Those that bring kids on cruises, how do you afford it?

[wwakla]

We are a party of five (DH and three DD's). I went on Carnivals web site to see how much it would cost and it won't allow me to book for 5. Is it because you have to book two rooms?

[nimbex1970]

we've compared allinclusives or do-it your-selfers to cruises.

 

The problem is that your NOT comparing apples to apples

for a 7 day cruise, past guest I can get a top room OV for $599pp, now the floater 5th person is $509 times 4 weeks equals 10,820. we drive to the port, gas plus food each way is $60.. To park is $15per day, cheaper for a month.. still $570 which equals 11, 390.

 

Now, you're stuck in the same place for 30 days, If I do back to back on differet ships I see different ports.

 

My food, all of it, is either delivered or I walk some stairs, a minimum of 4*, no prep time or clean up... My coffee at 6am is delivered to me... with food for me to eat as I get ready at my leisure.

 

when I leave my cabin, my kids are already running to the camps activities, I lounge on deck. I can take country line dance lessons or swing lessons with the kids or just my husband, have a fully catered afternoon tea, watch the kids run arround in a scavenger hunt with their new friends, play cards or games in the afternoon, all inclusive champaigne or wine tasting in the afternoon.... formal nights, where I'm not cooking lobster myself or worried about driving 'home" after three drinks. I've seen the entire caribbean... not just ONE beach... my kids are screaming songs, prancing through the ship at night durring the pirate walk, through the camp, then they have a pizza, icecream sleepover.. while decorating pillows and learning how to make animal balloons....

 

my waiter at dinner knows on day two... I'll skip dessert, but he can sneak me an unannounced ice cream scoup anyway... and my husband who picked at his entree... really DID want the steak he hummed about and it was just delivered without his asking.... the wait staff ran to the lido buffet to get me son his lido fries... when he was overhear saying.."they're just not as good". I have my choice of 7 plus dinners, I can return as many as I see fit for a "try something else", try that in a restaurant.

 

the night life with 12 bars, a piano bar, sports bar, karayoke, 70's, latin and techo bar... I just walk from one to another in a few short steps depending upon my mood that moment, change my mind... and simple head back in he opposite direction.

 

the cruise director knows us by name.... includes us in crazy games like the newleywed and not so newlywed game.... I know that at the casino bar.. my favorite bartender will only charge me for every third drink,,,, while showing majic tricks to my kids to keep them occupied (in a spot they're not supposed to be anyway).

 

my room steward, not only makes my bed twice a day, the ice is flowing... the beer and wine I snuck in always cold..... but he makes extra towel animals... as my son chased him down the hall the night before with the terradackal... and tonight they're having a "fight" through the halls.

 

Room service, although a $1 tip per trip... spoils the kids as we head out for the night clubs and leave the kids with singles to keep ordering anything. Movies are shown, art auctions, bingo, horse racing, cheap duty free shopping a few minutes down the hall.... the staff calls us by name... refilling our glasses and teasing our kids.

 

our kids get personal invitations, hand written each night by the kids club staff.... to make sure they won't miss a thing the next day.....

 

Each night there are at least 3 entertainers (which you'd pay at least $35pp to see fior each one)... commedians from G rated, then a show, then an R rated commedian... while the clubs offered different parties... like swingin 40's or what not

 

The kids have rock climbed and rang the top bell.. we've pictures... we've played air hockey, ping pong, chess, walked the jogging track, people watched, made up our own scavenger hunts that drove the crew nuts.... met the best of friends... that we still are in contact with....

 

 

We've done it on our own and saved a buck or two.... many times over..... this will be the third cruise with the kids..... it beats the american express commercials hands down..... it is beyond priceless!

 

 

The all inclusives and do-it-yourselfers ARE cheaper;) You DOOOOOOo get what you pay for.

 

need to be sold... just talk to my very well traveled children who've done everything from disney to the beaches to camping all on the US; with do it your own cheapie vacays, which aren't cheap at all once you factor in the food and entertainment comparison plus the prep and clean up time, with driving, waiting and shopping . they agree... ONLY a CRUISE.

 

when you have all this available to you, on land.... then compare the TRUE PRICE DIFFERENCE, plus.. my kids have seen half the caribbean with us! you don't get that stuck in one place.

 

 

as always,,,,, IMHO... from a person who will research land and all inclusive vacay's... EACH vacation... and STILL end up on a SHIIIIIIP!

 

carol

[Hootsie]

Cruising is a great value for a family. We are doing our 2nd cruise with our teenage daughters next spring and the oldest is bringing a friend. My DH travels (commutes) to California from Montana for his main job so we have a ton of Sky Miles. We can fly all of us to Miami for free.

 

We are going to Hawaii for Christmas and it will be SO expensive. My inlaws bought all the siblings in my DH's family condos for two weeks but we are doing our own airfare. Well, that's $750 per person (five in our family). Can't use frequent flyer miles since they are black out dates. Add in expensive meals (because everything is expensive in Hawaii) and we're screwed. We've been saving like crazy. Our cruise will be cheaper (by far) and we'll have a lot more fun.

 

The cruise is almost paid for, so at least that will be taken care of. DH & I aren't big drinkers (maybe each a drink a day on the cruise) so our S&S stays pretty low. We also don't gamble or smoke. We have friends in St. Thomas picking us up at the port and taking us snorkeling for the day, so no tour costs there. I'm thinking I can use the money we save for shopping and our tours in Nassau (doubt we'll do anything) and St. Martin.

 

Cruising isn't expensive. Book early, pay the trip off before you go. Then all you have to worry about is your S&S (tour costs, shopping, etc...) and you can really keep that low if you have to.

[LHP]

we have never had to do this (since we only have four)...but I have heard that Carnival stricts the number per room in the newer ships.

 

I have heard of 5 per room on the Holiday, Celebration, the Fantasy class ships in the past.

 

However, when we sailed on the Conquest....that is when I heard other passengers talking about not being able to put 5 in a room.

[kfgarrow]

Here's what we do/did to afford our family cruise:

 

1. Work like crazy to get bumped by the airlines. We always fly in a day early and offer to get bumped. This year we voluntarily got bumped on our cruise return trip and got 8 free tickets to anywhere Spirit Air flies. We are using 4 of these to fly to San Juan in January for FREE.

 

2. Cruise in low season. Yes, we pull our kids out of school for four days each year to cruise. We go on Martin Luther King week in January and save a bundle over Christmas or spring break or summer.

 

3. Get cozy in one room. We are all bunking together in one OV room. It's called family time :)

 

4. Book excursions privately. We research these boards for quality private operators in each port. Why pay $50-100 pp when you can do the same tour for half price with a smaller group and better service? The dear man doing our Grenade excursion is giving me 2-for-1 pricing on the kids.

 

5. Use Priceline. My kids are hotel snobs because they have stayed in so many 4* properties for $50-60 per night.

 

6. Ask for cruise money for Christmas. My parents provide spending money for our Christmas present.

 

7. Save your pennies. We save our change between trips and then cash it in for the kids' spending money.

 

8. Don't go hog wild on the sign and sail. We do not drink much with the kids around, don't gamble and don't do spa treatments. We save those things for when we travel alone.

 

Of course, not all of these tips are for everyone, but we have been on five cruises in the past five years (not all with kids) and it works for us.

[atlcple2]

DH and I have been on 3 cruises and the 4th will be on the Caribbean Princess on 9/3. We have not taken the 2 younger kids because of the cost, but have been promising and promising. So, 2 weeks ago, we bit the bullet and booked the Glory for 2/18/06 for 7 days, Eastern Caribbean. Still very expensive, but we had promised. We got inside rooms (I'm gonna miss the balcony!!!) on the upper deck and Carnival has a promotion the month of August for upgrades...we ended up on the Panorama Deck!!! The top deck, side by side rooms so the kids can have their own room and we can have some privacy...I know, you are thinking why not go cheaper and get everyone in the same room??? I will tell you. Because it was only $250 more to put them in their own room. A small price to pay for some privacy at night. ; )

[CindyLyn]

We are a party of five (DH and three DD's). I went on Carnivals web site to see how much it would cost and it won't allow me to book for 5. Is it because you have to book two rooms?

 

Call Carnival! I booked through them-- her name was Jill and she was great! We booked 5 in a room w/ no problem BUT she siad they were limited on how many cabins could handle 5-- of course she kept saying we could be upgraded. Not holding my breath on that though---next would be a suite if we were upgraded! :cool:

[kimberlyandkeith]

I'm in full-time school and my husband is a teacher. When I graduate, I will be working from home as a medical transcriptionist.

 

Our goal is to save 25% of my income towards travel. This should allow a cruise every 12-18 months if we play it right! :)

 

We don't have a TON of stuff or goodies, but we love to travel, so this will be worth it for us! :)

 

We have a 1-yo and a 2.5-yo

[CeleBrat]

Check the internet!! We ALWAYS find some sort of crazy deal--of which the kids are partically free. Our goal is to spend approximately $75 per day for each adult, with the kids factoring in at far less.

 

And--to do this we cruise off-season, and usually are unable to book more than 2 months before the trip. So, it's somewhat last-minute which requires us to be flexible.

 

In late May, we found an amazing Alaska cruise deal--with translated into us getting TWO, yes TWO adjoining balcony cabins for the four of us (DH, myself, DS aged 4, and DD aged 2) for $1600 per cabin! Granted we ended up paying more for the kids than normal, but overall $3200 for TWO balcony cabins was the deal! And, since they were adjoining, we always left the door open between the cabins and balconies, and felt like we had a mini-suite!

 

So--scour the internet, and you shall find the deals!

 

Good luck!!

 

CeleBrat

[happyshelly]

If you budget right it is no problem to take the kids on a cruise. We take our kids on every other big trip with us. They have been on 4 cruise with us and had the time of their lives. This year we gave the option of going on a cruise in October or Hawaii in January. They both picked Hawaii. That will actually be a little pricer then the cruise but the idea is to have a great family vacation that the kids will remember for the rest of their lives. We always go to Maine every year to our family cabin for our annual vacation. I know my kids have seen and done alot of things their friends have not done and i think they appreciate things alot more for the experiences they have had.By the way the hubby and i will cruise in October on the Glory and we cant wait.

 

Michele

[Quincella]

We went on a 7-day Caribbean last year with our two kids on the NCL Spirit. The cruise itself was only $1200 (got a great deal sailing between Thanksgiving and Christmas). We did fly to Miami from Atlanta, but that was only about $112/pp. Our excursions were on our own, but we really just hung out at the beach and snorkeled.

 

Our sign and sail balance was pretty high (about $1,000), but that didn't have a thing to do with the kids! We drank a lot, played a bunch of bingo (don't laugh) and I spent some time in the Casino. We also bought some souveniers which I don't normally do, and had to buy a bathing suit in on board for one of my daughters because we forgot hers. Oh...and my husband and I each had a massage.

 

All in all, we thought we did pretty well. For the first time ever, we scrimped on nothing. Spent more than we normally would on "stuff", but still not out of control.

[imosoreal]

The daughter cruises with us every other year. This is her year and she is so excited! We do take at least three vacations per year and so she does come along for at least two of the three trips.