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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Cruise Cost vs Land Tour Cost

How does the value of a cruise vacation compare to a traditional land-based vacation? While I was sitting in front of the PC willing the cruise ticker to count down another day, I began thinking what would a vacation similar to the cruise cost if I was crazy enough to attempt. So I began making a very loose comparison. The 8-day Eastern Caribbean trip on the Carnival Valor visits St. Thomas, Antigua, Tortola and Nassau and the cruise fare for my family of four totaled $3,117 including taxes. This is a pretty good value considering all that is included for this price.

I could be absolutely insane and island hop by plane and follow the same itinerary as the Valor does but the string of flights alone would far surpass the cruise fare. Hopping from Miami (MIA) to St. Thomas (STT) to Antigua (ANU) to Tortola (TOV) then to Nassau (NAS) and finally back to Miami for four passengers totaled $4,864 based on a search of cheapflights.com on May 29, 2012. A more realistic comparison would be to spend a week at a Caribbean mid-range resort.



We still must get to Nassau from Miami and the best airfare on the ticket discounter site was $862 for four passengers round trip on American Airlines. A similar Google search found that The Wyndham Nassau Resort had a discounted balcony room available for the same 8 nights that the cruise covers. With taxes this room totals $1,191. Just considering air travel and lodging we have come to a total of $2,035 just to get to Nassau and to have a room. There is still dining and entertainment to consider.

It is difficult to get a restaurant breakfast for less than $10 per person once you include the tip, tax and a beverage. Lunch is conservative at $12 per person and dinner each night perhaps $15 per person for only six nights. Remember an 8-day cruise will have two cruise elegant nights and a slightly more special dinner. I am guessing a nice sit down restaurant could tally $25 per person with tip, tax and non-alcoholic beverage. All the basic meals together can easily run a tab of $1,264 for four people over and eight day stay.

Just covering the basics, my comparison shakes out like this:

  • Airfare                 $   862
  • Lodging                $1,191
  • 8 breakfast           $   320
  • 8 lunches              $   384
  • 6 dinners              $   360
  • 2 special dinners   $   200
  • Total                  $3,317


This covers only the basics and does not take into consideration the ability to snack at all hours without additional charges (unless purchasing a specialty desert or coffee) nor does it consider the cost the evening entertainment of a comedy club or a staged variety show each night.

In this conservative example, the cruise pricing was $200 less than staying a week at a modest resort but had the added benefit of visiting three additional islands. Staying at more luxurious resorts can run inflate the costs very fast, for example, a Memorial Day sale package for the least expensive room at Atlantis with the ‘value dining’ option (kids eat free promotion) and airport transfers totaled $3,651 not including airfare for my party of four. The value dining is limited to specific restaurants and dinner only includes one appetizer or soup, 1 entrĂ©e and 1 desert.

It should be also noted that the cruise fare did not start out at this low of rate. The booking was made through the ‘Early Saver’ program for $3,900 but by monitoring the pricing during recent sales the pricing was adjusted.

I may be slightly biased toward cruise vacations but this comparison was a very loose, conservative look at the costs involved with cruise versus land vacations and it shows that cruises truly good value for the fare. Oh come on countdown ticker, move faster. Cheers!


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