Cash Vacations

My husband and I don't have any credit cards. There is a reason for this and we're quickly finding that it's harder to plan and take vacations without one. We enjoy having very little debit and we realize that we tend to spend money when we don't really have it to spend. So we don't own any credit cards.

Once we have our next vacation spot picked out, the saving begins. We eat out a lot less and make lists of must haves vs wants. The wants usually end up waiting until after our vacation and some times some of the must haves also wait.

We get a potential quote of how much a trip would cost by using one of the many Travel Booking sites with Orbitz being my favorite. This has worked well in the past and only works if you know up front all of the potential costs that will be involved.  Why pay cash? It's paid for up front. I have to say, it didn't work that well for our recent trip, an Alaska Cruise.

Back in November of 2013, we decided that we wanted to try a cruise and we wanted to see Alaska. We had always heard that an Alaska Cruise was the best way to see Alaska. After reviewing a number of options on Orbitz, I had an idea of what we wanted to do. We picked Holland America Lines and we figured that we could save up enough to get a veranda room with an estimated cost of $3200.00 for the two of us. We also invited my parents to come with us. We started saving what we could and put all of our 2013 Tax return towards the trip. We planned on going in September of 2014 and I wanted to go through a Travel Agent to make sure that we got everything we wanted, a room next to my parents, shore excursions and what ever else we needed/wanted.

On April 2 I got a email from my Dad telling me that they've booked the cruise directly with Holland America after talking to some of their friends. At this time we were short around $1000 from what I had planned on paying. After viewing the booking, the cost was going to be $3600, this also included insurance, and this is before any additional costs of the shore excursions and airplane flights. Honestly, I thought that we had to pay for everything at once and was panicked on how we were going to get our trip booked. If we had to pay the full amount, we were going have to down grade our room to one with just a window. I ended up crying and had to tell myself that there would be places that we could sit on a deck and watch the world go by or we could sit on my parent's veranda. Once it came to "check out" there was an option to make payments.

We had enough to pay the minimum payment. A Happy Dance ensued and we upgraded our room to the veranda. Made a payment with the money we had and made plans to make payments for the rest that was due. The full amount had to be paid by July 1.

Then, unforeseen car repair costs and vet bills interfered with our planned payments. We ended up tapping into gift cards that we were saving for the trip and juggling bills but we were able to pay off the cruise before the July 1 deadline. 

Next on the list was to get a airline tickets and to decide when we wanted to fly out. Did we want to fly out the day before to ensure that we were in Seattle for the cruise or did we want to fly out on the day of the cruise? We decided that it would be best if we flew out the day before and stay at a hotel. We got a good deal on our flight via Orbitz with Alaska Airlines. The following week I then started looking for a hotel. I contacted Holland America to see how much a room would be via them and have it include transfers from Airport to hotel to pier. They had three options and all of the hotels were 4-5 Star Hotels and well out of the price range I wanted to stay in and said no thanks. 

Remembering that we stayed at the Quality Inn Sea-Tac hotel a few years ago and knowing that it was a great location and nice place to stay, I checked to see if they had a shuttle that could pick us up and also take us to the pier. I called them and was told yes they did! Great! I quickly booked a room with them for Sept 13. (See what happened with that by reading my review here.) Finally, everything was paid for, we could use the next month to save spending money and I could relax.

Here is where those unforeseen costs come into play. Three weeks before our trip, we get a email from Holland America advising that we need to check in and provide them with our passport information and other documentation they needed. So, I go in and start checking in. Then towards the end they advised that $430 some dollars per person will be held on our card on September 14 when we board the ship. This would be our spending money on board. I flipped out! Now, I had to figure out how much we had to save to make sure that our monthly bills didn't bounce while we were on the trip. We weren't planning on having that much spending money as we don't get much on our trips. The food was already paid for as it was part of the cruise and WHY would I want to buy anything on the ship as I was sure that they would be way overpriced! (This view changed once I was on board with the End of season sales!) I could understand them holding around $400 as we had the same thing happen when we went to Hawaii. The hotel held some money because it was a debit card we reserved the room on and they wanted to make sure there was money to pay for any incidentals.

After reading more on Holland America's site about it, they said that it was because they can't charge credit/debit cards while they're at sea and our room key acts like a credit card. Alcoholic and Soda drinks aren't included with the meals. There is also a casino on board that you can use the money at. And finally, the tip for the staff comes out of that money. Depending on which room you stay in determined how much they were going to charge. We were charged $12 per person per night. 70% went to our porters and the remaining 30% went to those that worked behind the scenes. I wasn't very happy with the tipping but it did take that question of how much to tip off of my mind. We weren't planning on gambling and we weren't big on drinking. If they were going to hold the money that we were going to use it to book the shore excursions, we would just wait until we were on board to book them.  

A few days later we found out that my parents had booked an excursion. Thanks to my in-laws, they sent us money to make sure that we had a wonderful time and had emergency money. I went to book the same excursion as my parents just to find out that we were on a waiting list. It worked out in the end and we were able to go at the same time as my parents and Holland America took the payment from the money they held.

I have to say, as stressful as it was planning for this trip, the cruise itself was wonderful! Everyone was so nice and Holland America delivered. The additional charges are most likely disclosed in the fine print when you book the cruise but who reads that? Not me! Lessons learned. As a traveler that pays for trips with basically cash, it's best to go through a Travel Agent for trips of this size. They know the ins and outs of cruises and knows all of the costs. Now, if you have credit cards, then by all means, feel free to set everything up on your own. Simon and I are planning taking another cruise, we're looking at doing Hawaii. It won't be for a few years but it's on the list. We will have a travel agent help with that.