A Carnival Cruise seems like a cheap spring break option but are they really? What is the total cost after all of the individual packages and fees?
Base Payment
The base price for my 5 day Carnival cruise from Charleston to Nassau and Bimini, Bahamas was $471. I shared my room with 2 other girls and we chose the cheapest interior room possible.
Getting To The Port
Our ship departed out of Charleston, South Carolina so we were able to save money on gas since it was just a 2 hour drive from school. We also stayed with my friend’s dad and saved money on the cost of staying somewhere the night before. If you have to drive to Port Canaveral the night before and stay overnight because of an early onboarding time, those are costs to consider.
Cruise Taxes and Port Fees:
The fees with the purchase are $136.20 per person.
Prepaid Gratituties:
If you don’t want to tip on the boat, you can opt in to prepaid gratituities which is $72.50 per person.
Wifi Packages:
I chose the smallest wifi package Carnival cruise offered which included social media like Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp. It does not include iMessages, email access or streaming. This cost me $63.75
Food
The Carnival cruise is all you can eat! During the day, there was two poolside restaurants serving burgers and tacos, as well as a rotating buffet and deli. At night, you eat in the dinning room where the menu changes every night, offering 10 different appetizers, 6 entrees and 4 desserts to chose from. You can order as much as you want and it is included in the base pay.
Beverage Packages:
There are two beverage packages you can chose from. The first is Bottomless Bubbles which includes unlimited juice and sodas for $9.50 a day. The second package is called Cheers! and includes cocktails, beer, wine, sodas, and coffee for $59.95 a day. There is a 15 alcoholic beverage limit on this package.
One thing to note is that with these packages, everyone in the room has to have the same one. So if one person wants the Cheers! Package, everyone has to have it. My room decided that we didn’t think we needed the package because we won’t be drinking much on days we are on the islands, so we will purchase alcohol seperately.
At the end of my 5 day cruise, I had spent $150 on alcohol which is half of what the Cheers! package would have cost me. On a Carnival Cruise, you are allowed to bring on one bottle of wine, and one 12 pack of sodas so I took advantage of that. I also had snuck on liquor in 2 sunscreen bottles to drink with my sodas during the day. The total cost of the add ons I brought were $30.
So all in all I saved about $130 by not purchasing the drink package. By no means did I feel drink deprived, I was perfectly content. Although, if you don’t want to go back to your room to drink what you brought or want to have wine with your dinners, maybe just splurge on the package. It really just depends on the kind of trip you are trying to have. I didn’t need to have 15 drinks a day. That would kill me.
Specialty Restaurants
The Carnival cruise offered specialty restaurants such as Italian, Steakhouses and Hibachi. Each of these restaurants were an extra cost of $20-50 per person so we didn’t eat here.
Port Costs and Excursions
When we docked in the Bahamas, we were offered several excursions or packages we could buy. Do not pay for the beach packages with chairs, umbrellas and towels. You don’t need to. Everyone has access to the beach and is given a towel from the cruise so there is no need to buy the package. You can even use resort’s beach property as long as you don’t use their chairs and such. Save yourself $100. We went to the beach early in the morning and until the afternoon and got right back on the boat for food and drinks.
The second day in the Bahamas we paid for an excursion to take a catamaran snorkeling. This three hour excursion was $80 and was 100% worth it. The boat was so great, we got to lay out on the nets and drink rum punch they provided for us. The reefs they took us to were some of the biggest and best I have ever seen. It was such a pleasant surprise.
After the excursion, some of my friends went back to the boat to eat the food in our inclusive package. However, some friends and I really wanted to join in on the college environment at Senior Frogs for lunch. We had a blast dancing with all of the college students, many of which were from different cruises. I spent $65 here. I know it’s pricy, but the drinks were the same cost at the restaurant as they were on the boat without the drink package so it didn’t make a big difference to me.
Total Cost: $985.95
Getting to Port: $0
Base: $471
Taxes and fees: $136.2
Wifi: $63.75
Alcohol without package: $170
Specialty Restaurants: $0
Meals: $0
Port Excursions: $145
There are absolutely ways the Carnival cruise could get more expensive. If you want it to be cheaper, I suggest not drinking or paying for the wifi. The wifi was slow and not super worth it. I felt that the excursions were definitely worth it because I love exploring new regions.
The point of the blog post is although this was a great trip and affordable spring break option, don’t let the flashy price of $450 for a Carnival cruise mislead you. If you are a first time cruiser and have more questions, I answer them here.
All in all, I really enjoyed it and recommend Carnival cruises for a college student spring break!
