How Much Can We Reasonably Be Expected To Spend On Board?

[lindy12]

We are doing our first cruise in June. A 12 day Princess cruise around the coast of Italy and Greece. As first time cruisers we are unsure of how much extra costs to allow for. My husband will probably have a couple of beers and I will have a couple of wines in the evenings, maybe a 'fancy' coffee each per day. We would like to do the ship organised shore excursions but I'm still trying to fathom which meals are free and which aren't!

[cb at sea]

Wine is more expensive than other drinks....maybe stick to cocktails and beer!

 

Princess does allow you to bring some wine onboard, and you could cut costs by bringing your own glass of wine to dinner with you, if you want...they don't know where the wine came from, and lots of folks carry their drinks from place to place.

 

All meals in the dining room and buffet are included (nothing is 'free'...you pay for it when you buy your cruise fare!!) All "water-based" drinks are included, too.

[KirkNC]

There are three of us but my teenage daughter spends very little money. I have tracked our "on board" charges over the last seven cruises and we average $110/day. I will say in the port intensive Med, it should be a little less as we were not on board much and sea days are few and far between. That total includes beverages (a few drinks for me and my DW), bingo, tips and misc items. I don't think it would fall much (other than my daughter's portion of the tips) for just the two of us.

 

Kirk

 

 

ps: Our total does not include any excursions through the ship, we never take those, we either are DIY or using private companies.

[trish1c]

Nobody can answer that for you because you know & can control your spending habits.

Meals are included unless you choose to go to a speciality restaurant. Check the Princess board but I think their special Italian restaurant is $20 pp. The fancy coffee is also extra but I think there's a program where you can spend $29.95 & get 15 coffees. Regular coffee is available in the buffet area for free.

Alcohol is extra. Your bar bill is function of your tastes & how much you drink. Prices are akin to high end bars at home. Beer usually starts around $5; mixed drinks about $7 but can go up depending on what you order. I've never sailed Princess so I can't speak to exact amounts but I looked at a wine list here on line & thought the bottle prices were almost cheap.

Excursions will vary. Check the Princess web site to research prices then check the ports of call boards to see if you can do better.

Other things you can spend money on include bingo, casino, souveniers, shopping, photos, art auctions, spa, the adults only area ($10 per day pp I think) & tips ($10.50 pp per day). I can add up quickly if you aren't careful. We usually budget at least $100 per day spending money, more if there is some fabulous excursion we muct do.

[firefly333]

Princess does offer a coffee card if you dont like the free coffee.

 

The only thing to me you have to spend is for gratuitites .. the rest is up to you. Iv spent pretty much nothing or a few hundred, but I havent done as long a cruise as you, but Iv done two 7 days b2b.

 

the big things that eat up money, princess excursions are higher than private, drinks and casino and photos.

[riffatsea]

Our bill(2 of us) at the end of the cruise is not large compared to many others on the ship. The reason is that we do not start drinking at 10AM and continue all day!! We also don't lose tons in the casino. We have wine with dinner,maybe one mixed cocktail or beer,during the day, and often a nightcap(brandy or something like that) later at night.

We rarely book the ship's excursions because we prefer smaller groups so not necessarily cheaper. That might be our biggest expense in perhaps one port!

I would be really surprised if the end of the cruise bill was over $400 for a 7day cruise.

[ylimaster]

We spent $200+ on ordering the photos (received a free DVD), I know it was quite a bit...

[panoramaofthepast]

We are doing our first cruise in June. A 12 day Princess cruise around the coast of Italy and Greece. As first time cruisers we are unsure of how much extra costs to allow for. My husband will probably have a couple of beers and I will have a couple of wines in the evenings, maybe a 'fancy' coffee each per day. We would like to do the ship organised shore excursions but I'm still trying to fathom which meals are free and which aren't!

 

This is something I put together for a group of first time cruisers. It might help.

What costs extra!

• Alcoholic drinks
  
• Sodas [like coke] –usually you can get a soda package for $6/day – Well worth it!Other discount cards are also available, depending on the ship
  
• Specialty coffees [like Starbucks – some ships have these on board]
  
• Tipping – Royal Caribbean lets you add it to your shipboard account; even gives you nice little envelopes to put the coupon in! So does Princess. It does make it easier! Plan to tip the room steward, the head waiter, the table waiter and the asst. table waiter! The cruise line usually provides a “suggested” rate. Figure about $10/day/person for tips.
  

· Carnival - automatically charges the gratuities for dining and stateroom staff to your onboard Sail & Sign account. The total amount is $10.00 per guest, per day (our recommended guideline) as follows:

o For beverage purchases, fifteen percent of the bill is automatically added to the Sail & Sign charge. Room Service staff may be tipped as service is rendered. Tipping your Maître d’ is at your discretion, based upon the service you receive.

• Spa visits – like manicures and massages! These can mount up fast!
  
• Specialty restaurants, if available – there is usually a $10 - $20 cover charge per person; Princess has a Chef's Table that is marvelous, but $75/person
  
• Port excursions – The ship provides a myriad of excursions. These run from $30 to hundreds, depending on where you are and what it is. The most expensive one that I know of is in Alaska – a flight over 4 glaciers, then a dog sled ride for a mere $500 per person! You can sign up in advance or take your chances on board. Or you can just go on shore and do your own thing. The advantage to the ship tours is a guarantee that you’ll be back on board on time – if your tour is delayed, the ship will wait. If you are on a private tour and miss the boat, you are on your own to get to the next port of call. Trust me, they are not kidding. I have watched people running down the dock as the ship pulled out, to no avail.
  
• Gambling in the casino – and now you can charge it to your room on Princess! My rule of thumb is to set aside an amount per day; when I lose it, I leave; when I double it I leave.
  
• Internet access – this is changing in some cases
  
• Photography – if you want to buy!
  

Most of the lines let you book spa appointments and excursions in advance - and charge you at the time of booking. I have found that this lets me spread cost out over several months, so my actual onboard costs are limited.

[paul929207]

Individual bills vary widely. SOme expenses might include:

 

Autotip (covers cabin steward and waitstaff) $10.50 per person per day ($11 if you have a suite).

Beer $5 each

Wine $6 each

Excusions start at about $50 some full day ones are over $200.

Photos

Gambling

Sodas $1.95 or Soda sticker for unlimited fountain drinks (coke products) is $4.25 per day

Note all beverages are plus 15% tip.

Speciaty coffee $2 or $3 each.

Specialty restaurants about $20 per person

Bingo

[Capt_BJ]

12 day Pricess?

 

between 2 and 3 thousand in my experience

 

but your experience may vary

 

I include

 

wine for us at dinner plus our table mates because I'm not shy; life is too short to drink cheap wine (or beer); I like to sit at a table for 10

 

If SCUBA is available we go ... among the more $$ shore excursions

 

The occasional beer or 3 plus an umbrella drink for the spousal unit daily . . .

 

couple of shooters in the pm

 

BUT I DO NOT DO BINGO . . .

[5326jan]

With the exception of the auto tip, you can spend very little. We bring our own wine and a kettle so that we can make "real" coffee in our cabin. Our expenses usually include a wine tasting - $75, a bottle of "Baileys" for our cabin <$30, a few cocktails by the pool -<$50, a bottle of wine for in the main dining room for dinner that lasts several nights... DH doesn't drink it and they will cork the bottle and serve it to you for as long as it lasts -$35ish/ bottle. We don't usually buy their photos, take their excursions or gamble.

 

We usually give our steward an extra $50+/- (length of cruise) in cash on our last day, esp if they have kept our coffee service filled and been friendly and helpful.

[Underwatr]

As a very rough indication - we ended up spending an average of $100 per day for the two of us onboard the Queen Mary 2. This ranged from a spa visit for DW, to dinner and wine in the specialty restaurant, to a whisky tasting for me and watercolor classes for the Mrs. We didn't book any excursions in this total. We had also brought aboard wine for most nights plus a bottle of liquor for in the room, so our drinks budget was somewhat less than others might have spent.

[Talisker92]

We just got off the Coral, and we spent about $1200. That included $150 for chef's table (well worth it) $40 for Sabatinis (also well worth it) and $40 for Bayou (not worth it) and $50 for a wine tasting. We did shore excursions through Princess in all ports.

Also $220 in auto tips, and we had wine with dinner on the formal nights.

Plus I bought a beautiful bangle bracelet for my wife from the Jackie Kennedy collection on board.

[LindaKE]

I've seen the amount of extras reported as approx. half the price of the cruise on average, but as the others said, it depends on you.

[Happy ks]

First off, none of the meals are free, you have paid for your meals included in your fare.

 

We tend to spend around $100 per day onboard as an average. That includes wine with dinner, a couple cocktails each day and one or two photos for the duration of the cruise.

 

If I were you and you are trying to save a bit of money, I'd do it by bypassing the costly ship sponsored excursions and try to team up with others to go on private excursions. We were a group of 7 and most excursions cost us less than half of what the going rate was for the ship excursions and they were by far more pleasant. We didn't have to board buses with dozens of others, we got to go to great local restaurants and we got to avoid the crowds. We also got to see a lot more than what the ship excursions can offer and could stop and take photos where we wanted and stop to shop if we felt like it.

 

Even when we just got off the ship and hired a taxi for the day we had some great experiences at a fraction of the cost. For example, we went to Pisa and Lucca for 25 EU each (4 of us went). A ship excursion was over $100 each and had time limitations. Our cab driver had a book with him and we just met up with him after we were done with what we wanted to do. It was wonderful.

[Carolin]

Meals on the Lido deck (buffet) and Main dining room do not cost extra. They come with the cost of your cabin. Also depending on the line, sandwiches/pizza and ice cream do not cost extra.

[Philip217]

Do you think of yourself as an "average mass market cruise line passenger"??

 

Mass market lines that sail in the Med that time of year set their budgets at about US$110 per passenger per day.

That's what the "average passenger" spends onboard (total per day) that time of year.

[cruisemom42]

Do you think of yourself as an "average mass market cruise line passenger"??

 

Mass market lines that sail in the Med that time of year set their budgets at about US$110 per passenger per day.

That's what the "average passenger" spends onboard (total per day) that time of year.

 

Does that figure include shore excursions purchased from the ship? If not, it seems high.

[spny84]

We are doing our first cruise in June. A 12 day Princess cruise around the coast of Italy and Greece. As first time cruisers we are unsure of how much extra costs to allow for. My husband will probably have a couple of beers and I will have a couple of wines in the evenings, maybe a 'fancy' coffee each per day. We would like to do the ship organised shore excursions but I'm still trying to fathom which meals are free and which aren't!

 

I don't think anyone mentioned but room service is also "free", I think Princess only charges for pizza to the room. Also, the International Cafe (Coffee Shop, assuming your ship has one) has pastries in the AM, sandwiches/salads in the early PM, and tapas in the PM that are all "free". We loved the International Cafe, best place to grab lunch when get back and just take to the room (we had a balcony). Already mentioned is dining room (3 meals) and buffet (24 hours) but on the pool deck there is also a pizza place (really good pizza) that is open almost all day and the grill (hamburger/hot dogs) which is also open almost all day.

 

We haven't done the Med yet but in my research because of the want to visit so many sights this is one of the more expensive trips in terms of shore excursions. I use the ship excursions but in my research (still a long way off for us), seems a lot of people do the smaller cars in private excursions. Do your research here because I think this will be your major costs on a Med cruise.

 

Didn't mention if you drink soda or not. You can carry on soda onto the ship. If you only drink 1 a day, this is easy. I went back to what I have spent on my cruises and I seem to fit the half of what I paid (always a balcony room). We usually pick snorkeling/ATVs/Boating 4 hour excursions on 7 day Caribbean.

 

Have a great trip, and I'm envious that you get to go so soon :).

[Philip217]

Does that figure include shore excursions purchased from the ship? If not, it seems high.

 

Yes, it would be high if it did not include shore excursions purchased onboard.

That is why I stated "That's what the "average passenger" spends onboard (total per day) ....."