Evaluating Cruise Deals

After you've narrowed down your search to just a few potential cruises it's time to evaluate the price against the value. Here are some questions to ask yourself. 1. How much money can you afford to spend on this trip? If you only take one vacation each year then your "splurge" factor may be higher than mine. We are fortunate to have almost six weeks of vacation each year so if we keep our costs down we can afford more trips. If you can afford it, a Windstar or Regent cruise offers some excellent itineraries for divers. Because the ships are smaller they can get into more remote ports like Bequia or Jost Van Dyke. However the cost is higher than say a Princess or Carnival cruise. For many of us that means the diving better be amazing and available at every port!

Which brings us to our next question, 2. How much diving does each cruise offer? We are avid divers so we want to get at least four dive days in each seven day cruise. A cruise that offers six dive opportunities is even sweeter, so we may be willing to pay more for it. Even if you don't plan to dive more than two or three days you'll want to make sure you're diving in the best spots you can. A cruise that stops in San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten isn't as attractive as one that stop in Dominica, St.Lucia and Barbados because the diving won't be nearly as good.

Just to give you an idea based on rates from one cruise discounter, the cost for an inside cabin April 17 on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas is $545 with five dive ports. Just a week later on April 25th the Carnival Victory is $439 for an inside cabin and the itinerary includes six potential dive ports. Of course there are many non-diving reasons to choose one cruise over another. Personally, I want the most and best diving for the buck so that is how we evaluate the cost of a cruise.

Finally, question number 3. How much will it cost to upgrade to a balcony? If you are taking your own gear (something we'll discuss in the next post) then a balcony gives you a place to store your gear. Dive gear can get very stinky after several days of diving so if the cost for a balcony is reasonable then choose the balcony. If you plan to rent all your gear then the decision to upgrade may be based on other reasons (like saving enough to pay for another cruise in the fall!).

Other cruise divers may have their own criteria for evaluating cruise value and if so feel free to comment. Bottoms up!

Evaluating Cruise Deals