Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 #1 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I'm taking a 9 day cruise on December, going solo on Navigator. I was doing some financial planning and came up with the following expenses: Cruise booking $1,386 Insurance $ 179 Refresh Drk Pkg $ 191 Grats $ 225 Airfare $ 253 Precruise Hotel $ 205 Kennel $ 143 Park n Fly $ 120 Excursions $ 200 Precruise Dinner $ 100 In addition, I'll have a minimal bar bill/corkage fee as I'm bringing two bottles of wine onboard. I guess I was struck by the $1,619 in additional expense to the cruise booking cost. Anyone have any comments/advice on how to lower the expenses.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaflamingo Posted April 19, 2018 #2 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Sure, don't buy the drink package and drink lots of water and ice tea. Don't take ships excursions, in fact don't take any excursions. Don't eat precruise at a fine restaurant, go to fast food. Drive to the cruise (although $253 for airfare is pretty cheap). Go the day of the cruise and save both hotel and dinner. Or stay at a Motel 6. Don't buy insurance and hope you don't get sick. Shoot the dog (just kidding) leave the dog with friends. Take Uber to the airport. Seriously, it's a vacation. Do it right and make it a great one. Don't stress over the money. Just enjoy your cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTO-Girl Posted April 19, 2018 #3 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I'm taking a 9 day cruise on December, going solo on Navigator. I was doing some financial planning and came up with the following expenses: Cruise booking $1,386 Insurance $ 179 Refresh Drk Pkg $ 191 Grats $ 225 Airfare $ 253 Precruise Hotel $ 205 Kennel $ 143 Park n Fly $ 120 Excursions $ 200 Precruise Dinner $ 100 In addition, I'll have a minimal bar bill/corkage fee as I'm bringing two bottles of wine onboard. I guess I was struck by the $1,619 in additional expense to the cruise booking cost. Anyone have any comments/advice on how to lower the expenses.... Price of insurance seems high. We paid a total of $160 for both of us through InsureMyTrip.com. Serves as primary with a medical cap of $500,000 and $1,000,000 in medical evacuation....and we are both in our late 60’s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #4 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Price of insurance seems high. We paid a total of $160 for both of us through InsureMyTrip.com. Serves as primary with a medical cap of $500,000 and $1,000,000 in medical evacuation....and we are both in our late 60’s I'm going to look into that. My 2019 cruise for the same policy was $84 going solo. $250K medical and $500K evac. TY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molsonschooner Posted April 19, 2018 #5 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Bring your animals with you, lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #6 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Bring your animals with you, lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Luckily she not a certified therapy pet. Plus I don't want to be the subject of another CC thread on this subject!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare xpcdoojk Posted April 19, 2018 #7 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I'm taking a 9 day cruise on December, going solo on Navigator. I was doing some financial planning and came up with the following expenses: Cruise booking $1,386 Insurance $ 179 Refresh Drk Pkg $ 191 Grats $ 225 Airfare $ 253 Precruise Hotel $ 205 Kennel $ 143 Park n Fly $ 120 Excursions $ 200 Precruise Dinner $ 100 In addition, I'll have a minimal bar bill/corkage fee as I'm bringing two bottles of wine onboard. I guess I was struck by the $1,619 in additional expense to the cruise booking cost. Anyone have any comments/advice on how to lower the expenses.... I was struck by how cheap the kennel part was. I think you are paying too much for soda and too little for excursions. Regardless of thru the ship or on your own, the purpose of travel is to get out and travel. Plus pretty fancy pre cruise dinner that costs a $100. Before the cruise find a local place where locals eat. If sailing from south Florida find a traditional Cuban food restaurant, and eat like a king for $40. The cruise is always the lesser portion, overall. JC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coralc Posted April 19, 2018 #8 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Look for cheaper insurance. And do you have a neighbor that can pet-sit/feed/walk instead of kenneling? I don't know how far away you are from an airport? Last time we Ubered even at 4:30 AM/5:30 PM each way instead of Park n' Fly, it was only $40 each way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #9 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I was struck by how cheap the kennel part was. I think you are paying too much for soda and too little for excursions. Regardless of thru the ship or on your own, the purpose of travel is to get out and travel. Plus pretty fancy pre cruise dinner that costs a $100. Before the cruise find a local place where locals eat. If sailing from south Florida find a traditional Cuban food restaurant, and eat like a king for $40. The cruise is always the lesser portion, overall. JC Kennel fees are pretty standard in my area. Refreshment package includes more than soda (non alcohol, water. OJ), I am splurging on awesome dinner my first night in Miami, Trulucks. Next to my hotel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigHouseFootball Posted April 19, 2018 #10 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Like others have said, I would find a cheaper place to eat, along with a cheaper hotel. You don’t need to stay at a Motel 6, but you could find a cheaper alternative. I usually scope out the area on google maps and then cross reference reviews on that and TripAdvisor. Besides, it’s is only for one night. You could also drop from the refreshment package to just the pop (soda) package. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtpepsifiend Posted April 19, 2018 #11 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Find your own travel insurance, as stated. My citibank double cashback card has some, but no med evac. Can you spend 4K in 3 months, possibly by prepaying some bills and do you have good credit? And there are services that charge a fee 1-2% so you can pay rent on a credit card and your landlord gets a check. Then apply for the chase sapphire preferred card. you can get 50K points, which they say is good for $625 in travel, but you can usually get 10%-20% cheaper by not going through the chase travel portal. Still, there's a good chance you could get your hotel/air covered by this. You need a decent income, though. There's also an annual fee of $95, so cancel before your one year anniversary. keep checking for lower cruise/hotel prices-those prices fluctuate often. some apps/websites can monitor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #12 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Find your own travel insurance, as stated. My citibank double cashback card has some, but no med evac. Can you spend 4K in 3 months, possibly by prepaying some bills and do you have good credit? And there are services that charge a fee 1-2% so you can pay rent on a credit card and your landlord gets a check. Then apply for the chase sapphire preferred card. you can get 50K points, which they say is good for $625 in travel, but you can usually get 10%-20% cheaper by not going through the chase travel portal. Still, there's a good chance you could get your hotel/air covered by this. You need a decent income, though. There's also an annual fee of $95, so cancel before your one year anniversary. keep checking for lower cruise/hotel prices-those prices fluctuate often. some apps/websites can monitor. TY. I'm using a $200 Delta credit on this trip. I get 1% cash back on my VISA. All your suggestions are very good though. Every little bit helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smplybcause Posted April 19, 2018 #13 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Why are your grats so much? My last 7 day was under 100, two more days shouldn't more than double unless you're planning to tip a lot extra. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cpayne Posted April 19, 2018 #14 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Trustedhousesitter.com for FREE pet sitter. Although like someone else said your allocated $ for kennel are really low and seems like an amazing deal. For 10 days we would pay $350+ and that’s considered a real bargain!!! Use the App called hopper to track prices for flights and alert you to lower fares (assuming you haven’t already bought your air tkt) Check groupon, living social, etc for often 40-50% off airport Pkg. Priceline your hotel although even the low budget ones in Miami go for easily $100! Crazy what hotels in MIA/FLL go for! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #15 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Trustedhousesitter.com for FREE pet sitter. Although like someone else said your allocated $ for kennel are really low and seems like an amazing deal. For 10 days we would pay $350+ and that’s considered a real bargain!!! Use the App called hopper to track prices for flights and alert you to lower fares (assuming you haven’t already bought your air tkt) Check groupon, living social, etc for often 40-50% off airport Pkg. Priceline your hotel although even the low budget ones in Miami go for easily $100! Crazy what hotels in MIA/FLL go for! Sent from my iPhone using Forums Like I noted earlier, $12-$13 per day for kennel. TY for your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DfDinLA Posted April 19, 2018 #16 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Enjoy your vacation. Look at reducing your expenses for the rest of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #17 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Why are your grats so much? My last 7 day was under 100, two more days shouldn't more than double unless you're planning to tip a lot extra. Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk[/quote Yes, I normally tip $100 extra on top of auto gratuities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sea shepherd Posted April 19, 2018 #18 Share Posted April 19, 2018 $143 for kennel seems way cheep it coast me 100 a day for two dogs every time I go. I did a 35 day cruise and the dog bill was 3500. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #19 Share Posted April 19, 2018 $143 for kennel seems way cheep it coast me 100 a day for two dogs every time I go. I did a 35 day cruise and the dog bill was 3500. Sent from my iPhone using Forums See post #15. Just lucky for me, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted April 19, 2018 #20 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I think that you are looking for savings where there are none, based on your responses to people's suggestions. Rewind your thinking and don't add it all up. Just go an enjoy. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #21 Share Posted April 19, 2018 I think that you are looking for savings where there are none, based on your responses to people's suggestions. Rewind your thinking and don't add it all up. Just go an enjoy. :) Thanks MM. I appreciate your input. I'm always looking for other's suggestions on this subject. You never know when one will help. It's the purpose of CC, IMHO... I will thoroughly enjoy my first trip to the ABC's ;p;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvscruising2007 Posted April 19, 2018 #22 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Hi, John I would look at the Insurance, the refreshment package, gratuities and pre-cruise dinner. All of your other expenses seem reasonable. See you on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted April 19, 2018 #23 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Thanks MM. I appreciate your input. I'm always looking for other's suggestions on this subject. You never know when one will help. It's the purpose of CC, IMHO... I will thoroughly enjoy my first trip to the ABC's ;p;p You MUST snorkel with Woodwind in Bonaire!!!! http://www.woodwindbonaire.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnamac123 Posted April 19, 2018 Author #24 Share Posted April 19, 2018 You MUST snorkel with Woodwind in Bonaire!!!! www.woodwindbonaire.com I'm booked on the afternoon trip, December 12th!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare WrittenOnYourHeart Posted April 19, 2018 #25 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Lyft to and from the airport. Unless you're super far from your airport, it will be less expensive than Park and Fly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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