Is $500 going to be enough spending money????

[freedomhoneymoon09]

Ok, we are going on our first cruise 4/2/09 on the freedom. It is our honeymoon and we want to have a good time. My question is...Is 500 going to be enough?? Of course this is only for our ss account not including tips. We have prepaid tips, excursions, and we have already set aside $150 dollars spending cash for each port. This 500 would only be for drinks, pics, souvenirs, etc ON BOARD. Also, do you think we would need more than $150 in ports? We aren't heavy drinker, will probably have lunch at the most and pick some things up for the kids. I know that ss is linked to a credit card but since we are young our credit lines are limited and we really don't want to go overboard. Thanks in advance. :)

[klfrodo]

At first I was going to say,,"No Way"

 

But then I see that you have prepaid tips, you have money set aside for each port. light drinkers,,

What about casino?

 

Otherwise,,,you should be fine

[I Am Canadian, Eh]

Ok, we are going on our first cruise 4/2/09 on the freedom. It is our honeymoon and we want to have a good time. My question is...Is 500 going to be enough?? Of course this is only for our ss account not including tips. We have prepaid tips, excursions, and we have already set aside $150 dollars spending cash for each port. This 500 would only be for drinks, pics, souvenirs, etc ON BOARD. Also, do you think we would need more than $150 in ports? We aren't heavy drinker, will probably have lunch at the most and pick some things up for the kids. I know that ss is linked to a credit card but since we are young our credit lines are limited and we really don't want to go overboard. Thanks in advance. :)

 

You'll probably be fine, seeing how you've taken care of your tips, etc. When you say will have lunch at the most, you're not expecting to pay for your meals, are you?

 

If you're light drinkers, but heavy soda drinkers, look into a soda card for $6/day - unlimited glasses per person.

 

Enjoy your honeymoon & have a great cruise!

[cb at sea]

If that's all you want to spend (or can spend), then you will make it work! Photos can be expensive, but realize that not all of them are good, and you don't need to buy every single picture! (Take your own camera, it's cheaper!)

I think you'll be ok---you can check your account anytime you want, to see what your balance is...

[firefly333]

The big money is for drinks and casino. If you dont gamble much and dont drink a lot you can spend very little and have fun.

[mikaula]

First of all...CONGRATULATIONS!!

 

How much you spend all depends on you. I have spent less than $500 on a 7 day cruise often. I have also spent lots more than that! If you plan on buying a few of the ships photographs I suggest you wait till the end of the cruise and pick a few of your "favorites" They leave them up all week. Drinks can add up quick and so does Bingo. There are lots of "free" things to enjoy too. Go to the shows, participate in trivia, kareokee, listen to all the great entertainers or soak up the sun. I'm sure that once you go you won't be able to wait till the next time you can cruise. It is addicting.

[freedomhoneymoon09]

Thank you to everyone that has responded so far. I can breathe a little easier. The reason we are on such a tight budget is because we are from albuquerque, having the wedding in Vegas. It has gotten pretty costly. We are flying to Ft. Lauderdale directly from Vegas. I'm sure we will get some wedding gifts that we can spend but I don't want to count on that. We will probably play a little bingo, Future DH doesn't like to gamble, and I don't care to drink. I think it will all work out. I also plan on taking alot of my own pics. I have never been big on purchasing photos. Maybe one or two. We aren't big soda drinkers either. My weakness is shopping! :rolleyes:

[cruiserbryce]

for us it wouldnt, but everyone's spending is very different

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

On our seven night cruise we spent about $300 on board, and we don't drink alcohol or buy other drinks...we take our own cokes on board with us in the beginning. This actually did include the prepaid tips. We spent an additional $300 in ports doing either excursions or shopping.

 

On our four night with only one stop in Cozumel, we spent about $150 onboard and about $150 in Cozumel (we did an excursion.)

 

I agree with a pp that gambling and drinking are the big money items.

[trish1c]

I think you will be fine since other stuff is paid for. Plus, if you have already paid for your excursions, $150 per port is a lot; I rarely spend more than $20-$30 per port (except St. Jewelry aka St Thomas but that's a seperate budget for me :p ). So based upon having a lot of money per port you have a bit of an extra cushion.

I love to spend & tend to spend like crazy but b/c of the economy & the exchange rate we were on a budget for our HM in October. B/c we truly watched every Euro we had money left over.

Congratulations & enjoy!

[Roadtripster]

for us it wouldnt, but everyone's spending is very different

 

 

Exactly! For us, we would be bringing home most of that money.

We hardly spend anything extra.

[caribsun]

You should be fine. Our S&S card has never been over $500 for the both of us. We never book excursions through through the cruise line. We negotiate when we get to port.

[jen1250]

Lucky for me, I am an ice water drinker and husband is a mt dew drinker. We take bottled water and mt dew on board. We aren't big drinkers either, we may have a beer here and there so $500.00 for us is normal if not too much ;). We are going on a 4 nighter in May and so far have $350.00 in on board credit, I am thinking this will be more than enough for us, but I always budget in more just in case.

[janoma]

As I read thru the responses, I am getting the impression that most of the responders are taking Caribbean cruises of a week or less. One of the posts I read on here indicated that there's a big difference between those cruises and Med cruises. We will be doing a 12-day Med cruise on RCL in late September and intend to do a lot of off-ship touring. Can someone advise what a reasonable "fund" would be....I am already thinking $500/day/couple - which is frightening me.

 

Also, on-ship costs: does someone have a rough idea what the cost for the RCL "alcohol" card would be and what that would cover? Thanks.

[mistergq]

On my last 7 day 3 port cruise, with a $100 OBC, we had a sign and sail account of approximately $1,000. That also included tips, so you don't have it.

 

I think if you have $500 + 450 (for the ports), you will be good to go.

 

Don't forget about food at airports, tips for drivers, and little incidentals like that. Those add up a lot quicker than one would think.

[Waitin to cruise]

My first cruise I bought 1 soda card 1 drink and the tips. Made a few purchases in Nassau so a little over 100 dollars for a 3 days cruise. It all depends on the person. If you go crazy spending it can add up quick! There was a family of about 8 down the hall from us (they were always drunk) and on the last night when they deliver your bill, they had a BOOK!! I would have hated to pay for that!

[jp2001]

Since your service charge and excursions are paid for, you will be OK but only if you drink very moderately (one or two drinks per day per person), purchase a picture or two but not the whole set, don’t play bingo or go to the casino and choose inexpensive ship souvenirs for your kids.

 

It’s possible to have a good time on a ship without spending too much but you have to restrain yourself from a lot of things they have to offer.

 

A cruise is great for a honeymoon, you’ll have a room for the honeymoon purpose :), good meals included in the fare, different scenary most days and also good shows nightly.

 

IMHO, it beats an all-inclusive Resort by far even if I have to restrain my alcohol intake (not that I drink that much anyway, but those foo-foo drinks are very expensive on ships – about 10$ on NCL, Beer is about 5$ if I remember well).

 

Some cruiselines will let you bring a bottle of wine or two with you but not all of them.

 

IMHO, 150$ for 2 in every port is alright if you don’t shop much. Do your research and you’ll see which ports require an excursion (try to find independently, less expensive than through the cruiseline) and which can be explored on your own (by foot or with public transportation – make sure to have PLENTY of time to return to the ship). In some ports, most attractions are close to the ship, you can come back for lunch instead of buying on the island.

 

Have fun!

[RoofingPrincess]

Also, on-ship costs: does someone have a rough idea what the cost for the RCL "alcohol" card would be and what that would cover? Thanks.

RCL doesn't have an alcohol card.

[SimpleKnowledge]

I'm in the "you'll be fine" category.

 

One thing you can do is go to customer service and they can give you a copy of your charges any time during the cruise. I usually check on the third or forth day to make sure we're not overspending. You can check every single day if you want.

[janoma]

OK Roofing Princess - now I've got to go back and see where I read that they did! I'll let you know where I found the reference to it...perhaps I was dreaming....

[cb at sea]

I reckon they're finding out if $500 is enough! They should be well out to sea by now!

[Prphan2]

I reckon they're finding out if $500 is enough! They should be well out to sea by now!

 

 

Good for them! I just got the "warm fuzzies" thinking about the good time they're probably already having.:)

[vilandra]

Hi,

 

I'm going on the Grand Princess for 14 nights on April 25th 2009. I'm travelling with my two teenage brothers and my mother. We each are taking $640 with us $140 each for tips and $500 each to spend.

 

I don't drink and mother doesn't very much and as for my brothers they're too young.

 

I think $500 each is enough for them to spend on coke and t-shirts etc.

 

My mother and I will go to the spa for a 30min massage and I will get a milkshake card and that's about it. We're also bringing a few packs of coke onboard with us too.

 

We have all the free food we can eat and the Ice creams are free in the dining rooms.

 

Relaxing by the pool and enjoying the night entertaiment which again is free cost nothing and we're all looking forward to ding just that.

 

So in answer to the origional question $500 should be just fine.

[c1audiagabriella]

How do you get a soda card thats a good idea. :)

[Readytogo85]

I've seen some posts indicating you should plan to spend close to a thousand dollars beyond the initial cost of the cruise. We aren't heavy drinkers also, though a drink here or there and planned out excursions made it entirely possible to stay within a $500.00 budget. (I had planned on the tips separately - those people work hard and deserve it!)