The Cheapest Cruise Isn’t Always the Cheapest Cruise

How a simple search for a Bermuda cruise reminded me just how difficult it can be to compare what two cruises really cost.

Bermuda has been sitting on my cruise bucket list for quite a while. The problem has never been a lack of interest. If anything, spending three days docked in Bermuda, with the ability to come and go from the ship without rushing back before sail-away, sounds pretty darn appealing.

The problem has always been the length.

Most Bermuda itineraries follow a similar pattern: seven nights, with roughly two days sailing there, three days in Bermuda, and another two days sailing back. Every time I’ve looked seriously at booking one, I’ve somehow talked myself out of it. It’s only seven nights. Maybe we’ll do Bermuda later. Look, here’s a 12-night cruise somewhere else…

Apparently, I have a difficult time accepting that a vacation doesn’t need to consume half a month to be worthwhile.

But this time I decided Bermuda had waited long enough. Susan and I wanted to travel in June, which narrowed our realistic choices to three cruise lines: Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. Three cruise lines, similar dates, essentially the same destination and seven-night itineraries. How difficult could comparing prices possibly be?

As it turns out, pretty difficult.

First, Find the Apples

Whenever I’m comparing cruises, I try to strip away as many variables as possible at the beginning. For me, that means I start by pricing a guaranteed balcony cabin. No drink package. No Wi-Fi. No specialty dining. No excursions. No extra perks unless they’re automatically included in the fare.

I’m not saying that’s necessarily how we’ll ultimately book the cruise. In fact, it probably isn’t. But I need a baseline, and the only way I know to create one is to get the three cruises as close to identical as possible.

This is where I think cruise shoppers can get themselves into trouble. We see one cruise advertised for $1,399 and another for $1,699 and naturally assume we’ve found a $300 savings. But what exactly are we comparing? Is one fare refundable while the other isn’t? Does one include something the other charges separately for? Are we looking at the same cabin category? By the time you work through all the promotional language, that $300 difference may not be what it initially appeared to be.

So I start simple. What will it cost Susan and me to put ourselves in a guaranteed balcony cabin on each ship?

Once I have that number, I can usually narrow the search to the two strongest contenders. Then I start messing everything up.

When Apples Become Fruit Baskets

This is where cruise pricing gets interesting, because now I start rebuilding the vacation we would actually take.

Would we want Wi-Fi? Probably. What about a drink package? Maybe. Specialty dining? Perhaps. And suddenly the cruise line that looked cheapest during the first round of comparisons isn’t necessarily the cheapest anymore.

Royal Caribbean is a good example of how this can happen. I’ve found Royal can sometimes look extremely attractive when comparing the cruise fare alone. But start adding a drink package and Wi-Fi, and that initial price advantage can shrink pretty quickly.

Norwegian approaches things differently. Depending on the promotion and fare you’re considering, a package may bundle together things such as drinks, Wi-Fi, specialty dining or other benefits. Now I’m no longer looking at Cruise A for $X and Cruise B for $Y. I’m trying to determine the value of everything sitting inside the package.

Suddenly, I’m no longer comparing apples to apples, but I’m comparing apples to fruit baskets.

And this is where I think one of the most important rules of cruise shopping comes into play:

An included perk only has value if it’s something you would have paid for anyway.

That’s easy to forget when we’re staring at a list of everything a cruise line tells us we’re “getting.” Maybe a package supposedly includes hundreds of dollars in added value. That sounds fantastic, but what if half of those benefits are things you never would have purchased?

If I wouldn’t normally spend $150 on something, including it in my cruise package hasn’t necessarily saved me $150. It’s certainly nice to have, and I may enjoy it once I’m onboard, but that’s different from money I otherwise would have spent.

That’s why I don’t think the goal should be finding the cruise that includes the most. The goal is finding the cruise that gives you the best price on the things you actually value.

So Which Bermuda Cruise Won?

In our case, we ultimately booked Celebrity.

Yes, I see the irony. Not long ago, I wrote When Extraordinary Becomes Ordinary, an entire article about how easy it is for Susan and me to fall back on the cruise lines, itineraries and experiences we already know and love. I even questioned whether we should be pushing ourselves a little farther outside our cruising comfort zone.

A couple of weeks later, I go shopping for Bermuda…and book Celebrity. Apparently, personal growth has its limits.

But there’s an important difference. We didn’t start our search by saying, “Let’s take Celebrity to Bermuda.” Celebrity had to compete with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian for the trip, and I compared each based on the vacation we would actually purchase rather than simply the fare advertised on the website.

That’s ultimately what mattered.

I’m also not suggesting Celebrity will always win that comparison. On a different itinerary, another date, or with a different set of priorities, Royal or Norwegian might easily come out ahead. Change what matters to you and you can completely change which cruise represents the better value.

That’s why this isn’t really an article about which of those three cruise lines is cheapest. It’s about figuring out which one is cheapest for you.

What Does Your Version of the Vacation Cost?

I think that’s the question we sometimes forget to ask.

Two couples could sit down at their computers tonight, compare the exact same three cruises, and legitimately come away with three different answers about which offers the best value.

One couple might never drink alcohol and be perfectly happy disconnecting from the Internet for a week. Another may want drinks and Wi-Fi from the moment they board. Someone else may love specialty dining, while another cruiser can’t imagine paying extra when there are already so many included places to eat.

None of them are doing it wrong, as their vacations are simply different.

That’s why I’d resist putting a dollar value on every perk a cruise line includes and automatically treating it as savings. Instead, I think the better approach is to ask yourself a very simple question: If this weren’t included, would I pay for it?

If the answer is yes, give it real value in your comparison.

If the answer is no, enjoy the perk if you get it, but don’t let it convince you that you’ve somehow saved money you never intended to spend.

That distinction can completely change the way two cruise fares look.

Find the Real Price First. Then Figure Out How to Pay for It.

Once Susan and I know what our version of the vacation is actually going to cost, we don’t necessarily purchase everything at once. That’s a separate part of our planning process.

As I shared recently in Why Are Cruise Travelers Suddenly So Frustrated with Gratuities?, we tend to spread the various pieces of our vacation across the months leading up to departure. We’ll do the same thing with Bermuda. It doesn’t reduce the total price by a penny, but it allows us to spread those expenses across several billing cycles so that by the time we finally board the ship, virtually everything we’ve decided was worth buying has already been paid for.

There’s something psychologically satisfying about that.

Final Thoughts

Cruise lines have become incredibly good at packaging vacations in different ways. Some lead with an attractive base fare and allow you to build from there. Others bundle benefits together and show you how much “value” you’re receiving. Neither approach is necessarily better or worse, but it certainly makes comparison shopping harder.

That’s why I’ve learned not to ask, “Which cruise has the lowest fare?”

I want to know: “What will the vacation we actually want cost us?”

For our June trip to Bermuda, that meant starting with three comparable guaranteed balcony cabins, narrowing the field, and then adding back the things we would realistically purchase. Once we did that, Celebrity made the most sense for us.

Next time, it might not, and that’s really the point.

The cheapest cruise isn’t necessarily the one with the lowest number on the first screen you see. It’s the one that delivers the vacation you actually want at the best overall price.

Just make sure you’re comparing the same fruit.