Estimate your cruise
Cruise Cost Calculator
Enter your trip details. Your summary updates as you go; the full breakdown unlocks when you press See your estimate.
Your booking
Fare
The price for one guest, as cruise lines usually advertise it.
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From your booking confirmation when stated. Leave blank if you don’t have them yet.
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Spending credit from your booking — applied to your onboard account.
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Onboard costs
Drinks
See your total with and without a drinks package.
Drinks are covered — we won't add a separate drinks cost to your total.
A rough estimate is fine. We'll add this to your trip estimate.
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Typical range: $15–40/day light to moderate · $50–80/day heavier drinker
Which fare?
From your booking or the line's website. Service charge handled below.
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What else does your package include? Enter 0 if not covered.
Per person
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Per person
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Per person
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With a package, will you still be charged for drinks?
Mostly no — covered drinks come to $0, service charge included. You might still pay for:
- drinks priced above your package’s per-drink limit — you pay the difference
- items the package doesn’t cover — premium bottles, the mini-bar, room-service drinks
- an optional extra tip — receipts invite one, but it’s never required
Not sure a package is right for you? Read the drink packages guide.
Cocktail ~$14 · beer ~$8 · soda ~$4 · coffee ~$6. Use what you'd drink most.
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Count what the package covers — cocktails, wine, beer, specialty coffees, sodas. Skip water and the free dining-room coffee and tea.
Wi-Fi optional
Internet access onboard. Speeds and pricing vary by package and line. Most packages are per device — couples typically need two licenses.
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Typical range: $15–25/day per person
Gratuities
Automatically added to your account each day. Not optional unless prepaid.
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Typical range: $16 – $25 per person, per night
Travel costs
Pre/post cruise costs and travel insurance optional
To and from your departure port.
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Nights before or after the cruise.
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Nights before or after sailing.
Car parking for the trip, or taxi/shuttle to port.
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For the whole party. Don't skip this one.
Travel insurance — worth adding. We don’t sell it and earn nothing here — but a medical evacuation at sea can cost more than the cruise itself, which is why it’s the one line we’d never leave blank. What cruise insurance actually covers →
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Optional extras
Specialty dining optional
Paid restaurants outside the main dining room.
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Shore excursions optional
Shore excursions vary widely by port — enter what you expect to spend, or leave blank.
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Casino optional
Set a limit before you board. On Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian the casino is central to the ship — easy to spend more than planned.
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$0 if you don't gamble · $50–200 for a casual player · set your limit and stick to it
Spa & wellness optional
Massages, facials, thermal suite passes, fitness classes. Charged per treatment or as a day pass.
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Typical: $80–200 per treatment · $30–60 for a thermal suite day pass
Add any travel costs or extras you expect. Leave optional fields blank if you’re unsure. All figures are estimates based on your inputs.
Not calculated here: onboard photo packages (~$200–400 for 7 nights) · specialty entertainment · shopping.
Not calculated here: onboard photo packages (~$200–400 for 7 nights) · specialty entertainment · shopping.
CruiseClarify — Cruise cost estimate
Independent · affiliate-free · cruiseclarify.com — figures are planning estimates, not quotes.
Based on your trip details, here's how those additional costs build up
What this cruise actually costs
Total trip cost
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—Per guest
—Per night · guest
The complete cost of the trip — everything the advertised fare leaves out, counted in.
🗓️ Cruise line costs reviewed June 2026 · updated quarterly · how we source every figure
Fares, gratuities and Wi-Fi all creep up over time — save your estimate and we’ll email you when the numbers change.
Advertised fare vs added costs
Advertised fare
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Onboard costs
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Other costs
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CostTotal for your trip
Before you board
Cruise fare advertised price—
Subtotal before boarding—
How we calculate this
In plain terms: we start from your advertised fare and add the costs cruise lines charge separately — using your figures where you gave them, and typical US-market estimates where you didn’t.
- Everything is per person, in US dollars. Your fare and the per-person costs are multiplied by the number of guests for the trip total.
- Per-night costs (drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities) are multiplied by nights × guests. Per-trip per-person costs (excursions, dining, spa, casino, flights) are multiplied by guests; the hotel is priced per room (rate × nights), and parking and insurance are added once for the booking.
- Solo travelers. Choose “Just me,” then pick whether you have a solo fare quote or only the advertised two-guest price. For the advertised path we add an uplift (default about +100%) you can change. If you have a real solo quote, enter it as the fare on the quote path.
- Drinks. For a package, we take the price you enter and add the service charge most lines apply (about 18–20% — adjustable, and set to 0 if your price already includes it), shown as its own line. For pay-as-you-go, we use your daily estimate as entered — bar prices already include that charge, so build it into your number. The service charge doesn’t change your break-even, since it applies to individual drinks too.
- Spending credit (onboard credit) you enter is subtracted from the total.
- The “different ways to cruise” comparisons use round assumptions, shown on each card: a $25/day drinks limit, and independent port days at roughly 40% of the cruise line’s organized-tour price.
- We only count what you tell us. Extras like spa, casino and shopping aren’t assumed — add them if they apply to you.
These are typical figures to plan with, not quotes. Actual inclusions depend on your fare type and any promotions, and prices change over time (we re-check the built-in figures periodically). CruiseClarify is independent and affiliate-free, and nothing you enter is saved.
Same budget — different ways to cruise
See how the same total could look with a different approach.
Compare this against another line →
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