Cruises

What the price includes — and what it does not

This is the question that decides everything, and it is the one headline prices gloss over. On a mainstream line, the advertised fare covers the cabin, full board at the buffet and main restaurant, the shows, the pools, the gym, the kids' clubs and transport between ports. That is already a great deal.

Not included: drinks other than water, speciality restaurants, shore excursions, wifi, the spa, laundry, often port taxes — and above all the service charge, charged automatically on board, per person per night, children included.

Add one detail that catches people out: a 15-20 % service charge is applied to every drink, and to drinks packages too — 15 % on Costa, 18 % on Royal Caribbean, 20 % on Celebrity.

What a cruise really costs

Worldwide, the average cruise passenger spends around $286 a day, of which $193 is the fare and $82 spent once on board. In other words, close to 30 % of the budget is decided after booking.

In practice, seven nights in a double cabin in the Mediterranean start at €339 per person with Costa and €455 with MSC. Once you add the service charge, a drinks package, two or three excursions and wifi, the real outlay is closer to €700 to €1,100 per person. The headline price therefore represents roughly 40-50 % of what you will actually pay.

This is not a trap so much as a business model: with Ponant or CroisiEurope the advertised price is far higher but very close to the final one, drinks and tips included. The only mistake would be to compare the two on the starting fare.

Choosing a cabin

The gap between an inside cabin and a balcony cabin ranges from 22 % to 43 % depending on the line. Whether that premium is worth paying depends on the itinerary, not on comfort.

• Inside — the right choice on an itinerary with a port every day, in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, where the cabin is only for sleeping. Completely dark, excellent sleep. The best value for a first cruise, unless you are claustrophobic.
• Ocean view — the compromise. The price difference is modest, and having the horizon in sight genuinely helps with seasickness.
• Balcony — worth it where the scenery is the journey: fjords, Alaska, Antarctica, transatlantics with many sea days. On a week in the Mediterranean in summer, it mostly buys a balcony you rarely use.
• Suite — what you pay for is the extras (priority boarding, a reserved restaurant and lounge) more than the square metres. Note that service charges are higher in suites.

One habit matters more than the category: check the deck plan. A cabin directly above the theatre, the nightclub or the pool deck will be noisy whatever its class.

Sailing from a French port

About half of all cruise passengers drive to their port, and this is often what tips a budget: a flight to the Caribbean costs €300 to €800 per person, sometimes more than the cruise itself.

Marseille is France's leading port, with 2.6 million passengers in 2025 and a target of 2.8 million in 2026; Saint-Charles station is fifteen minutes from the terminal. Le Havre, two hours from Paris, expects 139 calls in 2026 and serves as the gateway to northern European cruises and transatlantic crossings. Barcelona, Genoa and Savona are reachable by train. Civitavecchia, Southampton and the Florida ports, by contrast, mean flying.

Note that Nice and Cannes are now ports of call only for the largest ships: since 2026 Cannes has capped arrivals at 6,000 cruise passengers a day and Villefranche-sur-Mer at 2,500, one ship at a time.

Repositioning cruises, or the Atlantic at €45 a night

The Mediterranean season runs from April to October; May, June and September bring 20-28 °C, prices 20-30 % below summer and far fewer people. The Caribbean is a November-to-April destination, with hurricane season officially from 1 June to 30 November and a peak in early September. The Norwegian fjords and the Baltic are limited to May-September. The Canaries and Madeira take over from October to April. Antarctica runs from November to March under strict rules: a maximum of 500 passengers landed per ship and 100 people ashore at any one time.

That leaves the repositioning transatlantics, in April-May and October-November, when ships change hemisphere. Nine days from the Canaries to the Caribbean start at €349 — under €45 a night. There are three reasons: the ship has to make the crossing anyway, there are many sea days and few ports, and it is one-way. That last point is decisive — price the return flight before celebrating.

Seasickness

It affects up to a quarter of passengers, modern stabilisers notwithstanding. Stabilisers damp roll, not pitch, and do nothing at anchor. Two simple rules: choose a cabin amidships and on a low deck, where movement is least, and prefer a cabin with a view, since seeing the horizon eases the sensory conflict that causes the discomfort. Large ships move markedly less than small ones.

The waters with the worst reputations: the Bay of Biscay, the Drake Passage to Antarctica, the North Atlantic in winter, the Gulf of Lion when the mistral blows. If you are prone to it, talk to your doctor before you leave rather than relying on an acupressure band, whose effectiveness has never been demonstrated.

Environmental impact

There is no point dressing it up: cruising is not a low-impact way to travel. A Transport & Environment study covering 2022 found that the 218 cruise ships operating in Europe emitted as much sulphur oxide as a billion cars, and that Marseille and Le Havre were among the most exposed ports in Europe.

These figures predate a major change: since 1 May 2025 the entire Mediterranean has been a low-sulphur zone, with a cap of 0.10 % against 0.50 % elsewhere. Shore power is spreading — Marseille can supply three ships of over 250 metres at once. Venice has kept large ships out of its basin since 2021, cutting its sulphur emissions by 80 %; Amsterdam caps calls at 100 a year from 2026; Barcelona is cutting daily capacity by 16 % and doubling its transit tax.

Liquefied natural gas, often presented as the answer, deserves a caveat: it cuts sulphur and particulates sharply, but the unburnt methane it releases has 82.5 times the warming power of CO₂ over twenty years. Individual levers are limited but real: favour a port you can reach by train, choose a recent ship that can plug into shore power, and avoid overtouristed destinations at peak times.

Five first-cruise mistakes

• Comparing headline prices between lines. Without the service charge, port taxes, drinks and travel to the port, the comparison means nothing.
• Buying the drinks package on principle. It pays off at around five to eight drinks a day. On an itinerary with a port every day, where you spend eight hours ashore, it rarely does — and on MSC every occupant of the cabin has to buy it.
• Choosing too packed an itinerary. Seven ports in seven days means going ashore at 8 am and back aboard at 5 pm every day. One or two sea days change the holiday completely.
• Booking your flight for embarkation day. Arrive the day before: nearly two thirds of cruise passengers add a hotel night before or after, and not for comfort.
• Booking independent excursions with no margin. An excursion sold on board costs more, but the ship waits if it runs late. On your own it will not: allow at least an hour and a half of slack.

One last point on timing: the wave season, from January to March, is when the offers cluster — but note the prices before it starts, since a 50 % discount can be applied to a fare nobody actually pays. And buy drinks packages, wifi and excursions before you board: it is almost always cheaper than on board.