Affording a cruise

[BosoxI]

I'm sure we all agree that a cruise is a very cost effective way to vacation, but it still is a considerable expense. The basic cost of passage even in a modest cabin plus air fare, side trips, beverages, tips etc. can result in quite a good sized bill. So, here's my question: what allows you to take a cruise? Or more specifically, where does the money come from? Stretching out credit card payments, personal savings, an inheritance, a fantastic job, wise investments or perhaps conservative ones (is there a difference?), great luck at the track, or perhaps a wealthy spouse:p. Please don't respond if you're sensitive to the question, as I'm asking out of curiosity of people I don't know. In my case my spouse's job allows for free air transportation , we are older and my retirement is adequate, plus we have invested extremely conservatively recently, so we been spared the down market. But in my single days, the credit card route was my saviour.

[njdevil08]

Based on the nature of this question - you may get some snarky responses. I'm warning you to please ignore them and letting you know not to be offended.

 

Cruising is very different for many people. Depending on where you live, you may not HAVE to fly. If you live in coastal areas, there usually is a place where you can get on a ship SOMEWHAT far away. For instance, I live in NJ and there are many ships coming and going out of NY/NJ. However, the options are still limited. BUT - we can drive to Florida (2 days, 24 hours), and we have discussed maybe doing that for our next cruise. Also, if you vacation other places, it becomes a substitute. Many people who cruise often won't take as many land vacations, etc. This is a very difficult question to answer because everyone's sitiation is VERY different. But just know that you're not alone and there many cruisers out their saving every last penny to take the vacation of a lifetime.

[TracieABD]

We have no debt (so no interest payments, etc). Both of us work really hard at full time jobs and make a decent living. We drive older model cars and don't replace them every ten minutes. We don't eat out every night and neither of us are big shoppers. I clip coupons and shop sales.

 

 

Oh! and our son found a way to go to college cheaply (at least this first year), so that will not be a financial obligation.

[Tatka]

I don't know. Salary?

 

I am getting paid at my work. My DH too. :)

 

But, we book cruises with the credit card - which we pay in full at the end of the month - so we can enjoy cash back. We have RCCL card, and cash back can be used toward the SBC.

 

We also do not go all out during the cruises. Yes sales pitches are almost everywhere, but this doesn't mean you have to buy eveything, drink every drink or order every Shorex.

 

You can same substential amount if you plan ahead. Book the cruise year ahead and check pricess. Ask for an adjustment or rebook at better price. Book off season cruises, they are cheaper.

 

Cruising these days is CHEAP, comparing even to 5-6 years ago.

[Katie333]

It's always been interesting to me that some of the folks on this board can afford to cruise almost back to back throughout the year. In a lot of cases, those cruises are very long voyages as well. My assumption is that they are retired folks who worked hard, saved money and are enjoying cruising at their retirement lifestyle. :)

 

Since I'm not in that camp, I'd say for us, cruising is a choice. We could certainly spend our funds elsewhere as there always seems to be something that needs to be fixed/replaced in our home for example. With that said, I'm a bargain hunter and I always look for a deal. We take one cruise during hurricane season (which also happens to be our anniversary) and find that just about everything associated with the cruise is cheaper. We use points for free hotel stays and use our travel rewards credit card to save money on the cost of the flight. We are also relatively frugal while onboard. We rarely come back with a bill greater than $300 and that includes the auto-tips. Lately we've been making sure we always have OBC (Shareholder Benefit and FCC) and that cuts down our onboard expenses even further. Our last onboard bill was $53 after our OBC.

 

I've known many people who were waiting for their retirement to start vacationing. In many cases, this works out and they are healthy enough to travel regularly. In other cases, I've known people in their 30s and 40s who get cancer or some other horrible disease and poof, there goes those grand plans.

 

And finally, I am a planner! I book my cruises well in advance and save up for them. Since this means I always have something booked, the cycle becomes 1-2 cruises per year.

[Duck Duck Cruise]

We are very fortunate to be able to set aside 15% to 20% of our income for entertainment. For us, cruising is our entertainment.

 

We book our cruises far in advance and watch the website every single day for price reductions and have our TA get them for us.

 

Other than a mortgage we have only necessity debt (utilities, medical co-pays if needed, etc.)

 

If we can't pay for the cruise up front, we don't go. One time, many years ago, we paid for our cruise with a credit card and it took forever to pay it off. We learned our lesson.

 

Now we are able to cruise twice a year, although we will be skipping one or two in 2011 because we want to build a new garage onto our house so our entertainment money for next year will go mostly into that. We will probably have to book a short one sometime in 2011 to not go through withdrawals.

 

We are very, very fortunate. This type of thread makes us really realize how lucky we are. Thank you.

[paul929207]

My wife and I are both retired. When we were working, we save month from each paycheck. We put the max into the 401K (tax deferred account in US). We paid extra to the mortgage to pay the house off early, then we saved what had been the payment. We pay cash for cars. We have no debt.

[billie5]

The maximum social security payout these days is around $28,000. If you combined that with, say, a $50,000 pension, even if you had no other savings your income would be $78,000. Could you afford to cruise, let us say, for 6 months out of every year? At $100 per day (inside cabin :) ) that would be $18,000 in cost. Certainly doable. In fact, you could afford to live on the ship for around $36,000 and you would still be saving much of your income.

 

Not that everyone is going to have a $50,000 pension (although, if you do, your s.s. payments are likely to be near the max). Nor would I personally ever want to cruise that much. There are many other interesting ways to travel. However, your question was how people could afford it.

 

Bill

[ONT-CA]

My wife and I are both retired. When we were working, we save month from each paycheck. We put the max into the 401K (tax deferred account in US). We paid extra to the mortgage to pay the house off early, then we saved what had been the payment. We pay cash for cars. We have no debt.

 

Right on! Ever since I saw my first cruise ship depart our then home port fifty years ago I knew that some day I would be one of those passengers and I have planned our retirement on just that. What people today don't realize is the amount of interest they pay on just living. What costs us, say, $1,000 cash cost them $1,325. with credit charges. That difference and those savings have allowed us to sail all over the globe.

[LARGIN]

No debt.. Saved while we worked and now enjoying the fruits of our labor. Retirement is great! :D

[BobT172]

We have no debt (so no interest payments, etc). Both of us work really hard at full time jobs and make a decent living. We drive older model cars and don't replace them every ten minutes. We don't eat out every night and neither of us are big shoppers. I clip coupons and shop sales.

 

 

Sounds like responsible living to me...

 

We worked hard and for go alot of temptations to pay off the mortgage...minimal dinners out... minimal vacations... buy only what we can afford...keep our cars 10 or more years...any credit card charges are paid off that month...etc...etc...

 

there is no money tree in this family's yard... so now we can enjoy ourselves alittle...

[sabookkeeper]

I'm sure we all agree that a cruise is a very cost effective way to vacation, but it still is a considerable expense. The basic cost of passage even in a modest cabin plus air fare, side trips, beverages, tips etc. can result in quite a good sized bill. So, here's my question: what allows you to take a cruise? Or more specifically, where does the money come from? Stretching out credit card payments, personal savings, an inheritance, a fantastic job, wise investments or perhaps conservative ones (is there a difference?), great luck at the track, or perhaps a wealthy spouse:p. Please don't respond if you're sensitive to the question, as I'm asking out of curiosity of people I don't know. In my case my spouse's job allows for free air transportation , we are older and my retirement is adequate, plus we have invested extremely conservatively recently, so we been spared the down market. But in my single days, the credit card route was my saviour.

Now that our children are grown up and we have only one in university, we decided to start cruising again (we had cruised once before we started our family). Our cruise in 2009 was a Western Carribean. We booked an inexpensive inside cabin so we would have the money to book all of the shore excursions that we wanted. We don't drink so we purchased a soda package. In 2010, we did the same itinerary. The entire cruise was less expensive because we didn't do any shore excursions. We booked an inside room again, but also booked Sanctuary for the week. In 2011 we will be doing the Eastern Carribean and wil probably do it again in 2012. By then our son will be out of university and on his own. Then we are hoping to do some longer cruises and different itineraries. Doing the same itinerary 2 years in a row, allows us to cruise every year instead of every 2 years. We still get off the ship at every port, but it doesn't cost us anything extra.

 

Darlene

[Faith77]

I just live a pretty simple life--no house, car, children, or pets. I live in a small apartment in a college community close to where I work.

 

I hoped to retire at 62 but this will probably not happen now. So, instead, I'm planning to do a big trip at 62 which might be a 30 night cruise. I love reading about cc members longer trips. This gives me something to dream about and work for.

 

In recent years I've stopped doing short (3/4/5 day) trips. This saves me $500-$1,000 a shot. Now, when I travel, a cruise becomes a part of a longer vacation. I really enjoy reading these threads. Much of the time I get tips on how to be even more frugal.

 

Faith

[Kimbopolo]

We have no debt (so no interest payments, etc). Both of us work really hard at full time jobs and make a decent living. We drive older model cars and don't replace them every ten minutes. We don't eat out every night and neither of us are big shoppers. I clip coupons and shop sales.

 

Same here. And we live in a very modest home. We realized a long time ago we can't have it all, so we chose to forgo the material stuff in order to spend our disposable income on life experiences - like travel.

[r&rlovescruising]

We have a vacation savings account. Early on used the CC which wasn't a good idea. Now every week we have $ put away automatically in our vacation savings account. We always get a FCC on our cruise and use that to book our next year's trip. Then we save to pay it all in cash when the final payment comes up. I look for the best prices on air and usually book any hotels on Priceline all paid ahead. Then when we go we are frugal on the ship and research all our tours to get our money's worth. Our last trip we went with cash only and actually came home with some..... And we had a wonderful time! :D

 

Wish we were retired and could cruise all the time but retirement is getting farther away instead of closer so we just have to be satisfied with our once and sometimes twice a year. :rolleyes:

[Loonbeam]

In our case, I make a decent salary and the wife works as well, and we have no kids, which frees up time and money (and reduces the cost of vacation). Cruising, with a little research is actually a very cost efficient way to see multiple locations.

 

Cruises are only part of our overall vacation plans too. We keep a rolling 5 year travel plan, with some trips more expensive than others that let us keep a reasonable average spend per year. Some years we pay cash, some years I will pay off the CC for a while.

 

Also, I travel for work, so the accumulated points from airlines and hotels help. For example, this year is a non-cruise year in SoCal, we are flying first class from PHL to San Diego for $65 round trip and a big hit to my mileage bank. Next year when we do the Panama Canal, the airfare down to Ft. Lauderdale as well as the hotels before and after the cruise will all be paid for with points/miles.

 

In addition, I use affinity credit cards for my preferred airline, hotel chain and Princess and make sure I pay them off, which generates extra funds. I even pay things like utilities and mortgage with them.

 

With pre-planning, research and a little work, vacations, cruising or otherwise don't have to be budget breakers.

[caribill]

I'm sure we all agree that a cruise is a very cost effective way to vacation, but it still is a considerable expense.

 

And that is in part the answer to your question.

 

If you are to take a vacation to NYC, Wahington DC, Los Angeles, etc., chances are you will spend more on a decent hotel room that does not include breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as entertainment, multiple pools, dancing, and many activities.

 

If you can afford a vacation to many places in the USA, then you can afford a cruise.

[cdngrl]

this is a very interesting thread.

 

lately i've been saving in a piggy bank! i think i'd like this or that. then i ask myself if i want it more than a cruise. if the answer is no, i put the money i would have spent for the item or dinner into the pig (which i got in mexico on a cruise, so it motivates me). it accumulates quickly! i wait for the good deals on cruises and the better deals on airfare.

[paul929207]

For most people it is a matter of priorities. If you sit down and see where your money is going and compare that to where you want it to go. You then can make adjustments

[Woobstr112G]

We cruised more recently because I was making a killing in overtime at work. Now that OT has dried up, we had to skip this year and wait to 2011. We also had to downsize to a mini in 2011. When I retire (hopefully in 3-6 years) My 457 plan, along with my regular retirement will allow us to cruise at least once maybe twice a year.

 

Bob

[PatriciaF]

To be able to take my first cruise in 1975, I worked an extra job--I taught Business Statistics on Saturday mornings for a semester at the local college.

 

Subsequently, I saved to take the other cruises I have been on that I was responsible for. But--many of the cruises I have been on were paid for by my father. After my mother got sick, he took me (an only child) and my two kids on a cruise each year for 9 years. He paid for the cruise, I paid for the excursions and personal expenses--again out of savings.

 

I don't believe in using a credit card to make installment payments on a vacation already taken. If you look at the new info on credit cards you can see that that $2000 cruise cost you $6000 or more if you pay the minimum or close to it. Have an automatic savings deduction out of your paycheck or underclaim deductions on your income tax to have the money to pay for it before hand.

 

Now--my husband travels frequently for work so we use airline miles for the air fare along with our savings to pay the expense of a cruise.

 

However, a cruise can be cheaper than a hotel vacation--if you control your spending. We don't -- be we know others that are quite a bit better off than we are that also sail an inside cabin; never buy a picture or a cocktail; seldom take a shore excursion; never gamble in the casino.

[myfhn]

I like this thread because I have been wondering the same thing.

 

For us, both having good jobs helps alot. We are going on our first cruise ever in August. We travel just about every year, but this cruise will probably end up costing twice as much as any other trip we've ever taken.

 

Part of how we're affording it is due to using old NWA points for the hotel in Seattle, and Amtrak points for one way on the train (we live in MN). We also booked early on an off-season trip thru a discount travel agency for a good deal on the cruise.

 

Even though it's fiscally politically incorrect, we withhold extra from our taxes so the big lump-sum refund goes toward our trips or projects. It's just easier for us to never see the money until March or so and we seem to always find fun ways to spend it.

 

I do plan a lot and hunt out bargains. Part of the fun is getting the most bang out of my buck, and if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at it :) Despite all of that, we still will probably use the cc for souveniers and unexpected expenses. It all works out in the end.

 

I just regret that I am as far from a coast as I could possibly be, because I think I'm going to really like cruising. They need to start sending cruise ships to Duluth!!!

[davmask]

on a per night basis it's pretty affordable on a per night basis. Being a fl resident has it's perks discounts and the ability to drive to the ports. Not hung up on cabin interior vs balcony whichever is the best value. Always on the lookout for obc from the ta, etc helps. We will only take a cruise that we can pay off immediately. My answer would be a good job and budget shopping. Our last cruise on the emerald for under $800.00, had an amazing.

[cruisin36]

The OP sounds like he or she is in a good position to take a lot of cruises. They didn't get hit too bad in their investments with the market slide, they get free air.

 

We don't have all that and manage to take at least two a year. We usually book an inside cabin as we don't spend alot of time in the cabin anyway.

[katisdale]

The secret is "living beneath" your means. That actually gets easier as the years pass. Our home is paid for as are our cars which will have at least 100,000 miles on them before we trade them. Our daughter is educated so we have no college bills anymore. We will sail in inside rooms. However we do use a credit card for the frequent flyer miles. We use the card for all our purchases but pay the card off at the end of the month. Yes we were hurt in the market downturn but for us that wasn't "real" money as we weren't using it (and what we "lost" was not the amount we personally put in but our "earnings"). DH still works although I am retired due to physical problems. If I could go back to work I would be there tomorrow. I think the secret to a pleasant life is to do something you enjoy so it doesn't feel like work and then just live modestly so you can have some "fun" money to use as you see fit.