A dated record of every figure and rule we have changed, what it cost or saved you, and the source that settled it. Updated whenever something moves, not on a schedule.
How to read this page
Cruise lines change what they charge, and our own record changes as we check it against their published pages. Both belong here. Each entry says what the figure or rule was, what it is now, the date we read it from the line's own page, and what the difference is worth on a real booking.
Price change entries are moves the cruise line made. Figure revised, Rule clarified and Newly sourced entries are ours — a number that changed when we checked it, a rule we have restated more precisely, or a fact we have now put on the record. Where a reader using this site would have budgeted a different amount, the entry says so plainly. We publish those for the same reason we publish the prices: you cannot check our work if we only show you the version that was right. An Open question is one we have put to the line and it has not yet answered.
Changes that alter nothing you can see — sourcing, internal structure, figures that were already correct — are recorded in our repository and do not appear here.
Figure revised
Aurora Expeditions adds a crew gratuity we told you was included
Our record said Aurora’s fare covered gratuities. It does not. Aurora adds US$15–20 per person, per day to your onboard account automatically, and only suite guests have it covered as a suite benefit. You can remove or adjust it when you settle up, but it is charged unless you act.
On a 12-day expedition for two that is US$360 to US$480 a reader had set aside nothing for. Aurora is inconsistent about which rate applies: its exclusions note says $20 a day while the suite panel on the same page says $15, so we record $15 as the common rate and carry the range rather than pick one.
Source: Aurora Expeditions’ Inclusions & Exclusions, read September 1, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the open dataset.
Rule clarified
Ponant’s “all-inclusive” fare does not include gratuities
Ponant lists what its all-inclusive package covers — cabin, full board, the Open Bar, 24/7 Wi-Fi, an activity at each stop, the public areas. Gratuities are not on that list, and we had been treating them as though they were.
Ponant asks separately, by envelope, and suggests an average of €10–12 per person, per day. Because nothing is added to your bill, our calculator still counts it as zero — a voluntary amount is never an unavoidable cost — but the suggestion is now shown so you can budget for it if you intend to give it. One more thing that list does not cover: some premium spirits sit outside the Open Bar.
Source: Ponant’s FAQ, read September 1, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the open dataset.
Figure revised
Hapag-Lloyd is not all-inclusive — it sells a €44 a day drinks package
We published Hapag-Lloyd at zero across the board. It sells a beverage package at €44 per person, per day, which an all-inclusive line has no reason to sell.
What the fare does cover: full board, gratuities, the suite mini bar with soft drinks and beer — spirits too in higher categories — plus coffee, tea and a welcome bottle of champagne. The bar itself is not covered. For two guests on a 7-night sailing that is €616 to drink at the bar, against the nothing we implied.
Source: Hapag-Lloyd’s own FAQ, read September 1, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the open dataset.
Figure revised
Celestyal’s drinks wallet carries an 18% service fee, and alcohol is not in the fare
Two things were wrong here, and they compound. We said the CelestyalPay wallet model carried no service charge; Celestyal’s own terms apply 18% to every purchase made through it, drinks and specialty dining alike, deducted from the balance as you spend.
And we described “select drinks included with meals”, which reads as though a glass of wine comes with dinner. The Celestyal One fare includes filter coffee, tea, water, juice and free-pour sodas with meals — no alcohol at all. Alcohol is charged to your room or prepaid through the wallet, and either way the 18% applies to the wallet route.
Source: Celestyal’s What’s Included page and its CelestyalPay terms, read September 1, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the open dataset.
Figure revised
We were adding an 18% to Australian sailings that Royal Caribbean does not charge
Our table added an 18% service charge on top of Royal Caribbean’s drinks package for Australian cruises. Royal states plainly that for sailings departing Australia, beverage packages bought before or during the cruise have the service charge already inside the listed price.
On a package around A$115 a day that is roughly A$20.70 a day of charge that does not exist — about A$290 for two over a week. The 18% is Royal’s American figure, and it does apply to Australians sailing from other countries, which is how it reached our table. Confirmed in the same pass and unchanged: daily gratuities really are built into the fare on Australia-departing sailings.
Source: Royal Caribbean’s Australian beverage-package and tipping-policy pages, read September 1, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the open dataset.
Rule clarified
The Princess Plus 15-a-day limit is not alcohol-only
The number does not change — Princess allows 15 a day. What changes is what counts toward it. We had it counting alcoholic drinks only; Princess counts every included beverage except specialty coffee and tea and bottled water.
Two rules came with it. Bottled water of 500ml or less is capped at 12 a day, outside the 15. And canned soda is not in the package at all — it carries a 25% discount instead. A reader who assumed sodas were free and unlimited was budgeting a cost that exists.
Source: Princess's package terms, effective January 14, 2026, read August 24, 2026. Updated: the Princess Plus and Premier guides, the drink packages guide, the Carnival, MSC, Cunard and Have It All guides where they compare, the seven-charges guide and the calculator.
Figure revised
Princess specialty dining: the $115 ceiling was a Chef's Table figure
Our Princess range topped out at $115, which is what Chef's Table costs — a special event, not a specialty restaurant. Quoting it as the ceiling of ordinary specialty dining made a normal dinner look like a $115 decision.
The range becomes $55 to $60, and gains its first first-party source. The cover charge varies by ship rather than by venue.
Source: Princess's dining pages, read August 23, 2026. Updated: the Princess Plus and Princess Premier guides.
Figure revised
NCL specialty dining is priced by cuisine category, and our venue figures were wrong
NCL does not price specialty dining by restaurant. It prices by cuisine category, and two of the venue figures we publish do not match what NCL charges.
We have recorded the category structure and flagged the two figures rather than swapping in replacements — the source settles how NCL prices, not yet what every venue costs. The published range is deliberately unchanged until it does.
Source: NCL's Specialty Dining Terms and FAQ, read August 23, 2026. Updated: the NCL Free at Sea guide.
Figure revised
Celebrity specialty dining: the $169 ceiling was wrong, and it is $67
A $169 top end was making Celebrity specialty dining look like a luxury-tier decision. The real ceiling is $67, which changes the question from whether to do it at all to how many nights.
Source: Celebrity's dining pages, read August 23, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference.
Both ends of our Carnival specialty dining range were wrong — the floor too low and the ceiling too high, which made the spread look wider and less predictable than Carnival actually prices it.
The range now carries first-party status rather than sitting unverified.
Source: Carnival's dining pages, read August 23, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference.
Rule clarified
Princess Plus and Premier attach to guests 1 and 2 — we told readers the opposite
No price moved. Plus stays at $65 per day and Premier at $100, and every Princess total is unchanged at every party size.
What was wrong was the rule. Princess's booking page says the package applies to guests 1 and 2 on the reservation, and that third and fourth guests are neither required to buy it nor defaulted into it — they have to contact Princess to opt in. We had stated a flat rule that everyone in the stateroom must match, where Princess's terms say participation "may be dependent" on the other guests, as determined by booking method. A conditional had been printed as an absolute.
Source: Princess's Plus and Premier package page and its terms, read August 21, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Rule clarified
Wi-Fi charging units: the end of silent defaults
Wi-Fi is sold three different ways — per guest, per booking, and per device — and our record only had language for one of them. Anything unstated silently defaulted to per person, which is how the Carnival error above went unnoticed.
All fourteen calculator lines now declare their charging unit explicitly. No rate changed. Money moved on one line: NCL, which now prices nothing where it previously priced a figure we hold first-party evidence against.
Source: each line's own Wi-Fi pages, read August 21, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Figure revised
Cunard's Beverage Collection is priced by voyage length; we charged one band at every length
No published figure moved. What moved is which of Cunard's published figures the calculator reaches for.
Cunard prints four pre-book rates for the same package, banded by itinerary length. We carried the 7-to-14-night rate of $76.50 per day and charged it on a three-night crossing and on a hundred-night World Voyage alike. That figure stays as the representative rate where one number has to stand for the line; the calculator now picks the band that matches the voyage.
Source: Cunard's beverage rate card, read August 21, 2026. Updated: the Cunard rates page and the calculator.
Figure revised
Carnival's $90 Multi-Device Wi-Fi is charged per booking, not per person
No price moved. Carnival still sells the Premium Multi-Device plan at $90.00 per day. We were multiplying it by the number of people in the party.
Carnival's help page says the plan can be shared among guests in additional staterooms, up to four devices. A plan shareable across staterooms is not per person and not per stateroom — it is bought once. A family of four budgeting this plan was overcharged in our estimate by $270 a day.
Carnival's other three Wi-Fi tiers stay per person, and correctly so: only one device can be used at a time on each, so two travelers who both want to be online buy two plans.
Source: Carnival's Wi-Fi help page, read August 21, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Rule clarified
Virgin's Bar Tab cannot be bought on board, and we said it could
We told readers that if they missed the pre-sail window they could still add Bar Tab credit onboard and simply lose the bonus. Virgin says Bar Tab is not available to purchase on board at all. Miss the window — 24 hours before sailing — and there is no Bar Tab, not a smaller one. That sentence sat under a heading reading "The fine print that matters".
The second finding is about two figures that were both already correct. Virgin charges $22 per sailor per day if you do nothing, and $20 if you prepay. We had treated that as one price with two payment dates. It is not: prepaying buys the discount by surrendering the right to change the amount — prepaid gratuities are locked in and non-refundable, while onboard ones can be adjusted or removed up to disembarkation. On a seven-night sailing for two, $28 is the price of keeping that option.
Our gratuities guide told every reader "It's the same money either way", three rows below Virgin's own row in the rate table. True of every other line there. False of Virgin.
Source: Virgin's Bar Tab FAQ and its Voyage Fair Choices page, read August 20, 2026. Updated: the gratuities guide, the Virgin Voyages pricing guide and the calculator.
Figure revised
Oceania's service gratuity is 20%; our calculator was charging 18%
Oceania did not raise anything — 20% is the rate Oceania publishes and has published. We were resolving à la carte bar purchases at 18%, so every Oceania drinks estimate on the site came out low.
The same read widened the charge's scope to name spa services and La Reserve, and gave a rate that had been carried on trade press its first first-party source.
Source: Oceania's own policy pages, read August 20, 2026. Updated: the premium drinks guide and the calculator.
Rule clarified
Cunard's 18% service charge reaches food, and corkage was missing entirely
The rate is unchanged at 18%. What was wrong was its scope: we had it applying to drinks, and Cunard applies it to food as well. On a voyage with any specialty dining, that is a real difference in the total.
Cunard's $25 corkage fee had never been recorded at all, and a caution we carried about Cunard's charging method turned out to be half wrong.
Source: Cunard's own pages, read August 20, 2026. Updated: the Cunard rates page and the calculator.
Figure revised
Viking's $18 drink ceiling was only ever in our prose
No money moved. The $18 ceiling on Viking's included drinks was real, sourced and correct — and lived nowhere but in article text, so nothing could check it and nothing could reuse it.
The review also recorded two conditions on Viking's pricing that make the real cost unreadable from published material, which the site now says plainly rather than estimating past.
Source: Viking's own pages, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the gratuities guide, the premium drinks guide, the onboard cost reference and the calculator.
Figure revised
We were charging Junior Suites the wrong Royal Caribbean gratuity rate
Royal Caribbean charges $21.00 per guest per day on any suite and $18.50 on everything else. We had recorded the older rule — $21 for Grand Suite and above, with Junior Suites on the standard rate. That was Royal's policy in February 2022 and had stopped being it by May 2023.
The error understated a Junior Suite booking by $2.50 per guest per night: $35 on a 7-night sailing for two. It survived every re-check because both figures stayed correct on Royal's page throughout. In 2023, $18.50 was the suite rate; today it is the non-suite rate. Only the rule attached to the numbers changed, and we had been verifying the numbers.
The same review found two more: four Sky suite categories that do not include VOOM Wi-Fi, where we had granted it to all of them, and Star Class dining, which is mostly included rather than included.
Source: Royal's onboard gratuity FAQ and suite program pages, read August 19, 2026, with the policy history confirmed against archived copies of the same page. Updated: the Royal Caribbean pricing guide, the drinks and gratuities guide, and the calculator.
Newly sourced
Royal Caribbean does publish what happens over the $14 drink cap
On August 4 we recorded that Royal does not say whether a drink above the $14 package ceiling costs you the full price or only the difference. That conclusion was wrong, and this entry supersedes it: Royal publishes the answer, and it is the difference.
The calculator now states the ceiling on the package panel and warns above $14, which it should have done either way — the warning holds whichever mechanic applies.
Source: Royal Caribbean's package terms, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the Royal Caribbean drinks and gratuities guide and the calculator.
Figure revised
Princess charges $19 a day in Club Class and Cabana staterooms, and we offered neither
Princess bands Crew Appreciation by stateroom: $20 per guest per day in suites, $19 in Mini Suites, Cabanas and Club Class, $18 everywhere else. We held all three rates correctly — and offered only Mini-Suite in the cabin list. A Club Class or Cabana guest picked the nearest label, Balcony, and was quoted $18. That is $1 per guest per night, $14 on a seven-night sailing for two.
It survived every re-check for the same reason the Royal suite error did: all three figures were right and stayed right, so anyone verifying the numbers found them and concluded nothing had moved. The rate was maintained; the sentence around it was not.
The second correction is Premier's dining. We told readers Premier includes "unlimited casual and specialty dining". Princess makes casual dining unlimited but caps specialty at one meal per mealtime — one at lunch and one at dinner, not one a day. Our own Premier guide had said so all along, so the calculator was contradicting the page it links to.
Source: Princess's Crew Appreciation FAQ and the Plus/Premier terms, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the Princess Premier guide and the calculator.
Figure revised
MSC's bar service charge is 18% in the US — we were showing the rest-of-world 15%
MSC charges different bar service percentages by region, and we had recorded the international figure against US sailings. A reader pricing drinks on a Caribbean MSC cruise was working from 15% where MSC charges 18%.
The same review found two separate package mechanics that we had recorded as one rule.
Source: MSC's US terms, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the gratuities guide.
Rule clarified
Three Holland America rules stated — and $252 we nearly removed by mistake
No figure moved. The Signature drink package that comes with Have It All covers drinks up to $12 and is not honored at four places onboard; Holland America adds 20% to bar purchases made outside the package. Both facts were in our database and in the Have It All guide. The calculator showed neither, while quietly applying the second.
Unlike Celebrity, Holland America publishes no pay-the-difference rule above its ceiling — it frames what is above as an exclusion. So our sentence stops at the ceiling rather than borrowing Celebrity's mechanic.
The fourth finding is a mistake, recorded because anyone would make it. A first pass concluded Have It All had begun including prepaid Crew Appreciation, and proposed taking $252 off a seven-night booking for two. It was wrong. Holland America redirects its US pages to EU ones for a reader in Norway, and the EU marketing page does list prepaid Crew Appreciation under Have It All. The US terms put it under the Early Booking Bonus — a separate promotion — and mention Crew Appreciation nowhere inside Have It All itself. If you are comparing package contents from outside the US, check which country's page you are being served.
Source: Holland America's US terms document, its Have It All FAQ and its Early Booking Bonus page, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Newly sourced
Four Celebrity rules the calculator acted on but never showed you
No Celebrity rate moved, and every figure we publish for the line survived the check. What was missing were the conditions around them.
Celebrity sells two per-drink ceilings — $12 on Classic, $19 on Premium — and the calculator stated neither, so a reader pricing $15 cocktails saw a break-even calculated as though every drink was covered. Above the ceiling, Celebrity charges the difference plus its 20% bar charge, and publishes that on the beverage-package FAQ where a buyer would actually read it. That 20% is the third: the calculator was already adding it to every drink and never said so.
The fourth cost money outright. Celebrity does not sell drink packages on one-night sailings. Ours offered one, and priced it at $108 per guest per night.
Source: Celebrity's beverage package and gratuity program FAQs, read August 19, 2026. Updated: the calculator. Noted and not copied: Celebrity's own worked examples on that page are internally inconsistent — both describe a $2.00 charge on a $12 cocktail, which cannot follow from a $12 ceiling. The rule is unambiguous; the example is not, and our figures are not to be "corrected" to it.
Rule clarified
Carnival's CHEERS! is not sold on a two-day cruise
Carnival requires a minimum of three nights. We had verified that on August 4 and then left it in prose, where the calculator could not act on it — so a two-night Carnival sailing was still being offered a package that cannot be bought.
The rule is now a structured field. The calculator withdraws the offer and explains the absence instead of leaving a gap.
Source: Carnival's CHEERS! terms, verified August 4 and applied August 19, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Rule clarified
NCL Free at Sea specialty dining is a separate charge, not part of the service charge
Nothing changed at NCL. This corrects a modeling error that had been in place since the commercial model was first built.
We had recorded the Free at Sea beverage service charge — $28.50 to $32 per person per day — as a single combined mandatory charge covering more than it does. Specialty dining is charged separately, and a reader budgeting from our figure was told a package was more inclusive than NCL sells it.
Source: NCL's Free at Sea terms, read August 18, 2026. Updated: the NCL Free at Sea guide.
Rule clarified
MSC's Hotel Service Charge depends on when you booked
No MSC rate moved. What was wrong was how we described the charge: MSC applies it by booking date, and we were stating it flatly. That wording is corrected in six places on the MSC guide, including the FAQ schema that search engines read.
Three more things went with it. The charge has a name — Hotel Service Charge, not "service charge". A Wi-Fi plan we described as covering more devices actually covers two. And the calculator was offering a US "All Inclusive fare" that MSC does not sell in the US.
Source: MSC's own terms, read August 9, 2026. Updated: the MSC guide, the seven-charges guide, the Have It All guide, the about page, the onboard cost reference and the calculator.
Figure revised
Holland America specialty dining: a three-way conflict resolved
Three sources had disagreed about Holland America's cover charges since late July, and the disagreement had been sitting in our record unresolved.
Reading Holland America's own pages settled it and moved the arithmetic in the Have It All guide: the dinner line goes from $70–$100 to $104, the à la carte comparison from about $1,178–$1,208 to $1,212, and the stated saving from $338–$368 to $372 — in the body, the answer box and the FAQ schema alike.
Source: Holland America's dining pages, read August 9, 2026. Updated: the Have It All guide and the onboard cost reference.
Newly sourced
Cunard's Wi-Fi rate card corrected, and sourced for the first time
Both Cunard Wi-Fi prices were too high. Essential Internet drops from $24 to $22 per day, and Premium from $36 to $30 — both sold as a whole-voyage purchase, which matters on a long crossing.
We had also been calling the entry-level plan "Basic". Cunard sells The Essential Internet plan; the old name has been retired.
Source: Cunard's Wi-Fi pages, read August 9, 2026 — the first first-party source this rate card has had. Updated: the onboard cost reference, the Cunard rates page and the calculator.
Figure revised
Cunard's specialty dining range withdrawn — the numbers were not Cunard's
We were showing a $40 to $75 range for Cunard specialty dining. Cunard does not publish that range, and we could not source it, so it has been removed with no replacement band rather than replaced with a better guess.
Two further claims went with it: a named venue price, and the statement that Grill class guests dine included — which Cunard's own material contradicts.
Source: Cunard's dining pages, read August 9, 2026. Updated: the onboard cost reference and the Cunard rates page.
Open question
Celebrity has not said whether prepaid gratuities are held at the old rate
The July 30 entry logged that Celebrity's FAQ was silent on this. Re-reading it five days later, it still is — so the answer to "am I protected if I prepaid?" is that Celebrity has not published one, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing.
The same read corrected two figures in our Celebrity All Included coverage.
Source: Celebrity's gratuity program page, re-read August 4, 2026. Updated: the Celebrity All Included guide.
Price change
Carnival's Wi-Fi prices refreshed — some up, some down
Our record carried round numbers; Carnival publishes to the cent, and had moved in both directions. Pre-cruise: Social $20.00 to $20.40, Value $24.00 to $23.80, Premium $26.00 to $25.50.
Carnival's onboard prices — higher than pre-cruise on every tier, at $25.00, $32.00 and $35.00 — had never been recorded at all, and neither had the $90.00 per day Premium Multi-Device plan.
Source: Carnival's Wi-Fi help page, read August 4, 2026. Updated: the Wi-Fi guide and the calculator.
Figure revised
Princess Wi-Fi: we had Classic and Max the wrong way around
Two Princess Wi-Fi products were labeled as each other, and the Premier device count in the calculator's Wi-Fi hint was wrong with them.
The package's Wi-Fi component now carries an explicit avoided-cost valuation — what you would otherwise have paid — rather than an unexplained number.
Source: Princess's Wi-Fi pages, read August 3, 2026. Updated: the Wi-Fi guide, the onboard cost reference, the Princess Plus and Premier guides, and the calculator.
Newly sourced
NCL's US terms, read first-hand: four facts corrected, one of them live on the site
No monetary value moved. This was the first successful reading of the terms that actually govern NCL's US bookings, and it confirmed every figure we were already using.
It also corrected four surrounding facts. One of them was wrong on a published page rather than only in the database, which is the reason this entry exists at all.
Source: NCL's US-governing terms, read August 3, 2026. Updated: the NCL Free at Sea guide and the calculator.
Rule clarified
NCL Free at Sea is not sold on one-night sailings
This rule was always true and we were ignoring it: the calculator offered Free at Sea on one-night NCL cruises, where NCL does not sell it.
A one-night NCL cruise still calculates normally — fare, gratuities, drinks, Wi-Fi and every other cost are unaffected. Only the promotion is withdrawn, and the calculator now says why rather than silently dropping it.
Source: NCL's Free at Sea terms, read August 3, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Rule clarified
Princess Plus and Premier dining is not the inclusion we described
Princess did not move a rate. We had stated a dining inclusion more broadly than Princess does, and the benefits that genuinely differ between Plus and Premier existed only as prose, where nothing could act on them.
The calculator now scopes the dining benefit to the tier that actually carries it. The Princess Plus article was already accurate and was left alone.
Source: Princess's package pages, read August 1, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Figure revised
Holland America Have It All: two figures corrected and four eligibility rules recorded
Have It All's price did not move — it stays at $60 per person per day. What was wrong were two values we had attributed to Holland America without a source, and four eligibility rules the package carries that we had never written down at all.
The correction lands in the calculator rather than the guide: the coverage wording, the dining note, the party-size note and the short-sailing note all now say what Holland America says. The Have It All article was already correct and was not touched.
Source: Holland America's own package pages, read August 1, 2026. Updated: the calculator.
Price change
Celebrity Cruises raised daily gratuities by $1.50 on every tier
Inside, Oceanview and Veranda staterooms went from $18.00 to $19.50 per guest per day. Concierge and AquaClass went from $19.00 to $20.50, and The Retreat from $23.00 to $24.50. On a 7-night sailing for two in a standard stateroom, that is $21 more than the week before.
Celebrity published no effective date on its own page. July 29 rests on the letter Celebrity sent guests and on same-day reporting, not on Celebrity's site. Celebrity has also not said whether already-prepaid gratuities are held at the old rate, so we do not claim it either way. Royal Caribbean, in the same group, did not move.
Source: Celebrity's gratuity program page, read July 30, 2026. Updated: the Celebrity All Included guide, the gratuities guide, the seven-charges guide, the Cunard rates page and the onboard cost reference.
