Realistically- how much $ to put on cruise card?

[Tinalou]

Hey everyone!

 

Not long to go for our cruise now!

 

Just wanted some advice about how much money we will realistically need to put on our cruise card for a 10 day cruise for my hubby-to-be and myself.

 

We are not really big drinkers, will probably only have a bottle of bubbly on our wedding night and a drink here and there.

 

Our shore tours have come to $98.00 so there's that on the cruise card already.

 

I dont want to overdo it because the more is on there, the more I will spend!

 

Realistically, how much did you need on your cruise card or how much would you suggest we put on the card? :D

 

Thankyou!

[lolliepollie81]

i dont know if anyone will really be able to answer this one for you. everyone spends differently. we spent a lot on our 11 night cruise- im afraid if I right the total down I may give some one a heart attack. what I found was you dont realise how quickly things add up. you are best putting cash onto your cards rather than using credit so you have some control over your spending.

[Tinalou]

Thanks Lolliepollie.

 

I realise its a difficult question...but I dont even know how much cash to put aside for this :confused:...any suggestions or help would be most helpful. :)

[howsthis]

I did it reasonably cheap i think because I only spent $500 including tours and tips for 11 days but i didn't drink much and only lost $20 on the pokies but spent about $100 overall on bingo, so did alright to only spend $500 I reckon.

[maf101]

We spent a lot on photo's on the Sky. They can soon add up if you purchase almost everyone. They bring back good memories.

[Skyrules]

Hey everyone!

 

Not long to go for our cruise now!

 

Just wanted some advice about how much money we will realistically need to put on our cruise card for a 10 day cruise for my hubby-to-be and myself.

 

We are not really big drinkers, will probably only have a bottle of bubbly on our wedding night and a drink here and there.

 

Our shore tours have come to $98.00 so there's that on the cruise card already.

 

I dont want to overdo it because the more is on there, the more I will spend!

 

Realistically, how much did you need on your cruise card or how much would you suggest we put on the card? :D

 

Thankyou!

 

We normally budget for about $100 per day per person to cover ship board expenses (drinking/photo's/shore tours/tipping/Duty Free/etc). Then a bit on top for money for the ports. On our last cruise we'd also put a bit of money aside to buy a painting at the Art Auctions if there was one that took our fancey.

 

On our last cruise we actually came in under budget, which we put down to the reduced number of choices on the cocktail menu.

 

Kym

[Skyrules]

We spent a lot on photo's on the Sky. They can soon add up if you purchase almost everyone. They bring back good memories.

 

I agree - I think photo's have tended to be one of our biggest expenses on the last couple of cruises, but they are worth it, especially the formal portraits.

 

 

Kym

[icemaiden2310]

Hi Tinalou, when i came back from Pacific sun in june i decided that next cruise I went on I would decide on an amount I would allocate for spending money and then.............. DOUBLE IT

[chaz cruiser]

Spending money is a very personal thing. There are several threads already that deal with this topic and it may be worth checking them out as I think they even had details of the "standard" costs you are likely to incur which will then make it possible for you to work out a "budget".

 

I believe P&O have an expected daily spend of $100 per person. It is their target to get you to spend this. And I must admit this is what I normally spend, although not always on the ship. I tend to spend a fair amount in Vila buying duty free and gifts. I like to go to the spa at least once per cruise and have a massage. I also like to get my hair done for one of the formal nights. I always spend heaps on photos but as per maf & Kym I believe they are worth it.

 

I'll try to find some of the old posts and bump them for you. For me the biggest contributing factor on how much I spend is how many & who I am travelling with. The main thing is to keep an eye on and control it just like you would on any other holiday!! And once it's gone it's gone. Of course you could be lucky and win bingo on the last day and win it all back including the cost of the cruise!!!

 

Cheers,

Chaz:)

[sweet_successes]

Hi

 

Spending money is a very personal thing - my husband and I spent $2400 :eek: for the 2 of us on a 13 night cruise. The credit card is still going "save me save me!!!".We bought lots of photos, played bingo and horseracing and also a print at the art auction - i also managed to drink my way through the cocktail list - an ambition that I achieved!! :D

 

Cheers Rach

[aussiedisneyfan]

Get this, keepcruising averages around $400 for her family of five!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Most of it is on her cocktails!

 

My family is around $700-$1000 for 3 of us.

[karmac]

Get this, keepcruising averages around $400 for her family of five!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Most of it is on her cocktails!

 

My family is around $700-$1000 for 3 of us.

 

Do you mean for the whole cruise?:eek: . WOW. We are also a family of five and went through about $1500-00 in 11 nights. We didn't do any tours and bought only 1 photo (embarkation one) but it did include tipping for 3 of us and we also bought the DVD. DH doesn't drink alcohol but he & 15 y.o son got into the mocktails. I drink wine, had 1 bacardi & coke & couldn't believe they didn't sell bacardi breezers, probably saved me money as I would have had a few of those. I think I also had 1 beer. Most of it went on wine.

 

Karen

[karmac]

Hi Jane, I've just noticed in your signature that you have booked another cruise. Is Keepcruising also going? When did you decide on that?

 

Karen

[aussiedisneyfan]

Wondered how long it would take for someone to notice. I have told keepcruising she is going. She is understandably worried about leaving her husband and 3 kids alone. Me however, mine will survive. Actually my husband will cope a lot better than I would being left behind. He is going to visit his family next year without me. So we will be even.

 

I have reserved a cabin till Monday. There is myself, a friend we went with in January, another girlfriend from work (who is a bit worried) and Keepcruising. If both of those 2 pull out then I guess we wont be going.

[AuzzieCruiser]

Call me naive, but this is the first time I have heard about putting money onto your card. Does it work like an EFTPOS system??

On my last cruise I managed to spend just over USD500 on a 9 night cruise.

I didn't think i spent that much, but once I saw the conversion to AUD:eek: .

I'm just thankful I'm not a big drinker. My mum and I had a glass of wine with dinner one night. It ended up costing around AUD15 for the glass!!

The Irish couple we had dinner with every night, found everything quite cheap, and spent most of their money on grog, though they didn't drink alcohol at dinner.

I love getting on to the TV and looking at my account to see how much I have spent so far.

Can you book shore excursions through the TV on P&O. This sure helped beating the queue down at the shore excursions desk, and was done in less than minute, with the tickets delivered to you later that day.

I am trying to organise a budget for this cruise. I know I am not going to get the soda card, saving around AUD90. There is something about the water that makes it taste nice, that I won't need the soda card this time around.

I'd be lucky to spend $100 a day, as I steer clear of bingo and the casino!!

[aussiedisneyfan]

The Aussie P&O ships aren't as up to date as the US lines. We don't have tv access to our accounts, shore tours etc. We also don't have soda cards. They just sell cans for $2 (may have gone up).

 

On the old system we were required to either put cash on or use our credit cards to "make a purchase" of the amount we wanted to have available on our cruise cards. Sounds like now it is more like the US ships where you just register your details and it tallys everything up.

[Skyrules]

Call me naive, but this is the first time I have heard about putting money onto your card. Does it work like an EFTPOS system??

 

It worked like a debit account. At the start of the cruise you put a certain amount on the card, by cash, travellers cheque or credit card, and then used the card to make purchases everywhere on the ship. Each time you made a purchase your receipt would tell you what the balance was on your account - and if it was getting low, you'd go back to the purser's desk and put more money on the account.

 

At the end of the cruise you "cashed out" your card and received back any amount that was still on the card. In later times, if you'd used a credit card to put cash on the card you could nominate to have the final balance credited back to that credit card. Otherwise you hadc to que up with everyone else at the pursers desk on the last day to get whatever you had left on the card back.

 

Kym

[keepcruising]

Do you mean for the whole cruise?:eek: . WOW. We are also a family of five and went through about $1500-00 in 11 nights. We didn't do any tours and bought only 1 photo (embarkation one) but it did include tipping for 3 of us and we also bought the DVD. DH doesn't drink alcohol but he & 15 y.o son got into the mocktails. I drink wine, had 1 bacardi & coke & couldn't believe they didn't sell bacardi breezers, probably saved me money as I would have had a few of those. I think I also had 1 beer. Most of it went on wine.

 

Karen

 

Karen, what AussiDF neglected to add, was that as we need a fridge for medication, we also have at least 1 case of softdrinks with us, so no buying extra drinks through the day for us of the kids, and depending on how well beer quoits goes, we have also ended with a dozen cans of beer once, and DH doesn't drink beer much, so that's all mine, So he has a couple of drinks at night while I have a cocktail.

Mind you also cause he's in a wheel chair the tours aren't for us, when we get off as a family we organise our own thing, and that always works out cheaper.

Sandra

[aussiedisneyfan]

She still is the queen of minimalisation. Talking about taking a handbag as her luggage and you know what, I reckon she would come close to fitting! :D

[karmac]

She still is the queen of minimalisation. Talking about taking a handbag as her luggage and you know what, I reckon she would come close to fitting! :D

 

"Good on her" I say. Wish I could be like that:)

 

Karen