Many people new to cruising often get surprised when they find out the true price of taking a cruise. Cruise lines package their offerings in ways that makes it hard to make meaningful price comparisons between those offerings. This post is an attempt to make as close to as possible, an "apples to apples" comparison of several cruise lines doing 7-day Bahamas or Caribbean cruises from Florida.
For this comparison, we assumed the following:
- The model cruiser will choose a 7-day cruise that starts in either Miami or Fort Lauderdale. (These two ports were chosen, as they are within 30 miles of each other.)
- Cruise examples were scheduled for July/August/September 2025.
- Cruise and package prices were those available on July 1, 2025.
(Package prices may have changed since this comparison was made.) - If possible, cruise examples include a port stop at a line's private island.
- The per person price is based on 2 people sailing together in an inside cabin.
- Each person will have 2 alcoholic beverages each day of the cruise.
- Each person will consume 3 sodas (or bottled waters) each day of the cruise.
- Each person will abstain from purchasing photographs or other optional services such as spa treatments during the cruise.
- All meals will be enjoyed in a complimentary dining room or buffet area.
(If any specialty meals are offered as part of the fare, this will be treated as if dining in a complementary dining room.) - Neither cruiser will purchase their shore excursions through the cruise line, as cruise line sponsored excursion prices vary widely, and make it impossible to compare the basic costs of cruising on the ship.
- Cruisers live near the cruise port, and do not need other travel arrangements from the cruise line.
- Optional fare packages may be used if they reduce the cost to the model cruisers.
- When specific prices were not available from cruise line sites (often due to dynamic pricing used on Royal Caribbean), we have used average prices found on the internet.
- Carnival
- Celebrity
- MSC
- Norwegian
- Royal Caribbean
- Princess
- Virgin
The above spreadsheet (download here) was used in helping me compare the 7 cruise line offerings. Of these 7 offerings, Carnival had the lowest price cruise for my model passenger, followed by MSC and Princess in a close 2nd and 3rd place. There was a gap of $910 between the lowest priced and highest priced cruises which had inside cabins available for comparison. But that $910 can mean a world of happiness while on the cruise. Carnival aims for a "Value Oriented" demographic, marketing "Fun" without sophistication. Royal Caribbean aims for a more upscale demographic, looking to enjoy upmarket resort amenities and willing to pay for them.
Although there is only a $130 difference between the expected total cost on Carnival and Princess using the Princess Plus fare, there is a world of difference between what you will get and experience on their cruises. Carnival advertises itself as sailing "Fun Ships" and caters to a younger, "value oriented" customer. Princess, on the other hand, positions itself as an affordable "premium" cruise line, attracting an older, more affluent cruiser. Although one of Princess's newer ships was delivered with a never used roller coaster ride, it was the exception to the style of what one would expect from a Princess cruise ship. One doesn't cruise with Princess for thrills and spills. Instead, one cruises with Princess to savor an experience, although this may be changing on Princess's newest mega ships (Sun Princess and Star Princess).
But what about Royal Caribbean? Its price was $600+ over that of Carnival for a similar cruise. Yet, you get what you pay for. Royal is known for the quality of its on-ship shows and for its private island. One feels like one is at a floating resort when on Royal I haven't heard anyone say that about Carnival. The food is top notch, and there are many ways that the cruise line has found to extract money from its cruisers, such as demand based pricing for products sold before and during the cruise.
Each cruise line has a targeted demographic. One can cruise cheaply on MSC, or expensively on Royal Caribbean. But price should not be the only factor in choosing cruises. In our case, this year we took 2 cheap cruises on MSC, took 2 more on Princess, and a final cruise on Cunard. All 5 cruises met our budgetary requirements. But the nature of each cruise was different and factored into the decisions we made in selecting these cruises. For example, the 2 MSC cruises were a mid-winter cruise to the Caribbean, followed by a spring cruise to Bermuda. Neither of us needed any hand-holding for these cruises, as we have planned similar sailings before. The Princess cruises were to Alaska and to New England/Canada. We've been to New England and Canada before, so this was a perfect summer getaway. But an Alaska cruise is a "Bucket List" trip. Princess is geared to serve an older demographic and does these kinds of trips very well. Our last cruise was on Cunard. This is an experiment to find out whether we want to do a Transatlantic crossing in the future. Cunard targets a demographic that has the money to pay for luxury, and we asked: Would we enjoy a very formal, old style, cruise experience? At the price we paid for our cruise, it was worth the gamble.
One can build a complex spreadsheet to calculate the true costs of cruising with each line, and do a simple "apples to apples" comparison between them. But I recommend knowing what you want and need on each cruise, whether the cruise line delivers what you want and need on the cruise, and find a cruise which fits in your budget. The entertainment onboard will vary from fair to outstanding. The food onboard will vary from fair to outstanding, based on which dining rooms you eat in. (Most cruise lines have excellent food in their specialty dining rooms, but these will usually cost extra.) Focus first on the qualities of the experience that you want from a cruise before doing serious shopping for that cruise.
When one starts shopping for a cruise, one can go to each cruise line's website to look up available cruises and cabin prices. I find that this is an awkward way of doing things. If I want to look for all cruises going between New York City and Bermuda, I'll use a site such as vacationstogo.com to extract this information.
Alternatively, one can use a site such as cruiseplum.com to filter cruises by cruise lines and value to determine whether a line's offerings are good values. I have found this site to give an accurate idea of how much a cruise will cost including automatic "gratuities".
The above process is far from complete. Once one has selected a small number of cruises one might want to take, one has to examine what discounts and promotions are available directly from the cruise line and through one's travel agent(s). For example, in late October 2025, Vacations to Go listed several NCL cruises on its site where one would get "Free Gratuities" (I hate that term) if they booked Balcony Cabins or Mini Suites for these cruises before October 31st. At roughly $20/day (for simplicity), that's a $140 savings per person on a 7 day cruise. Unfortunately, none of the online sites I use allow one to filter for those cruises with free gratuities. Instead, I look for advertisements from reputable travel agencies to see what promotions are being offered for cruises in which I'm interested.
Over time, one develops a comfort level in using the above sites and gains an idea of when a cruise line is charging a fair or a bargain price for the cruise one wants. But this is not all that one can do to cruise cheaply. The same techniques I use for "Closed Loop" cruises (where the cruise beginning and end is at the same port) can be used for repositioning cruises (e.g. Transatlantic Crossings and many Panama Canal Full Transit Cruises) with minor changes made for transportation and lodging before and after these cruises.
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I am not a fan of making a deposit for a future cruise while onboard a cruise. When one does so, one locks in deposit money to one line's cruise options, many of which may not be optimal for one's desired future cruise. Many of these "Cruise Next" deposits come with onboard spending credits for the current cruise. If one decides NOT to take the future cruise, one ends up paying the cruise line back for the credits one spent on the prior cruise where one made the "Cruise Next" deposit.
A good way to cruise cheaply is to book cruises that take place during "Shoulder Seasons." For example, Alaska's peak season is June, July, August and part of September. Its shoulder season is late April, May, September, and early October. Alaskan cruises are much more expensive in peak season than in shoulder season.
Using the above list of Coral Princess sailings on the Alaska route (found on VacationsToGo.com), one sees a $1,000+ difference between one shoulder season sailing and an equivalent peak season sailing in 2026. The weather may not be as good in shoulder season vs. peak season, but one can visit when the crowds are thinner and many attractions are easier to book. There is a drawback to this for Alaskan cruises, as many places may have closed for the season before some shoulder season cruises set sail.
Finally, cruise lines offer discounts throughout the year, most notably around "Black Friday" and "Wave Season" (January through March). Ideally, one will book a cruise 6-12 months in advance (18+ months in advance for Accessible cabins) to get both the lowest price and greatest number of available cabins. If one is willing to risk not being able to get a specific cabin/cabin type on a specific cruise, one can try to get a last minute booking - usually sometime after final full payment date has passed. At this point, cruise lines are looking to fill the remaining unsold cabins instead of having the ship sail with empty cabins.
Learning how to get the best price for a cruise takes a little time. But if one makes that investment in time and effort, one can cruise often at low prices.
PS: The cost of both Princess Plus and Princess Premier fares has gone up since this post was originally written. One should always check current prices before calculating the cost of a cruise.
PPS: As of October 2025, Virgin Voyages has significantly changed its pricing structure for its cruises since I wrote the core of this post. They now have 3 fare levels, and no longer include gratuities as part of the fare. If I were to repeat this price comparison for 2026 cruises, Virgin would likely be the costliest option for all sample cruise choices.
