How much $ to take About This Page:

[singhsongs]

So I am considering doing a cruise to wrap up or lead to our first trip to WDW.

I planned $100 a day for WDW and that I was told was alot.

So how much should I take on the cruise? The ship is Disney wonder and the destination was the Bahamas the dates are either the 4 night 1/102010-1/14/2010 or 3 night 1/21/1010-1/24/2010.

We have never been on a cruise either.

I'm trying to convince my DH to splurge. We went on one measly vacation this year

[Lumieregirl]

Onboard the ship, you'll use almost no cash at all. Most everything is already included (meals, entertainment, activities). Anything that you need to pay for, you'll charge onto your room account (like alcoholic & specialty beverages, purchases from the shops, spa treatments, crew tips). When you check in, you'll need to present a credit card, and your purchases are settled against that account automatically. It is difficult to estimate how much you'd spend, as it can vary quite a bit.
You'll may want to keep a few dollars on hand to tip room service.
Before and after your cruise, and at ports of call, you may need some cash for taxis, quick meals, and souvenirs.

In terms of convincing your DH, I'll try to find an older post for you where I wrote quite a bit about it, but in general DCL is very relaxing, & a perfect way to end your WDW stay, where you'll be "on the go" quite a bit. WDW is great, but there is nothing like being out on the open ocean, or on Castaway Cay!

[Lumieregirl]

Here's that other thread Cruise Newbie - Help!

[Dave Marx]

Basically, you need to budget for alcoholic beverages, shore excursions, recreational equipment rentals at Castaway Cay, spa services, photos by the ship's photographers, bingo, souvenir/merchandise purchases, and gratuities. Almost nobody spends money on food in Nassau (usually, it's either included in their excursion, or they return to the ship for lunch). Obviously, except for gratuities, everything else is totally optional.

Standard gratuities for the "core" - stateroom attendant and dining room staff - should be budgeted at $11-$12 per person per day. Room service at about $1 per gratuity. 15% is automatically added to all alcoholic beverage purchases. Figure $1-$2 per suitcase for each time it's handled by a porter (twice at the pier, plus anything at WDW and/or the airport).

The best way to budget shore excursion prices is to shop for them at the DCL web site. Same is true for spa services. Now, lots and lots of people on the Bahamas itineraries never spend on either shore excursions or spa. You certainly won't be out of step if you skip them, too. There's plenty to do at Castaway Cay at no extra charge, and a lot of folks just walk around Nassau for an hour or so, and return to the ship (plenty to enjoy on the ship at no charge, too). Unless you start buying wine by the bottle, you can expect drink prices on the ship to be similar to those at moderately-priced restauarants on land. Some cruise lines gouge, but DCL is quite fair. Expect to spend between $30 and $70 per session if you play bingo. There is an art auction on board, but unless you're already an experienced art buyer, it's best not to budget for that. Prices in the ship's gift shops are also in line with prices at WDW.

This should cover most of it.

Overall, you could spend as little as $25 per person per day on the ship (or even less) including a drink or two and gratuities. If you start adding shore excursions, spa services, etc., you could hit $100-$150/person/day very easily, and you'd also find it easy to spend many hundreds per day if you were in the mood to splurge.