What do you do if you have a big family? Can't afford thousands and thousands!

We're a family of five, but hope to be adopting one more child, so we'll end up as a famliy of six (2 parents, 4 kids). Do we just give up on cruising altogether, or is it possible to cruise with a family this size and not spend more than $3,000? Important note- all kids are young, so we have to be in one room or connecting rooms, no across the hall stuff. We'd like to sail Disney, but that's probably completely unrealistic. Where do you get the best prices, and what time of year?

Yeah Disney is hard with that many people. Our cruise was closer to $7,000 with airfare for a fam of 4, and NOT a suite, just a balcony room.

Maybe you could do shorter trips, like 3 or 4 days on some older boats? You are asking to spend about $600 pp, that's possible on some older ships, during some months.

I feel your pain, We are also a family of 6 (4kids) 10,12,15,and 17. It does get easier as the kids get older. This is my 2nd cruise and the 1st for DH and 2DS, and 2 DD, for just those reasons (cost) I can tell you with the help of my TA I think we found the best case scenario. We are cruising the Enchantment on April 10th 5 night. We are staying in a new room since the stretching. It is a family oceanview stateroom, but the catch with this room is, it doesn't have a balcony, which in my opinion made it cheaper. It states in the literature that it sleeps 8, but my TA went on it during a overnight in Philly and could only count 6 places to sleep, which still accomadates us. I believe it is between 400-or 475 sq feet.We paid 770$ first 2 people and then 340$ per child. + taxes. We live in Pa so we have to fly too. I would say the cruise part cost $4000.....without xtra yet!! But you know what Life is too short and these are the things memories are made of . My oldest goes to college next year so i don't know how many family vaca 's i have left. Good Luck ....keep looking

jodi;)

Sometimes it costs less to just get another cabin rather than pay the 3/4 person rate. With 6 people, you could do 2 cabins, but you couldn't do 3 unless you had someone else over 21 to stay in the 3rd cabin. And inside cabins aren't bad--better than not going at all.

If you're not too choosy, you can get some really great last-minute deals.

Try to find a debarkation port that you can reasonably drive to rather than fork out all that airfare.

As for shore excursions, I would reasearch each port and see about renting a vehicle and doing your own tours.

I cruised a 7 day Western Caribbean on the Elation last summer with my four kids. We had a quad cabin with a rollaway. I paid (I think!) about 700 and change for me and one kid, and the others were just over 500 each. We sailed out of Galveston which was waaaay cheap, and the airfare from Buffalo was less than that to Miami. Five in a cabin (boys 16, 14, 11 and 7, plus me- MOM) was absolutely fine- it was the best. We had SO MUCH FUN sharing a cabin. If I were you I would get two cabins- adjoining or not- and just put one parent in with a few kids and one in with the others. Surely you two can live without sleeping together for a few nights! Then get a cheap 5 day on a Fantasy-class Carnival ship.

Just MHO!

We're a family of five, but hope to be adopting one more child, so we'll end up as a famliy of six (2 parents, 4 kids). Do we just give up on cruising altogether, or is it possible to cruise with a family this size and not spend more than $3,000? Important note- all kids are young, so we have to be in one room or connecting rooms, no across the hall stuff. We'd like to sail Disney, but that's probably completely unrealistic. Where do you get the best prices, and what time of year?

We are taking our family of 8 (2 adults, 6 kids) on a 4 night cruise in May on RCCL....we came in well below 2500.00. We booked 3 cabins, one connecting and one across the hall (we do have a few older kids). But I bet you could get away with 2 connecting cabins and have 4 in each room. That would save you even more money.

We did 6 people in 3 cabins (2 outside balcony + 1 oceanview) on a 4 night RCCL Splendour of the Seas sailing from Galveston in December for a total cruise cost of just $2400. Add $240 suggested tip ($2640), gas for a 1000 mile round trip drive of $160 ($2800), $100 for two Priceline hotel nights at the midway point of our drive each way ($2900) and $100 for six cheap meals on the drive (ate at home before leaving, so lunch & dinner on the way to the cruise and breakfast the next morning; ate on the ship before exiting, so lunch & dinner on the way home and breakfast the next morning) and you're at $3000. That's a tight, but honestly very complete example of a budget that can work. And of course this assumes you can drive to a port within one overnight.

Also . . . don't limit yourself to one large cabin or two connecting cabins unless you want to limit yourself in that way. You could book 2 of the cheapest available inside cabins for three people, regardless of where they are located or how close they are to each other. Just put 1 adult and 2 kids in each room. If it saved you money and gets you on the boat, you can then either choose to cram all of you into one of the rooms and just use the other room for storage, or you can split up when sleeping but spend most of the rest of the time together!

Another option (one that we did) is -- if you find a cabin that will hold 4, you can book that one, then book an inside guarantee at usually a very good price for the other 2 people. Then do the same thing -- either put everyone in the larger cabin once on board, or just split up for sleeping (my daughter actually loved the fact that she and I had our own "playhouse" cabin away from everyone else)!

If you do anything that involves booking a cabin and then not really using it, just extend the courtesy of making contact with the cabin steward for the cabin you won't be using and letting him or her know -- that way there is no concern about someone not being in what is listed as an occupied cabin!

So . . . yes, a family of six can cruise for $3000 if they want to!

Costa has 2 newer ships that leave out of Ft. Lauderdale that run "Kids Sail Free" promotions in the Spring. We only had to pay port charges & taxes for our daughters. I think I read elsewhere that they run this promotion every Spring. There website is costacruises.com but I saved $700 by booking w/ an online agency instead of directly w/ the cruiseline. If you find a cruise that you like, put it on *****.com and online agencies will send you their bids.

Try January or September dates!!;)

We are also a family of 5. My suggestion is to sign up for Travelzoo's weekly newsletter. This lists the best travel deals on the internet each week including cruises. If you plan far enough in advance you can still find some great deals. For example, they just listed a 5 night Celebrity cruise for next Feb. school vacation for $470 a person.

Also...if you can go non prime weeks, you can still find some deals. School vacations and holidays are much higher.

HeatherC

We are a family of five. I am taking the kids on our next cruise. If you like Disney, you can do a 3/4 night cruise/land combination more cheaply than a 7 day cruise. While this would be the ideal kids vacation, I found this to still be more expensive than some other cruises.

The easiest way to save money on a cruise is to go out of season. This would probably save you the most money. This did not work out mainly because of my DW's schedule being a teacher.

Next, booking a cruise far in advance can also save you money, as well as sailing on a smaller/older ship, or going fewer days.

There were two main things we did to save money on our cruise. First we will drive to the port instead of flying. That will save us about $1000+. We wanted a balcony, and booked an obstructed view instead of a normal balcony. This will save about $600 total, with the only minus being we can't look directly down to see the water.

Hi there. We are a family of 6 and two years ago we took an 11-day Caribbean cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas (RCCL). In the front of the ship there are family outside staterooms that sleep 6 people. I'm unsure of the class right now, but I remember our cabin number was 8000. There were only 4 to 8 cabins of this class on the ship and we were told by our travel agent that these sell out fast. It was a great deal for us and less than getting two connecting cabins. The cabin actually had two rooms; the main room with a queen size bed and a sleeper sofa. There was a second tiny bunk room with upper and lower berths, a closet and a dresser. The room had two giant portholes so we had a view of the bow of the ship, and were directly underneath the bridge. I imagine all of RCCL's Radiance Class ships have this type of cabin and I believe the Explorer Class has them too. The Brilliance was amazing and we loved our cruise. I hope this helps!

1.Cruise in Sept,oct,january

2.Try to find a port within driving distance to eliminate airfare

3.several connecting inside cabins

We went on MIracle in jan. There were 5 of us in the cabin (officially only hold 4, but dd stayed with us in our room but was booked in grandma's cabin). It was for a week and was about $2500. We flew, but got RT airfare for $98/per person from RDU to Tampa. Paid $80 for hotel one night. Bought gift cards for restaurants ahead of time (out of our regular budger) for lunch when we returned home and for breakfast.

We could do the Celebration for all of us for about $1500. It is 5 nights out of jacksonville. that will likely be the next one we do (or similar priced).

I like the idea of kids cruising free. Will have to check out costa. :)

Just wanted to jump into to this thread and say "THANK YOU" for thinking about adoption! As an adopted child myself, I wanted to commend you! You are giving a child an amazing gift!! Best of luck to you and your family!

~Connie

Hi - We're traveling with a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids - 10, 9, 7 and 5) at the end of August - just before school starts. It was quite a bit cheaper to wait until then to go. We're booked on the Norwegian Spirit out of NYC. They were running a special that had 3rd/4th passengers "free". We have 2 inside cabins next to each other and we can drive to NYC. I think the cruise fare came to about $4000 total (a bit more than you wanted to spend).

However, my other hint would be - pick an itinerary where you're not dependent on additional cost expeditions in the ports. We're going to Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay(private island) and Nassau. I think we will only have to pay for transportation to Cape Canaveral to see the astronaut stuff. Some other itineraries had ports that looked like you really needed to book something "extra" to enjoy. With 6, that gets expensive very quickly!

I am having the same dilema planning a cheap family vacation is not easy. I am looking into an idea that was posted on another thread. On some ships they have aft balcony rooms that have a connecting inside room. I know it sounds weird but if you look at deck plans you will see these rooms. I read that by booking this way it is cheaper than using the 3 & 4 person prices. I hope this helped. Also sailing on non school breaks is cheaper. We are going on 1/6/07 on the Triumph and the prices are half the price of a summer cruise. We are also driving from SD to Miami. Sure it will be a long drive but it saves us almost 1300 in airfare for 5 of us. We can also not worry about packing to much for the airline and we get to set our pace for arrival. It sounds like alot of driving but my thoughts are kids grow so fast, my children are 2, 6, 7 in a few years we will be begging them to spend time with us so if I caan squeez in a few extra days with them it is worth it. In total it will take us 27 hours to drive to Miami. We have short plans along the way like going to the aquarium in Atlanta, checking out nashville, Visiting my husbands sister in GA just fun little Griswold Family Vacation stuff. If you map your trip out and find out all the stops in bettween you can go online and order (free) vacation information for each state. They will also send you a very nice map of their state for free. Gotta love free.:o

Hi - We're traveling with a family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids - 10, 9, 7 and 5) at the end of August - just before school starts. It was quite a bit cheaper to wait until then to go. We're booked on the Norwegian Spirit out of NYC. They were running a special that had 3rd/4th passengers "free". We have 2 inside cabins next to each other and we can drive to NYC. I think the cruise fare came to about $4000 total (a bit more than you wanted to spend).

 

However, my other hint would be - pick an itinerary where you're not dependent on additional cost expeditions in the ports. We're going to Port Canaveral, Great Stirrup Cay(private island) and Nassau. I think we will only have to pay for transportation to Cape Canaveral to see the astronaut stuff. Some other itineraries had ports that looked like you really needed to book something "extra" to enjoy. With 6, that gets expensive very quickly!

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~Connie

Just wanted to jump into to this thread and say "THANK YOU" for thinking about adoption! As an adopted child myself, I wanted to commend you! You are giving a child an amazing gift!! Best of luck to you and your family!

~Connie

Connie, thanks for the encouraging words. It's always nice to hear adult adoptees speak positively about it. We have 2 bio kids and 1 adopted from Guatemala at age 3. Hope to do a US foster-adopt of an older child next year. I guess in my mind there's always someone missing at the table, if you know what I mean. Hopefully, we can find our missing future family member and take them on a cruise now that we've gotten all these good ideas! :-)

If the kids can handle being out of school, look for deals in fall/early December..

For example on the princess website there are deals for our eastern sailing or the western sailings where cheapest inside cabins are $460 + $196 in tax for the first two passengers and $50 + $196 for the 3rd and 4th.

On Caribbean Princess it doesn't seem they have triples inside rooms only quads...so if you book 3 passengers in each room you'll get quad rooms...and you can figure out where to sleep whom.

Get two rooms side by side.

For your gang that would be under $3100.

Plus it takes off from Fort Lauderdale which means you could drive there.

It's very doable!

Also in the past, we've gotten great 3rd and 4th passenger rates with NCL.

Just do research and you'll come up with something.

I am having the same dilema planning a cheap family vacation is not easy. I am looking into an idea that was posted on another thread. On some ships they have aft balcony rooms that have a connecting inside room. I know it sounds weird but if you look at deck plans you will see these rooms. I read that by booking this way it is cheaper than using the 3 & 4 person prices. I hope this helped. Also sailing on non school breaks is cheaper. We are going on 1/6/07 on the Triumph and the prices are half the price of a summer cruise. We are also driving from SD to Miami. Sure it will be a long drive but it saves us almost 1300 in airfare for 5 of us. We can also not worry about packing to much for the airline and we get to set our pace for arrival. It sounds like alot of driving but my thoughts are kids grow so fast, my children are 2, 6, 7 in a few years we will be begging them to spend time with us so if I caan squeez in a few extra days with them it is worth it. In total it will take us 27 hours to drive to Miami. We have short plans along the way like going to the aquarium in Atlanta, checking out nashville, Visiting my husbands sister in GA just fun little Griswold Family Vacation stuff. If you map your trip out and find out all the stops in bettween you can go online and order (free) vacation information for each state. They will also send you a very nice map of their state for free. Gotta love free.:o

Melbre.....we're probably gonna road trip to Fort Lauderdale....Is the aquarium in Atlanta anything special? Just looking for some possible stops to do along the way.

I have been told it is awesome!!! It just opened late last year, this is the link to their site

http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/

Melissa:)

We live in the Atlanta area and have tried to go twice, it was sold out both times. I have heard that it sells out most weekends and holidays. You might want to buy your tickets online in advance if you really want to see it.

I read that on their website they take reservations for entrance time. I was kinda shocked by that. We will either buy online or have my SIL buy tickets she lives in Columbus. If you were to recommend a stop in the Atlanta area what would it be? I am looking for fun things to do on the way to Miami. We were originally going to visit Fort Benning with SIL but that is out of my MapIt route. Anything corny & family oreintated would be nice, if you missed my original post this is our Griswold Family Vacation:)

Melbre.....we're probably gonna road trip to Fort Lauderdale....Is the aquarium in Atlanta anything special? Just looking for some possible stops to do along the way.

If you can't make the aquarium, I would suggest trying Stone Mountian, 30 min below Atlanta. I am not sure how old your kids are/how adventurous you are, but you can take a 1.3 mile hike up to the top. I don't think it costs anything to climb it, except maybe for parking. They have a skytram to the top also, not sure how much that costs though.