Have you ever thought about Carnival pricing in comparison to....

[Essiesmom]

Most of you are not comparing like accommodations. For those of you who 'have to have' a balcony...How many hotel rooms have balconies, especially a balcony you could sit out on. And if they do, do you? All hotel rooms have windows. So you need to compare accommodations using an OV. EM

[rnr4thatsme]

I find cruising is a bit more expensive than AI, but not by much, and the quality of food/entertainment is better (normally) on a cruise....

 

Our AI was about $2000 pp including flights to Mexico. Our cruise was just slightly more. But our cruise had way more activities for the kids (and us!).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Warm Breezes]

Yup my math is fuzzy and broad so I'll let all of you take a crack.

 

Book me a trip from Miami for a duration of 7 days where I will be visiting 4 Caribbean ports, have a minimum of 3 meals a day, have entertainment in the evening, stay at a minimum 3 star hotel with service twice a day, have access to exercise facilities and outdoor recreational facilities. Make sure my flights are booked so that I am not spending any of my vacation time once I leave Miami until my return wasting away in an airport and that my belongings travel free.

 

I don't drink so "free" booze is not a consideration. Make sure myself my traveling companion and my extended family (20 of us last time) can all book at the same time. Provide me with places to visit where we have available activities for kids from 12 to 70 and free services for those 12 to 18.

 

Sure, its easy and often inexpensive to "all inclusive" to a single destination....but I want an apples to apples comparison where I can visit four destinations hundreds if not thousands of miles apart...where I don't need to pack up my belongings every time I travel from one port to another.

Good luck doing that for the price of a cruise. Oh, and remember that ocean view hotel rooms are always more expensive than courtyard facing rooms, that travel outside of the hotel area is an additional expense, that eating anywhere other than the hotel/resort is an additional expense.

 

The problem here is you want to do an apples to apples comparison with a land vacation where you visit destinations thousands of miles apart and with no need to pack/unpack between destinations. That type of vacation doesn't exist. Can't be done.

 

You prefer to cruise. Some people prefer AI's. Some people prefer hotels. Other's prefer camping. All of these vacations can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want to make them. None of them are apples to apples for a price comparison sake. And there is nothing wrong with people preferring one type of a vacation over another.

 

We haven't done AI's yet because we don't think that is the type of vacation we would enjoy since we don't drink a lot and we, like you, like to see different destinations on our trip (only we don't have a problem with packing and do enjoy road trips). We do like to cruise and road trips either by motorhome or hotel and we sometimes make it an inexpensive trip and sometimes we splurge. Our choice. We don't try to compare apples to oranges though when pricing out our vacations.

[bobandsherry]

I get the point being made, but there's far to many differences and variables in the comparison. We love cruising, #18 in under 2 months. But I've yet to sail for 7days for $1k, gratuities alone is nearly $200. Oddly the OP includes 3 ports but shows no spend while in any port.

 

Likewise, we've spent less for land vacation to Cozumel with AI.

 

We've looked at cost of both, and unless you do abosulutely nothing on a cruise, they basically cost the same. But each has their differences and advantages.

 

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

[Sugaree5335]

This is kind of timely since I'm starting to run the numbers on our next vacation. I'm looking at spending a week in Coz at an AI that includes diving in the price. For a week, including food, hotel, diving, and flights it's going to be about $2700 for the week. Alternatively, I can also book a cruise that is also 7 days. The cost of this cruise, once you factor in the cost of the cruise, drinks (Cheers for two people for 7 days), and diving (excursions through the ship where offered and through a different vendor when not) is ~$2900. Actually, it would be a bit more because, while I don't have to fly into the home port, I would have to drive about 6 hours and either stay in a hotel or pay to park at the port. And it includes two fewer diving days than staying on land. This may not apply to you if you don't dive or have a spouse that doesn't dive or don't want to dive every day. But it's another perspective.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Sugaree5335

[evandbob]

Yup my math is fuzzy and broad so I'll let all of you take a crack.

 

Book me a trip from Miami for a duration of 7 days where I will be visiting 4 Caribbean ports, have a minimum of 3 meals a day, have entertainment in the evening, stay at a minimum 3 star hotel with service twice a day, have access to exercise facilities and outdoor recreational facilities. Make sure my flights are booked so that I am not spending any of my vacation time once I leave Miami until my return wasting away in an airport and that my belongings travel free.

 

I don't drink so "free" booze is not a consideration. Make sure myself my traveling companion and my extended family (20 of us last time) can all book at the same time. Provide me with places to visit where we have available activities for kids from 12 to 70 and free services for those 12 to 18.

 

Sure, its easy and often inexpensive to "all inclusive" to a single destination....but I want an apples to apples comparison where I can visit four destinations hundreds if not thousands of miles apart...where I don't need to pack up my belongings every time I travel from one port to another.

 

Good luck doing that for the price of a cruise. Oh, and remember that ocean view hotel rooms are always more expensive than courtyard facing rooms, that travel outside of the hotel area is an additional expense, that eating anywhere other than the hotel/resort is an additional expense.

 

So if you port at Coz, you can do one all day trip to maybe Tulum or Coba, probably not both. And it would have to be a ship excursion since you don't want to be late and wave bye as the ship leaves the port.

 

If I stay at an AL in Playacar, just south of the ferry in Playa del Carmen, I can do both ruins and a cenote or ATV in the same day. My hotel isn't going to leave me if I stay out late. I can do the Nature parks like Xel Ha or Xcaret another day, or visit Chichen Itza or El Balaam between rest up days at the resort. A short trip and I can be swimming with dolphins or manatees or taking a fishing expedition. Any of these can be done from PDC without using the Coz-PDC ferry since I'm already on the mainland.

 

I realize many cruisers barely leave an immediate port area, so an in depth probe of the area around a port may be too intimidating. But for those of us who like to explore an area and feel the culture, taste the food and sample the language of a foreign land, an AI or a resort hotel is a great way to do exactly that for a similar price of a cruise.

 

Many of my early cruises were fact finding trips to figure out where I would want to return for a land vacation.

Edited December 29, 2016 by evandbob

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

I live 30 minutes away from The Port of Miami. I couldn't imagine having to pay air fare and hotel. Sometimes one of my brothers or my dad will drive us to port so that we don't have to pay parking.

[poobears]

I can't imagine cruising for $1,000. There are at least 3 of us going, sometimes 4. I have to figure in kenneling for the dog, gas to port, hotels pre cruise because I always drive in a day or two early, you never know what will happen, ports are 13-23 hours away from here, food pre/post cruise, tips & excursions. I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting but that doesn't even include the cost of the cruise.

 

When we cruise we typically book a suite for the size of the room, same as when we book a hotel room. Our land vacations are almost always cheaper than cruising but on land we usually book a house with VRBO, not a hotel and not an AI because we don't drink and I'm not paying for unlimited alcohol and other drinks we aren't drinking. I can usually take a 3 week land vacation for the price we pay for a week long cruise (including pre/post cruise travel) but they are completely different vacations.

[Ready 2 Go]

I agree in general that cruise vacations are a better value. Especially if you have kids that like to snack throughout the day. We did a land vacation in 2014 in San Diego stayed downtown. Just the rooms and valet service was over 2800. Then we had Legoland tix, Sea World, San Diego Wild Animal park, the zoo, a trip to Universal Studios and of course meals, gas, snacks, shopping and other avtivities. At the end of that 7 day trip we had spent way more than we do with balcony rooms and airfare from LV to port which since splendor left the west coast is always Texas or Florida. I'd pick the cruise any day.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Computer Nerd]

Yup my math is fuzzy and broad so I'll let all of you take a crack.

 

Book me a trip from Miami for a duration of 7 days where I will be visiting 4 Caribbean ports, have a minimum of 3 meals a day, have entertainment in the evening, stay at a minimum 3 star hotel with service twice a day, have access to exercise facilities and outdoor recreational facilities. Make sure my flights are booked so that I am not spending any of my vacation time once I leave Miami until my return wasting away in an airport and that my belongings travel free.

 

I don't drink so "free" booze is not a consideration. Make sure myself my traveling companion and my extended family (20 of us last time) can all book at the same time. Provide me with places to visit where we have available activities for kids from 12 to 70 and free services for those 12 to 18.

 

Sure, its easy and often inexpensive to "all inclusive" to a single destination....but I want an apples to apples comparison where I can visit four destinations hundreds if not thousands of miles apart...where I don't need to pack up my belongings every time I travel from one port to another.

 

Good luck doing that for the price of a cruise. Oh, and remember that ocean view hotel rooms are always more expensive than courtyard facing rooms, that travel outside of the hotel area is an additional expense, that eating anywhere other than the hotel/resort is an additional expense.

 

I could do that easy with my timeshare but I assume you're not an owner. And I would be staying in 2 bdrm units with 2 baths and a full kitchen to boot. ;)