Monday, April 1, 2024

Cruise Cost Breakdown: How Much A Cruise Really Costs

average cost of a cruise for 2

You don’t need to spend a cent more if you don’t want to or you or you can pick and choose the extras that are important to you. If you’re a big souvenir shopper, you’ll want to factor in some additional cash into your cruise budgeting. Clothing, jewelry, and duty-free liquor are some of the items you can buy onboard.

Factors That Determine the Total Cruise Price

Single cruisers can expect to pay between 125% and 200% of the advertised fare. On all lines, you will be able to get water, coffee, tea, and other non-alcoholic drinks as part of your cruise fare. Certain juices, specialty coffees, soda, and ​​alcoholic beverages are usually not included unless you’ve opted for an all-inclusive fare or you purchase a drinks package. Silversea, for example, includes flights, pre and post-cruise hotel nights, private transfers, shore excursions on classic voyages, and even butler service.

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What Impacts the Price of a Cruise?

Some cruise lines permit bringing certain items onboard, such as a bottle of wine, to cut down on beverage costs. Carrying a reusable water bottle can also help save on buying drinks aboard. Each cruise line is different with how they handle a drinks package but usually, you’ll have the option to get a non-alcoholic package or an alcoholic beverage package.

Onboard Prices for Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Reflection

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In contrast, the most expensive excursions consist of helicopter rides, private tours, wine tastings, and adventures like hot air ballooning and scuba diving. If you plan to explore the city by taxi, make sure you add that to your budget. They’re exciting and allow you to visit numerous places and experience new things every day. Before you consider booking a cheap MSC cruise, I recommend that you read my full guide to why MSC Cruises are so cheap.

Smart Sailing: Tips to Keep Cruise Costs Low

average cost of a cruise for 2

That said, cruising over Christmas can easily be double the cost of cruising in January. The table below shows example prices for a selection of Caribbean cruises. These cruises are during the months of April, August and November. It is of course, possible to find cruises which are cheaper, and more expensive than those mentioned in this article – but the cruises mentioned are designed to be representative examples.

Onboard Prices for Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas

Onboard spending includes anything purchased on the ship, in addition to services and beverage packages purchased before the cruise. On the average 7-day sailing with a mainstream cruise line a person will spend $1,300 – $2,000. But stick around because we’re going to explain what that actually entails, and how that price can be drastically higher or a bit lower. Booking a cruise well in advance is one way to get a better price. Many cruise lines discount prices a month or two before sailing to fill empty cabins.

Miscellaneous expenses

Be alert for promotions offering onboard credit, discounted excursions, and other perks. Some discounts may apply to seniors, military members, or returning customers. You can expect to be treated as a valued guest while on board with all the comforts and courtesies you’d demand from a five-star resort. Space will be abundant, food is prepared by top chefs, premium drinks are complimentary, and if you do need to ask for anything, you needn’t have to pull out your wallet. Every cruise line has its own unique personality that appeals to a different style of cruise passenger. Depending on how often you’d like to frequent them, specialty restaurants can cost from $35 and upwards per person.

Drinks Onboard

Celebrity allows you to bring two bottles of wine onboard per cabin. We drank those in our cabin to avoid the corkage fee (you can ask your cabin attendant for a bottle opener and two glasses). Celebrity offers free drinks in the casino while gambling, so my extra drink cost was zero. Most cruise lines give you the opportunity to pay crew tips at the time of booking. If you choose not to pay in advance, the auto-gratuity will be added daily to your onboard bill.

Many cruise lines offer drink packages both in advance and on board. Whether you’re on a family vacation or a booze cruise, these packages can occasionally help to soften the sticker shock of drink prices. Be sure to read the fine print, though, as not every drink package is the deal it may seem. The sheer amount of extras and goodies available to cruise guests can make budgeting in advance difficult, but it’s worth it. The spontaneity of a splurge may seem harmless enough on the ship, but avoiding the comedown of post-vacation sticker shock is only possible with planning.

But as you can see, on a per-person basis the cost for a 7-day cruise can run around $2,000 when you factor in everything you’ll spend. As a rule of thumb, the more ports of call, the higher these fees can be. On some cruises they can definitely be more than $200, but we’ve rarely seen them below $100 — except for some of the shortest trips with only one or two stops.

Internet prices vary between cruise lines, and many offer discounted packages for the duration of your cruise. If staying connected is essential for you, make sure you check with your cruise line to see if they offer any WiFi packages. Like the drinks package, you will usually get the best deal by purchasing the WiFi package before going on the cruise.

A longer cruise is, of course, more expensive than a short cruise. This however doesn’t necessarily work on a proportional basis. Generally speaking, Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises are cheaper than Southern. I recently took a Royal Caribbean cruise on one of the biggest “Oasis Class” ships, Symphony of the Seas.

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