How much will the line hold on my card?
$100 on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Princess. Carnival holds $100 per stateroom on a 2–6 day cruise and $200 on 7 days or longer. Norwegian's first hold can be up to $300. On the lines that describe their holds, more follow as you spend. MSC publishes no amount. Disney doesn't hold at all: it charges your card each time the account reaches $300 to $700, depending on the length of the cruise.
Should I use a debit card?
Only if you can leave the money alone for a while. On a debit card the holds come out of your checking account, not your credit limit, and Norwegian says they can stay up to 30 days after the cruise ends. Norwegian accepts debit cards but says it doesn't recommend them. A credit card is the easier choice if you have one.
When is final payment due?
Between 75 and 120 days before sailing on the lines that publish a schedule. Norwegian wants 120 days on every cruise, however short. Celebrity and Disney give you the date when you book. The table below has each line's rule.
How long until a hold comes off?
That's your bank's call, and every line that addresses it says so. Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess and Norwegian all put the outer limit at up to 30 days. Carnival and MSC say they can't speed it up.
What gets held, or charged as you go on Disney, is mostly your own onboard spending. Put in your line, nights and guests, and the calculator shows what the drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities and the rest will come to.
Estimate my onboard spending →When you pay for a cruise, step by step
Here's the order the money leaves in:
- Deposit, at booking. Usually $99 to $500 a person, depending on the line and the length of the cruise. If you're buying travel insurance, buy it soon after the first deposit, because some policy benefits have short purchase windows.
- Final payment, 75 to 120 days out. The rest of the fare, with taxes and port fees included. Miss it and the line can cancel the booking.
- Pre-cruise purchases, until shortly before sailing. Drinks packages, Wi-Fi, dining and prepaid gratuities are charged when you buy them. On Royal Caribbean you can generally cancel and rebook at a lower price before a cutoff shortly before sailing. Prepaying gratuities has its own trade-off.
- Boarding day to the last morning. On most lines, a hold goes on your card when the onboard account opens, and more holds follow as you spend. Disney charges the card as you go instead.
- The final bill, then the release. The line charges what you actually spent, usually in one transaction on the last day or just after. The holds disappear when your bank releases them, which can take days or weeks.
When final payment is due, by cruise line
Between 75 and 120 days before sailing. Norwegian's is the one to watch: 120 days on every cruise, however short.
These are the standard schedules for individual US bookings. Group bookings follow different rules on some lines.
| Cruise line | Final payment due | Deposit, per person |
|---|---|---|
| Carnival | 76 days before (2–5 day cruises); 91 days (6 days or longer, and any Alaska, Europe, Panama Canal, transatlantic or transpacific cruise) | $100 (2–3 days), $150 (4–5), $250 (6–9), $400 (10+ and the regions named) |
| Royal Caribbean | 75 days (1–4 nights); 90 days (5–14 nights); 120 days (15 nights or longer) | $100 (1–5 nights), $250 (6–9), $450 (10–14), $500 (15+); Bermuda $250 at any length |
| Norwegian (NCL) | 120 days on every cruise, holiday sailings included | $100 (1–6 days), $250 (7 days or longer); the Haven and suites 10% of the fare |
| Princess | 90 days (1–13 days); 120 days (14 days or longer) | Stated on your booking confirmation |
| MSC | 75 days (4 nights or less); 90 days (5–14 nights); 110 days (15 nights or more) | $99 (4 nights or less), $199 (5–14), $300 (15+) |
| Celebrity | Given at booking; no standard schedule published | Given at booking |
| Disney | Given at booking; no standard schedule published | Given at booking |
Suites pay more on some lines: 10% of the cruise fare or the standard deposit, whichever is higher, on Royal Caribbean. Carnival asks for double the deposit on a single-occupancy booking, and its Early Saver, Super Saver and casino-offer deposits are non-refundable. Princess cruises of 45 days or more take 10% at booking and a further 20% at 320 days out.
Use the length printed on your booking. Carnival, Princess and Norwegian write cruise length in days, Royal Caribbean and MSC in nights. Don't convert one into the other; read your booking's length against your line's own row. If you're close to a band edge, the confirmation email shows the exact date, and Princess and Celebrity both tell you to rely on it.
A short Norwegian cruise is paid for early. On a three- or four-night cruise, Carnival and Royal Caribbean want the balance about 11 weeks before sailing. Norwegian wants it 120 days out, about 17 weeks. Book inside the window and the whole fare is due at once; MSC and Celebrity both say so outright. On a short Norwegian cruise, that window opens four months out.
How much each cruise line holds on your card
Usually $100, then more as you spend.
A hold (the lines also call it a pre-authorization or pending charge) is money your bank sets aside for the ship. It isn't a charge, and the ship hasn't received it. But you can't spend it either: on a credit card it reduces your available credit, and on a debit card it reduces the cash in your account.
| Cruise line | First hold | During the cruise | How long holds can last |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival | $100 per stateroom per card (2–6 day cruise); $200 (7 days or longer) | More holds as money is spent | "One or more days" after the cruise, under your bank's policy |
| Royal Caribbean | $100 | Daily holds once you pass $100 | Up to 30 days |
| Norwegian (NCL) | Up to $300 | More holds as you spend | Up to 30 days after the cruise on a debit card |
| Princess | $100 | Charges authorized throughout each day | Up to 30 days |
| Celebrity | $100 | More holds once you pass $100 | Up to 30 days |
| MSC | Not published | Pre-authorizations on your card | "Some time" after the bill is settled |
| Disney | None: Disney charges the card instead | A charge each time the account reaches $300 (2–5 nights), $500 (6–9 nights) or $700 (10 nights or more) | Nothing to release: these are payments, not holds |
That first hold is the small part. On the lines that describe it, the holds that follow track your own spending, reserved day by day before it's charged. A cruise where you spend $1,000 on board ties up something like $1,000 of your card, whatever the first hold says.
Norwegian's figure is a ceiling, not a set amount, and Norwegian doesn't say whether it applies per card, per person or per stateroom. Carnival spells it out: per stateroom, per card. Princess puts its $100 on the credit card on file for the account. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity don't say.
Princess also has a rule for long voyages: on a cruise over 30 days, it settles your card at or before the 30-day mark and starts a new authorization, because its authorizations can't last longer than that.
Disney works differently. It doesn't set money aside for later; it charges the credit card on file each time your account reaches $300 on a 2–5 night cruise, $500 on 6–9 nights or $700 on 10 nights or more. The money leaves during the cruise as real payments, so there's nothing for your bank to release at the end.
Can you use a debit card on a cruise?
Yes, on most lines. But on a debit card, the same spending can leave your account twice for a while.
Here's why. On the last day, the line charges your final bill. The holds it placed during the cruise don't vanish at that moment. Your bank releases them on its own schedule. Carnival says it plainly: with a debit card, the bank processes the final total and keeps the holds as well, until it lets them go. Norwegian says its debit holds can stay up to 30 days after the cruise ends.
On a credit card, that overlap just eats into your credit limit for a while. On a debit card it's cash you can't reach, which matters if bills come due the week you get home.
Illustration · Carnival · 7-day cruise · 2 guests, one debit card
- First hold: $200 (one stateroom, one card)
- Onboard spending: $1,000 over the week, about $143 a day, held as you go (a round number for illustration, not a typical spend)
- Last day: the $1,000 is charged
Until the bank releases the holds, up to $2,200 can be out of your checking account for $1,000 of spending
That assumes the holds match what you spend. Carnival doesn't say how large each additional hold is, so treat the $2,200 as the shape of the problem, not a promise.
What the lines say about debit cards:
- Carnival accepts a debit card if it's a registered Mastercard or Visa, and warns that holds "restrict the available cash in the checking account."
- Norwegian accepts debit cards but says it doesn't recommend them, and that it won't cover overdraft charges caused by holds.
- Royal Caribbean asks for "a credit or debit card" at online check-in and publishes no separate debit rule.
- Princess pre-authorizes credit and debit cards the same way and warns that some banks keep pre-authorized funds up to 30 days.
- MSC names the debit cards it takes: Maestro, Visa Debit, Visa Electron and Mastercard debit.
- Celebrity mentions holds on "your credit or debit card" but publishes no rule for accepting debit cards.
- Disney takes a debit card when you settle the account, but recommends a credit card "to avoid any temporary holds that your financial institution may place on your debit card account."
Paying cash instead
The lines that take cash differ mostly in the deposit they ask for.
A cash account keeps your card out of it. You leave a deposit and spend against it: no card, no holds.
- Carnival recommends at least $100 a person for a 2–4 day cruise, $200 for 5–8 days and $350 for 9 days or longer, in US dollars.
- Norwegian asks for $150 a person on cruises under 7 days, $300 on a 7-day cruise and $450 on longer ones. When the deposit runs out, the account closes to new charges until you top it up, which makes it a hard limit.
- Royal Caribbean sets up a cash account with the agent at the terminal. You settle it on board before you disembark. The US pages we read give no deposit amount.
- Princess asks for a cash deposit at Guest Services at the start of the cruise, with no amount published.
- MSC takes a cash deposit at Reception and refunds whatever you haven't spent, in cash, on the final morning.
If you only want a limit for someone else on your booking, you don't need cash at all. On Carnival, the account owner can set spending limits or switch off charging for anyone on the account, the easy answer for teenagers. Why cruisers overspend onboard covers the rest of that problem.
What final payment locks in
On MSC and Disney, your fare. Taxes and port fees can still change.
Two lines say what happens to the price once you've paid in full. MSC won't change the cruise price once full payment is received, or in the 20 days before departure, whichever comes first. Disney says price changes won't affect a booking with timely final payment.
Both keep one exception: government taxes, fees and port expenses can still go up, and both reserve the right to pass an increase on.
The other five lines don't say, on the pages we read, whether the price is fixed after final payment. We don't assume it is.
What the lines don't say
Some of this isn't published anywhere we could find, and we'd rather tell you than fill the gap with a guess:
- MSC doesn't publish a first-hold amount. We checked two pages on its US site.
- Celebrity and Disney don't publish a final-payment schedule. The date comes with your booking.
- The Royal Caribbean US pages we read give no cash-deposit amount.
- Only Carnival and Princess say what the first hold is attached to.
- Disney doesn't say how a one-night sailing is treated; its bands start at two nights.
- No line says how long your bank will take. The "up to 30 days" figures are the lines' description of how banks behave, not a commitment from any bank.
The short version
Put a credit card on the onboard account if you have one. The holds then cost you nothing but some credit limit for a while.
Think twice about a debit card if your checking account has to cover bills in the first weeks after you're home. Holds can stay up to 30 days while the final charge is also taken.
Use cash if you'd rather keep your card off the account. On Norwegian it's a hard limit, because the account closes when the deposit runs out; Carnival recommends $100 to $350 a person depending on length.
Put the final-payment date in your calendar the day you book. On Norwegian, it's 120 days out, whatever the length of the cruise.
Before you choose a card, price your drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities and dining for your own sailing. That total is roughly what your card, or your checking account, will carry by the last morning.
Price my onboard spending →Common questions
Does a cruise hold count against my credit limit?
Yes, while it's in place. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity both say the holds "aren't charges" but "do reduce your available credit." Once your bank releases them, the credit comes back, and only the final bill remains.
What happens if I switch cards during the cruise?
The holds on the first card don't move to the new one. Royal Caribbean says you may still see holds on the original card, and Carnival says a hold on a replaced card stays during the cruise and for one or more days after, depending on your bank.
Can the cruise line release a hold faster?
No. Carnival says it "is not able to expedite the release of bank holds," MSC says it "cannot expedite their release," and Royal Caribbean and Celebrity both say the timing is your bank's. If a hold is still there after the final bill has posted, your bank is the one to call.
When do you pay port fees on a cruise?
With the fare. Port fees and taxes are added to your booking total at checkout, so you pay them by the final-payment date. They can still change after that: MSC and Disney both reserve the right to pass on an increase in taxes, fees and port expenses, even once you've paid in full.