Think you buy your cruise and that’s all your spend on your vacation? That’s not the case.
In fact, your cruise fare is the majority of what you’ll likely spend, but it’s really just the start. While plenty is included in your cruise, there are a number of things around the ship — from gambling to alcohol to shore excursions — that cost extra.
And while a cruise is an affordable vacation, there’s no mistaking that it is also big business. Modern cruise lines can have dozens of ships and all the biggest names — like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian — are owned by companies traded on the major stock exchanges.
What does that mean for you? While the cruise lines want to give you a great vacation, they also want to entice you to spend more money. So how much does the average person spend?
Below, we get into the spending habits once aboard the ship. The good news is that what you spend on the ship is completely up to you…
Extra Spending Isn’t Required Onboard
When you board a cruise ship you are tempted at every corner to open up your wallet. Whether it’s drinks… or excursions… or souvenirs… or specialty restaurants… there is no shortage of places for you to spend.
You can get by without spending a dime onboard, however.
The basics of what you need for your vacation are included in your cruise fare. When you pay for your fare, you get your room, as well as food at the ship’s free restaurants and basic beverages like tea and water. Meanwhile, most entertainment on the ship is also free.
It’s when you want to experience the extras that you’ll start to spend more. For instance, if you want a beer with your meal or a cocktail by the pool, those are extra.
Cruise lines are also trending toward more specialty restaurants — eateries that cost extra, but serve different types of food than what’s found in the dining room. As well, those excursions on short are additional costs. And if you want to do shopping on board, then you’ll of course spend more money.
Here’s a list of the things that are normally extra money on the ship…
Extras on a Cruise Ship
- Alcohol
- Non-alcoholic drinks (soda, etc.)
- Casino gambling
- Shore excursions
- Shopping
- Photo sales
- Internet/wi-fi
- Spa treatments
- Specialty restaurants
- Art sales
- Laundry services
Bottom line: If you’re a frugal cruiser then yes, you can sail without any additional spending. Most people, however, spend more once on the cruise ship. In some cases, a lot more.
How Much The Average Person Spends on the Ship
So how much do people spend onboard and what sort of budget can you expect?
The good news is that as we mentioned the cruise lines are public companies. That means they report financial statistics each quarter.
The reports also break down how much is spent on cruise fares and how much is spent once on the ship. In other words we can get an idea of what the average person spends.
Specifically, the cruise companies break down their revenue into cruise fares (Ticket Revenue) and “Onboard and Other” revenue. This second category includes everything mentioned above, from alcohol to the spa to internet service, photo sales, excursions… even art sales.
If you spend it on the ship and it’s not a payment for the cruise itself, then it will fall into this category.
In total, you can expect that 43-52% of what you spend on your cruise fare will be in the form of onboard spending. We looked at the recent annual financial reports for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian to arrive at this number. Take a look:
In other words, if you spend $1,000 per person on your cruise fare, then you can expect to spend between $430-$520 per person once on the ship. Some of the big factors in what you spend will include alcohol (which is expensive on the ship) and gambling.
How Much Is Spent Per Passenger Each Day
While percentages can give you an idea, we wanted to take things one step farther and calculate what the average person spends on each cruise line each day.
For that, we divided the total onboard spending by the total passenger cruise days. A passenger cruise day is simply the number of days sailed by each passengers. So a couple on a week-long cruise is 14 passenger cruise days. A family of four on a four-day cruise is 16 passenger cruise days.
That leaves us with a number that represents the average spending each day by each passenger.
Take a look…
So if a couple were to sail a 5-day cruise aboard a Carnival Corporation ship, that would mean a total of $851.50 in onboard spending, or about $425 per person.
Keep in mind that these are just averages across the entire cruise company, including all of its cruise lines. Obviously what you spend on the ship will vary based on the cruise line and also based on your individual habits.
If you enjoy having drinks each day or going on excursions at each port, you might spend more. If you enjoy just hanging by the pool and don’t need to go shopping or gambling to have a good time, then you would likely spend less than these averages.
Either way, if you’re a first-time cruiser and not sure what you might spend on the ship, the average of about 50% or $100 per person, per day gives you a good ballpark figure for budgeting. And you can see that you might spend more or less depending on which cruise company you sail with.
Want to spend less cash? Be sure to read our 32 tips for saving money on a cruise.
Popular: 39 Useful Things to Pack (17 You Wouldn't Think Of)
Read Next: Park & Cruise Hotels for Every Port in America
Popular: 107 Best Cruise Tips, Secrets, Tricks, and Freebies
