Disney does an amazing job at creating unforgettable memories for both adults and children alike with their creative decor and experiences. This is true for anything Disney does, including their cruises. As stated in other blogs, growing up my family did not have the money to go on a Disney cruise, but I always dreamed of seeing what Disney’s imagineers did on a ship. Now as an adult, I still cannot afford a Disney cruise on a teacher’s salary for my family of 6. I’m happy to say however, that I’m making it happen for my family through tips I’ve learned from the points and miles community. Disney cruises are far out of reach of many families budgets but I wouldn’t want you and your children to miss out on this experience. Below you’ll find how I brought down the cost of my Disney Cruise to the Bahamas for my family of 6.
The Cost of the Cruise
We will be sailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to the Bahamas aboard the Disney Magic for a 4 night cruise. I had to book 2 rooms to fit my family of 6. You can fit 3 guests in a stateroom and up to 7 guests on the largest concierge-Level Suite. I cannot afford a suite, so I opted for two Deluxe Oceanview Staterooms. Each room was $4,421.28. I could have paid about $500 less for each room, but since I only plan on doing a Disney cruise with my family once, I opted to give them the ocean view experience. This brought our grand total for two rooms for 6 people to $8,842.56.
My family resides in Southern California, so in addition to the cost of the cruise we also have to pay to fly to and from Fort Lauderdale AND to cover the cost of a hotel for the one night before and for 2 nights after. Bringing this family vacation cost to well over $10,000.
Making it More Affordable
My husband and I do not have $10,000 to just drop on a vacation, so here is how I’m making this more affordable.
1) Book as far in advance as possible
I booked my cruise over a year in advance. At the time of booking I had to pay about 15% of the total cost as a down payment, which came out to a little over $1,300. That was something we could afford. After that, I did the math and figured that with our budget I could pay $350 a month to pay a huge chunk of what was left. Then from our tax return I could pay the rest. Giving yourself time to make the cost into bite size chunks will help this huge cost seem more manageable.
2) Use bank bonuses
Did you know that you could get a nice influx of cash just for opening a bank account and moving your money there? This is how I’ve been able to get $1,925 for free this year that I have applied to the cost of my Disney cruise. I opened a bank account with US Bank, Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citi. Bank bonuses will vary by bank and the requirement to get the bonus will vary as well. Some banks will require direct deposit to get the bonus and some will just require a certain amount of cash be deposited into the account. To find out the best current bank bonuses, go to www.doctorofcredit.com and click on their bank tab. They regularly update their site to give you the best bank bonuses to sign up for.
3) Use credit card welcome bonuses
You can also use credit card welcome bonuses to help pay the cost of your trip. You can choose to cash out your points to help make a payment on your cruise account. The only cards I would recommend doing this with is the Chase Sapphire cards or the Chase Ink Business cards because those cash out at a 1 point to 1 cent ratio. Meaning 10,000 points is equal to $100. All other points cash out at 1 point to .5 or .6 cents. That wouldn’t be a good redemption, BUT if that’s how you want to get extra cash it is possible to get cash that way.
You could also get the Capital One Venture card 75,000 mile welcome bonus and use it to “erase” a $750 payment made for your cruise. To do this, you make a $750 payment for your cruise using your Venture card. Then once you hit your minimum spend and receive your 75,000 mile bonus, you’ll use the Purchase Eraser feature and “erase that $750 using the points. The Purchase Eraser feature only works to erase travel expenses at a 1 mile per 1 cent ratio. If you try to cash out those miles it will NOT be $750.
You could also choose to use points and miles to pay for your flights or for your hotel room. This is how I am using my points and miles. I was able to book one night using my free night certificate I earned through opening the Hilton Honors Business credit card. The other two nights I booked with Hyatt using my Chase points earned through my Ink Business cards. I plan to pay for all 6 of our flights using Southwest points obtained from opening a business and personal Southwest cards. Both me and my husband have the Southwest Companion Pass, so we will only pay to use points for 4 people, instead of 6. Here alone I am saving around $2,000.
4) Use cashback apps
Use cashback apps to earn a little more towards the cost of your trip. I love to use:
- Ibotta: Pays you cash for grocery items you buy. You simply add the items to your ibotta account, shop for them in store, and then snap a picture as proof that you bought them. You then get your cash back deposited in your ibotta account. You can cash out as soon as you earn $20 or keep saving and cash out whenever you want. Within this year this has saved me $148 to date and still counting.
- Fetch: This is another app that pays for scanning your receipts. You get a minimum of 25 points per receipt, but if you buy the items they are advertising then you get more. This app allows you to get gift cards with the points you accumulate. There are no Disney cards but you can get a gift card to somewhere your family eats at a lot and use the gift card when you go. Then take that cash you saved and make a payment toward your Disney cruise. In a little over a year I’ve been able to get $200 worth of gift cards.
- Rakuten: This is a shopping portal that gives you cash back on your purchases. Simply go to whatever online store you’re shopping at through the portal and complete your purchase. They will give you cash back in the form of a check every 3 months. This last check for me was $103 and I’m on track to get another $80 so far for the next one and still counting.
- Shopkick: Is a very slow way of earning a free Disney gift card, but I’ll take slow over no free money any day. Shopkick is an app that gives “kicks” that you can accumulate to then trade for free gift cards. You can earn “kicks” by buying the items they advertise, which would be the fastest way to earn a gift card, but you can also earn “kicks” simply by walking into a store and checking in that you are there. You can also earn more “kicks” by scanning the bar code on items they are advertising. Yes, you read that right, you don’t HAVE to buy the item, just scan it and get “kicks”. This has been a slow process for me because most of my points were through scans so it took months to earn a free $25 gift card.
5) Use Disney gift cards to pay the cost
You’ll sometimes find discounted Disney gift cards in stores and you can use those to make payments to your cruise. Best buy will sometimes sell $50 gift cards for $45. Sam’s Club or Costco has promotions like this at times too. It’s not a huge savings, but anything counts in my book.
Using tips like these and others I’ve been able to save a little over $4,000 off of this $10,000 vacation
Hope this helped you. Feel free to message me with any questions through a DM on my instagram.
Happy Disney Travels!
