Any Disney Vacation is expensive. Let’s be honest ANY vacation is expensive! But the memories you make on a vacation are PRICELESS!! Still, you must make sure your vacation fits into your budget!
The first and MOST important Disney Cruise money saving tip I can share is book your cruise EARLY!! As soon as you see the cruise itinerary for the time you wish to sail come out, BOOK. You can make a deposit and hold the cabin at the early pricing. You don’t have to pay the cruise off until 90-105 days before cruising. If you cancel before the Pay in Full date, you will get a full refund, other than Trip Protection. To not lose your Trip Protection wait until you are going to Pay In Full to add it. Wait until the last moment to add Trip Protection.
Why book as soon as you can?? Prices for DCL go up QUICKLY!! I’ve seen cabins go up $300 in just a few minutes. DCL is popular and they historically, always run out of cabins. As the cabins sell out the prices go up. Also, you may no longer be able to get a lower priced cabin you originally wanted because they are sold out.
This next tip will work for ANY Disney Destination or anyplace you can pay using a Disney Gift Card. Target, Sam’s Club, some Ebates stores online, and some CostCo Stores sell discounted Disney Gift Cards! With Target you must use your Target Red Card (Debit or Credit) to receive a 5% discount! Ebates also does a 5%. Sam’s Club is usually 6%. Take them along to pay for drinks, merchandise, port excursions, tips, anything you can pay for with a Disney Gift Card! Just add them to your onboard folio!
Go to DisneyGiftCard.com and combine the cards into larger $1,000 cards and use them to pay for your reservations. It is important to combine your Disney Gift Cards into larger cards. If you purchase 20 $50 cards to pay for your shipboard account, you are putting $1,000 on your account. By the way you only spent $950 for that $1,000! Let’s say you only spent $975. Disney will put the $25 back onto your cards! They may not put the $25 back on ONE card. They may split it up between several cards with a few cents on one, a few dollars on another. It makes it easier to get any refund if you reduce the number of cards used.
Disney Gift Cards are also a great way to give kids (or yourself) a spending limit! They must keep track of what they spend so they know how much is left on the card! Once gone it is gone unless a parent wishes to add to the card. LOL
Now you are on the ship! Take a Disney Gift Card with $250 on it with you!! Book a Place holder! By the way that $250 card cost $237.50 to buy if you got it Discounted at 5%! On the Navigator App or by going to the Booking Desk book another cruise or booking Placeholder!! If you book a cruise while on the ship you get 10% off the next cruise! Don’t know when or where you will sail next? Book a Placeholder! A Placeholder gives you up to 2 years to sail on DCL again! It gives you a 10% discount on that future cruise! The $250 is part of your deposit! You just need to sail again within 24 months! If you don’t use the Placeholder the funds are returned to the card. If you book a future cruise or a Placeholder and pay them off with Discounted Disney Gift Cards, you can save 15%!! In my opinion every penny saved is worth the effort!
Do you love popcorn, candy, and soda while watching a movie or a show?? DCL charges for popcorn, candy, and soda from Preludes! Don’t want to pay full price?? Bring a popcorn bucket, ANY popcorn bucket from ANY Disney Park! You can get a refill at a greatly reduced price, $1.50 the last time I did it! Bring a Travel Mug/Cup for soda!! Go to the soda fountain on the pool deck and fill your cup before heading to the theater! I will tell you that because of Covid restrictions popcorn has not been available on the ships. I am NOT sure if they will be bringing back the reduced-price refills of popcorn buckets. I will update this post when I go next.
You can bring your favorite candy to take it the shows if it is in the original sealed packaging when you board it is allowed. The selection of candies is limited on the ships. I’m picky, and I have my favorites that I take along.
Soda, coffee, tea, juice, and water is FREE in the Restaurants. They charge for Soda in the lounges and when ordered through room service. Easy way to avoid the charge is to go to the soda fountain on the pool deck and fill your travel cup! Nobody stops you from taking it with you when you walk into a lounge. Of course, you are able to take it to your room or just sit on the deck and enjoy your drink.
Disney Cruise Line allows each adult to carry on 2 bottles of wine or 6 bottles of beer when they start the cruise. You can drink these in your cabin. If you take the wine to dinner to share you will be charged a corking fee. Last time I checked the corking fee was $25 per bottle. To avoid the charge open it in the stateroom and pour some into your travel cup!
Do you want to get the Photo Package?? I LOVE the Photos taken on the ships by the Shutter’s team! You can preorder the package and save quite a bit! The price differs depending on the length of the cruise. 3-4-Night Cruises you pay $194.99 for the unlimited digital package. We got 300 photos while on a 4-Night Cruise! That same package purchased onboard would be $230. Are you traveling with a group? Do you have several cabins? If one cabin preorders the package you can go to Shutters on the ship and purchase the same package for the other cabins at a discounted price! The additional cabins will pay ½ the full price of the package! For the 3-4-Night cruise that was $115 instead of $230.
Do you want to book a Disney Cruise Line vacation? Let me know!
Carolyn@EliteMemoriesTravel.com
https://www.facebook.com/CarolynsPixieDustedMemoriesAtEliteMemoriesTravel
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