Is a cheap world cruise actually possible? That’s the question we asked ourselves. So we thoroughly investigated this seemingly impossible travel desire and then went on to plan a cruise around the world, filled with a mix of luxury...

Is a cheap world cruise actually possible?

That’s the question we asked ourselves.

So we thoroughly investigated this seemingly impossible travel desire and then went on to plan a cruise around the world, filled with a mix of luxury and adventure. Ultimately we were successful in piecing together a cheap round the world cruise that amounted to only $60 per person, per day, all costs included.

We’re now here to show you how you can afford to enjoy an inexpensive world cruise as we also detail what this grand voyage was like.

Throughout six years of nonstop travels around the world to 100 countries, we’ve made a concerted effort to uncover some of the best travel values in the world, while stretching our travel dollars as far as possible.

We’ve already shown how many seemingly extravagant travel experiences can be affordable. For example, we’ve proven how to visit the Galapagos on a Budget, take an African Safari for $50/Day, or even have a Luxury Trip to Egypt on a Budget.

Yet we gave ourselves the biggest budget travel challenge we’d ever set out on: attempting a cheap around-the-world cruise.

Generally speaking, world cruises are indeed very expensive. But it’s a common misconception that such comprehensive voyages are beyond reach for budget-conscious travelers.

With careful planning and smart strategies, it’s entirely possible to experience the magic of an around-the-world cruise without breaking the bank. There are a number of ways to make world cruising more accessible. This guide will serve as your roadmap to inexpensive world cruises, bringing the dream of budget world cruising closer to reality. So, buckle up and get ready to explore the world on a shoestring budget.

The Cost of a World Cruise

The base price of a world cruise typically ranges between $10,000-$100,000 per person, based on double occupancy.

Yet a world cruise can easily exceed $200,000 for a multi-month grand voyage around the world. Take this Regent World Cruise for example. Beginning in Miami, in January 2025, this luxurious cruise around the world spanning 5.5 months looks nothing short of incredible. And it has an incredible price tag to match. This world cruise is currently “on sale” for $209,998.00 for two people. Yikes! This is not a cheap world cruise.

The price of this Regent world cruise works out to a daily rate of $1,249.99, or about $37,500 per month of world cruising. And those high prices don’t even factor in additional expenses, such as the many excursion costs and other add-ons. Ultimately, this half-year trip would likely well exceed a quarter million dollars. In other words, this Regent World Cruise is prohibitively expensive and out of reach for most of us.

While the cost of this world cruise may seem like a harsh reality, there are indeed less expensive world cruises. Cheap world cruises can be found for just over $10,000 per person, for the base fare. But taxes, port fees, and gratuities must be added to get the true price of any world cruise.

Realistically, a couple should plan to budget a bare minimum of $30,000 for the cheapest world cruise available. Yet a budget of $50,000-$100,000 (per couple) is a more realistic price range that would allow a nice assortment of world cruises to choose from and a less restrictive budget while on board.

That is still a lot of money to spend. So let’s now review how you can achieve a world cruise on a much lower budget.

Understand the Total Costs of World Cruise

When booking a world cruise at a low price, you must understand and budget for additional costs. When searching for cheap world cruises, the low advertised fare usually does not include many obligatory fees and expenses that will add thousands of dollars to the cruise fare.

Taxes and port fees: Taxes and port fees usually aren’t shown in the base cruise fare even though they must be paid as part of the total world cruise price. Be sure to see the total cost with taxes and port fees, which can add thousands of dollars.

Gratuities: Most cruise lines add gratuities to your cruise bill once onboard. Gratuities on world cruises typically range around $14-$16 per person per day. So for a full world cruise, this can easily add over $3,500 to a couple’s budget. Often the gratuities can be adjusted if you wish. But it would be cruel to deprive the hard-working crew of their wages if you’re on a world cruise that uses a tipping system as payment to the crew. If tips are expected on your world cruise, budget accordingly.

Travel insurance is mandatory on some world cruises. Yet even if it’s not required, all world cruisers should strongly consider travel insurance to avoid financial hardships if unforeseen circumstances do occur. Couples can expect to spend a few thousand dollars extra for decent coverage. To save, don’t book directly with the cruise line. Compare policies that fit your needs.

Visas will likely be required for at least a few of the countries that a world cruise visits. For convenience, most world cruises will handle visas for you, for a fee, of course. To minimize costs, it’s usually possible to secure any necessary visas yourself, before the cruise.

Onshore expenses: Although it may be possible to get by on the world cruise itself without spending anything on the ship, world cruisers will almost certainly want to explore ashore. Whether booking excursions or going ashore independently, you will inevitably incur expenses whenever leaving the ship. The cost for port days can range wildly, depending on your travel style. These expenses can be easy to minimize expenses for those comfortable with independent travel.

Other common world cruise expenses to budget for:

Laundry is usually not included and can be expensive on world cruises. Wifi is usually not included and is usually expensive on world cruises. Alcohol is usually not included and can get expensive for those who like to drink. Shopping & souvenirs you may want to pick up some mementos during your grand voyage Other cruise expenses: Gambling, spa treatments, or specialty dining may be tempting.

When determining the total cost of a round the world cruise, be sure to understand and budget for all of these expenses.

3 Methods to Achieve an Inexpensive World Cruise

There are three main ways to consider when attempting to score a cheap world cruise, with approximate starting prices shown, per person, based on double occupancy:

Find a low-cost world cruise: ~$25,000/cruise, ~$170 per day Consider a residential world cruise: ~$40,000/year, ~$110 per day Combine multiple one-way cruises to form a grand voyage: ~$19,000/year, ~$60 per day

Option 1: Find a Low-Cost World Cruise

While a Regent world cruise would cost a couple more than $200,000, thankful there are usually a few cheap world cruises each year, with prices under $20,000 per person. As of 2023, budget-friendly cruises start at about $15,000 per person for a 3-4 month world cruise. Again, understand that is just a base price.

Those interested in booking the cheapest world cruise available must budget at least an additional $5,000 per person for expenses such as gratuities, visas, laundry, and exploring ashore on your own. A bare minimum of $20,000 per person would be needed for the absolute cheapest world cruise.

That’s $40,000 for the cabin for a couple, which breaks down to about $10,000 per month. But prospective world cruisers must understand that is for an inside cabin, meaning no outside light in your stateroom for the duration of the world cruise. Those desiring luxuries like a balcony stateroom, wifi, or alcohol, will inevitably need to spend more or try to score perks like a free cruise balcony upgrade.

Pros of a low-cost world cruise:

Easiest and most convenient to plan: one world cruise in a single booking Shortest time commitment: starting at 99 days Low-ish cost meets convenience: Book a cabin for less than $30k

Cons of a low-cost world cruise:

Ship may be less desirable or a cruise line you’re unfamiliar with (although usually still a pleasant experience) Itinerary: routes may be less desirable, with infrequent stops and many sea days High per-day costs: highest among these three methods To maintain low costs, you’ll need to forgo or minimize extras and luxuries

Despite the drawbacks, low-cost world cruises can be a bargain and absolutely should be considered. Before booking such a lengthy journey, just ensure you’ll be comfortable with the ship and the cabin you’re considering. Review the itinerary closely. Make sure it goes to locations that are desirable to you. Also, look at the total number of sea days, relative to the entire cruise.

If that all checks out, scoring a low-cost world cruise can be an excellent way to cruise around the world for cheap.

Cheapest World Cruises You Can Book for 2024-2025 World Cruises

As of June 2023, here are three of the least expensive world cruises you can book right now:

Cheapest World Cruise: P&O Arcadia Embarkation Location: Southampton, England Dates: January 6, 2024, and again on January 3, 2025 Length: 99 nights Ship: P&O is a British cruise line catering to British passengers. The Arcadia is a 4-star cruise ship, 935 ft in length, built in 2005, with 952 cabins. Itinerary: This world cruise itinerary makes a complete westbound circumnavigation around the world, going from the UK to North America, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Australia, up to Asia, and through the Suez Canal to ultimately return to England. Sea days: Two-thirds of this itinerary are at sea: 66 sea days and 33 days in port. Base starting price per person, interior: $11,734 Total stateroom price: $23,417 Price per night: $237 ($120 pp) More info: P&O website. Note that outside UK, you may need to call a travel agent to book. Cheapest World Cruise with Great Itinerary: MSC Magnifica Embarkation Locations: Civitavecchia (Rome), Genoa, Marseille, or Barcelona Dates: January 4, 2025 – April 30, 2025 Length: 116 nights Ship: The MSC Magnifica is a 3.5-star cruise ship, 964 ft in length, launched in 2010, and has 1,259 cabins. Itinerary: This world cruise itinerary makes a complete westbound circumnavigation around the world, voyaging from Europe around South America, then to Australia, Asia, and through the Suez Canal (and Egypt), before returning to Europe. Sea days: Good split of sea/port days, about half of the itinerary is sea days: 59 sea days and 57 port days. Base starting price per person, interior: $15,199 Total stateroom price, including taxes: $31,358 + gratuities (~$3,000) = $34,358 Price per night: $296 ($148 pp) Check up-to-date pricing & reserve: Book Magnifica World Cruise here on CruiseDirect Cheapest World Cruise on 5-star Ocean Liner: Cunard Queen Mary 2 Embarkation Locations: New York City (Alternatively, departs Southampton Jan 11) Dates: January 4, 2024 – May 5, 2024 Length: 123 nights Ship: Queen Mary 2 is a 5-star luxury ocean liner, one of the most notable ships of its kind. The 1,132-ft ship was launched in 2003 and has 1,360 cabins. Itinerary: This world cruise itinerary is not entirely around the world, as the route goes from NYC to UK, then around Africa, over to Australia, up to Asia, and comes back through the Suez Canal to briefly hit Europe before returning to NYC. Sea days: Over two-thirds of this itinerary are at sea: 83 sea days and 40 days in port. Base starting price per person, interior: $16,599.00 Total stateroom price, including taxes: $35,907.06 + gratuities ($3,567) = $39,474.06 Price per night: $320 ($160 pp) Check up-to-date pricing & reserve: Book Queen Mary World Cruise on CruiseDirect

Of these three most inexpensive world cruises, which is best? This is a matter of preference, of course.

If you’re already in (or near) the UK and you’re simply looking for the cheapest world cruise that truly circumnavigates the globe, the P&O Acadia world cruise does just that. But prospective passengers must understand the cruise is geared towards British preferences and it has a rushed itinerary around the world in 99 days, most of that time at sea.

Meanwhile, we suggest the MSC Magnifica for having the best itinerary of any inexpensive world cruise. It’s truly a remarkable route with many interesting stops. Yet MSC receives mixed reviews on its 3-star ships. Although the onboard experience should be just fine for many travelers, choose the Magnifica world cruise for the great ports and itinerary, rather than for the ship.

Conversely, we recommend choosing the Cunard Queen Mary 2 for the incredible ship, rather than for the itinerary. The Queen Mary 2 is the lowest-priced world cruise you can take on a true ocean liner with the opulence of a 5-star ship. That said, prospective passengers will need to be okay with the fact this journey doesn’t completely circumnavigate the globe and is filled with far more sea days than port days.

For a few more options of the cheapest world cruises you can book right now, here are a few more that are priced under $20,000 per person:

Crown Princess: departs Sydney on June 4, 2025, 5-star, 113 days, 66 days at sea (58%), $34,486 for cabin + gratuities = $38,102 total ($168 pp/pd), more info. Island Princess: departs from Fort Lauderdale or LA, January 2024, 4.5-star, 111 days, 61 days at sea (54%), $38,083 for cabin + gratuities = $41,635 total ($188 pp/pd), more info.

Booking Tips to Get the Best Priced World Cruise

Book interior: If wanting the cheapest world cruise, be sure to book an interior cabin. But also be sure to compare the price difference between outside and veranda staterooms. Often times it’s negligibly higher and can be well worth having a window or balcony on such a lengthy voyage.

Book early: World cruises typically go on sale 2-3 years before their sale dates and are often announced in January. Booking these cruises shortly after they go on sale not only ensures your cabin, this early bird booking strategy can often lock in the lowest rates.

Or book last minute: Conversely, if a world cruise happens to have an excess of empty cabins within the months before it’s set to sail, it’s possible for fares to drop to attract prospective passengers. So this can be a consideration for flexible travelers looking to score a cheap world cruise. But be careful and don’t rely on this. It is more likely that world cruise prices will rise or even sell out entirely, closer to the embarkation date.

Book non-refundable fares: Just like booking last minute, booking non-refundable fares is another risky method that will ultimately help to secure the lowest possible price for a world cruise. To mitigate this risk, you can consider booking a non-refundable fare with travel insurance that offers refunds in certain unforeseen circumstances.

Option 2: Live on a Residential World Cruise Ship

For those with a desire to pursue a world cruise beyond their typical length of 4-6 months, living on a residential cruise ship can be a good consideration. While you may have to pay more upfront, the per-day cost on a residential ship can be even less than the cheapest world cruise.

Residential ships start at about $37,000 per person, per year, which includes most of the same amenities as regular cruise ships (meals, entertainment, etc.), plus extras such as wifi and laundry. So additional expenses can be minimized to adventures pursued in port.

Affordable residential ships can offer great value overall, particularly when calculating the per-day cost. If you limit spending ashore to no more than $100 per week, you could reasonably pursue a world cruise on a residential ship for about $42,000 per person per year, or $84,000 per couple per year. That works out to about $7,000 per month for the cabin.

So it’s still not entirely cheap, but this works out to a less expensive rate than the prior method discussed, booking the lowest cost world cruise. So a residential ship is a great option to consider using for a world cruise for those that have the time and want to go all in on the experience.

Pros of taking a residential ship world cruise:

Itineraries & Ports: These ships tend to have excellent itineraries and stay in ports longer. Vast Experience: See more of the world, visiting many countries. Community: Living on a residential ship allows you to form a community with fellow residents. Convenience meets cost: Least expensive turn-key world cruise on a per-day basis.

Cons of taking a residential ship world cruise:

Committing to live for multiple years on a cruise ship While per-day costs can be quite reasonable, the upfront cost commitment may be prohibitive Limited options: this is a new and untested concept with very few ships/companies to choose

The least expensive world cruise residence we’ve found is Life at Sea Cruises. They require a three-year commitment. Their itinerary over the three years is incredible, spanning 135 countries and all seven continents, with frequent ports and overnight stops. This new residential ship experience begins in November 2023 from Istanbul, Turkey.

While rates are said to start at $33k per year, at last look the cheapest interior cabins still available were listed at $37,398/year, per person. That’s a grand total cost of $224,388 for the cabin for all three years, based on double occupancy. All the details can be found at lifeatseacruises.com.

Option 3: Combine Multiple One-Way Cruises to Form Your Own World Cruise

This is the absolute cheapest way to cruise around the world. This is the method we created to achieve our dream of an affordable world cruise. In its most basic explanation, this method involves combining a series of one-way cruises to form a cheap world cruise route around the world. But it’s not quite that easy to pull off.

It takes careful planning, knowing how/when to book, honing independent travel skills, and taking advantage of repositioning cruises. We’ll show you how to do all of this.

Pros of combining cruises to create a world cruise:

Cost: It’s truly the least expensive way to form a cheap world cruise Variety: You get to experience different ships and cruise lines More time ashore: In between cruising segments, you can enjoy more time exploring on land

Cons of combining cruises to create a world cruise:

Complexity: It takes a tremendous amount of planning Limited Schedule: One-way cruises are seasonal and rare, limiting options Itinerary gaps: Additional forms of travel and (potentially lengthy) stays on land are required Travel skills: Strong independent travel skills are needed

The remainder of this article reveals all the details of how we achieved cruising around the world for a daily cost of about $60 per person, per day. We’ll show you how you can plot and plan a similar budget-minded grand voyage.

Luxury on a Budget: How to Form a Cheap World Cruise

Our secret weapon to accomplishing a cheap world cruise would be to carefully utilize a series of repositioning cruises.

During six years of traveling around the world, we’ve regularly used repositioning cruises as a cost-effective means of transportation to get from one continent to another. This is when cruise lines reposition their fleets using one-way voyages in the spring and fall when the seasons change.

For example, during the fall many cruises will be repositioned from the Mediterranean to Florida and the Caribbean. Rather than floating an empty ship across the ocean, cruises are instead loaded with entertainment and interesting itineraries.

Never heard of these one-way seasonal voyages and want to learn more? Then be sure to read our Ultimate Guide to Repositioning Cruises: Everything You Need to Know.

These lengthy voyages with many sea days typically aren’t popular, so prices often get slashed in attempts to fill the ships with paying passengers. When that happens, we take advantage of astonishingly low rates and set sail across the ocean in luxury. (Example: This 4.5* Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas repositioning cruise, is sailing from Barcelona to Florida on Nov 13, 2023, and is currently priced at $420 per person, for the two-week cruise across the Atlantic.)

Rather than sitting in a cramped coach seat on an overnight flight, you can instead get to enjoy two weeks of island hopping, fine dining, entertainment, and relaxing in a comfy stateroom. Such repositioning cruises have given us a way to afford luxury that is often otherwise unattainable to our travel budget ways. The crazy thing is that these repositioning cruises are often priced less than a flight between two continents.

Over the years, we’ve used repositioning cruises to cross the Atlantic numerous times, in addition to crossing the Pacific, crossing the Indian Ocean, voyaging between Asia and Europe (Suez Canal), from Europe to South Africa, and between North and South America (Panama Canal). Repositioning cruises can be a wonderful and inexpensive way to travel the world, for those who have the time.

Armed with a keen awareness of these different repositioning cruise routes and the corresponding seasonalities, it’s possible to stitch together a series of repositioning cruises in a grand attempt to form a cheap world cruise.

Doing so admittedly takes a great degree of planning, a bit of gambling on the ever-changing rate fluctuations, and a little luck to ultimately form a patchwork of a cheap world cruise.

Using this method will not allow for a one sole world cruise residing on a single ship entirely around the world for a 100+ day voyage. Rather, to catch these rare one-way cruise deals, it would require carefully plotted timing, while also traveling overland in between the oceanic cruise segments.

These overland travel segments can be a welcomed concession to make in order to achieve the financial feat of a cheap luxury cruise entirely around the world. Personally, we’ve found it to be nice to break apart all this time at sea with some extended adventures on land.

In summary, our method involves two components that are absolutely critical to taking a cheap world cruise:

Understanding repositioning cruise routes and timing Having the time and desire to spend time on land in between repositioning cruises

We’ll break all that down.

Proof of Concept: Our Cheap Around the World Cruise

While we largely wanted to embark on this journey for our personal travel desires, we also to demonstrate to others that a cheap world cruise can be achieved.

Budget travel in low-cost destinations can be fairly easy to pull off. But our goal for this grand trip around the world was to achieve some level of luxury on a budget while also visiting higher-cost countries that we’d been avoiding.

To up the ante and prove this concept, we decided to plan our cheap world cruise route through some of the most expensive countries to travel to. Lingering in budget travel havens like Thailand and Mexico would be far too easy of a strategy to keep travel costs low.

Instead, our cheap around-the-world cruise route would wind through all three of the world’s top 3 most expensive countries to visit: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and France (source: BusinessInsider: Most Expensive Countries to Visit). The journey would further include prolonged stays throughout notorious budget-busting nations like Japan, Canada, and Italy.

We further raised the stakes by visiting many of the world’s most expensive cities, including Singapore (#1), Hong Kong (#4), Seoul (#6), Tokyo (#11), Rome, London, and Beijing. (source: Economist Worldwide Cost of Living survey)

We would attempt to carry out this seemingly expensive feat by staying in mostly nice hotels and renting out entire homes, which would even include our very own Italian villa on the Mediterranean. Throughout the voyage, we would partake in quintessential high-end culinary experiences from eating Kobe beef in Japan to indulging in fondue in the Swiss Alps, and even some Michelin-stared restaurants in between.

We would go on to have such costly experiences as downhill skiing across South Korea’s Olympic mountains, visiting an international Disney theme park, and sipping on bubbly while touring France’s Champagne region.

We did it all.

But to top it all off, our primary form of transportation to get to all these pricey places in the world: luxury cruise ships!

We spent a total of 2½ months cruising entirely around the world on luxury cruises, getting wined and dined each night before taking in an awesome show, retreating to our lavish stateroom, and then being transported to the next exotic port for another day full of adventure on land.

And we accomplished this all on a fairly low budget.

For those with champagne tastes on a beer budget, this is how a cheap world cruise is possible.

Our Cheap World Cruise Itinerary & Travel Stats:

Our inexpensive world cruise journey began in somewhat of an unlikely location of Halifax, Canada. This city in Atlantic Canada is a popular cruise port but is rarely (if ever) used as an embarkation point. Yet while spending a summer exploring the Canadian Maritimes, Halifax became our embarkation point to begin this around-the-world journey without flights.

There are arguably better places to begin a pieced-together world cruise. Yet the best place to begin any around-the-world adventure is from wherever you are right now! And Halifax, Nova Scotia, was where we were when we began concocting this crazy idea.

Part of the reason we spent so much time in Canada was because it acted as a staging ground for us to meticulously plan and plot this complex trip, cruising around the world for so cheap. So we set off from Halifax to travel overland to the other side of Canada, reaching Vancouver, where the cruising portion of our journey would begin.

Our cheap world cruise itinerary:

Rental cars & train (Amtrak Empire Builder): Halifax to Vancouver
Cruise 1: Holland America Volendam – Vancouver, Canada to Japan
Mostly trains Across Japan, ferry to Korea + more trains, ferry to China + more trains to Hong Kong
Cruise 2: Celebrity Millennium – Hong Kong to Singapore
Cruise 3: Costa Victoria – Singapore to Italy
Mixed transport: Italy to England
Cruise 4: Norwegian Bliss – England to NYC (Stopping in Halifax to complete our circumnavigation)

Our cheap world cruise journey ultimately took us to:

22 countries, visiting 35 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, sleeping in 74 beds, and through over 100 different cities in the world!

The trip from Halifax completely around the globe and back took exactly 300 days, utilizing four repositioning cruises in combination with some overland travels and stays in between the cruises. This effectively formed a world cruise on a budget! We traveled entirely around the world without flights.

Yet much more remarkable than the travel route or a list of countries visited was the vast amount of amazing travel experiences this grand adventure allowed. After all, the low price isn’t the only benefit of piecing together a cheap world cruise. You also have more time to experience so many international wonders!

Highlights during the 10-month trip around the world included:

Tidal Bore Rafting Across the Most Extreme Tides in the World
Hiking among Moose in the Canadian Wilderness
Lobstering in Prince Edward Island
Taking the Amtrak Empire Builder Across the US
Cruising through Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park
Exploring Japan’s Most Atmospheric Ancient Temples
Hiking Japan’s Ancient Komono Kodo Pilgrimage Route
Eating Everything in Japan
Skiing on Downhill Olympic Ski Runs in South Korea
Attending a local Ice Fishing Festival (and actually catching!)
Venturing to the DMZ at the North Korean Border 
Exploring the Great Wall of China without any crowds
Taking a River Cruise Down the Yangtze
Hiking Across China’s Fabled Avatar Mountains
Floating on a Junk Boat Through Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay
Relaxing on a Tropical Thai Beach
Experiencing the Wonderful Culture Shock that Incredible India Delivers
Roaming around the Desert in Oman
Cruising Through the Suez Canal
Hiking from Seaside Village to Village in Cinque Terre
Discovering Just How Delicious Fresh Pasta in Italy Is
Trekking the Swiss Alps
Drinking Champagne within France’s Champagne Region
Cycling to a Remote Belgian Monastery to Seek the World’s Best Beer
Pub Crawling around London‘s River Thames on a Sunny Day
Taking the Inaugural Cruise on the Brand New Norwegian Bliss to Complete Our Journey

^Phew and that’s just the highlight reel. It was truly a trip of a lifetime.

Detailing the Total Costs of Forming a Cheap World Cruise

Throughout the next several sections we’re going into the deep details to break down the cost of this entire trip around the world, connecting four cruises to travel entirely around the world. This trip budget includes the four cruises in addition to detailing the expenses of our stints traveling overland across the world’s most expensive nations.

We are doing this because we want to show exactly how it is possible to actually afford a trip of this caliber.

Our travel expenses during the ten-month journey can be grouped into four large categories of costs:

Accommodation Eating & Drinking Entertainment Transportation The cruises themselves

Before drilling down into our detailed financial data, it’s worthwhile to take a second to understand some accounting challenges we faced when tracking our travel expenses.

Many expenses are tricky to categorize because many of these groupings often overlap. For example, we regularly seek out accommodation that includes breakfast, as we’re willing to pay a bit more for that. In such instances, we only allocated the expense to “accommodation,” even though the price we paid for the hotel included breakfasts. As a result, hotel expenses are a bit overinflated since cheaper places were available that didn’t include meals.

We often used taxis and public transport for sightseeing, which could logically be attributed to transportation. Yet given that our intention of using such transport was to pursue activities, local transportation was instead allocated as entertainment. There are many more blurred lines like these aforementioned examples, but you get the point.

Perhaps our biggest accounting challenge is with the cruises themselves. Their costs are all-inclusive of our transportation, dining, onboard entertainment, and accommodation. This is what makes cruises such great value! But it also makes it near impossible to categorize. As such, we’ve separated cruising expenses entirely from our land-based travels in between.

This preface is simply to let you know that these allocations may not be a perfect science, but we made a solid effort to categorize expenses the best we could to give you a glimpse into our personal finances of this cheap world cruise route we’ve attempted to achieve.

So let’s take a look!

Minimizing Eating & Drinking Costs on a Cheap World Cruise

Part of the value of taking a world cruise is the ability to indulge in the wonderful dining, which is included in the cost of your world cruise fare. While on the ship, you don’t need to spend a dime on food expenses.

During this cheap world cruise, we indulged in the included fine dining every day while sailing across the world’s oceans. The four-course dinners are an absolute treat that can otherwise be out of reach for budget travelers, with decadent meals such as filet mignon, lobster, chateaubriand, and beef wellington.

Despite the inclusive nature of dining during a world cruise, there are three potential food & beverage costs that can inflate any world cruise budget:

Specialty dining Alcoholic beverages, sodas, and other specialty drinks Local food & beverages when exploring ashore

Tip: Avoid Specialty Dining to Keep World Cruise Costs Low

Those trying to pursue a world cruise on a budget can save by simply avoiding specialty dining, which comes with an upcharge. These shipboard restaurants can easily be avoided. Many people love specialty dining, particularly so on lengthy cruises because returning to the main dining room every night may become monotonous.

There’s no doubt that many of these specialty restaurants are great and some would argue they’re absolutely worth the splurge. Personally, we never find specialty dining experiences to be worth the upcharge, given the excellent meals available for free in the main dining rooms.

Even if returning to the main same dining room each evening, the chefs develop a brand new menu for each night of the cruise. So there’s always something new and interesting to look forward to. For a change of scenery, have a quick and informal meal in the buffet or one of the ship’s other complimentary dining venues.

If you have the extra cash to enjoy the specialty restaurants, go for it! But those pursuing a cheap world cruise should avoid it.

Tip: Do Spend Money to Eat Ashore during a World Cruise

With limited time on land, make the most of the experience by diving into the local cuisine. Although it will certainly add to your world cruise budget, we find it to be very worthwhile for the negligible spending to eat local when on land.

During days in port, we always roam around to try the local cuisine. In Vietnam, we devoured banh mi and pho. In Thailand, we slurped up as much tom yum and pad thai as possible. We chowed on kottu in Sri Lanka, followed by curries in India. We couldn’t possibly stop into a Greece port without stuffing our faces with a traditional Greek salad.

Eating locally is a wonderful way to experience a country’s culture, contribute directly to the local economy, and do so at reasonable costs. Depending on the country, there are many wonderful dining experiences to be had for cheap.

You can see this separate post that details our top nine favorite meals during our cruise around the world from our world cruise journey. And they were all under $25!

View Entire Post