How much does it cost to go on a world cruise
World Cruises are expensive. You could probably find a deal on an inside cabin in the $50K per cabin range or up to $500K per cabin if you want to travel in the Pinnacle suite. Please note all the prices here will be PER CABIN – not PER PERSON – except where noted.
Many people planning their first world cruise focus on the base cruise cost only, which even for the least expensive cabin will cost around $50,000, and this amount is before you buy a single drink or go on a single tour. Even the $50K number will seem a little high if you only look at the giant print on the HAL website. The lowest fare listed for an Inside Cabin on the 128 days 2022 World Cruise is $22.499 – If you double that in your head, you think – Hey, I can go on a world cruise for $45,000. Still a nice chunk of change, but will that be your total cost once the smoke clears and you are staring at your final bill in April, the day before Fort Lauderdale? No, of course not, and everyone knows there are always additional charges, but how much will they be?
Is a world cruise simply 16 one week Alaska cruises back to back? Do you spend more per day or less per day than on other cruises? What is the total cost of a world cruise, and how can you estimate your total world cruise cost?
In my example above, the $45,000 fare in the giant print on the website quickly becomes $41,273 after you add in the port fees and taxes ($3,450) and the Hotel Service Charge ($2,825). After some discounts and other incentives with shipboard credits, you could probably get this price back down to the $36,000 range.
Let’s start with a high-level view of the various cabins: Here is a table with the cost per couple per cabin of the different cabin types. I am using the lowest price in the category where you are assigned a cabin shortly before departure. (Referred to as a guarantee. If you want to pick a specific cabin and guarantee a cabin on a particular deck or zone, that will cost more.)
Like buying a car, most people don’t pay the total brochure price for any cruise. Travel agencies will offer incentives and discounts. HAL will also provide incentives and perks, and certain agencies may benefit from volume pricing, group discounts, etc. The discount value will vary, but it is always important to look at the entire value proposition and not simply compare the bottom line. Some perks have value to you, and others may not.
| 2022 World Cruise Base Pricing per cabin | ||||
| Category | Base Cost | Port Fees | HSC | Total |
| Inside | $44,998 | $4,740 | $3,712 | $53,450 |
| Outside | $47,998 | $4,740 | $3,712 | $56,450 |
| Veranda Suite | $86,998 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $95,834 |
| Neptune Suite | $159,998 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $168,834 |
| Pinnacle Suite | $461,998 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $470,834 |
Discounts will vary a lot by travel agent but will usually be in the range of 5-12% off the commissionable fare. Early pay discounts, port fees, taxes, and a small portion of the base fare are not commissionable. When you hear someone saying they got a particular percentage discount, consider the baseline from which they started. Based on my research, we will use 10% as a realistic discount off the full fare to keep the math simple. You may be able to do better than 10%, and some agents may balk at this discount. Still, this discount is available if you are willing to shop around and forgo some travel agent perks and services you may have come to expect.
Don’t underestimate the value of your travel agent services. When dealing with a smaller agency, it’s nice to call your agent and know they will answer the phone quickly, understand you and your desires, and trust them to act on your behalf. Having established a history of trust and confidence in your travel agent or agency is valuable. If you have something change while on the ship or in an emergency and only have time for a short phone call, having someone who can call and leave a brief message is essential. You may get a slightly better deal with a mega-agency or an online-only agency. However, you won’t be sure that your agent will still be around during an emergency. Additionally, experienced agencies will usually have agents that specialize in a particular cruise line. They often know people “behind the scenes “and MAY be a better advocate for you when dealing with the cruise line. Bottom line – consider more than the total price when you are picking a travel agency.
There are other discounts available if you book early – Here is a LINK to the benefits for 2022. Also, if you pay in full by 1 June you usually get another 3% off the base fare.
This discount, while only 3%, is the same as a 12% return on a tax free, low risk bond. You have to pay the full amount by early Sept – so you are “loaning” HAL money for 3 months at a 3% discount.
Here is a table that summarizes the early booking discount value, which I converted to its cash equivalent. Note: These benefits are for 2022 only and may change in the future.
| Early Booking Discount Summary of Cash Value per 2 person cabin | ||||
| Pinnacle | Neptune | Vista | Oceanview C-F | |
| Laundry Dry Cleaning and Pressing | $750 | $750 | ||
| Unlimited Water and Soft Drinks | $500 | $500 | ||
| OBC | $4,000 | $2,000 | $1,500 | $1,000 |
| Prepaid Internet (5000 minutes per person) | $500 | $500 | $500 | |
| Prepaid HSC | $4,096 | $4.096 | $4,096 | $3,712 |
| Complementary Shore Excursion | $600 | $600 | $600 | |
| In Suite Liquor | $160 | $160 | $160 | |
| Unlimited Luggage | $800 | $800 | $800 | |
| 2 Pieces of luggage | $200 | |||
| Welcome Champagne | $25 | $25 | $25 | $25 |
| TOTAL | $11,471 | $9,431 | $7,681 | $4,937 |
Below is the original table recalculated with a 10% discount and subtracting the early booking and early pay discount. Sometimes your discount will be a combination of lower base fare combined with On-Board Credits (OBC). Certain fares will have more or less room for discounting as well. I am sure that the Neptune Suite price has more wiggle room than an inside cabin, so bear that in mind when you shop around for your fare.
| Category | Base Cost | 10% Discount |
Early Pay Discount |
Net Cost |
Tax &Fees |
HSC |
Sub Total |
Early Pay Perks |
Final Cost |
| Inside | $44,998 | $4,500 | $1,350 | $39,148 | $4,740 | $3,712 | $47,600 | $4,937 | $42,663 |
| Outside | $47,998 | $4,800 | $1,440 | $41,758 | $4,740 | $3,712 | $50,210 | $4,937 | $45,273 |
| Veranda | $86,998 | $8,700 | $2,610 | $75,688 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $84,524 | $7,681 | $76,843 |
| Neptune | $159,998 | $16,000 | $4,800 | $139,198 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $148,034 | $9,431 | $138,603 |
| Pinnacle | $461,998 | $46,200 | $13,860 | $401,938 | $4,740 | $4,096 | $410,774 | $11,471 | $399,303 |
2022 Holland America World Cruise –
Prices are PER CABIN (Double Occupancy)
Now that you have a better idea of the basic cruise fare, let’s look at the other costs of a world cruise. I will break them down into the following categories and cover them in more detail below.
- Pre & Post Cruise Expenses
- Onboard spending
- Shore excursions
Pre & Post Cruise Expenses
Before you ever set foot on the ship, you will spend some money on various expenses that are part of your world cruise. Here is a rundown of those expenses.
Baggage Shipment
You will likely be taking more baggage on a world cruise than you would on a shorter cruise. So you will probably spend more on either airline baggage fees or a baggage forwarding service. Checking two bags on an airline costs about $70, with a big jump for the third bag ($150). Most baggage forwarding services charge about $50 to $100 per bag to ship within the USA. Shipping costs from Europe and Australia to Florida are about $275 to $300 a bag. The prices from Canada are about $125 per bag. Holland America offers this service for all passengers for a fee. Those in category F and higher can ship two bags for free. Those in category B and higher have an unlimited allowance. The free baggage shipment offers only apply to residents of Canada and the USA. Passengers for other countries will receive $100 to $200 in OBC.
Airfare
If you live too far away to drive, you will most likely be flying to Fort Lauderdale. HAL will sell you airfare, or you can buy it yourself. There are many ways to shop for the best airfare flights, but keep in mind that this is another cost of your world cruise. Don’t forget to calculate your transfer price from home to your nearest Airport and include that in your world cruise total.
Pre/Post Cruise Hotel
Plan on $150 to $250 a night for your pre or post-cruise hotel. I recommend hotels near Fort Lauderdale’s Southport Shopping Center: Renaissance, Extended Stay, Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn Express. These hotels are within easy walking distance of the Southport Shopping Center, which has many stores if you need to pick up any last-minute supplies.
Transfers
The cost for a taxi/Uber should be around $25 for each transfer. We arranged for a larger SUV since we had so many bags and paid $50 for each transfer.
If you go with the cruise line transfer, you will wait until the bus fills, and it will take longer than going solo. But the cruise line transfer will be more straightforward in that you find the HAL person with the sign in the airport baggage claim and follow instructions.
Travel Insurance
I recommend that you look at the website insuremytrip.com to get some fast price comparisons for travel insurance. The cost varies by age, but I learned a few things from my research.
- The price goes up with age but stops going up after age 85 for some policies – 80 for most.
- New York Residents may pay more – don’t know why
- California Residents may pay less – I don’t know why
Here is a helpful table with a range of prices for a standard policy with trip cancellation coverage. There are many more variables in play than I could research, but this should give you a ballpark range to plan your trip cost. The insurance cost will be the percentage shown below multiplied by the insured trip cost. The numbers in this table are from 2018 and have not been updated. Check out all the options!
| Age | AIG Basic | AIG Gold | Allanz Classic | Allanz Trip Plus |
| 85 and Up | 14.3% | 19.3% | 19.4% | 26.2% |
| 80 to 85 | 11.8% | 14.8% | 19.4% | 26.2% |
| 75 to 80 | 9.0% | 11.4% | 13.8% | 18.7% |
| 70 to 75 | 6.7% | 8.8% | 11.1% | 14.9% |
| 60 to 70 | 5.6% | 7.2% | 8.1% | 10.9% |
| 35 to 60 | 4.3% | 5.2% | 6.1% | 8.2% |
| Under 35 | 2.9% | 3.6% | 4.7% | 6.3% |
| Source – Insuremytrip.com insuring – Single Traveler $50,000 trip cost, Florida Resident – Jan 3 to May 12 | ||||
If all you need is medical or evacuation coverage, you can enter zero for trip cost or a token amount ($250). Doing this may change your policy’s effective date to the cruise start date, which may impact pre-existing condition waivers and look-back periods. Read the policies carefully. A great resource for Travel Insurance is www.thetripinsurancestore.com I don’t have any affiliation with this company, but they get great reviews.
Prepaying Expenses
Many of your world cruise expenses can be paid for in advance if you choose. About 1 month before the cruise you will receive a World Cruise booklet which lists many of the items you can pay for in advance, and in many cases, receive a discount. These include, wine packages, photo packages etc. Here is a table with all of these options from our 2020 Cruise:
| PrePay | Onboard Price | ||
| 5 Pinnacle Dinners | $140 | $158 | |
| 12 Bottle Premium Wine Package | $496 | $516 | |
| 24 Bottle Premium Wine Package | $996 | $1021 | |
| Daily Water Package | $454 | $519 | |
| Unlimited Laundry (cabin) | $768 | $768 | |
| Unlimited Photo Package | $575 | A hard and soft copy of every picture taken by the ship’s photographer. | |
| 5 Inport Massages (50 Min) | $450 | $475 | |
| 5 Anytime Massage (75 min) | $730 | $780 | |
| 3 Anytime Massage and Facial | $545 | $575 | |
| 15 Hair Style and Comb Outs | $440 | $465 | |
| 3 Mens Haircuts in port | $75 | $85 | |
| 3 Personal Training sessions | $208 | $208 |
Unlimited Internet – $799, Surf Package – $699, Social Package – $599
If you really want to avoid any bill at the end of the cruise, you can always purchase additional On Board Credit for yourself.
When you book excursions before you leave, you pay for those excursions immediately. This is another way to prepay some expenses.
Do you spend less per day on a longer cruise than on a shorter cruise?
Onboard Spending
In this section, we will take a look at how much you spend onboard once you are on the cruise. I’ll save shore excursions for the next section.
Before we dig in, let’s take a look at a fast way to estimate your shipboard account at the end of your cruise. For this method, you calculate your average daily spending on your previous cruises. You then use that average to estimate your future spending. For this, we assume that your everyday spending on previous cruises is a good predictor of your daily spending on future cruises. But is this a reasonable assumption? Will you spend more or less per day on a more extended cruise than on a shorter cruise?
One easy way to do this on HAL is to go to your account on Holland America and then go “My Account” and “My Cruise History”. You will see a table with columns for your prior cruise dates, name, ship and credits earned. Add up all your “Cruise and Tour days” and then add up all your Spending days. Divide your Spending Days by your Days and you will get a ratio.
This can help you look at your own long term trends and patterns. In my case, my ratio before the cruise was 54% and on the cruise was 40%. Based on this analysis, I would suggest that you should probably discount your non-world cruise daily rate by 25% to get a more accurate prediction of your expected spending on a world cruise.
This approach doesn’t take into account your spending off the ship or on private excursions, but this is a quick and dirty method to at least get you in the ball park.
My conclusion based on this VERY limited data is that you will probably spend less per day on a world cruise then you would on your shorter cruise, but take a look at your own data and it can help with your world cruise budgeting.
There are numerous ways for you to spend your money onboard. When you are thinking about your budget for a world cruise, take a look at this list of how you could spend your money. Sometimes on a longer cruise you may want to try something new so reviewing this list may help jog your thinking:
Beverages
- Specialty Coffees
- Beer
- Wine
- Cocktails
- Soft Drinks
- Bottled Water
- Wine Tastings
- Other tastings and beverage classes
Specialty Restaurant Dinners
- Canaletto’s
- Pinnacle Grill
- Theme Dinners
Spa
- Massages
- Haircuts, styling and treatments
- Mani/Pedi
- Thermal Suite
- Specialty Treatments
OnBoard Shops
Casino
- Table Games
- Slots
- Slot and Blackjack Tournaments
- Texas Holdem
Internet
Art Auctions (HAL World Cruises do not have art auctions)
Fitness Center
- Pilates Classes
- Spinning Classes
- Personal Training
BINGO
You will receive a statement of your charges at the end of every segment. This is your chance to correct any errors. HERE is a copy of the letter from the Purser that explains how the billing works on a world cruise. The letter says that only the summary of each segment will be carried over, but I received an 11 page account summary at the end of the cruise anyway.
Right outside the front desk was an ATM looking machine that would print out your onboard account statement at any time on demand. Unfortunately, it was out of order most of the cruise so it didn’t turn out to be very useful, however, the front desk would always cheerfully print your statement whenever you asked.
Below is a spreadsheet that can help you predict your total spending for any cruise. You can enter whatever input numbers you choose.
The areas in green can be changed or you can simply leave the numbers alone to use the default values. The numbers in yellow or gray are calculated from other cells and cannot be modified except by changing the values in the input cells.
Here the instructions, block by block:
Number of passengers – enter 1 or 2 – this spreadsheet will not work for more than 2 people.
Enter the passengers ages. This will estimate the cost of your travel insurance. If you don’t want to price in travel insurance, enter zero for passenger ages. Add in the cost for medical evacuation insurance as a separate item under “Other pre/post cruse costs”.
In a suite? This answer will decide which Hotel Service Charge to use for your calculations.
Normal HSC and Suite HSC – the values here are for Holland America in 2016. Enter the values for your cruise line.
HSC Prepaid? Under certain circumstances and cabin categories, the HSC may be prepaid. Enter Yes or No as appropriate.
Base Cruise Fare: Enter the base fare for your cruise for one person. The spreadsheet will multiply this by the number of passengers you entered earlier. If you are a single, enter the fare with the single supplement included.
Port Charges: Enter the port charges and taxes for your cruise.
Travel Agent Discount: Enter the amount of your travel agent discount per person. If you’d rather simply enter a lower fare into the base cruise fare, then that is OK too.
Enter the number of sea days: This is used as a multiplier for onboard consumption on sea days.
Enter the number of port days: This is used as a multiplier for onboard consumption on port days.
Total Airfare/Car: Enter the round trip airfare or the cost of your other transportation to and from the cruise port.
Pre/Post Cruise Hotel: Enter the cost of any hotels you plan to stay in before and after the cruise.
Transfers: Enter the total cost of your transfers from the airport to your hotel and then to the ship and then the same on the return.
Baggage Shipment: If you plan to ship bags separately enter $100 per bag if you are in the USA or CANADA otherwise $250 a bag elsewhere.
OBC: Enter the total amount of Onboard Credits you will receive.
The next section, left hand column, gives you a chance to enter the prices for various items sold or offered onboard. I have entered approximate prices for many items. If you want to use different prices, you can enter them here. If you are happy with these prices, you can leave them alone. For the price of shore excursions, enter the average price of a single shore excursion. This number will be multiplied by the number of passengers you entered earlier.
For shore meals, souvenirs and internet minutes, enter the total amounts for both passengers.
The onboard usage will be entered into the next two columns. In these columns, enter the expected usage for both passengers. If you have a drink every other day enter .5, every third day .3 and so on. Rough numbers are fine here as you are simply trying to get a ball bark estimate.
The pricing for the internet is based on the HAL rates in 2018 and the spreadsheet uses the least expensive rate based on your total minutes.
| Minutes | Price | Rate |
| 1000 | $250 | 25 cents/minute |
| 500 | $175 | 35 cents/minute |
| 250 | $100 | 40 cents/minute |
| 100 | $55 | 55 cents/minute |
| Pay as you go | NA | 75 cents/minute |
For the 2020 Cruise they sold an unlimited package for about $800, a surf package for $700 and a social package for $600. These were the full prices but they were available precruise for about $200 less in 2020
On the lower right side, you can enter your expected Casino losses and how much you expect to spend in the onboard shops.
Lastly, there is a block to enter Other Charges. Here you can enter anything you may have overlooked elsewhere.
Once you have numbers in all the green blocks, you will see the estimated TOTAL price of your cruise in the YELLOW BLOCKS.
