Considering a cruise with an infant - what do cruise lines charge?

[Porky55]

In 2026 we are discussing a family cruise with our new great grandson (who will be nearly 2 by then) but are finding it hard to near impossible to do a dummy booking to find out how much they charge (if anything) for infants.

 

Does anyone have any idea on approximate cost, if any? Assume port taxes are applied to all bodies in the booking - young & old 🤔

 

Managed a Princess dummy booking and it was pretty low and at $399 (inc $203 port taxes & fees) but Royal wanted a full fare paying passenger cost 🤨

 

Thank in advance 🌹 Rose

[MicCanberra]

Yes, kids cost the same as an adult, they still use beds, make mess and eat food.

The only way it is slightly cheaper is when they are the 3rd or 4th person in the room or they have a special like kids sail free.

We had our 11 month grandchild cost the same as her parents in a room. No ship food or kids club but she did still  make mess and need a crib.

[arxcards]

I don't have specifics, except it isn't booked like a flight when an infant can travel for $0 when they don't occupy a seat.

 

Offhand, I can't think of any cruise lines that don't want to charge. As Mic mentioned, that even has them paying a full adult fare if they are the 2nd person in a cabin, or a child fare as #3 or 4 on some lines.

[Jean C]

I've only cruised Princess with kids, there were 3 groups of 4 people in each cabin and the 3rd and 4th persons were significantly cheaper than the first two. After I book something, I always monitor fares and deals for the cruise and get it repriced if a better deal comes through. For that particular cruise an offer of free fares for 3rd and 4th passengers in a cabin came up, so woohoo, I had it repriced and all 6 kids sailed free.

 

As regards kids making a mess in the cabin, my daughter ordered hot chocolate and other drinks via room service to their cabin. 14 year old helpfully answered the door and took the tray from the steward then, kids being kids, she "pretended" to trip when bringing the tray to the bed, only trouble was that the stunt didn't quite go to plan and the whole drink of hot chocolate spilled over the bed - I won't say what sort of acvident it looked like!

 

I really felt sorry for their steward, having to change the whole bed. I'm a clean and tidy person but my kids and their kids  ...  I don’t know what went wrong there [sigh] 🤣