In reading everyone's posts, I have to say we do so many of the same things. We bring our own bottles water onboard for our excursions, otherwise, we just drink the water from the ship.
It is so great that DCL has the 24 hour beverage station up by the Mickey pool now. When I 1st started cruising with DCL, we would buy the soda pass. We even make sure we leave for the shows or movies at least 10 minutes earlier to hit to beverage station and grab our drinks instead of buying at the show.
My hubby and I do enjoy beer while at sea, and we generally purchase the beer mug program. We have even packed our mugs and taken on repeat trips. In looking at the gifts/ammenities page for our upcoming cruise, I discovered they have added a beer token to the beer mug package so you don't have to take your mug everywhere to enjoy the savings.
Another thing we do, is I pack for some 'fun drinks'. We take various small bottles of alcohol-generally flavored vodka, to add to our free soda from the beverage station. We don't drink a lot, but when on a cruise, we enjoy the extra.
I take cash with me when we go. We ask family for cash for holidays and then we save it for upcoming cruises. I put the cash down on the room as we need it, so that our vacation doesn't follow us home for months on a credit card. We also utilize Disney Visa Reward dollars for onboard credit. We use this card for everything year round, and then pay off every month.
It is hard for a parent to say no when their little princess, or pirate wants that new outfit from onboard. I usually bring princess dresses onboard, and I get those from
www.disneyshopping.com around Halloween, or after, for a very nice discount.
As for excursions, we have taken quite a few DCL vacations, and we book our excursions throough the cruise line. Even though they can be a bit more expensive, there is some added benefit-such as if something happens during your excursion-bus flat tire or something, they won't be pulling out of port without you (ie Mayan ruins tours in Mexico where the tour is over an hour from the ship). Many of the ports we have gone to, we have been to before, so we end up just walking around and enjoying the sights. We also make sure to eat our meals on the ship vs spending money on them off the ship.
We have booked all typs of rooms- verandah, oceanview, and inside. There are advantages to each. Verandah are great-especially on the longer cruises as the ocean sounds are incredible. Allthough keep in mind people smoke out there, so if you are near a stateroom with a smoker you may not be out on the verandah as much. Inside staterooms are great as you can nap in the middle of the afternooon, and it feels like nighttime-perfect for rooms with kids! The deluxe inside stateroom still have the split bathroom! This next cruise we are enjoying an oceanview-a great stateroom!
I remember the mother-daughter cruise my mom and I went on in Dec 2000...our statreoom charges were greater than what we paid for the cruise fare. That sure was a fun cruise!