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Use your savings in port.
Like most aspects of travel, there’s the advertised price–and then there’s price you actually pay. Other than at a Disney theme park, with its difficult-to-understand price tiering, nowhere is this truer than on a cruise ship. When booking your cruise, you might read that a week-long sailing during a frigid winter up north costs just $600 or so per person, with everything included. At that bargain price, you’re ready to book, right? Hold up, though. To maintain that price, this probably means you’re in an interior cabin, won’t order a single alcoholic drink, or sign up for a shore excursion.
Even so, a cruise doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars per person. There are several smart hacks to shave money off the cost. They might seem small potatoes but really, once they add up, you’ll be putting more money back into your banking account. Perhaps this can pay for a future cruise?
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BYOB
While, sadly, you can’t bring an entire case of wine or beer on board, or enough bottles of spirits to create a mini bar in your cabin, you can pack up some of this. The maximum amount varies per cruise line, but with Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean, for example, it’s one wine bottle per guest. If drinking in a public area, such as in the dining room, there’s a $20 corkage fee, but you can avoid that by consuming in your cabin. With a party of four people, that’s four bottles—and tons of savings if you were to order those drinks at a bar on the ship.
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Book or Create Your Own Shore Excursions
When you book a shore excursion through the cruise line, it’s mostly about peace of mind. Rarely are they unique to a location. However, there’s a guarantee you’ll be brought back to the ship on time—and the organizer will communicate any delays with the crew. The cheapest shore excursion is walking off the ship and exploring on your own. Or, if that’s not an option given where the ship docks and you really do need to travel to see anything, book a shore excursion with a group that’s already on the ground. Airbnb Experiences as well as Viator and Shore Excursions Group offer tours around the world, with many in cruise-ship ports.
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Pay Upcharges
While the cheapest choice is to not buy a drinks package, à la carte drink orders quickly add up to the point where buying that package would have been a savings. Especially since most cruise lines bundle the drinks package with tips/gratuities and wi-fi. Cruise lines usually offer between 2-3 different drink packages, with the most expensive covering premium offerings. For example, on Princess Cruises, the lower-cost drinks package of the two (Princess Plus) covers glasses of wine $15 and under. If you prefer a $17 glass of wine but don’t’ want to spring for the Princess Premier package, just pay the $2 difference.
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Visit the Spa on Port Days
The minute you board the ship, the spa deals start rolling in, and they are most definitely for port days when most people are off the ship. This is when treatments cost less because everyone wants a massage on a sea day and doesn’t want to give up time exploring in port. However, you can always do both when a ship is docked in port. Maybe get off the ship early, explore in town, and then come back in the early afternoon for a deeply discounted spa treatment.
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Don’t Book Specialty-Dining Reservations
Unless you’re celebrating a special occasion or want a more intimate dining-room atmosphere, there’s no reason to pay $35-$50 per person to dine at a specialty-dining restaurant on the ship. Remember, the rest of the ship’s food is already included in your fare, so now it’s essentially free because you already paid for it. In fact, if you peek into these restaurants, you’ll likely see a lot of availability (in other words: empty seats).
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Sail on an Older Ship
Cruising fanatics count down the days until they can sail on a brand-new ship—and they pay more for that experience. If you don’t care about a ship’s amenities as much as you do where it’s sailing, book an older ship. The good news is that you don’t even have to search for an older ship. You’ll know one when you see it: it’s the lowest fare. As an example, Celebrity Cruises’ Ascent launched in late 2023 as the newest ship in its Edge series. Its 8-night Italy, France & Spain sailing in June starts at $1,789 for an interior cabin, but a 9-night sailing in May onboard Celebrity Equinox, which dates back to 2009, and was the first ship in the Edge series, starts at just $1,391.
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Book an Interior Cabin
Balconies are nice, as are the portholes that remind you a cabin is not a hotel room because you’re out at sea, but they also cost more. Given that there are balconies in many spots on a cruise ship, save some money with an interior cabin. As an example, Princess Cruises’ 7-Day Western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, Texas, in January runs $607 for an interior cabin but a cabin with a balcony is $787.
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Travel During the Off-Season
It’s only a week out of your life, right? If you have to bundle up while whale watching in Alaska in May (instead of the warmer months of July and August) it’s not the end of the world. Similarly, a Mediterranean cruise in spring or fall, or voyaging through the Caribbean during the summer months, offers discounts on the fare. There’s not as much competition to fill the cabins. And you may experience fewer crowds. For example, Oceania Cruises to Alaska start at $2,870 per person for an 8-day sailing in May, but spike to $3,599 per guest in August.
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Book Early or a Few Weeks Prior
Unlike with other hospitality sectors, such as hotels and airlines, the price goes down the closer you get to the sailing. That said, some cabin categories, and even entire ships, do sell out. You’re better off locking in the trip a year ahead of time, which is also a sweet deal. Cruise ships offer full and partial refunds, so many days out (so as long as you keep an eye on the policy) you can always change the dates of your trip if a conflict with work or family comes into play.
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Wait to Book Shore Excursions
If you wait to book a shore excursion, you’ll pay less than a few months prior. Once on board, keep an eye out for mid-cruise promotions. The pricing is always better than the advertised cost. Of course, the caveat is that some shore excursions, particularly those that are popular, do fill up—sometimes even before embarkment day. But if you’re willing to roll the dice, you may end up with a discounted excursion. All of the excursions are already vetted by the shore line, so you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
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Skip the Internet Package
You’re on vacation: Do you really need to be checking emails and scrolling through Facebook all day long? Just put that OOO reply into action and disconnect. You’ll be glad you did. Nearly all ports offer free wi-fi in the cruise terminal, or you can always find local spots to get online, such as a McDonald’s, Starbucks, or other business. Some ports even offer free wi-fi within their downtowns, historic centers, or tourist-heavy areas.
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Eat All Your Meals on the Ship
While you should definitely sample local delicacies in a port, dropping cash to buy lunch or dinner in a port isn’t always necessary as every meal on the ship, 24/7, is free. Since most ships are in port from the morning until the evening, and you probably won’t be off the ship the entire time, you can get away with buying just one meal in the port. Eat a large breakfast before you disembark, enjoy a casual lunch in port, and be back on the ship by dinnertime.