How much do you budget for on board purchases, per adult, per day?

[tvguy]

Not much. Everything we wanted was included for the most part on our 7 Day Eastern.
DD spent nothing
DS spent $5 to get his tie dry cleaned after spilling food on it
DW and and together spent just under $400 for photos, wine, adult beverages and souvenirs.
So that works out to about $15 a day per person.

 

[southerngirl528]

Not much. Everything we wanted was included for the most part on our 7 Day Eastern.
DD spent nothing
DS spent $5 to get his tie dry cleaned after spilling food on it
DW and and together spent just under $400 for photos, wine, adult beverages and souvenirs.
So that works out to about $15 a day per person.

Wow, ya'll do GOOD!!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We only "budget" for doing laundry (once or twice, depending on length of cruise) and a couple of drinks during the trip. We don't buy photos, spa time, or extra cost dining.

 

[cmph]

Seems like the App COULD do a bit more pre-cruise? Not book excursions but . . . they could list the movies or put some weather up there or . . . I don't know. Certainly could be a tad more helpful, interesting ahead of time. Some history on the ports? When you are on the ship - do you have to log in? How does it know who I am? I won't be bringing my DCL password with me, should I?

Yeah, it is pretty devoid of anything pre-cruise. However, it is useful on-board! When you're in the cruise terminal, it'll automatically load up with everything for your cruise once you connect to the ship's wifi. (And it wipes everything when you disembark... or even when you're still on-board in port, waiting to disembark.) If you've already logged in to the app pre-cruise, you shouldn't need to do anything else. I don't remember ever having to re-log in, even though I definitely closed the app at least every night when I went to bed.

 

[Jess_S]

If you don't count excursions, we spend about 30 per day. We buy drinks at dinner, sometimes coffee and usually an ornament or magnet to commemorate the trip.

 

[clten]

To log onto the Navigator app when you get onboard, you don't need your Disney passwords. I believe you just need your name and cabin # (I don't remember exactly but it is info you would have for the cruise specifically). The only other info you would need is if you were to be texting to others. If your room charges are on the Navigator app now, that's a good enhancement they have made since the last time we sailed.

We are not the "budget" kind of people so can't tell you what is normal. We don't usually limit what we are spending if it is something we want to enjoy but over the years we have stopped some things because we just don't find them of value. One of the things we have cut out is bingo because I just don't enjoy it anymore with the electronic cards and the cost is crazy. If you do want to play, remember the cost for the games is about double for the last bingo (the Jackpot session) and the # of people playing skyrockets too. So while someone has to win, with the size of the crowd, your chances are slim.

One thing we do find can be a good value are alcohol tastings. For the cost, you get a good variety of drinks (and we usually end up with more than just the samples too). And in addition to the alcohol, the information is usually pretty useful or at least the session is entertaining and we usually meet some interesting people to talk to.

 

[Aluvendale]

I don’t want to talk about it. Okay, I will. We didn’t budget. It was our 10 year Anniversary. We didn’t hold back. We did multiple drink tastings, Remy Dinner (with extras- wine, Wagyu beef), Remy Dessert experience (with wine), excursions at 2 of the 3 ports, bought alcohol and specialty coffees, got in-room gifts, did the Goofy sports thing, bought souvenirs, popcorn bucket with a couple refills, etc. It was expensive. The experience was worth it. We are going back for our 12 yr Anniversary in January. We don’t PLAN to spend nearly as much this time. Famous last words. . .

 

[lilsonicfan]

On our last DCL cruise we:
- had two Rainforest passes - $36
- did Goofy's sports simulator for an hour - $22
- played a round of bingo - $60 (I think)
- drank three specialty coffees - $15-18
- bought one souvenir for the kids, each - $30-40
- bought a popcorn bucket and refilled it once - $9
- did Mixology - $50
- ate Palo brunch - $80 incl tip
- bought the package of 10 photos - $150 (?)
- bought two alcoholic drinks on CC - ~$14
- bought a pack of Bonine - ~$7

So that is just under $500 (family of 5) for a 7 night cruise.

 

[Agent 86]

Hmmmmm. Maybe ... $25 dollars for two "cocktails of the day" for each of us during dinner (except for the night of the Captain's cocktail party where we grab some of the free cocktails to take with us to dinner). I think they're normally around $6 each.

Other than the Port Adventures, we don't really spend much money once on board.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot using the laundry. Normally on day one and the last "full" day on board. But, that's because Disney Cruises form part of much longer holidays for us.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

ALL OF IT. We try not to worry about cash when we travel. We worry about it when we get home. LOL.

That said, we don't really drink alcohol and the cruises are otherwise all inclusive. The only things we get in trouble with are shopping (we usually buy some pins) and maybe the occasional popcorn or drink at the theater. So most of our spending is more in the souvenir category.

 

[hubbard53]

we've never calculated it - we'd rather not know

We used to get the wine package but now we buy by the glass - better selection and we don't feel forced to drink more than we really want.
We usually get the souvenir popcorn bucket.
Never spent anything on specialty coffee.
Never spent anything on sugary daily cocktails.
A bottle or two of champagne while at Palo brunch
Couple glasses of champagne or cocktails at Meridian.
Three T-shirts - one for each of us.
Ornament.
Anything else that catches our eye...

Basically, we drink too much and spend too much.

 

[Girl of the South]

This will be my first cruise without a Verandah so I was interested in the person who said she didn't think it was worth the extra expense. Hoping Deck 4 will be MY verandah! I guess the App is activated by the ship and not anything at PC? Looking forward to seeing how it works.

Haven't cruised in a while but my suggestion comes from Warren Zevon

"Do what makes you happy. It doesn't have to make sense to other people."

Want to give Goofy a hug? Go ahead (ask first!). Want to eat hot dogs for dinner every night? Go for it! It's YOUR cruise!

 

[darnheather]

On my last two cruises I had 3 drinks on each cruise. So less than $30 for the entire cruise. Next time I'm doing 3 tastings, one open bar, and plan to consume at least 3 additional drinks so my spending money will increase greatly. However, it is a 14 night cruise.

 

[bumbershoot]

16 oz iced latte per day per adult
A tervis mug or two total
I used to get water, but now that it's dasani I'll bring my own proper spring water (I don't waste time on filtered municipal water)
With two bottles of wine allowed, I'm covered for drinks. Especially since with DCL I can only take shorter cruises.
I do like a sauna, so I might still need to budget for Rainforest.

We've gone pretty light on the "stuff" budget, really, with DCL.

Royal, however, has more general stuff to buy, including watches, and that has gotten us in trouble because the now-ex cannot resist. But now he's not a factor in my cruise plans, so it'll get cheaper, too. Woo, only 2 guests in a cabin and less stuff to be purchased, hello longer cruises!

 

[lilsonicfan]

Royal, however, has more general stuff to buy, including watches, and that has gotten us in trouble because the now-ex cannot resist. But now he's not a factor in my cruise plans, so it'll get cheaper, too. Woo, only 2 guests in a cabin and less stuff to be purchased, hello longer cruises!

DH has been itching to buy a fancy watch for a few years now. Is it worthwhile to buy on board a cruise?

 

[lizzyb]

We don't spend much extra onboard. We bring some wine and have it on our verandah but might have a drink or two that we purchase on board. Aside from that we go to Palo and thats about it.

 

[billyinlasvegas]

We've only been on one cruise but we ended up spending $1,400 on a 7-day cruise for two of us. So about $200 per day.
Keep in mind that this included all tips, excursions, drinks, etc.
Also, it was our honeymoon so we probably spent a lot of money on things we wouldn't get again.

 

[MomOTwins]

We spent a lot (below prices include tip, and we tip generously)

Drinks: a glass of wine and cocktail each with dinner, plus one or two drinks by the pool or beach = Around $75 per day for the two of us
Palo Brunch: $80 for the two of us
Rainforest day passes: $37.76 for the two of us
DH’s Massage: around $150
Mixilogy for me: $25
Castaway Cay souvenirs $50
Snorkel rental for DH: $34
Bingo: $50 for one machine we shared between the two of us
Theater snacks and drinks: about $25 total

It added up to a bit less than $700 for our 3-day cruise not including the daily default gratuities so around $115 per adult per day. As I mentioned we spent a lot though so this is a good benchmark for what you might pay if you spend pretty freely. Luckily we ended up winning the jackpot at bingo (though we split with another couple that also won) so we had fun settling our account with our winnings

 

[hogie1]

I'm aiming for $200 per day for the 5 night Bermuda cruise for a family of 5. I enjoy my beers, but I generally watch what I'm spending but my other half isn't as good. I'm setting $$ aside for excursions and such separately.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

We did a 4 night cruise in February, here’s rough estimates of what we spent...

Drinks: ~$40 - DH and I each had one alcoholic drink (not big drinkers) and he had 2 or 3 specialty coffees
Souvenirs: ~$250 - I bought myself about $200 worth of Pandora stuff as a birthday present and we bought DS a stuffed cruise boat and ourselves a Christmas ornament. Oh, and a package of magnets because ours kept falling off the door.

I think that might be it. No specialty dining. No spa treatments. No bingo. No movie food. Excursions were through outside companies.

I think next time we’ll end up spending a lot more though. Kids will be older and want more souvenirs, we’ll Palo and possibly massages. Oh and DH wants to try bingo.