What do you consider to be EXPENSIVE?

I read a thread on here where someone posted that a couple spent $ 3,000 on a 14 day cruise on a Celebrity ship and they considered it "not cheap".

I don't understand where that logic comes from. How many vacations are out there where for approximately $214 a day you can get a room w/ service & at least 3 meals a day for 2? I consider Celebrity a mid market - like a Marriot or Sheraton, so for that price I thought it was a bargain.

I understand for some $3,000 is a big outlay based on their income but to consider that cost anything but inexpensive is unrealistic.

On some cruises today the cost per day can be even less - shockingly so. I have been on ships since the very early 1970's when it was a luxury vacation, people would be dressed to the nines every day & evening and the food & service was top shelf.

So it seems after reading Cruise critic posts that people expect the same level of food & service of years ago & yet pay less than the cost of a Motel 6 & dinner at Dennys.

Any thoughts?

It's a lot harder to know exactly what the OP was trying to convey in text rather then if it were in conversation. I agree...laying down $3K for a vacation is not "cheap", but for a 14 day vacation, it certainly is realistic and I would bet that if you took a 2 week European tour, between airfare, other transportation, hotels, meals, entrance fees, etc etc it would cost you that or more. 2 weeks at a Caribbean resort, again with those costs, would probably cost you that or more, and a couple of weeks in a popular big city, even in the states/Canada, like NY, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, etc would cost at least that. Between transportation, food, accommodation, facilities, entertainment I would say $3k for a 2 week cruise is good deal but at the same time I do agree that plunking down $3K for a 2 week vacation is not "cheap".

It is all relative to the age and income of the original poster. We feel that $3,000 for a two week cruise is incredibly INEXPENSIVE. We pay a lot more than that for cruises and land vacations. I do not know where a couple can get a very nice room and each eat three great meals a day plus snacks for less than $200.00 a day, unless they consider McDonalds or other fast food restaurants a nice meal. Sorry, just our opinion

We did a 12 day European cruise this past April and spent around 10k. So I would say 3k for two weeks is very inexpensive.

I would consider that a very very inexpensive price for 2 full weeks especially if their airfare was included in the price they were mentioning. My Fiance and I just got back from a 7 night all inclusive resort vacation in Mexico and we paid a total of $2,200 for the resort, all food and drinks, transfers from airport to hotel and rountrip non stop airfare and we thought that was a pretty good deal. So for another $800 to have another 7 nights either at a resort or cruise ship is an amazing deal to me!!!!!

Everything is relative. What's inexpensive for one person may be a fortune to another. I prefer to think of the cost of cruising in terms of value and imo you get the most bang for the buck on a cruise whether it's Carnival or Seabourn. Which one you choose, or anything in between, depends on your own needs and financial status.

I'm sure that had to be 3K per person and I doubt it included the airfare.

For Europe that's not outrageous but still not cheap.

Everything is relative. What's inexpensive for one person may be a fortune to another. I prefer to think of the cost of cruising in terms of value and imo you get the most bang for the buck on a cruise whether it's Carnival or Seabourn. Which one you choose, or anything in between, depends on your own needs and financial status.

Agreed. If you're looking for a "cheap" vacation, I wouldn't start my search with 14-day itineraries. Perhaps a 7-day max with a stay-cation of a few days on either side. And limit the search to the Caribbean or off-season destinations, like northern europe in the fall.

What I consider "expensive" is any option where the costs exceeds the utility. While that might tend to include luxury sailings, that's not necessarily so if luxury is important to you and the cruise line in question does it exceedingly well. Since choices as to personal utility on vacation are inherently subjective, I expect that my estimation of "expensive" and that of others will differ.

My partner and I started cruising last year, we sailed out of the Port of Miami on Carnival Liberty, we loved it. I am aware that for Americans Carnival is seen as a "cheap" cruise line with a bad reputation but in terms of price, for us, it is an expensive holiday as we have to fly over from England. We are sailing on Carnival Glory next week and are just as excited as the first time. I think it's important to look at the price of the whole holiday and I agree, the price is relative and it doesn't matter what price you pay as long as you enjoy it and make good memories!

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Wouldn't you be better off finding a cruise line that sails from Southampton?

Not really as we like to sail around the Caribbean and a duration of 7 days! We have seen a lot of Europe having spent time backpacking, it also means that we have a good excuse for visiting Orlando!

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It's a lot harder to know exactly what the OP was trying to convey in text rather then if it were in conversation. I agree...laying down $3K for a vacation is not "cheap", but for a 14 day vacation, it certainly is realistic and I would bet that if you took a 2 week European tour, between airfare, other transportation, hotels, meals, entrance fees, etc etc it would cost you that or more. 2 weeks at a Caribbean resort, again with those costs, would probably cost you that or more, and a couple of weeks in a popular big city, even in the states/Canada, like NY, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, etc would cost at least that. Between transportation, food, accommodation, facilities, entertainment I would say $3k for a 2 week cruise is good deal but at the same time I do agree that plunking down $3K for a 2 week vacation is not "cheap".

Very nicely stated. And I agree with Wripro that cruising often (but not always) offers good value for the money. I would add that consumers who think they can spend a modest amount per day and receive top level accommodation, food, and service are just being unrealistic. Same applies to both cruising and land-based travel.

I read a thread on here where someone posted that a couple spent $ 3,000 on a 14 day cruise on a Celebrity ship and they considered it "not cheap".

 

I don't understand where that logic comes from. How many vacations are out there where for approximately $214 a day you can get a room w/ service & at least 3 meals a day for 2? I consider Celebrity a mid market - like a Marriot or Sheraton, so for that price I thought it was a bargain.

 

I understand for some $3,000 is a big outlay based on their income but to consider that cost anything but inexpensive is unrealistic.

 

On some cruises today the cost per day can be even less - shockingly so. I have been on ships since the very early 1970's when it was a luxury vacation, people would be dressed to the nines every day & evening and the food & service was top shelf.

 

So it seems after reading Cruise critic posts that people expect the same level of food & service of years ago & yet pay less than the cost of a Motel 6 & dinner at Dennys.

 

Any thoughts?

Maybe that was just the bar tab:eek:

I read a thread on here where someone posted that a couple spent $ 3,000 on a 14 day cruise on a Celebrity ship and they considered it "not cheap".

 

I don't understand where that logic comes from. How many vacations are out there where for approximately $214 a day you can get a room w/ service & at least 3 meals a day for 2? I consider Celebrity a mid market - like a Marriot or Sheraton, so for that price I thought it was a bargain.

 

I understand for some $3,000 is a big outlay based on their income but to consider that cost anything but inexpensive is unrealistic.

 

On some cruises today the cost per day can be even less - shockingly so. I have been on ships since the very early 1970's when it was a luxury vacation, people would be dressed to the nines every day & evening and the food & service was top shelf.

 

So it seems after reading Cruise critic posts that people expect the same level of food & service of years ago & yet pay less than the cost of a Motel 6 & dinner at Dennys.

 

Any thoughts?

We did a 2 week cruise on the Eclipse in Jan. It came to be about $2600 for "just" the cruise. Add the excursions, insurance & "specialty" rest. it increased to about 4000. Still a good price in my book. In 2010 we did a 11 day trip in the Queens Grill on the QM2. It came to about $10K with all the perks. Luxury was far superor to Celebrity. It is as they say..you get what you pay for. As a whole the Celebrity trip was a far better bargain, in my opinion. We're "foodies" so we tend to book on shiops with better food. Celebrity's main dining room had far superior food & portions overall than Britannia did on Cunard..

"Cheap" and "expensive" are completely relative, subjective and vague terms.

Is it "cheap" in comparison to other similar cruises?

Is it "cheap" in comparison to what you would ordinarily spend on your hols?

Is it "cheap" in comparison to what your brother-in-law spends on their hols?

Is it "cheap" when you consider what you get for the amount spent, e.g. balcony stateroom, free on-board credits?

A cruise involves a huge outlay when you actually book it. This always feels expensive, even if the cruise itself is a bargain. However, once we've on board, the luxuriousness of the experience makes us feel like our vacation euros are being well spent, even if the cruise is expensive.

But to answer your question, we apparently consider a cruise cheap if it is less than around 75 euros (US$100) per night per person. That's without the flights, on board costs and shore expenses. For a balcony room, we still think it's cheap for an extra 10 euros p.p.p.n. All our straight cruises have fallen under this benchmark. If it is more than this, we feel the cruise is expensive.

When we travel in other ways, we always spend less than EUR 150 per night. Usually much less. Cruising is the most expensive kind of holiday we do. Mind you, we live in Europe and go on a lot of holidays. Perhaps 8-10 weeks a year. So I suspect that our vacation budget in the end is the same as someone who spends big but goes on fewer holidays.

In addition to the sticker price, you have to remember to factor in:

(1) the cost of getting to and from the ports;

(2) how much you actually fork over to the cruise line on board;

(3) how much you spend on shore.

We try to keep these additional costs very low, although flying to Florida is always a killer.

And for gay cruises, it's a completely different story. They are frighteningly expensive. We love them, and would take them all the time, but we feel they are a rip off.