Our Cheap Trip Formula

When we say we send you cheap cruise trip deals every week, what exactly does that mean? Let’s break down some of the costs included in our price, and some of the assumptions we use to get there:

⛴️The Cruise

• Cruise fares are based on double occupancy, which means if you’re a solo-traveler looking at a $100 / night cruise, you’re still paying $200 / night. If you have a 3rd and 4th guest in the same room, those come at a discounted rate depending on age - kids are often, but not always, free. Our deals currently always assume double occupancy.

• Cruise taxes are paid per-person with no minimum, so if you’re a solo-traveler you save here. Our deals calculate this accurately for all party sizes.

• Gratuities are $16 / night per person. We include this as part of the total.

✈️The Flight

• Flights are currently always roundtrip and generally economy class, and one fare is needed per traveler.

• We prefer flights that arrive same-day to avoid the extra costs of a Hotel. We only consider flights that arrive no later than noon to give you time to get onboard even if there’s a delay.

• If we can’t find a flight that arrives same-day per the above limits, we’ll take a look for flights the day before and add on a Hotel stay to our total price.

• Flights back are same-day for the same reason, and we don’t consider anything that leaves earlier than 10 am so you have time to grab breakfast, collect your luggage, and navigate airport security without stress.

• We are assuming you are bringing one personal item, such as a backpack or purse, and one carry-on per person. For budget airlines such as Spirit and Frontier that don’t include a carry-on, we tack on the expected $50 / person / flight carry-on charge those airlines tend to charge. If you want to bring a checked bag, it’s generally around $50 / bag per flight regardless of airline, but we don’t include that in our total.

🏨The Hotel

• Not every cruise deal will have a hotel attached - we only use a hotel if we can’t find a same-day flight for you.

• We are assuming that you’re fine sharing a single room with all travelers involved.

• We look for 4-5 star hotels within 10 miles of the airport.

🚗Getting there and back

That cruise out of Galveston, TX might look good until you consider the fact that the port is an hour away from the airport and see what Uber is charging these days!

• We are assuming you’re fine sharing a single Uber with all travelers involved.

• Uber prices vary by the minute, so we use a rough estimation instead.

Costs to consider that we don’t include

These costs are hard for us to calculate, and generally are fixed costs that don’t change based on the place you’re traveling to. Keep them in the back of your head whenever looking at a deal:

• Airport Parking: Generally per-night. Usually there is an economy lot that is fairly cheap, or ask a friend to drop you off instead and save the parking cost!

• Gas: For us, our airport is over an hour away. Luckily, our PHEV gets us there on its battery, saving us some costs.

• Pet Boarding: We wish our pup could cruise with us, but getting to play with his friends at doggy-daycare is the next best thing. Our boarding place also checks in our cat for us and collects our mail, which is a great all-in-one, but you may need to setup other services or place a mail hold instead.

Once you’re on the ship, you’re good to go - you don’t need to spend another dollar to have a great time. But for those cursed with heavy wallets, never fear - cruises have you covered.

• Excursions

• Drink Packages

• Specialty Dining

• Internet at Sea

• Spa services

• Gambling