Total cost for Med cruise

[joybelles9]

Have some sympathy for us in australia doing a med cruise cost of cruise on royal princess holy land 12 day inside cabin $7,890 australian dollars

economy airfares brisbane to athens return from rome $5,280 aud

budget Hotel athens 2 nights $160euro apartment 7th floor 5 nights rome $480 euro this is without any side trips egypt $520usd Israel $700usd patmos $90euro Turkey $85euro Sorrento $ 360usd and we are just doing a walk around santorini on top of this is rome sightseeing and athens sightseeing meals and transfers an aussie dollar is buying .81cents and buying .59 euros so all up we are thinking this trip will cost the 2 of us at least $25,000 australian dollars so think for 2 its a trip of a lifetime would not want to spend this sort of money again when we could go to china and see the terracotta soldiers great wall and do cruise for same time at around $5 -6,000 australian dollars all up

[agabbymama]

Have some sympathy for us in australia doing a med cruise cost of cruise on royal princess holy land 12 day inside cabin $7,890 australian dollars

economy airfares brisbane to athens return from rome $5,280 aud

budget Hotel athens 2 nights $160euro apartment 7th floor 5 nights rome $480 euro this is without any side trips egypt $520usd Israel $700usd patmos $90euro Turkey $85euro Sorrento $ 360usd and we are just doing a walk around santorini on top of this is rome sightseeing and athens sightseeing meals and transfers an aussie dollar is buying .81cents and buying .59 euros so all up we are thinking this trip will cost the 2 of us at least $25,000 australian dollars so think for 2 its a trip of a lifetime would not want to spend this sort of money again when we could go to china and see the terracotta soldiers great wall and do cruise for same time at around $5 -6,000 australian dollars all up

 

Oh my, that is a lot of money, whether in Australian dollars or US dollars.

 

Guess that's my problem, it isn't a trip of a lifetime to me. I've been to Europe so many times (1 week in England, Wales, Scotland in '87)(3 weeks in Greece in '92) (3 weeks to Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium in '96)(4 weeks to Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany in '98)(1 week to Vienna & Budapest in '01 and returned for another 10 days in '05). So this is just another trip to me. I will see a few new places (Greek Islands and Monte Carlo) but other than that, I've been there done that, and at a lot less money out of pocket.

 

Now the trip I'd like to plan is New Zealand and Australia. While I've been to Australia twice (3 weeks in '90 and 4 weeks in '95), and don't plan on sightseeing, I have a friend just outside Sydney that I'd like to visit again. But that isn't until at least 2009 or 2010. We'll see what the future brings.

 

Happy travels to all!

[m steve]

24 day cruise incl. Ins and connection from Venice airport to pier...$13700

Airfare 1st/ Bus using miles......................................................$200.

3 nights Barcelona, post cruise..hotel, meals and misc...................$1000

Tours from ship.......................................................................$1500

Bar, spec. rest., tips on ship.....................................................$1500

Purchases in Europe.................................................................$2500

This comes to over $20,000 for 28 days not counting any monies in the casino. Since we don't expect to take cruises like this for several years we think that about a $1000 a day for both of us with balcony cabin, deluxe flying and good restaurants is well worth it. We could spend that in the Caribbean on a luxury ship to the same old ports. The only difference is no duty free liquor.

[agabbymama]

24 day cruise incl. Ins and connection from Venice airport to pier...$13700

Airfare 1st/ Bus using miles......................................................$200.

3 nights Barcelona, post cruise..hotel, meals and misc...................$1000

Tours from ship.......................................................................$1500

Bar, spec. rest., tips on ship.....................................................$1500

Purchases in Europe.................................................................$2500

This comes to over $20,000 for 28 days not counting any monies in the casino. Since we don't expect to take cruises like this for several years we think that about a $1000 a day for both of us with balcony cabin, deluxe flying and good restaurants is well worth it. We could spend that in the Caribbean on a luxury ship to the same old ports. The only difference is no duty free liquor.

 

I'm afraid I would be sitting home if I couldn't do it for less than that. I used to budget $1000 per week for myself, and you're talking half of that PER DAY. My husband doesn't travel with me alot, unless it's to visit friends or Italy was to see his Father's homeland. Now my cruises are costing me about $3000 for 12 days. The Med next year for the 12 day cruise, 2 pre-cruise nights Rome, 2 post-cruise nights Venice is looking like $5000. And that is the most I will ever pay. I can't afford anymore than that. I've been to and seen enough of Europe to forego seeing anymore of it at the rates they are charging. I will find someplace here in the US to travel to. Maybe start River cruising.

 

Happy travels to all!

[gunch]

I feel your pain about a crazy housing market. I live in Hawaii and all the prices have done here is go up and up! I am taking a Med cruise in October and expect the total to be around 10k. I have had a heck of a time finding decent airfare, but if you can split up your airfare to flying to London, Zurich, Paris or another city prior to flying to Rome, it might help out. I am flying LAX-CDG-FCO. I have found Virgin Atlantic LAX-LHR for $800 and a r/t LHR-FCO on BA for $300. Just have to have alot of patience with the airfare search. I spent probably 40 hrs searching for airfare from Honolulu to Rome. I understand your pain about the airfare!!!

[fifty]

The total cost of Med. cruise seems getting a bit out of control. We have booked a Med. cruise for June 2008 on Summit. We REALLY would like to go on this cruise. The cruise fare seemed fair so we booked and did not realize how much everything would cost until after we booked.

 

We are only getting a oceanview cabin for 3 of us. That is already a bit over 6K. Airfare will likely cost around $1500 per person (based on the airline and route we refer). Then the cost of private tour guides (I know I know...you are going to tell us that we don't necessarily need private guides). I estimate for three of us, each city's private tour will cost us about 250 Euros assuming we do share with others in a van. We like to have private guides for Rome, Florence, Naples, Athens and possibly Nice. That is at least 1000 Euros.

Plus hotels pre and post cruise, meals and transportation, plus the misc expenses on board. We usually don't spend that much on board but still there will be some expenses e.g. a few drinks, ice cream and laundry.

 

I estimate this trip may cost us around $15000!!!

 

Folks who just finished their Med cruises, tell me how much you had spent?!

In the worse case scenario, we may have to cancel the trip.

Help!!

 

 

Hi - I find myself traveling solo now and that means I have to pay close to double the cabin fare so I do have to think of clever ways to save money. The folks (travelers) at tripadvisor.com give lots of great tips and information. I have found safe and clean (not delux) hotels in both Rome and Barcelona that include breakfast. Rather than be herded around in a tour, i prefer to experience the city/location on my own. You get a much more realistic "taste" of the true culture of a city that way, IMHO. Of course, if you are not comfortable doing that, then perhaps you can gather friends onboard who would like to share a tour to make the tours less expensive in each port.

 

If you are comfortable exploring on your own, you could save the $1000 for tour guides. I have probably saved over $1000 just by researching locations, hotels, trains, etc online. Plus, it's part of the fun of planning the trip for me.

 

As for air fare, if you put in a request online at orbitz.com, they will automatically send you an e-mail if your fare drops to the level requested by you. Don't know if you have checked there or not.

 

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

[cathydev]

My trip next June is getting costly too. We are limited to late June or July with schedules and whatnot.

 

We are a family of 6. Two adults and three young adults (ages 19, 18, 18 and 16). We have booked Carnival Freedom. Two rooms..one for the adults and one for all the kids.

 

Airfare is the biggest killer. The cheapest I can find now is $1620/pp out of Spokane. Seattle doesn't save that much plus parking is significantly more and 5 hours away.

 

Here's our breakdown...gasp....

 

Airfare 9720

Cruise total (with taxes & port charges) 13617.52 (two balcony cabins cat 8C next two each other)

Ship gratuities 480

Train to and from airport to hotel 200

B&B in Rome for 3 nights pre cruise and 1 night post cruise 1440

Food while in Rome 700

Museums/Entrance Fees/Sightseeing 300

 

Transfer to/from hotel to port 300 (still researching this...hope I've overestimated)

 

Excursions:

We will do on our own.

Livorno - private car to Pisa/Florence 1000. I would like to take the train but I'm really worried about spending unnecessary time waiting for trains. I'd also like to stop at a winery or two.

Venice - 1000 for water taxis/gondola rides/maybe a museum or a must see. we are overnight in venice on cruise.

naples - 1000 for private car to tour amalfi coast and pompei etc.

barcelona - 500 don't know yet what we will do (perhaps estimate is high?)

cannes - 500 don't know yet what we will do (perhaps estimate is high?)

croatia - 600

Excursions add up to 4600 and hopefully we'll eat light while out and save money for a nice glass of wine or drink etc. Then return to ship for dinner.

 

Also I figure 1500 for cruises bill..

 

This is about 32,000. It is expensive and I'm about ready to cancel. But I figure when divided by 6 it's about 5333 per person. Not to bad for a 16 nights...although maybe i've lost my mind.

 

It's been something we've been thinking about and planning for. I am really ticked though that I couldn't use my alaska miles. They partner with several airlines and all the dates we looked at were completely sold out for use with air miles. We have over 250,000 miles and can't use them. Poop!!!

 

If anyone has any suggestions for reducing my port excurison expenses I'm all for it. I haven't done much for some cities yet...as noted above. Any guidance or input will be appreciated.

 

Maybe I'll win the lottery between now and when I need to purchase plan tickets???? I suppose I can dream!

[tomko2]

One tiny suggestion: take the ship's excursion to Pompeii and (I am reluctant to say this because I know people will react but...) skip the Amalfi coast. The tour takes about 4 hours and then you will have time to explore the city of Naples and eat a pizza (Naples is the birthplace of pizza). The cost for 5 people at lot less than $1000.00 and it would be a terrific day.

 

Kathy:)

[bouchard01]

from our dream cruise and yes it's expensive. Travelled from Venice to Barcelona on the Emerald Princess. Did Princess excursions, we have not travelled much and just felt safer this way. I must say I did find most of them worth the money and yes you do feel herded but it's fun. Bought the insurance & Princess Custom Air. Stayed two night in Venice (could have saved here but what the heck) & two in Barcelona (was 1/2 the price of Venice). Had transfers from airport to ship, port to hotel, hotel to airport, etc. As others have said this was a special trip for our 30th Anniversary & my 50th birthday so we spared no expenses. In the end it has cost us close to $20,000.00 CAD. I booked with Princess a year in advance, our first with them. Wanted a Balcony Mini-Suite portside midship, was Category AA-Suite. We loved this room & being able to be in our room and sail out was awesome. We are also not cheap with the wine and beer and did check out all the speciality restraunts. We also bought the formal pictures, etc. So all in all we feel it was worth every last penny ... minus the jet-lag! We live in Western Canada so flying anywhere is not cheap. We figured it's a once in a lifetime trip and just went for it and throughly enjoyed ourselves!!!

[bouchard01]

that my price above also included two couples massages, tips and bath products as well as teeth whitening!!

[DedeM]

We figured it's a once in a lifetime trip and just went for it and throughly enjoyed ourselves!!!

Famous last words! When are you going back? :D

 

I feel the pain too. We wanted to do this for our 10th anniversary and started planning. First we booked the cruise. Ouch, ok, 12 nights is a lot, but what a great itinerary, blah blah blah.

 

Then my SO got laid off about 2 weeks later. :eek: No problem, we have plenty of time between now and then for employment, right? :eek:

 

What the heck, go ahead and book that airfare - the rates just dropped $130 each! QUICK!

 

What? The US$ has fallen even further? 1.43 US$ = 1e The thought of our shore excursions costing 43% higher (well, for today anyway) than whatever we thought they'd cost is kind of alarming.

 

Don't even get me started on wine, food, and souvenirs. *cries*

[bunnyette]

Excursions:

We will do on our own.

Livorno - private car to Pisa/Florence 1000. I would like to take the train but I'm really worried about spending unnecessary time waiting for trains. I'd also like to stop at a winery or two.

Venice - 1000 for water taxis/gondola rides/maybe a museum or a must see. we are overnight in venice on cruise.

naples - 1000 for private car to tour amalfi coast and pompei etc.

barcelona - 500 don't know yet what we will do (perhaps estimate is high?)

cannes - 500 don't know yet what we will do (perhaps estimate is high?)

croatia - 600

 

For Barcelona - you can 1/2 that cost if you do it on your own. The hop on hop off is great.

 

If Rome is included - another port that can be done on your own.

Croatia - is quite cheap and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Livorno - you can hire a cab to Florence for about 350 euros for the day. They are all vans that hold 6 - 8 people. I used Tuscany by Taxi

Naples - if you want to see the Amalfi Coast then the cost is about right or as another poster suggested just do Pompeii

 

Yes, you will spend lots of money on the ship - we did! I will be paying for this for the next year. I hate to say this, but my travel agent found my hotel and airfare...they sometimes get deals that the internet doesn't see. Can't hurt to check. I paid for the hotel in advance in $CDN - I paid $230 CDN and the hotel's regular rate was 215 euros...quite a difference especially as the FX was 1 euro - 1.49 CDN.

[Kevbirch]

 

I estimate this trip may cost us around $15000!!!

 

 

Well, we (2 adults and 3 kids) went to the East Med, with RCCL in August this year and had 2 adjoining sea view cabins.

 

Without the costs of excursions and the seapass account (Which I estimate to be around $2000 in total), but with tips and airfares added, was in the region of $13k . . . .and we live in the UK.

 

But what a vacation it was! Worth every penny . . . .and I want to go back - maybe in '09 when the pocket recovers!

[southtexaspop]

Cathydev: If you haven't seen it already, take a look at the Cruiseair board. Greatam provides some insight into less expensive flights from Washington state (Spokane, I believe) to Europe that might be of some interest to you. I just read them this evening. Good luck. Joe

[southtexaspop]

Cathydev: OOPS. My bad. After checking again I see that YOU were the one greatam was talking to about air travel from Washington to Europe. Sooooooory.:o

Joe

[happy cruzer]

For your second cruises, do as Hlitner suggested earlier - book a crossing.

 

The cruise will be less than 1k and the so will the airfare. Then just add on sightseeing on the European end.

 

I plan on a TA on Oceania around 1300 pp with air then 5 days sightseeing at about 500pp. 17 days total for less than 4k. I'll only see Madiera, Barcelona and 5 days in Spain and France but I'll have money enough to do it again next year. So far we have stayed in London and in Lisbon at the end of TAs, it was great.

 

I do envy your great itineraries with very little unpacking involved. Enjoy!!!

[Lisichka]

I figure my European cruise/trip will be close to $11K for the two of us (but I am going for 4 weeks):

 

$2400 airfare (open jaw, USA-Amsterdam, Rome-USA)

$340 One way air Amsterdam-London and then London-Rome

$400 for 3 nights hotel Amsterdam

$600 3 nights hotel London

$269.00 6 nights in Holland in an apartment

$600 3 nights hotel, Rome

$3600 12-daycruise

$380 week car rental Holland

$240 (?) cruise gratuities

$1000 tours

 

I am not calculating in food, as we need to eat at home as well.

 

I am budgeting $15000 to be safe. I hope I can do it for that.

[suni]

This thread is frightening! I too am shocked at what I am willing to spend for this cruise. The cruise itself I can justify....the airfare is killing me though. I started searching for flights in September for a July 2008 cruise and there were no awards seats available. What a joke! Open jaw from Arizona is outrageous. I am thinking I should purchase tickets now while there are still "discounted seats " available. Any thoughts??

I too am trying to look at this as being the trip of a lifetime. We are skipping Christmas and birthday gifts to try to balance. We may be crazy, but looks like we ALL are!:p

[funkylady]

Well, we (2 adults and 3 kids) went to the East Med, with RCCL in August this year and had 2 adjoining sea view cabins.

 

Without the costs of excursions and the seapass account (Which I estimate to be around $2000 in total), but with tips and airfares added, was in the region of $13k . . . .and we live in the UK.

 

But what a vacation it was! Worth every penny . . . .and I want to go back - maybe in '09 when the pocket recovers!

Hi Kevbirch, we're from the Wirral too! Me and my hubby and 2 kids (12 & 14) are going on an Eastern Med. cruise in January (a bit cold i know!). I was wondering if you did the ship's cruises, your own or a mixture? What do you recommend would be the best option for us with kids-this is our first cruise as well.

Kath

[English Tim]

I believe that the weak dollar is leading to large numbers of Europeans, certainly Brits, travelling in school holidays - July / August, to the USA, so this makes it very difficult for those of you travelling in the opposite direction.

 

Flights are often booked 12 months in advance, particularly to WDW, Florida.

 

Demand usually outstrips supply, hence high fares.

[Lisichka]

This thread is frightening! I too am shocked at what I am willing to spend for this cruise. The cruise itself I can justify....the airfare is killing me though. I started searching for flights in September for a July 2008 cruise and there were no awards seats available. What a joke! Open jaw from Arizona is outrageous. I am thinking I should purchase tickets now while there are still "discounted seats " available. Any thoughts??

I too am trying to look at this as being the trip of a lifetime. We are skipping Christmas and birthday gifts to try to balance. We may be crazy, but looks like we ALL are!:p

 

From what I heard, there is a big price drop to be expected in early 2008. Many new (huge!!) aircrafts (Airbus and Boeing) are coming out that will increase supply, with no expected increase in demand in the beginning. Also, many domestic flights are being rerouted to International routes next year which also increases competition.

[suni]

That is interesting! Where did you hear this information??

[tomko2]

If you are using points for air travel; keep checking. We could not originally get the flights we wanted so had booked very convoluted flights with our points. Over the months before we left we kept calling the airline and checking with their alliance partners. We ended up with the days and itinerary we wanted.

I agree with Lisichka; Air Canada has just added some 777s to it's fleet going to Europe to be deployed in 2008. So far Rome is not on the list but our fingers are crossed that it is added in 2009.

[1stXcruisers]

My parents just booked the "Best of Europe" 10 day cruise with RCCL for May 19, 2008 and it is costing them $2200 per person US for a balcony. It's a 10 day tour that leaves from Southhampton. They'll stop in Paris/Spain/Portugal/Moracco/Corsica/France/and end of in Barcelona, Spain. The airfare into London is much cheaper as are the hotels. The cost to fly from Barcelona to London is about $100 US. I found them a 4 star hotel by the airport in London for $75 US on hotwire. I guess this is only an option if you don't mind changing your itinerary.

 

B&R

[Lisichka]

That is interesting! Where did you hear this information??

 

You can read about it HERE.