Well now it's official :)

[paul436]

DCL does do prepaid tips but it's a little different. You pay the prepaids before the cruise. On the last night of the cruise your room steward leaves the envelopes and little vouchers stating the tip amount and who it's for on each. You put the prepaid voucher in the envelope for the right person and add any cash or whatever you wish to. Then you hand-deliver the envelopes to the 3 wait staff folks and the room steward when you see them next. The dining staff doesn't distribute anything. The room steward (or perhaps some other CM) leaves the items you need for tipping on your bed for you to find. :wave:

Thanks. One less thing to worry about.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

They can be crazy! Not sure if any of the DCL sites post excursion prices.. they probably do. I didn't get exposed to the excursion stuff until when we made our final payment allowing us to book them.

I think the cheapest on ours was $40/head for the Disney private beach package of stuff.. many were $100+/head and some (altantis packages) were upwards of $300+/head if I recall.

We are doing a dolphin swim thing.. $199/head!!! That right there was over $800 in a single day. Then we had another few hundred bucks for the private island stuff.

Its scarey because I think for that kind of money we could probably do Discovery Cove in Orlando and have a much better time with more to do.. but didn't want to do nothing.. so bit the bullet and the kids are hyped for it.

After our last trip in 09 which was 5 days in a value resort for a family of 5.. I wrote up a summary of my total expenditures. The bottom line was

$ 233.20 Airfare
$ 60.00 Parking
$ 189.02 Car
$ 18.35 Gas
$1266.00 Tickets
$1050.90 Hotel
---------------
$2817.47 Total

Airfare is a bit misleading as I didn't buy all 5 tickets outright. More here if anyone cares. This DCL will be 4 nights, and probably 5-6k. But I'm also not going value on the DCL cruise.. but the cruise itself I think was like 3800? can't remember.

What about food? That's always a chunk of our budget when we go to WDW. :animwink:

And trust me, there's a loooot to do on the cruise. I never would've believed it if I hadn't seen if with my own eyes. There's so much to keep you busy. It's just not as obvious as when you travel to the parks and hit up attractions. On the cruise there will be a daily schedule that you'll get (The Navigator) that will tell you everything going on. Bring a highlighter! You'll be buuuusy!!! :wave:

 

[Crush Dude!]

What about food? That's always a chunk of our budget when we go to WDW. :animwink:

And trust me, there's a loooot to do on the cruise. I never would've believed it if I hadn't seen if with my own eyes. There's so much to keep you busy. It's just not as obvious as when you travel to the parks and hit up attractions. On the cruise there will be a daily schedule that you'll get (The Navigator) that will tell you everything going on. Bring a highlighter! You'll be buuuusy!!! :wave:

So True!!!

My big worry was that i would get bored having never cruised before!
Boy was i wrong, so much to do and see (and eat and drink:slurp there just wasnt enough time.... And my cruise was 11 Nights!!! :lol:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

[/I][/B]

So True!!!

My big worry was that i would get bored having never cruised before!
Boy was i wrong, so much to do and see (and eat and drink:slurp there just wasnt enough time.... And my cruise was 11 Nights!!! :lol:

Me, too! My biggest fear before considering a cruise was that I'd be stuck on a ship with nothing to do but eat. You always hear people talk about their cruises and the neverending supply of food. That was not a happy thought for me. I'm constantly at war with my weight. I looked at cruising as pure torture. Then, when the Dream set sail and all these people started reporting I started to reconsider. Having seen scans of the daily Navigator I could actually see just how much there was to do. And I wanted to do it ALL!!! Of course, that didn't happen. I was heavy on the hormones and short on time with just a 3-day for our first taste of cruising. Not a good combination. I think at one point I broke into tears realizing my time was zipping by me and I hadn't done a single thing I really wanted to!!!! My poor hubby. What a champ. <3 Perhaps this partially explains the absence of my sons all the stinkin' time....were they trying to avoid me??? :ROFLOL:

 

[Crush Dude!]

Me, too! My biggest fear before considering a cruise was that I'd be stuck on a ship with nothing to do but eat. You always hear people talk about their cruises and the neverending supply of food. That was not a happy thought for me. I'm constantly at war with my weight. I looked at cruising as pure torture. Then, when the Dream set sail and all these people started reporting I started to reconsider. Having seen scans of the daily Navigator I could actually see just how much there was to do. And I wanted to do it ALL!!! Of course, that didn't happen. I was heavy on the hormones and short on time with just a 3-day for our first taste of cruising. Not a good combination. I think at one point I broke into tears realizing my time was zipping by me and I hadn't done a single thing I really wanted to!!!! My poor hubby. What a champ. <3 Perhaps this partially explains the absence of my sons all the stinkin' time....were they trying to avoid me??? :ROFLOL:

Yeah its amazing how much der is to do!!!

The good part about missing things is they can be done next time

 

[BigTxEars]

You will most likely get to know your servers better than any other CM on the ship. They are also very good at picking up on what you like. For instance my kids like Shirley Temples (with extra cherries). After the first night there were Shirley Temples with about 8 cherries in them waiting at their seats when we came into the dining room.

Just to be clear on the cell phones (yeah, I had to use mine a few times)

When at sea you can get a signal in the staterooms via the cell phone at sea service or whatever it's called. There is almost no signal in the corridors or common areas or verandahs (which is great, keeps cell users in their rooms)

When you approach land (3 miles out) the ship signal will shut down. As you get closer, you may be able to pick up local cell service (such as in Nassau). Rates can vary with this. I think Nassau is LIME, as is most of the carribbean islands.

Now, for Wave phones. Your room comes with 2 and if you want you can rent more. Any wave phone can call ANY phone on the ship (Wave or "landline") and can text ANY Wave phone. Last I checked, the phone menus were locked out so you could not add contacts. I would bring an index card and tape it to the back of the phone.

Wave phones also work on Castaway Cay. We didn't try them because we were all together and if you damage them they charge you, but apparently they work. You can see the massive palm tree looking antenna on the island.


-dave

Wow great info on the WAVE phones, thanks. Great ideal for the index card to write down info. :wave:

Thanks

 

[BigTxEars]

They can be crazy! Not sure if any of the DCL sites post excursion prices.. they probably do. I didn't get exposed to the excursion stuff until when we made our final payment allowing us to book them.

I think the cheapest on ours was $40/head for the Disney private beach package of stuff.. many were $100+/head and some (altantis packages) were upwards of $300+/head if I recall.

We are doing a dolphin swim thing.. $199/head!!! That right there was over $800 in a single day. Then we had another few hundred bucks for the private island stuff.

Its scarey because I think for that kind of money we could probably do Discovery Cove in Orlando and have a much better time with more to do.. but didn't want to do nothing.. so bit the bullet and the kids are hyped for it.

After our last trip in 09 which was 5 days in a value resort for a family of 5.. I wrote up a summary of my total expenditures. The bottom line was

$ 233.20 Airfare
$ 60.00 Parking
$ 189.02 Car
$ 18.35 Gas
$1266.00 Tickets
$1050.90 Hotel
---------------
$2817.47 Total

Airfare is a bit misleading as I didn't buy all 5 tickets outright. More here if anyone cares. This DCL will be 4 nights, and probably 5-6k. But I'm also not going value on the DCL cruise.. but the cruise itself I think was like 3800? can't remember.

Yikes Flipper wants his $ :ROFLOL:

But I think those are the kind of things you can really not afford to not do with the family. Money comes and goes, time with the kids only goes.....

My oldest leave for the USAF next July, really puts thing in perspective about how fleeting the time we have with them is before them move on to their own life.....

Might not be the right thing to do financially but for the family it is :sohappy:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

If you spend time researching each port you go to via tourism sites as well as other cruise-specific websites with forums you can learn a lot of little tricks to do fun stuff but not pay the Mouse for the experience. For instance, look at the price to do the Atlantis Aquaventure in Nassau, Bahamas. I would NEVER pay that! However, there's a way to get all the fun of Atlantis only spending $200 or so for the whole family, not each. I've been researching St. Maarten on the Eastern Caribbean because the hubby's dream is to see the planes landing over Maho Beach. I'm not paying a tour guide to accomplish that! Heck no! I'll take a cab or rent a Jeep and keep my $$ in my pocket! :wave:

 

[flynnibus]

The trick about renting a room at the adjacent property for atlantis is dependent on a few factors, etc.. but you definately need to do the legwork to find stuff in the ports. The blue lagoon stuff I looked at the disney markup wasn't bad and since it would be inclusive for transportation its' easier too.

Like with most things, if you are willing to invest, you can get it cheaper.. but I'm so unprepared this time I'm just taking the easy route

 

[flynnibus]

What about food? That's always a chunk of our budget when we go to WDW. :animwink:

That was later in the post linked... the bottom line spending was

Grand Totals
$2817.47 Transportation, Lodging, Tickets
$ 706.85 Food
$ 130.27 Merchandise
-------------
$3654.59 Total

 

[BigTxEars]

Cancelled the Disney insurance so all I need to do now is buy the insurance direct.

Also unleashed Goofy on the phone

Used one of my free character calls on my daughter to tell her about the cruise. Just entered her cell number online, picked a character (Mickey, Goofy or Ariel), pick what ship and location for our cruise and hit enter and 45 seconds latter her phone is ringing. Goofy telling her about the cruise, at that point we had only talked about maybe taking a cruise so this is how she found out. Fourteen years old in a week and she was giggling like a 8 year old the entire call :sohappy:

That alone was worth the whole darn price!

As you know you get two free character phone calls so we will save the other for the 9 year old the week we leave. It would be wasted on him right now. He thinks all of 24 hours from now and no more :ROFLOL:

The 14 year is already looking info up online on her computer about the ship, cruise etc......

Disney magic is indeed still alive in 2011 :wave:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

That was later in the post linked... the bottom line spending was

Grand Totals
$2817.47 Transportation, Lodging, Tickets
$ 706.85 Food
$ 130.27 Merchandise
-------------
$3654.59 Total

I want your food budget! My 15 yro is perpetually hungry! We generally do 9-10 days with my family of 4 (boys are currently 15 & 13). Our food budget alone is generally in the ballpark of $2000.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Cancelled the Disney insurance so all I need to do now is buy the insurance direct.

Also unleashed Goofy on the phone

Used one of my free character calls on my daughter to tell her about the cruise. Just entered her cell number online, picked a character (Mickey, Goofy or Ariel), pick what ship and location for our cruise and hit enter and 45 seconds latter her phone is ringing. Goofy telling her about the cruise, at that point we had only talked about maybe taking a cruise so this is how she found out. Fourteen years old in a week and she was giggling like a 8 year old the entire call :sohappy:

That alone was worth the whole darn price!

As you know you get two free character phone calls so we will save the other for the 9 year old the week we leave. It would be wasted on him right now. He thinks all of 24 hours from now and no more :ROFLOL:

The 14 year is already looking info up online on her computer about the ship, cruise etc......

Disney magic is indeed still alive in 2011 :wave:

That is so awesome.

 

[Phonedave]

Yikes Flipper wants his $ :ROFLOL:

But I think those are the kind of things you can really not afford to not do with the family. Money comes and goes, time with the kids only goes.....

My oldest leave for the USAF next July, really puts thing in perspective about how fleeting the time we have with them is before them move on to their own life.....

Might not be the right thing to do financially but for the family it is :sohappy:

My two girls and I did the Dolphin Adventure (or Experience) whichever one is more expensive. The one where you ride on the dolphins head. They loved it, and still talk about it 3 years later. Worth it to me for the memories.

They wanted to do it again this summer, but I put the nix on it. I said pick something new. This time it was parasailing on Castaway Cay. A whole lot cheaper, but still loads of fun.


-dave

 

[Crush Dude!]

My two girls and I did the Dolphin Adventure (or Experience) whichever one is more expensive. The one where you ride on the dolphins head. They loved it, and still talk about it 3 years later. Worth it to me for the memories.

They wanted to do it again this summer, but I put the nix on it. I said pick something new. This time it was parasailing on Castaway Cay. A whole lot cheaper, but still loads of fun.


-dave

Always want to do the swim with Dolphins but price sometimes makes the decision