Sometimes, prices go up when planning a cruise. When I first started tracking the price of a 15 day Hawaii cruise out of San Francisco, princess.com supplied the following price for an inside cabin on cruise leaving in early November:
- Base Fare - $1844 (includes $922 single supplement)
- Port Fees/Taxes - 241
- Gratuities - 225
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Simple Cruise - $2310
In the middle of November, the same site quoted me the following for a similar cruise leaving on January 27th:
- Base Fare - $2180 (includes $1090 single supplement)
- Port Fees/Taxes - 241
- Gratuities - 225
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Simple Cruise - $2646 (an increase of $336)
For fun, I decided to examine prices that Princess could get for flights bringing me into San Francisco the night before the cruise, and leave late in the day that the cruise returns to port. (I'd take an earlier flight if I couldn't connect with a friend during the day. That would have to be arranged before the cruise.)
- Base R/T Airfare - $300 (prices varied a great deal)
- Checked Luggage - 60
- Transit to LGA - 50
- Transit from SFO - 50
- Hotel in SF - 200
- Transit from Hotel - 20
- Transit to SFO - 50
- Transit from LGA - 50
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Subtotal - $780
Simple Cruise - $2646 (an increase of $336)
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Base Total - $3426 (before excursions)
By the time I'm done, I expect that this would be a $5,000 cruise. I'm not sure if I would want to spend this much when unemployed. The Panama Canal cruise that I started monitoring a while back, again starts looking like the best of bargains.
When I first ran the numbers this summer, I figured that I should budget at least $4,000 for the trip. Since then, the overall price has changed for this cruise and my expenses are listed below:
- Base Fare - $1698 (miraculously, no single supplement)
- Port Fees/Taxes - 543
- Gratuities - 315
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Simple Cruise - $2556
- Trip to NYC Pier - 60
- from Seattle Pier - 40
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Simple land cost - 100 - Airfare (SEA-JFK) - 250
- Trip JFK to Home - 60
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Minimum Cost - $3066
Which trip would you choose?
2 comments:
Probably the Canal...simply on the basis of cost...and a bit of a curiosity about that engineering marvel. Will be interested to see which you choose, if either.
M
Mandy -
There may be something else that gets in the way of me taking either one of the cruises. I'll write about it in a future post. If it happens, it'll totally screw up my social life for a while.
M
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