Budget? What Budget?

[jlp20]

Because the cruise experience is "cashless", you can easily be lulled into a false sense of freedom. Your account or "folio" is available either at purser's desk or online. I always suggest ALL PAX to check their folio at least the second/third day of the cruise and day PRIOR to disembarkation. The first check is to verify that only your charges are being assigned to your account and a wake up call of what your really spending. The final check is to verify it is accurate. Ever see the purser's desk on the last day with a line of 40 people lined up?

[Bevv]

Our planned big splurge cruise will be an Alaskan back to back on Princess. It ended up costing about 6 times what our normal spending is on a cruise. It is our retirement present. Current for me, belated for my hubby.

 

I joking told my sister when I bought American Airlines stock at less than $3 a share few years ago that it would pay for our Alaskan Cruise. Since it is now over $50, it did. It will also pay for our Panama Canal cruise, and one more large one.

[Bookish Angel]

For us, affording travel is easier because we made a commitment when we got married, 23 years ago, to have no debt at all. Our house and cars (8 and 15 years-old) are paid for and we don't buy the newest phone, tv, etc. We are essentially minimalists in regard to things and big gluttons for experiences.

 

Once we made the commitment to no debt and new experiences, travel then became an affordable neccessity. Also, in my case, a serious illness was an even bigger motivator to eschew the material for the experiential.

 

Wishing blue skies and freshening winds to everyone.

[SPacificbound]

I'm sure the majority of people have a budget in mind when they pick a cruise. That same budget will have a certain amount of elasticity in it if necessary, but what if the cruise you really really want absolutely would smash your budget to smithereens Would you

 

a) Sigh, say 'if only' and look for something else No

 

b) Beg, steal or borrow the money No

 

c) Run out and buy a lottery ticket, or 2, or 3..... No

 

d) Check if the cruiseline is running the same or very similar trip the following year and if so be prepared to give up your annual holiday so you could save up for 12 months

Actually if there is somewhere I really want to go I will wait for the next cruise schedules of that line to be released and book then, which is usually 18 to 24 months out. That way, not only do you usually get a better price but you have time to save for it.

e) See if you could compromise somehow, eg if it was a world cruise you could do a half one year and the second half the following year

You can actually put together your own world cruise and space it out over whatever time you want. We have done that.

 

Interested in your comments.

 

Have fun choosing your way. :D

[NantahalaCruiser]

We do what our grandparents and parents did- we save for it until we can afford it. We're both retired now, so when we decide to do a bucket list trip, like the one planned for next winter, we wait until we have enough in the travel budget to pay for it. In our case, it means no trips this summer or fall. The money we would have spent on those trips gets pushed to next year's travel budget.

We did the opposite for our 50th anniversary bucket list cruise - spent the following year's budget and then skipped a cruise the following year. Probably broke even on the lost interest versus cruise price inflation.

[squick64]

My general approach to these things is that I have a list of places I'd like to go in the world (cruises and not). I try and break them up so that a really expensive transatlantic/transpacific happens every other year, that sort of thing. But it depends on what's going on. Some things have to happen at a specific time because...that's when it's happening.

 

Anyway, there's no moment where I say, "I'd really like to go on this $25k trip halfway around the world. How can I make it happen?" I just break up trips so that there are a few a year that vary in cost from a few hundred on a road trip to $5k+ overseas.

 

I don't do last-minute cruises for a good deal. I always plan way ahead. I save up in various ways, with a general travel account and a number of specific ones for specific trips. I have an account where I'm saving for the Hamburg/Norway trip listed in my signature, for instance. And another account for a family trip next year. And so on. I guess we're not meant to promote companies here, but there are online banks with great interest rates. ;-) (The only time I truly failed at all this was a trip I took when I not only hadn't saved for it, I was in debt. I wound up going just because that was the only time that event was ever going to happen. Ugh!)

[Beevcruise]

None if your choices fit my situation.

I had a business and was unable to take a vacation (other than long weekends) for 17 years.

When I sold and retired at 54, We were set for life but I became ill and bedridden for nearly four years. Medical science developed a solution that allows me some mobility.

Completed our first cruise last week and i managed well. We have three more now booked with all different cruise lines within the next year. Bucket list priorities.

 

However, if finances were a consideration, I would choose to borrow for the Big One experience when health is good and then do whatever needed to pay it off as quickly as possible even it it meant sacrificing the next cruise or ten. Do not miss the opportunity for a trip of a lifetime.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[sprint180]

Save until I had the money in the bank to do it. We don't cruise until we already have the money saved.