The advertised fare is the smallest number you will pay for your cruise.
Gratuities, Wi-Fi, drink packages, excursions and specialty dining routinely add 50–100% on top of it. A $999 cruise very often becomes a $2,000 vacation — not because anyone lied to you, but because cruise pricing is built that way.
This calculator makes the real number visible before you book.
Pick your cruise line and it pre-fills the published gratuity, Wi-Fi and drink package rates we track. Every field is editable, because the only numbers that matter are yours.
How to read the result
The percentage is the part that surprises people.
Enter a $999 fare for two on a seven-night Royal Caribbean sailing with Wi-Fi and drink packages and you'll land somewhere near $3,800 — an 89% markup on the number in the advertisement.
That doesn't make it a bad deal. Cruising is still one of the best values in travel, and the fare genuinely covers your cabin, all your main dining, the buffet, entertainment, and transport between countries.
It just means the sticker price was never the whole story.
The four costs people forget
Gratuities. Charged per person, per day, automatically, including children on most lines. Currently $16–20 a day on mainstream lines, which is $224–$280 for a couple over seven nights before anyone orders a drink. A handful of premium lines include them in the fare entirely.
Wi-Fi. Usually $15–30 per device, per day. Two people with two phones on a week-long cruise is another $200–400.
Drink packages. $50–115 per person per day — and on almost every mainstream line, if one adult in the cabin buys the alcohol package, every other adult must buy it too. That rule alone catches more people than anything else in cruise pricing.
The service charge. Most lines add 18–20% to bar tabs, specialty dining and spa treatments. Unlike the daily gratuity, it generally cannot be removed.
The single best way to spend less
Buy before you board.
Cruise lines routinely discount Wi-Fi, drink packages, specialty dining and spa treatments in the weeks before sailing, and prices go up once you're onboard. Check your cruise planner regularly — many lines let you cancel and rebook at a lower price if a sale appears.
Jay's Tip The day you book, open your cruise planner. Then check it every couple of weeks. Packages go on sale constantly. I've saved hundreds of dollars doing nothing more than rebooking the same drink package at a lower price, and it takes about ninety seconds.
Compare the total, not the fare
The most common mistake in cruise shopping is comparing the wrong numbers.
Cruise A is $799. Cruise B is $999. A looks cheaper — until you notice B includes gratuities, Wi-Fi and drinks, and A doesn't. Suddenly the "expensive" cruise saves you eight hundred dollars.
Run both through the calculator. Compare what you'll actually pay.
For the full breakdown of where every dollar goes — including the drink package rule, the medical exemption that no longer exists, and the taxes you still pay with an unlimited package — read how much a cruise really costs.
Then find your sailing and see who else is going.