Getting A Disney Cruise Line Discount
The best way for a return guest to get a discount on the Disney Cruise Line is to book while you are already on a sailing. Youll have two options.
You can either book with the dates that you want to sail, and can choose your exact dates and room. For this, youll need to give a deposit.
Alternatively, you can book a placeholder for a $250 fee. This can be applied to a cruise booked within the next two years. I typically book a placeholder, even if I dont have another cruise planned because its valid for a while.
Depending on the sailing, youll get a discount as well as stateroom credit. To do an onboard booking, youll want to visit the desk on the ship as soon as possible. It can be very busy by the end of your sailing and there is typically a line to talk to a cast member.
Other discounts can sometimes be available for Canadian residents, Florida residents, and members of the military. The Disney Cruise Line special offers page has more specific information on this. They arent always available so youll have to check for details and eligible sailings.
Price Comparisons For River Cruises In Europe
Rivers |
Video Review |
Riverside Chat Video |
|---|---|---|
| Click Between Amsterdam & Budapest Typically 14 days or longer and Includes the Rhine, Main, Main-Danube Canal & the Danube. | ||
| Click Bordeaux, Garonne & Dordogne rivers Ranges from four days to 12 days typically roundtrip Bordeaux. | ||
| Click Danube Christmas Markets Typically a weeklong between late November and end of December. | ||
| Click Danube River Typically weeklong cruises between Germany and Hungary, although cruises also run from Romania to Hungary or Austria. | ||
| Click Douro River Typically weeklong cruises roundtrip Porto with excursions to Salamanca, Spain. | ||
| Click Rhine River Typically weeklong cruises between Basel, Switzerland and Amsterdam. | ||
| Click Rhone & Saone rivers Typically weeklong cruises between Lyon and Arles. | ||
| Click Seine River Typically weeklong cruises from Paris, roundtrip, with visits to the Normandy landing beaches. |
I truly appreciate your unbiased advice. It’s difficult to find these days.
Why Are Msc Cruises So Cheap
MSC Cruises are cheaper than others because they have a lower space-to-guest ration and a lower crew-to-guest ratio. Plus, MSC Cruises charges extra for things that other cruise lines include for free.
Before you consider booking a cheap MSC cruise, I recommend that you read my full guide to why MSC Cruises are so cheap.
Read Also: How Much Should I Budget For An Alaskan Cruise
Onboard Prices For Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Glory
Pina Colada: $8.25
Specialty Dining: $35 per person, Emerald Room Steakhouse
Latte: $2.95
Shore Excursion: $61.99, Snorkeling and beach in Grand Turk
Fitness Class: $12
Bingo: $25 for one bingo card, one cash craze lottery ticket and one raffle ticket
Basic Internet Package: $16/day unlimited
Gratuities: $12.95 per passenger, per day
Total price: $299.13
Compare Apple To Apples
If youve been cautious about cruising because you think its too expensive, remember to compare apples to apples. That is to say, compare how long the non-cruise vacation is, how much of your dining is covered, how much youll pay for entertainment and the cost of travel if you plan to go to multiple destinations.
What youll find is that dollar for dollar, cruising is one of the most cost-efficient ways to vacation.
I hope weve cleared up misconceptions about the cost to go on a cruise. There are other things to decide when booking a cruise. Each cruise line has a unique take on cruising, a personality if you will.
Js Dream Travel would love to help you book the perfect cruise. When youre ready to travel, give us a call at 877-235-8061 or send us an email telling us what you want out of a cruise at . We can even set up no-fee payment plans to make it easier to pay for your vacation.
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Which Cruise Ships Are The Most Expensive To Build
Royal Caribbean International was founded in Norway and is based in Miami Florida USA. The brand is the largest of the cruise line industry by revenue in the world and it currently operates 26 ships. The Oasis Classof the Royal Caribbean features the 4 largest cruise ships ever built. The Oasis Class includes Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas. Royal Caribbean certainly holds the title when it comes to the largest and most expensive cruise ships when the average price is over $1 billion per build. Lets take a look at the specifics of the elite Oasis Class ships.
- Oasis of the Seascost $1.4 billion and was launched in 2008. She has a guest capacity of 6780 passengers with 2700 rooms. She is 1,187 feet long, 208 feet wide and weighs over 225,282-ton.
- Allure of the Seas launched in 2010 with an estimated cost of $1.4 billion. She has a guest capacity of 5,492 plus over 2,384 crew members on board.
- Harmony of the Seaslaunched in 2016 with an estimated cost of $1.35 billion, she carries 5,479 passengers and 2,100 crew on board. It was launched in 2016 and the ship is 1,188 feet wide, weighs 226,963-ton and has 2,278 rooms.
- Symphony of the Seas cost $1.5 billion and was launched in 2016 as the largest cruise ship ever built with 2759 cabins and a passenger capacity of nearly 9000 people including crew. The ship is over 1,188 feet long, over 215 feet wide and weighs over 228, 081-ton.
Plan A Budget For Your Next Cruise
Answering the question, how much does a cruise cost, is a slightly complicated one because it depends on so many changing factors. The best thing to do is to figure out your own budget first.
Check different cruise lines, the individual cabin offerings, and different times of the year to get an accurate idea of cost.
Need more personalized help? Reach out and request a customized recommendation, and were happy to help you find the ideal cruise.
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Calculating The Average Spent On A Cruise
As mentioned, we have to do a little digging to figure out how much the average person spends on a cruise. Fortunately, each public cruise line features the information we need in their annual report.
The first figure we need is the revenue generated. All three of the major cruise lines Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have this listed in their annual reports. In fact, they break it down into two different areas:
Passenger Ticket Revenue This is amount passengers spent with the cruise line for tickets to get on the ship. Passenger ticket revenue is the largest portion of the money made by the cruise lines and the largest portion paid by cruise passengers.
Onboard and Other Revenue While this includes a number of items, its primarily the amount spent by passengers once on the ship. So when you spend money at a specialty restaurant, the spa, or buy a drink at the bar, its included in onboard revenue.
Once we have the revenue figures, we also need the total number of passengers to see how much money is generated on a per passenger basis. This figure is reported by all the public cruise lines as well.
Here are the totals for the past fiscal year for the three major cruise lines:
As you can see, Carnival is far and away the worldwide leader in revenue and passengers carried. But on a per passenger basis, things are a little different.
Your Stateroom Price Breakdown
This is where you should start. Lets assume youre taking a 7-night cruise from New Orleans to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. These are some of the most popular ports in the Caribbean. Your stateroom could cost from around $450 per person for an interior room for 7 days. It would be about $800 per person if you would like to have a balcony in your room and $1600 if you would like a suite. Paying about $450 per person for 7 days seems really affordable, especially since it includes food and a stateroom. While this is the lowest price, while you are still booking, Carnival will try to up-sell you! You will have to pay an extra $5 per person per room if you would like to avoid bunk beds. If you want to stay on the higher part of the ship, you might have to pay another $2-$5 per person. From there, you will need to counter in taxes, which will be around $100 per person. Carnival Cruise also offers a vacation protection for an average of $80 per person that includes: Cancellation, Fee Waiver Program, Carnival Travel, Insurance and Emergency Assistance. So whats is the Carnival Cruise cost for a stateroom? It is an average of $1300 per stateroom or $650 per person.
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How Much Is A Cruise
The most obvious cost of the cruise is the cruise ticket itself, but you can save a significant amount of money by using a service like Cruise Direct.
Since I went on this cruise with my girlfriend we bought two tickets.
Each room requires you to pay for the price of two tickets, at a minimum, so if youre planning on having a room to yourself expect to pay 150-200% of the listed price per ticket.
We went for the cheapest class of stateroom which is the interior class. We didnt plan on spending a ton of time in our room so we didnt feel like we needed to pay money for extra space or a window.
Due to the fact that we booked early, there were a few rooms available that were in the interior class but actually had two porthole windows. We definitely took advantage and booked these rooms at no extra cost above the price of a normal interior ticket.
Originally, we paid $279 for each ticket or $558 total. We managed to get $80 refunded to my credit card and $80 in onboard credits due to the Carnival Price Protection program, which saved us $160 dollars.
This resulted in a total cost of $478 charged to my credit card for the cruise tickets themselves. After accounting for the $80 in onboard credit the ticket price of our cruise was $398.
If youre booking a cruise, make sure youre aware of these 11 hidden cruise costs.
Night Caribbean Cruises Cruise Only
The table below shows example prices for a selection of Caribbean cruises. These cruises are during the months of April, August and November.
Only one example from each cruise line was used for the comparison, prices do vary even within the cruise line based on the cruise ship but the prices below do provide a good example of what to expect.
Drawbacks of Cruising The Caribbean in Peak Season:
- Cruise ships are usually full
- Ports can be busy
- Children arent off school
- Have to make bookings ahead of time
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How Much Does The Average Person Spend On A Cruise
Ever wonder if you got a great deal on a cruise? Of course, you should read our 10 Rules for Getting the Best Deal on a Cruise, but it also doesnt hurt to compare what you paid to the average price other passengers paid.
Thats easier said than done until now. No, you dont have to go from passenger to passenger asking them how much they paid. You arent likely to get an accurate answer anyway .
Cruise lines are often public companies. That means they regularly report statistics to their shareholders and the investing public. These reports offer interesting glimpses into the cruise business with everything from stats on how many passengers a cruise line carries to how much money it takes in.
And with a little math, we can use some of these numbers to calculate exactly how much is spent per passenger on tickets and onboard items like alcohol and souvenirs. This gives us the average amount spent per person on a cruise.
Price Variety By Itinerary
There are three types of Caribbean cruises:
- Eastern
- Western
- Southern.
Generally speaking Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises are cheaper than Southern. Youll find many luxury cruise lines in the southern Caribbean. The most popular way to visit the Caribbean is on a cruise from the USA. It is also possible to do a transatlantic from Europe which heads straight to the Caribbean.
We talk more about the difference between Caribbean cruise itineraries in my cruise course, How to Cruise For Less. To find out more about how to cruise well on a budget, including how to save 60% off advertised cruise prices, check out this post: How to Cruise For Less.
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What Affects The Price Of Your Cruise
Different cruise lines have different terms and packages for your vacation. When it comes to Carnival, there are three major factors that will influence the cost of your cruise fare. These are the type of cabin you book, the length of your cruise and where you are traveling to. In order to explain this well, I will use an example of the cruise I took this January on the Carnival Dream. Its possible to find an inside cabin on Carnival for as low as $60/night, but a balcony cabin on the same cruise could cost $200/night, so you need to understand the difference if you would like to have a balcony.
Cruising Tip: An extra charge you might not be aware of before you go on the cruise is the $200 deposit per person. The day you board, Carnival will charge $200 to your account. Dont worry, it will be returned to you after you come back. However, Carnival does it to incentivize you to could spend more while you are on-board, so be careful!
How Much Do Drinks Cost On A Cruise Ship
On a cruise a beer will usually cost around $7, a glass of wine $10, a cocktail $10, a soda $2.50, and a specialty coffee $4. Drinks prices vary between cruise lines and gratuities may be added on top of the menu price as standard.
Below are examples from the largest cruise lines by passenger numbers.
| $3.50 |
As you can see the prices do vary although not very dramatically.
On some cruise lines like MSC, youll find the prices on the menus in Euros and with cruise lines like P& O Cruises, youll find that the menu is in Pound Sterling . With the majority of cruise lines, youll find the prices in US Dollars even if the cruise isnt sailing out of the US.
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Pre Or Post Cruise Hotel Stays
Dont forget to budget for a hotel stay before your cruise, or even after. It can cost about $200 a night or more for a one night hotel stay in a major city, so this adds to the cost of your cruise.
Whether you cruise out of South Florida and want to stay and visit Miami, or you want to visit Rome before your Mediterranean cruise, its worth it!
To reduce the cost of hotels, consider using hotel aggregator or discount websites like Priceline and Hotwire. For longer stays, consider an AirBnb for great values.
How Much Do Drinks Cost On A Cruise
The price of drinks on a cruise varies quite a lot, depending on the cruise line. Drinks on British- and European-owned cruise lines are generally cheaper than on American-owned cruise lines .
Also, the general rule is that the more luxurious the cruise, the more the drinks will cost.
Heres the price range for drinks on cruise ships:
- Beer: $3.50 to $10
- Glass of wine: $3.50 to $16
- Cocktail: $6 to $20
You can find the full list drinks prices broken down by cruise line here:The Ultimate Guide to Cruise Drink Packages
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What A World Cruise Should Include
As any seasoned cruise-goer knows, its important to analyze various packages and itineraries offered by cruise lines. Its too easy to get sucked in by a $499 offer for a 7-night sail in the Caribbean, only to learn the cabin is like a closet, you only get off once, and the ship is 15 years old. Even with a week-long cruise, its virtually impossible to not spend additional money on board if you want to live a little. Were not talking about buying gemstones in the jewelry storethis is more about evening cocktails or fitness classes. Dont fall victim to world-cruise itineraries that nickel and dime you at exponentially higher rates than these shorter cruises.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to pick the package right for you:
Do you plan to enjoy pre-dinner cocktails every night?
Look for a cruise with a beverage package or note when drinks are included.
Are you a morning cappuccino drinker or is drip coffee alright?
Many cruise lines charge extra for espresso or fancy coffee drinks, while grabbing plain drip coffee through room service or at restaurants costs nothing.
Will you be needing internet access to check in with colleagues and family back home, or be working remotely?
Shop around Wi-Fi packages because it takes many, many days to cross the ocean with few port stops. You can also confirm their reliability by checking out forums on sites like CruiseCritic.com.