Vacation package
Western Caribbean Cruise, Seven Nights
A round trip sailing from a Gulf or Florida port, calling at three or four places in a week, quoted per person for two sharing an inside or ocean view cabin. The useful part of this page is not the itinerary. It is the list of what a cruise fare does not cover.
The number people get wrong
A cruise fare looks lower than a resort week and often is not, once the ordinary week is added back. This is the single most useful thing an agency can tell you about a cruise, so it goes near the top of the page rather than at the bottom.
| What gets added | Roughly how much | Can you avoid it |
|---|---|---|
| Daily gratuities | Charged per person per night, for everybody in the cabin | Not in practice. Some lines let you prepay, which is only useful because it stops it being a surprise. |
| Drinks | The largest variable on most bills | Yes, partly. A package pays for itself at a level of drinking you should be honest with yourself about before buying it. |
| Shore excursions | Per person per port | Yes. Several ports are walkable or have a beach a short taxi from the pier, and we will say which. |
| Specialty dining | Per person per meal | Entirely. The included dining is not a hardship. |
| Internet | Per day | Usually, yes. |
from $940 per person, based on two sharing
This is a starting figure for the season shown. The final price is confirmed in writing before anything is booked and depends on your dates, the number travelling and what is available when we ask. How a price is put together.
Why we book a hotel the night before
Flights into a departure port on sailing day fail often enough that we do not sell it. A ship does not wait, a missed sailing is not refunded, and joining at the next port is expensive and sometimes impossible.
So the night before is in the package rather than offered as an upgrade. It is the one place on this page where we have made the trip cost more on purpose.
Choosing the cabin
The grade matters less than where the cabin sits. Directly under the pool deck is noisy from six in the morning. At the very front, the movement is greater. Near a stairwell is convenient and busy. When we quote we send you the deck plan with the actual cabin marked, not just a category name.
The six questions, answered
| Where and how long | A round trip of seven nights from a departure port on the Gulf or in Florida, calling at three or four ports in the western Caribbean and spending two or three days at sea. You board once and unpack once, which is the reason most people choose this over a multi city trip. |
|---|---|
| What kind of trip | Cruise. The fare covers the cabin, the main dining and buffet meals, the entertainment and getting between the ports. A long list of ordinary things sits outside it, and that list is below rather than in the small print. |
| What is included | Round trip flights from Boise to the departure port, one night in a hotel before sailing because a same day connection to a ship is a risk we will not book, transfers between airport, hotel and terminal, the cruise fare for two sharing, port charges and government taxes, and a written itinerary with the booking reference and the boarding times. |
| What is not included | Gratuities, which the line charges daily per person and which are not optional in practice. Drinks beyond water, basic coffee and tea. Specialty restaurants. Shore excursions. Internet. The spa. Travel insurance, which we recommend on a cruise more strongly than on any other trip we sell, because a missed sailing is not recoverable. |
| When it makes sense, and when it does not | It makes sense from November to April, when the weather is settled. It works in summer at lower fares if you accept heat and a fuller ship. It does not make sense in September and early October, when itineraries get changed at short notice for weather, and the line is entitled to change them without refund. |
| What is settled when we confirm | The ship, the sailing date, the cabin category and its actual location on the ship rather than just its grade, the flights and the pre cruise hotel, the transfers, the total for your party, the daily gratuity figure so it is not a surprise, and the line's cancellation schedule in full. |