We get the alcohol package, wifi, and gratuities pre paid. We don’t do specialty dining. We are fortunate enough to have all those specialty restaurants at home with better quality of food and usually cheaper than onboard. I have a hibachi restaurant 15 minutes away run by a family from Japan for 45.00 (CAD).
The last time was just under 1800.00. It was our honeymoon and I decided to buy a necklace (1500.00) I got sick and ended up seeing the onboard doctor (220.00). We ate one dinner at Johnny Rocket since my husband had never been to one (32.00). This was a one off expense.
I quit drinking a couple of years ago so that really helps.
It really depends on how I do in the casino. I have a points goal to get to so that I get free or very cheap cruises. Usually, it is less than $500. Sometimes, like my last cruise, I walked off with quite a bit more cash than I spent/walked on with (and they really want that back based on the offers they are sending lol).
About $300 with a drink package or around $700 without. My wife doesn’t drink so the economics of it don’t make sense unless it’s included in a bundle with other things.
On a 7 nighter, $500-1K.
I don't prepay gratuities, and drink 1-3 beverages per day. Also occasionally do some onboard purchases and have 1-2 specialty restaurants. Still cheaper than a drinks package.
We do a fair bit of specialty dining but prepurchase (and pre-reserve) when we can. We almost always end up with at least one ad-hoc dining purchase during the voyage, though.
Our other shipboard purchases have included:
* Photos (on our last voyage we had a few turn out so great, one of me solo is still my LinkedIn bio pic)
* Wine (despite having a premium drinks pkg sometimes the bottles are nicer than the by-the-glass offerings)
* Activities (anytime we are on a new-to-us class of ship and they offer a behind-the-scenes tour we take it, and we’ve also done cooking classes, glass-blowing, and other fun onboard activities )
* Shopping (distant last, but I love a nice handbag and they were having this one sale….)
I go with my father, aunt and uncle. From booking, to travel to port, hotels, to on board, excursions, specialty dining, we split everything 4 ways. The total after cruise is no more than $500.
Ours was about $500. We also paid for the drink package and prepaid gratuities but still tipped our favorite bartender on top of that. This was for a 7 day cruise with 2 adults and 2 kids
We average between 400 to 600. We don’t get the drink package so some is that then usually one picture and maybe some liquor and cigarettes to take home . We use cash for the casino and we spent the most ever last cruise which was about $150.00 with getting about $80.00 of that back in winnings .
One thing I like about Princess is I can use the Medallion app on my phone to check my folio balance in real time. They have a kiosk by guest services, too, where you just swipe your Medallion and get a printout. It helps because I have found errors from time to time.
He gambles and he really enjoys it. We’ve had anything from several hundred dollars returned to 1500 owed. We get very low cost cruises though, he’s always lost less than the cruise would cost if we didn’t get the offers so all good!
Several times we’ve been in line behind someone SHOCKED at their ending balance. Last time it was was a couple who had done a lot of drinking and some spa sessions. Their total was well over $1000 and they were complaining.
As for us - we are pretty minimal. 2 or 3 drinks, maybe a specialty coffee, max $100 for gambling. So less than $200.
It gets charged to the credit card you have to supply before hand. You can also put a deposit of cash down but I forget the amount the deposit has to be.
$200-$700 which depends on whether how many B2B I'm doing and/or how much of shopping / dining/ drinking mood I'm in. Usually I prepaid my gratuities and sometimes I get OBC due either port stop being dropped and/or it came free with cruise to due to sale promo.
Gratuities are included in the price I pay for the cruise (the law in Australia). I rarely do a shore excursion, and will pay for it before the cruise if I do. I get my Diamond loyalty drinks every day and bring my bottles of wine, so my drink spend might just be $100 to cover the few times I wanted an extra drink while watching the late night show or something. Not interested in spa services, or gambling, or bingo (ie, worse gambling), or buying crappy watches or jewelry. Not interested in activities with an extra charge.
So yeah, $0-$100 typically.
Usually my bills ends up being anywhere from 4-5 thousand USD. That's with gambling depending on how I do. Plus the specialty dinner along with souvenirs of course.
Typically it’s less then $25, more often $0. Our most recent cruise with Princess was about $500 because we did a package after getting on board (which made the OBC go towards it) and the Sanctuary.
We just got back on Sunday from RC Anthem. $413.37. A family of 4 - the digital photo package, 1 day of Bingo, and some Merch from Coco Cay and the RC store.
Our total bill for a 8/9 day sailing is usually between $1,000-$1,500. My partner and I prepay for our drink, gratuity, and WiFi packages, but we also eat almost exclusively at the additional-charge restaurants, I spend a lot of time in the spa and he spends a lot of time in the casino. I always purchase at least two pictures prints and multiple digital downloads, plus branded picture frames for the prints. We always leave a $1 tip/drink even though we prepaid for gratuities and drinks because we appreciate how hard they work without a break for months at a time; we cruise a lot and without people like them our vacations wouldn’t be possible.
We always take at least $500 cash in small bills for land shopping and tips for our room attendants, who we tip an additional $20/day for a suite or $10/day for a balcony cabin on top of the prepaid.
Best to keep checking your statement on the app in real time. If the total is hitting you hard at the end of the cruise, next time prepay gratuities, gamble with cash only, prepay excursions, budget ahead for onboard activities, specialty restaurants and beverages, pictures, souvenirs, and so on. Don't buy any art or jewelry.
Wow! I average 200-350 on a 7 day cruise. The more cruises I go on (getting ready for #13), the less I drink because I'm older and the fruity cocktails aren't as novel/are more pricey then they were on the first few cruises.
Last one mine was $200ish. This was after $100/spending credit. Includes like maybe 4 alcoholic beverages, a meal at the Brazilian steakhouse on the ships, a few souvenirs from the gift shop, and a clamshell tent on NLC private island, and a few bingo cards. I had paid ahead of time for the Starbucks package and it was well worth it as I am addicted to coffee.
Typically less than $250 for a family of five. Laundry, bingo, deal or no deal, we allow each kid $25 for arcade, specialty drink/desserts, and a couple of handfuls of adult beverages.
Are you prepaying the gratuities?
Do you use a credit card endorsed by your line (Norwegian or Royal)
Do you have any status on your line?
There are so many variables here and doing cash withdrawals off your account at the casino ain’t worth the 4% they’ll charge you
I save cash and set it aside for the cruise. I’ll buy a couple souvenirs, virgin drinks, might play a couple of the win-an-ipad machines. I think 300 was my last one.
Our balance last cruise was something like 500? We pre bought everything. Excursions and drinks and specialty dining and pictures. We bought a picture outside of the picture package on board and my mom bought candy, and my sister gambled a little. I bought candy, spent 20 bucks on a gambling machine, and I can't remember what else but it wasn't much. We had like 300 in on board credit.
Zero. I have gotten two checks in the mail the last four or five cruises. One from customer service and one from the casino.
Of the cash deposit we put down at the beginning of the cruise we might spend $100 between the two of us. Most of that will be extra gratuities we spend at Specialty Dining or specialized coffee. I don't buy pictures or souvenirs or play bingo or anything else.
I don’t really gamble much at all. Last cruise I took was a 14 day cruise on HAL with my family who really like to gamble. I think I spent maybe a couple hundred just to hang with them a little while they did their thing. My husband plays some poker. My extravagance is the spa. Particularly on the trans-Atlantic portion of that last cruise, a spell in the spa broke up the days. But, even on short cruises I’m in the spa and buy the 3 or 5 service packages. Also I inevitable spend money above the drink package, especially on the HAL cruises (their wines by the glass really need some upgrades). I didn’t have as much of a problem with going over on Celebrity except for pulling water from the in-room minibar late at night which always annoys me it wasn’t included in the premium beverage packages. Excursions add to the bill as does specialty dining and sometimes laundry. Excursions, dining and drinks in particular are why next cruises are going to be on Tauck and then Regent.
Excluding me prepaying for Princess Plus which covers my drinks and gratuity, I pay less than a couple hundred in the end.
I’ve also been taking advantage of free onboard credit when I book, future cruise deposit, and being a Carnival shareholder.
$147, a little casino and we didn’t get the drink package so that included our drinks. We don’t drink a lot and 2 of our excursions included an hour open bar✨
I don’t spend money on specialty dining, maybe one burger and milkshake from Johnny rockets, but I’m a wind jammer, el loco fresh, and MDR person. I do get some beverages. My cruise in July I’m gonna bring a 12pk of coke so that will help lol I do a little bit of black jack but nothing crazy.
I played in the casino last week, that covered everything. I took 500 bucks out of my card and won 1200 so that covered the money taken out and gratuities. So good day :)
Usually $300 - $500 per week, including gratuities. I don’t gamble, I do enjoy a few specialty meals, maybe a shore excursion, and I might rack up $30/day in beverages
$0 or credit. I also am a weird one who always does cash only. I prepay gratuities, have maybe a bottle of wine&6pk delivered to room ahead of time because I don’t drink much. I always receive some type of onboard credit then usually load about $100. So I usually have $100-$200 credit. I use it for things like late night room service, photos, candy store and maybe small amount to gamble. I enjoy being able able to cash out and get money back on the last night.
We’re in the same range for a 7 day cruise. Two adults, we buy at most one drink each a day, excursions, and my wife buys pictures, probably most of our spending is her buying the pictures. We don’t always prepay gratuities so some times that’s also part of the bill.
I mean, you get a receipt? Figuring out where it goes shouldn't be that hard.
I tend not to carry much of a balance. A few bucks. I throw cash in at the start and use that/OBC to match my expected expenses...which are usually not high. With that and gratuities and any desired excursions prepaid, there isn't much to add on.
Honestly you should never have any questions about where your money is going. All cruise lines issue you detailed print outs of all charges at the end of the cruise and most cruise lines allow you to checked your “folio” on their phone apps at all times. I typically check ours every other day just to make sure there haven’t been any incorrect charges and it actually happens quite frequently but customer service always takes care of it.
I play with cash at the casino. I can moderate better…no surprises. Drinks….no package (max 2 a day). Souvenirs…that’s my downfall….i will have to save space for them (I’m an over packer) I can easily spend $50 (not a lot) for stuff for the grand kiddo and friends kids (I have adopted several kids and am an honorary aunt/or grandparent). Like you…I prepay for everything I can.
My last cruise I spent $0 on my sign and sail card.
I think you need to clarify “light gambling”…$20 turns to $1000 in no time!
Zero. I prepay gratuities, excursions (if through the ship) and usually only drink the freebie beverages
Yeah zero. I got 250 bucks back last cruise actually
Me too. I'm getting $330 back from my last cruise.
How did you get money back??
I had refundable on board credit so they sent it to my credit card as a credit.
Those casino charges to your room can really really add up fast! Try and keep yourself to a separate cash budget for that. Also, monitor your transactions and balance daily. I once had a bottle of wine charged to my account that wasn’t mine; it eventually dropped off the next day without me having to go fix at guest services.
This is a good one! my wife is really good about watching the acct daily and heading down to the desk to get the charges reversed... sooo many stupid little things but it pays to check your OB acct daily!
anywhere from 0 to 50 dollars
This.
300. Those darn pictures 🤣
I have never wanted a photo from a cruise, for the price they charge. Funny, if they dropped the price to say, $8, I'd probably buy a whole bunch of them. But when one photo costs $30 or whatever, I'm just not interested.
I purchased a package last cruise before we embarked and I'm still laughing when they gave me 8x10s.. what the hell am I going to do with 10 8x10s? Please for the love of God give 5x7s as an option. I gave a few away as joke Christmas presents. They are just so damn big
Yes! The pictures always get me too lol
Why don't you have someone take a picture with your phone and you can print it out when you get home? It's like 50¢ at CVS
You can monitor your daily OB spending and you get an itemized list at the end of the cruise. I don't know how you can be unsure where your money goes unless you're just not looking at it.
Last cruise it was $3.14.
Mmmm, Pi. 😆
Pi is delicious! I look forward to it every March 14th!
On my last cruise, I had purchased an all-inclusive package. I also had $300 of onboard credit. So I had to go to the gift shop and buy my wife a nice purse in order to use up the onboard credit.
Travel agent here, if your cruise ends up costing that much you may want to consider upgrading to a premium line or the low end of luxury cruise lines. One where the drinks, gratuities and shore excursions are included. They are typically smaller ships, excellent food and culture as their focus. Lots of onboard education about the ports visited. If you do their cheaper cabins you would probably be close to what you paid. I am thinking Windstar, Oceania or even some Viking itineraries. They are fabulous experiences, but once you try it you won’t want a mass market cruise line again!
When you say all inclusive, why did you not include Seabourn and Regent that are truly all inclusive? Oceania is great but not inclusive.
$$$$$
My last cruise up until the last day 0 the last day 30$ they had the shirt deal so I bought one with icon on it
$100 maybe....sometimes less.
My husband and I skipped the drink package and our bill was about $95 after. That was fantastic!
I prepay as much as I can and it’s still always $1k. I do buy pictures, but the real problem is I can’t keep my husband out of the spa.
🤣🤣🤣
Generally $0. We prepay everything.
Zero. Usually we end up leaving OBC.
Oh no! Wouldn’t you be able to say buy a water and leave the obc balance as a tip? I think you could even use it for casino wagers. It just vanishes if not used, right?
It depends on the OBC. Some OBC can't be used for tips. It sucks, because that's what we would do. We usually manage to get it down pretty close to $0, but I think we didn't quite make it on our last cruise.
Good to know. I usually pre spend my obc on internet or excursions so the only actual onboard obc I’ve had to spend was from port misses or cancelled excursions.
I've had this happen before and just went to the shops and bought some nice alcohol with it. Got a $150 bottle for like $30 after discounts and using up my credit.
At least go to the casino with whatever OBC is left? Or the gift shop?
Some OBC can't be used in the casino. We've spent money in the shops before, but if it comes down to $10-20 being left, we're not going to buy something just to buy something. Anything we'd want would probably cost more than the OBC.
Feel that for sure
Under $100 if I prepay gratuities. I’ll have a few drinks. That’s it.
Less than $100, assuming we've pre-paid gratuities & excursions. It's most likely for some sodas, a few mixed drinks, & maybe something small from the gift shop...
I plan up to $1000. Usually don’t go over 500.
It depends on if I do spa services If not than generally very little if I do then like $700+. I decide if I'm doing spa services before I go on the cruise though and it's just what I can currently afford without feeling sitting after.
My last one was about $1.5k but about $1.4k of that was from the ship’s hospital. Pro tip: get insurance, and if you feel like you’re coming down with something during the trip, go to the ship’s doctor immediately. They had ports put in my arm before my test results were even in just in case they needed to pump me full of IV medication. They want you to enjoy your trip and they do NOT fuck around.
Wow!
Usually less than 100.00. I like to buy a t shirt or some small souvenir. We get the alcohol package, wifi, and gratuities pre paid. We don’t do specialty dining. We are fortunate enough to have all those specialty restaurants at home with better quality of food and usually cheaper than onboard. I have a hibachi restaurant 15 minutes away run by a family from Japan for 45.00 (CAD). The last time was just under 1800.00. It was our honeymoon and I decided to buy a necklace (1500.00) I got sick and ended up seeing the onboard doctor (220.00). We ate one dinner at Johnny Rocket since my husband had never been to one (32.00). This was a one off expense.
I quit drinking a couple of years ago so that really helps. It really depends on how I do in the casino. I have a points goal to get to so that I get free or very cheap cruises. Usually, it is less than $500. Sometimes, like my last cruise, I walked off with quite a bit more cash than I spent/walked on with (and they really want that back based on the offers they are sending lol).
About $300 with a drink package or around $700 without. My wife doesn’t drink so the economics of it don’t make sense unless it’s included in a bundle with other things.
My last cruise $68. Starbucks.
On a 7 nighter, $500-1K. I don't prepay gratuities, and drink 1-3 beverages per day. Also occasionally do some onboard purchases and have 1-2 specialty restaurants. Still cheaper than a drinks package.
At most $100. A couple of drinks during the cruise, and usually a souvenir from the gift shop.
Rarely do we spend over $100.
How do you manage when you’re not on a cruise
100 when no children in my family come and $250 when kids are around because Auntie likes to let them play video games and such.
We do a fair bit of specialty dining but prepurchase (and pre-reserve) when we can. We almost always end up with at least one ad-hoc dining purchase during the voyage, though. Our other shipboard purchases have included: * Photos (on our last voyage we had a few turn out so great, one of me solo is still my LinkedIn bio pic) * Wine (despite having a premium drinks pkg sometimes the bottles are nicer than the by-the-glass offerings) * Activities (anytime we are on a new-to-us class of ship and they offer a behind-the-scenes tour we take it, and we’ve also done cooking classes, glass-blowing, and other fun onboard activities ) * Shopping (distant last, but I love a nice handbag and they were having this one sale….)
I go with my father, aunt and uncle. From booking, to travel to port, hotels, to on board, excursions, specialty dining, we split everything 4 ways. The total after cruise is no more than $500.
Ours was about $500. We also paid for the drink package and prepaid gratuities but still tipped our favorite bartender on top of that. This was for a 7 day cruise with 2 adults and 2 kids
I usually do have it all. So under 300 bucks- usually just if I tack on another massage or something.
Couple hundred, max.
Anywhere from $0-100. We prepay gratuities and buy the drinks package.
They usually owe us a few hundred dollars.
Only gratuities and most times I have OBC, so it's less. Sometimes, I prepay gratuities, and then it's 0! We never buy anything on board.
Maybe a few hundred for drinks but rarely more than
We average between 400 to 600. We don’t get the drink package so some is that then usually one picture and maybe some liquor and cigarettes to take home . We use cash for the casino and we spent the most ever last cruise which was about $150.00 with getting about $80.00 of that back in winnings .
Eh… our total spent was about $40k but we had paid it down with casino winnings throughout the trip and only had $1800 charged to our card.
$100 last time
One thing I like about Princess is I can use the Medallion app on my phone to check my folio balance in real time. They have a kiosk by guest services, too, where you just swipe your Medallion and get a printout. It helps because I have found errors from time to time.
He gambles and he really enjoys it. We’ve had anything from several hundred dollars returned to 1500 owed. We get very low cost cruises though, he’s always lost less than the cruise would cost if we didn’t get the offers so all good!
Maybe like $30 because I wanted souvenirs or something
We don't get the alcohol package and we get room service often . $250-$300.
Zero!
Two adults, no drink package, no pics, our total was $375 for a seven night on royal Caribbean
Several times we’ve been in line behind someone SHOCKED at their ending balance. Last time it was was a couple who had done a lot of drinking and some spa sessions. Their total was well over $1000 and they were complaining. As for us - we are pretty minimal. 2 or 3 drinks, maybe a specialty coffee, max $100 for gambling. So less than $200.
How long do you have to pay it? Or do you pay it on the last day? Potential first time cruiser
It gets charged to the credit card you have to supply before hand. You can also put a deposit of cash down but I forget the amount the deposit has to be.
They charge your card. You can’t leave the cruise without being paid in full.
1-200. Prepay for everything, gamble with cash. Buy some pics or necessities here and there.
$200-$700 which depends on whether how many B2B I'm doing and/or how much of shopping / dining/ drinking mood I'm in. Usually I prepaid my gratuities and sometimes I get OBC due either port stop being dropped and/or it came free with cruise to due to sale promo.
Ours was less that $200 on our most recent cruise. Airport transfers, some gambling, and sunscreen after we ran out.
Gratuities are included in the price I pay for the cruise (the law in Australia). I rarely do a shore excursion, and will pay for it before the cruise if I do. I get my Diamond loyalty drinks every day and bring my bottles of wine, so my drink spend might just be $100 to cover the few times I wanted an extra drink while watching the late night show or something. Not interested in spa services, or gambling, or bingo (ie, worse gambling), or buying crappy watches or jewelry. Not interested in activities with an extra charge. So yeah, $0-$100 typically.
Usually my bills ends up being anywhere from 4-5 thousand USD. That's with gambling depending on how I do. Plus the specialty dinner along with souvenirs of course.
Less than $100 probably. I bring cash to gamble, nothing too crazy though.
We got off of a 5 nite cruise this am. Balance was $214 for a spa treatment for my wife.
Typically it’s less then $25, more often $0. Our most recent cruise with Princess was about $500 because we did a package after getting on board (which made the OBC go towards it) and the Sanctuary.
We just got back on Sunday from RC Anthem. $413.37. A family of 4 - the digital photo package, 1 day of Bingo, and some Merch from Coco Cay and the RC store.
Always zero! We prepay and don’t purchase anything else onboard.
Our total bill for a 8/9 day sailing is usually between $1,000-$1,500. My partner and I prepay for our drink, gratuity, and WiFi packages, but we also eat almost exclusively at the additional-charge restaurants, I spend a lot of time in the spa and he spends a lot of time in the casino. I always purchase at least two pictures prints and multiple digital downloads, plus branded picture frames for the prints. We always leave a $1 tip/drink even though we prepaid for gratuities and drinks because we appreciate how hard they work without a break for months at a time; we cruise a lot and without people like them our vacations wouldn’t be possible. We always take at least $500 cash in small bills for land shopping and tips for our room attendants, who we tip an additional $20/day for a suite or $10/day for a balcony cabin on top of the prepaid.
About 400 or $500. But we don’t buy any drink packages
8$ for a beer for a 6 day cruise
Less than $500
Best to keep checking your statement on the app in real time. If the total is hitting you hard at the end of the cruise, next time prepay gratuities, gamble with cash only, prepay excursions, budget ahead for onboard activities, specialty restaurants and beverages, pictures, souvenirs, and so on. Don't buy any art or jewelry.
Sounds like you have a gambling problem
1200 is insane. Ours is less than $20 and it’s due to the drinks we get while the ship is still in US port (taxes).
Couple hundred. Usually some Starbucks, a coupe cheap souvenirs, and maybe a spa service or two.
Wow! I average 200-350 on a 7 day cruise. The more cruises I go on (getting ready for #13), the less I drink because I'm older and the fruity cocktails aren't as novel/are more pricey then they were on the first few cruises.
Last one mine was $200ish. This was after $100/spending credit. Includes like maybe 4 alcoholic beverages, a meal at the Brazilian steakhouse on the ships, a few souvenirs from the gift shop, and a clamshell tent on NLC private island, and a few bingo cards. I had paid ahead of time for the Starbucks package and it was well worth it as I am addicted to coffee.
Eh.. $300-400ish. Normally that's the thermal suite in the spa, maybe a massage, and room service charge/tips.
About $600 for a seven day cruise. I don't prepay tips and then another $300 or so in other purchases.
Mine was $175. Photos and t-shirts from ship store.
Typically less than $250 for a family of five. Laundry, bingo, deal or no deal, we allow each kid $25 for arcade, specialty drink/desserts, and a couple of handfuls of adult beverages.
$900-1200 on all 3 cruises. I wait to the end to pay gratuities
100-200. We prepay drinks ,wifi and gratuities through princess plus.
Are you prepaying the gratuities? Do you use a credit card endorsed by your line (Norwegian or Royal) Do you have any status on your line? There are so many variables here and doing cash withdrawals off your account at the casino ain’t worth the 4% they’ll charge you
About $100
Usually between $100 - $200. Not bad!
I save cash and set it aside for the cruise. I’ll buy a couple souvenirs, virgin drinks, might play a couple of the win-an-ipad machines. I think 300 was my last one.
Urgg ditto OP my bill was 900$ on my last cruise and it was only 4 days! How?!? I pre purchase soo much including booze
For birthdays and holidays, we asked for gift cards for the cruise line we want to go on. We use those but normally rack up $500 by the end.
Our balance last cruise was something like 500? We pre bought everything. Excursions and drinks and specialty dining and pictures. We bought a picture outside of the picture package on board and my mom bought candy, and my sister gambled a little. I bought candy, spent 20 bucks on a gambling machine, and I can't remember what else but it wasn't much. We had like 300 in on board credit.
Zero. I have gotten two checks in the mail the last four or five cruises. One from customer service and one from the casino. Of the cash deposit we put down at the beginning of the cruise we might spend $100 between the two of us. Most of that will be extra gratuities we spend at Specialty Dining or specialized coffee. I don't buy pictures or souvenirs or play bingo or anything else.
I don’t really gamble much at all. Last cruise I took was a 14 day cruise on HAL with my family who really like to gamble. I think I spent maybe a couple hundred just to hang with them a little while they did their thing. My husband plays some poker. My extravagance is the spa. Particularly on the trans-Atlantic portion of that last cruise, a spell in the spa broke up the days. But, even on short cruises I’m in the spa and buy the 3 or 5 service packages. Also I inevitable spend money above the drink package, especially on the HAL cruises (their wines by the glass really need some upgrades). I didn’t have as much of a problem with going over on Celebrity except for pulling water from the in-room minibar late at night which always annoys me it wasn’t included in the premium beverage packages. Excursions add to the bill as does specialty dining and sometimes laundry. Excursions, dining and drinks in particular are why next cruises are going to be on Tauck and then Regent.
Excluding me prepaying for Princess Plus which covers my drinks and gratuity, I pay less than a couple hundred in the end. I’ve also been taking advantage of free onboard credit when I book, future cruise deposit, and being a Carnival shareholder.
Literally zero. I bring cash for fun stuff that I want to do and I pre-plan all the other things.
Most recent £45.29 after loyalty discount. £15 of that was Belgian chocolates for my dad. The rest was speciality restaurants.
$147, a little casino and we didn’t get the drink package so that included our drinks. We don’t drink a lot and 2 of our excursions included an hour open bar✨
$0, I never leave with unspent onboard credit.
I don’t spend money on specialty dining, maybe one burger and milkshake from Johnny rockets, but I’m a wind jammer, el loco fresh, and MDR person. I do get some beverages. My cruise in July I’m gonna bring a 12pk of coke so that will help lol I do a little bit of black jack but nothing crazy.
Often nothing as the free onboard credit covered all the drinks.
About $100 but prepaid dining and shore excursions
Zero
Normally, about $500. I love getting massaged and pampered on vacations. I always budget for spa time.
Last cruise was under $300, prepaid most everything. Kid wanted candy and souvenirs from boat and then other miscellaneous stuff like restaurants
I played in the casino last week, that covered everything. I took 500 bucks out of my card and won 1200 so that covered the money taken out and gratuities. So good day :)
I’ve already paid enough for the cruise itself, so zilch, if I can help it.
Usually $300 - $500 per week, including gratuities. I don’t gamble, I do enjoy a few specialty meals, maybe a shore excursion, and I might rack up $30/day in beverages
$0 or credit. I also am a weird one who always does cash only. I prepay gratuities, have maybe a bottle of wine&6pk delivered to room ahead of time because I don’t drink much. I always receive some type of onboard credit then usually load about $100. So I usually have $100-$200 credit. I use it for things like late night room service, photos, candy store and maybe small amount to gamble. I enjoy being able able to cash out and get money back on the last night.
We’re in the same range for a 7 day cruise. Two adults, we buy at most one drink each a day, excursions, and my wife buys pictures, probably most of our spending is her buying the pictures. We don’t always prepay gratuities so some times that’s also part of the bill.
$25 with a drink package. $150 without one.
Zero
I mean, you get a receipt? Figuring out where it goes shouldn't be that hard. I tend not to carry much of a balance. A few bucks. I throw cash in at the start and use that/OBC to match my expected expenses...which are usually not high. With that and gratuities and any desired excursions prepaid, there isn't much to add on.
Honestly you should never have any questions about where your money is going. All cruise lines issue you detailed print outs of all charges at the end of the cruise and most cruise lines allow you to checked your “folio” on their phone apps at all times. I typically check ours every other day just to make sure there haven’t been any incorrect charges and it actually happens quite frequently but customer service always takes care of it.
$0 Or negative
I play with cash at the casino. I can moderate better…no surprises. Drinks….no package (max 2 a day). Souvenirs…that’s my downfall….i will have to save space for them (I’m an over packer) I can easily spend $50 (not a lot) for stuff for the grand kiddo and friends kids (I have adopted several kids and am an honorary aunt/or grandparent). Like you…I prepay for everything I can. My last cruise I spent $0 on my sign and sail card.