Cruise a good value??? I think not.

[valtandc]

I love to cruise and cant' wait until June when I get to do so with extended family. But......I read here and there that cruising presents a good value......I don't think its a rip off but good value I don't believe.

 

A good value to me is renting a big home on the outer banks with a few families and enjoying the week.......or a drive to vacation if you live in northeast like to to lake george or cape cod or upstate NY.........or an all inclusive in riviera maya (if you like to drink you save tons on booze).........or staying at auntie's home near the beach. lol.

 

If a family of 4 has to fly to miami, take a 7 night cruise, and stay at least 1 night in a hotel in miami and take shuttles too and from airport.....look what that costs.....a ton.

 

anyway....just wondering why many of you think its a good value....remind me again so i keep my enthusiasm high for my trip.....

[tak81288]

I love to cruise and cant' wait until June when I get to do so with extended family. But......I read here and there that cruising presents a good value......I don't think its a rip off but good value I don't believe.

 

A good value to me is renting a big home on the outer banks with a few families and enjoying the week.......or a drive to vacation if you live in northeast like to to lake george or cape cod or upstate NY.........or an all inclusive in riviera maya (if you like to drink you save tons on booze).........or staying at auntie's home near the beach. lol.

 

If a family of 4 has to fly to miami, take a 7 night cruise, and stay at least 1 night in a hotel in miami and take shuttles too and from airport.....look what that costs.....a ton.

 

anyway....just wondering why many of you think its a good value....remind me again so i keep my enthusiasm high for my trip.....

 

 

LOL...You are not even comparing apples to apples...

[*Mach*]

I believe it's an excellent value. Regarding the need to fly thing, certainly that's a very significant cost but Carnival has made huge efforts to keep ships as conveniently positioned as possible and still continue to make a profit.

Ship do sail from the east and north east so it's not necessary to fly to cruise... it's part of the selection process!!

:)

[Crusin6]

I don't think it is a great value but when all is said and done it is agood value and great vacation. add to that.... a fabulous vacation that feeds you and enables you to see Europe without having to take 8 hour bus rides because you get to sleep and party and eat and dance thru the travel time between ports...and the added bonus of cruising is the beauty of the sea!!!!

 

To the OP...you really don't think that you are going to get sympathy here, do you?

[audekat]

Several of your senarios include renting a home or staying with a friend/family.

 

one of the valuse for me in a cruise is not having to clean up after myself (dishes, laundry, etc), not having to cook, getting see several locations with out having to repack.

 

Also looking at staying somewhere in a hotle or resort (other than AI) you will have to add cost for Daily trasportation, food and entertainment.

 

I think the value levels off.

[mikel24m]

It can be a great value ,its up to you to keep it cheap.I can easily book A $399 inside lower deck cabin.Get $99 airfare which we really can where I live.You can not buy pictures or gifts.You can buy a bottle or two from BV for under $100.

 

with the tips added on this is $1238 for 2 for a week

 

Thats around $89 per day per person .You cant even get a nice hotel let alone all meals and snacks .Cruising is a bargain if you do it right.Personally im on vacation I choose to not worry about price

[Room Service!]

The 2 of us live 15 minutes from the port, no flying, no hotel. We live approx., 3 1/2 hours from Deep Creek Lake in Md. The costs of the rental cottage, boat, food would very likely cost 2 1/2 times what the cruise costs for a week, and then the added cost of other forms of entertainment we might want to indulge in. Cruising IS most definitely a GREAT value for us.

[oregonrebel]

Well, i booked my first cruise last month and i too wonder at times about the costs....

But, for about the same price instead of us flying to a AI in Mexico and spending a week there i get to be transported from Miami to 4 different vacation destinations in one week. A cruise is almost AI except for the booze. I have been to many resorts and i get too antsy and a week in one spot gets boring too me... So for me i think a cruise will be perfect...

[howielovescruisin]

Well, my wife and I are going to take our dear granddaughter on vacation with us in September. We looked at a 5 night cruise on Carnival Oceanview Room with prepaid tips, it came to 981.81 for all 3 of us. This was option number 1. I know what someone is going to say but what about shore excursions, we already booked them and prepaid and for Cozumel and Grand Cayman combined it was 200.00 so the price of our cruise with those is now 1181.81

 

Option number 2 was going to Disney for 5 nights at a moderate resort. With 2 meals a day included the price for the 3 of us was 2522.87.

 

 

Looking at the difference between 2522 and 1181, I think it's easy to see where the value is!

[Taters]

If I wanted to do dishes, cook, clean and watch TV I can just stay home. But for vacations I love to be out on the open ocean, eat out for every meal, go to the casino, visit the beach for a few hours here and there and never, ever have to drive myself anywhere, I enjoy meeting new friends, seeing new places - The list goes on and on!

 

Yes indeed - Cruising offers a great value as opposed to doing the hotel/resort thing.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Taters

[oldrailfan]

I have to agree with Mach about the flying. Transportation costs - flying, driving, or by train - exist regardless of the vacation site you choose. If you're willing to drive to Cape Cod or Lake George, Baltimore is closer than either, and ships sail from there nearly year-round. They also sail from the Port of New York. (Bayonne, I think)

[Clearwater]

We live 15 mins to Tampa Port, and hour and a half to Port Canaveral and 4 hrs to ft Laud or Miami.

 

So not airfare needed.

 

However, we just went to St. Augustine for a 3 night anniversary.

We stayed in a nice place and with hotel, gas, food, and shopping it was well over 1600.00. Half of the time the food wasn't even half as good as a cruise because it was tourist gourmet not real gourmet. We had a gorgeous room booked for months and then a cold snap hit. So no pool use, even tho we were charged a 25.00 per day resort fee.

 

 

My 7 night cruise in October is 1298 with an extended balcony. You are in the caribbean so can almost always use the pool and beach. This comes out to WAY cheaper $100 per day per person. Oh and I guess I am lucky but EVERY cruise I have been on, I have also won almost my whole cruise fare back in the casino. It was like vacationing for free :)

 

That is what makes it cost effective for us!

[realtyexecdeb]

:p I think you need to factor all costs including airfare, hotel, car rental, meals in restaurants, entertainment, etc.. before you say that cruising is not a GREAT deal! I used to be a "land" vacationer too but when I took my 1st cruise I was hooked! I'm you will have a wonderful cruise...HAPPY SAILING!:D:D

[NanCan]

You have to look for the deals and go when they are available. If you must go on vacation during prime season, you are going to have to pay top dollar. If you can go in the off season or if you are good at finding the travel bargains, there really are values everywhere. I am not restricted to a certain time of year that I have to travel, so a cruise becomes a value to me, but if I could only cruise during Christmas or the summer, it becomes out of my price range..being able to plan a last minute one also saves (but airfare become prohibative lol) we are driving this time.

[OnePsychLynne]

We live 15 mins to Tampa Port, and hour and a half to Port Canaveral and 4 hrs to ft Laud or Miami.

 

So not airfare needed.

 

However, we just went to St. Augustine for a 3 night anniversary.

We stayed in a nice place and with hotel, gas, food, and shopping it was well over 1600.00. Half of the time the food wasn't even half as good as a cruise because it was tourist gourmet not real gourmet. We had a gorgeous room booked for months and then a cold snap hit. So no pool use, even tho we were charged a 25.00 per day resort fee.

 

 

My 7 night cruise in October is 1298 with an extended balcony. You are in the caribbean so can almost always use the pool and beach. This comes out to WAY cheaper $100 per day per person. Oh and I guess I am lucky but EVERY cruise I have been on, I have also won almost my whole cruise fare back in the casino. It was like vacationing for free :)

That is what makes it cost effective for us!

 

So true! I took my hubby to St. Augustine for Valentines Day weekend and two nights in a B&B cost me over $400! Not to mention food, entertainment etc. A three day cruise is so much cheaper we would have done that in a heartbeat but hubby couldn't get a day off work. (It was a surprise trip)

[milton333]

We booked a balcony and even with airfare, transport to port, and hotel rooms bookending the cruise, it's about $130/person. Figure at least $40/person/day to eat, and you've got $90/person/day devoted to lodging, transportation, and entertainment. I think that's reasonable. In an inside cabin, it would be even cheaper.

 

It may not be a totally screaming deal, but IMO it's comparable to what we'd pay for a land-based vacation, and it's a no-brainer. The last is more important to me. I always end up having to plan things on vacation, or DH will sit around and watch TV, which we can do at home. I like that there are dozens of daily events, activities, eateries, and bars already identified for us on the cruise ship. I like that I can walk to one and walk away to something else if it isn't to my taste. I find that when we do land-based vacations, I spend months researching and mapping out what's to do, and we still end up "wasting" a fair amount of time finding somewhere to eat or figuring out what to do for entertainment, and schlepping from one place to another. The time savings of having everything thought out and in one place has value to me, too.

[cdamion]

I agree with what others have said here. Funny this comes up now, two very recent experiences have me thinking a cruise is a good value.

 

I recently went to LA to visit family, granted it was a peak travel time, but what I spent in hotel, rental car, food, and shows would have cost a bit less if I had just gone with the relatives out on a 4 day cruise on Paradise.

 

Last night I had a pretty good dinner at a nice, but not fancy, place. What I spent for 2 people at dinner cost me about the same as it would cost for one night on a cruise ship.

 

I have yet to stay at an all-inclusive. When I have priced them out, they come out costing more than cruises do. Especially when booking with a well-known company where you can trust that their food will be good.

[janetz]

I love to cruise and cant' wait until June when I get to do so with extended family. But......I read here and there that cruising presents a good value......I don't think its a rip off but good value I don't believe.

 

A good value to me is renting a big home on the outer banks with a few families and enjoying the week.......or a drive to vacation if you live in northeast like to to lake george or cape cod or upstate NY.........or an all inclusive in riviera maya (if you like to drink you save tons on booze).........or staying at auntie's home near the beach. lol.

 

If a family of 4 has to fly to miami, take a 7 night cruise, and stay at least 1 night in a hotel in miami and take shuttles too and from airport.....look what that costs.....a ton.

 

anyway....just wondering why many of you think its a good value....remind me again so i keep my enthusiasm high for my trip.....

 

 

You can cruise from NY and NJ too. :)

[hlb76]

I think they are a great value...

 

We live in Mn and like to go some place warm during the winter. So price of gas or airfare is a wash for me. Or at least I feel it is. I still need to get there.

 

Our pre-cruise hotel is normally one night and we book cheap hotels or from time to time get lucky enough to have a friend in the hotel business comp us a room. We don't go all out here it's one night.

 

The cruise fare is a good vaule I feel.... where else can I get a room and a room serviced twice a day, all the food I can eat, activities, some to drive me from place to place for a descent price.

 

If we did a land vacation we would spend $100+ a night for hotel room, meals 3 times a day and snacks so lets say $75-100pp a day, activities could vary lets give it $50 a day, car rental or gas can sure add up too.

 

I find cruising to be a great vaule. but I can see where it might not be for everyone. We don't buy a lot of pictures, we dont gamble much, or drink much, I carry on a 12 of soda, we dont use the spa, etc. We also book cheap rooms. Now if I went all out of course it would be a small value. But I truely think those who go all out on cruises prob go all out on land vacations.

 

I almost forgot to add having someone else cook, do my dishes, drive me around and so on is PRICELESS in my eyes. I deal w/ enough of that at home.

[Shelli]

They also sail from the Port of New York. (Bayonne, I think)

 

Bayonne is in NJ. (And so is the Statue of Liberty, btw!) Only Royal Caribbean and Celebrity sail from there.

 

NY's ports are in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

[Haoie]

You know what's really good value?

 

Doing nothing!

[imlulu]

Have you seen the prices to rent a house on Cape Cod?

[*Mach*]

I wasn't even considering cabin choice when I made my comment. We chose to book balcony cabins. On any given cruise I can cut the cost of my vacation nearly in half, sometimes more, by booking a lower category cabin.

I've done many AIs in the Caribbean and Mexico. Give the grandeur of the sea, the variety of locations you (may...) sail to and the quality of the service I don't think cruising can be beat...

:)

[Nanaimobound]

I have to agree with most here.

Still a really good value, and you know what you are going to get if you have cruised before.

 

None of my land vacations were ever cheaper than cruising when you factor food for all, transportation, entertainment, accommodation.

That is a big reason we choose cruising again and again.

Agreement on the flying cost. Our Conquest cruise was the only thing cheap about our trip to Galveston! But we wanted our family to experience the Caribbean and we are from CA. Had we flown into Jamaica, Cozumel, or grand Cayman, we would have only experienced one place, and paid for everything including the flights. Still a better value for our large family.

We have San francisco port, Los angeles, and even Seattle as options for a fairly good deal for us, so cruising is still a go!

[tourismtessy]

"Value" will mean different things to different people. I believe cruising is the BEST value for your money for several reasons:

1. If renting a house on a beach for a week with other family members someone has to cook, clean, etc. --- On a cruise--you only have to decide where you want to eat and walk there (or call room service and have it delivered and not pay $40-50 for a meal, plus tax, tip, etc). Also because of the wide selection of food, everyone can get what they want and so no debates on "which restaurant are we eating at tonight". No one has to make a bed or clean a kitchen, etc. Cabin stewards provide service twice a day on a cruise (service like that only given at 5 star hotels with HUGE cost for room only).

2. A week at a house rented or other type resort is 1 location. On a 7 day cruise, I unpack one time and wake up in a different country every day (or wake up and enjoy the beautiful ocean on sea days on my balcony with free room service). I can travel to many places in first class accomodations and most of the enroute time is while I am asleep.

3. If hubby wants to take a nap and I want to see a show, on a cruise this is possible. One person can do an activity and the other nothing if they want and no one has to drive anywhere or worry about the others safety.

4. We always stay the night before the cruise in a hotel but I use a chain with loyalty points and always have free shuttle to and from airport and cruise port AND free breakfast to boot. Less than $100.00 a night for all this AND a spacious hotel room with separate sitting area and walking distance to many restaurants, shopping and 50 cent trolley to the beach.

5. Hubby and I don't really drink much so for us a cruise IS all inclusive. I bring crystal light packs to add to water on the buffet. If you do drink, the downside is you have to pay extra for your drinks. The upside is no one

6. Shore excursions are all optional and if you do your research (I am a research fanatic!) you can find free (or almost free) things to do in each port. Sometimes we like to enjoy staying on the ship while everyone else is off and having quiet time (especially if going to a repeat port).

7. It is truly the only vacation where EVERYONE is on vacation. No one is pulling driving duty, kitchen duty, etc. An added bonus that is extra great for extended families is the photos you can have done every night for NO sitting charge and no special appointment to get pictures done. Just stop on your way to dinner (already dressed nice) and take some pictures and check them out the next night. If you like, you buy. If not, take some more and try again. No stress, no hassle family portraits for a very good price. Also, you are truly "away" from everyday life--no phone calls, texts, etc.

8. Without any "add ons" (shore excursions, alcohol, etc) a cruise typically runs about $100 per day per person. This is for EVERYTHING---entertainment, food, accomodations, activities on ship, etc. You would pay far more for these separately on a land vacation.

 

Not sure if this will get you pumped up or not but that's my input :) Hubby and I have been hooked on cruising since our first one and its the ONLY vacation he will take now. We book ours a year out and I start the research and planning. Just came back from one a few weeks ago and already have our next one booked for Jan 2012! Can't wait to be on the seas again. :D