When I start doing research on any particular cruise there are a number of factors (location, time of year ship, etc) that will determine what I am personally willing to pay overall for said cruise. However, my goal is to always try and stay under the $100 per-night (before taxes and port fees) mark.
As with anything regarding a cruise's nightly rate,
the $100 per-night amount that I mentioned is based on double
occupancy and would translate to $200 per-night. Do keep in mind that
I am talking about cruises from “main stream” cruise lines such
as Norwegian (the only line I have used so far), Celebrity, Carnival,
Royal Caribbean, Princess, etc. I am not talking about luxury cruise
lines like Silver Sea, Cunard, Seaborne, etc. Also, keep in mind that
I always look for and book the cheapest inside cabin (read my “Is A Balcony Cabin Worth The Extra Cost?”
post to see why).
$200 per-night is a good and very
workable goal, a 7 day cruise for two would work out to be around
$1400 (before taxes and port fees), I would NOT be willing to pay
more than that. In reality, I have taken cruises MUCH cheaper than
that example, my trans-Atlantic was about $70 per-night for two and
the Alaskan one I went on was only about $100 per-night for two.
For your convenience, I am posting a
link to a website that I discovered recently that actually lets you
search for cruises based on the cost per-night:
http://cruisesheet.com. This
website will make the “job” of finding a cruise based on nightly
rate just that much easier, especially if you are not one given to
math.
