Americans are spending more on board cruise ships than ever – at least 30 per cent more than Australians, a special investigation by Cruise Passenger has revealed.
Companies like Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, the parent company of Regent Seven Seas, Oceania Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Royal Caribbean Group, the owner of Royal Caribbean, Silversea, and Celebrity Cruises, have reported huge increases in onboard spending in the American market.
NCLH reported gross onboard spend per passenger per day estimated at USD$126.85 for the second quarter of 2024 is up significantly from USD$96.70 compared to 2019, the last “normal” year before the cruise industry’s recovery.
Royal Caribbean Group reported gross onboard spend per passenger per day estimated at USD$92.44 for the second quarter of 2024, compared to USD$69.67 in 2019.
Carnival Corporation reported gross onboard spend per passenger per day estimated at USD$83.41 for its second quarter in 2024, compared to USD$66.25 in 2019.
A Cruise Passenger investigation shows that cruisers sailing from American ports to destinations like the Caribbean are spending thousands more than local sailings, on near-identical ships.
Cruise Passenger‘s breakdown below shows that a couple on a 10-day Caribbean cruise will spend around $1000 more onboard than a couple sailing in the South Pacific for the same amount of time.
In fact, those sailing in America and splurging on regular onboard costs will generally be parting with about 30% more of their cash than those sailing in Australia.
This is due to more expensive drinks and WiFi packages, shore excursions and other extra add-ons that cost more on US ships, such as spa visits and specialty dining.
While Australians are blessed with more affordable packages, it has meant that cruise lines, which are seeing bigger returns overseas, combined with increasing port charges, are pulling ships out of the APAC region.
The break down
While some cruise lines keep their prices close to their chest, such as Royal Caribbean which has changing package prices for each cruise that can only be viewed inside an individual cruise planner, Carnival Cruise Line has been transparent with their figures.
The comparisons below show the difference between a 10-day Pacific Cruise on Splendor or Luminosa, versus a 10-day Caribbean cruise on a similar class of ship, such as Carnival Legend, which sails in the Caribbean.
All prices stated are in AUD, unless specified to be in USD.
The Drinks Packages
While not every cruiser opts for a drinks package, it is a popular choice. Furthermore, it also provides a guide to how much a la carte drinks onboard cost, as that offers the basis for drinks package pricing.
A drinks package for a USA sailing comes out to USD$82.60 or AUD$127. The initial price is cheaper but an 18% service charge is added.
For the Cheers package in Australia, it equates to $111 per day. There’s an offer right now to save $8 per day.
Over 10 days this $16 difference comes to $160 more for one person or $320 for two people.
WiFi
Americans are also having to fork out extra cash for their WiFi packages. On the American sailing, a Premium WiFi package starts from USD$21.25 or AUD$31.50.
However, when you’re sailing closer to your home, that’ll be just AUD$25.50 per day for the same premium WiFi package.
Over 10 days this $6 difference comes to $60 for one person or $120 for two people.
Shore Excursions
A surprisingly significant difference can be seen in the prices of Aussie versus Caribbean shore excursions. This comparison goes without mentioning that the majority of Caribbean destinations also offer premium VIP experiences that cost thousands of dollars.
Australian South Pacific cruises mostly commonly visit destinations such as Noumea and Mystery Island, and a ship such as Carnival Legend frequently ports at Cozumel and Costa Maya. As such, equivalent shore excursions from these destinations have been selected. For a 10-day cruise, this comparison will suggest that someone opts for three shore excursions.
A Mystery Island Kayak and Snorkel tour will come out to $115, and a Cozumel turtle cove and snorkel adventure will be significantly more, at USD$135 or AUD$200.
Similarly, while Noumea’s tree-to-tree high top and zipline adventure comes out to $160, which is expensive, a Cozumel Xplor Park Zipline day is far pricier, at USD$165, or AUD$245.
Finally, to add a more cultural excursion, a day to the Noumea Tjibaou Culture Centre will set you back $110, but to see the Mayan Ruins at Chacchoben, prices look more like USD$140, or AUD$208.
The three South Pacific excursions add up to $385, whereas the three Mexican shore excursions come to $653. This equals $268 more for one person or a total of $536 more for two people.
A Spa Treatment
Spa treatments onboard American ships are far more expensive than those on an Australian faring ship.
For example, one couple’s aroma seaweed massage for 75 minutes costs $314 for the whole experience for Aussies. However, this will come out to $460 for an American Couple on Carnival Legend.
Specialty Dining
Specialty dining can be hard to track as prices vary between restaurants and even between cruises.
However, the easiest way to compare is to say that the cruisers want to indulge in just one Chef’s Table experience. While many cruisers won’t opt for this, this has a similar price to two specialty dining experiences at other restaurants, which would be more common for a 10-day cruise.
A Chef’s Table experience on an Aussie Carnival ship comes out to $155 per person, but on Carnival Legend, the reported price is USD$140 per person, which is AUD$208, a difference of $53 per person and $106 for two people.
The break down
| (Prices per two people) | South Pacific Cruise 10-day cruise | Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Legend 10-day cruise | Difference in price |
| Drinks package | $2220 | $2540 | +$320 |
| Wifi Package | $255 | $315 | +$120 |
| Shore excursions | $770 | $1306 | +$536 |
| Massage experience | $314 | $460 | +$146 |
| Specialty dining experience | $310 | $416 | +$106 |
| Total: | $3869 | $5037 | +$1168 |
The results
The results showed a pretty resounding difference, with the American couple spending an extra $1168 more. This means those sailing in the USA would be spending 30% more while onboard than Australians.
On a ship such as Carnival Splendor that carries up to 3012 guests, an extra $1168 per person would equate to $3,518,016 extra dollars of revenue per sailing.
It should be noted that these figures are estimates, every cruiser will spend a different amount of money on their cruise.
There are many prices not accounted for on this list such as onboard activities like arcades or roller coasters, other options such as photo packages, onboard retail shopping, and much more. Furthermore, many cruisers may not opt for so many shore excursions, drinks packages, or any spa or specialty dining experiences.
However, what the numbers show is that when two people on a ship in Australia do the exact same thing as two people in the USA, it’s the USA ship that is bringing in more money, and thus being a more attractive destination for a large corporation such as Carnival to want to put its ships.
Another important factor to note is those sailing in the USA also have to add gratuities onto their cruises, which equates to USD$16 per day. It was decided it wouldn’t be fair to put this onto the comparison list, as gratuities are absorbed into Australian cruise fares. However, it is still more money that the cruise line absorbs after the cruise fare has already been paid.
Could onboard spending be why ships are leaving us? What about port fees and fuelling costs?
Big cruise ships and cruise lines keep leaving Australia. Cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruise Lines, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and more have all recently downgraded their presence in Australian waters. P&O Cruises Australia will cease to exist from next season onwards.
Cruise lines have been becoming particularly keen to move their ships around from Australia and into other regions, such as Alaska, the Mediterranean, and particularly, the Caribbean.
Australian cruisers have been left scratching their heads, wondering why their favourite holiday is becoming more scarce, and why a cruise ship might be worth more to a cruise line somewhere else rather than Australia.
One common answer you’ll hear among industry and cruisers is port fees. A Cruise Passenger investigation showed the serious extent of Australian port fees and how it stretch the dollar of a cruise line.
But there must be more to the story. A bit over a year ago Melbourne port increased its port fees by $3.50 per passenger.
Melbourne has now been completely deserted of cruise ships, with no more cruise ships scheduled to homeport regularly out of Melbourne. However, this has only led to confusion for cruise passengers, who would happily absorb an extra $3.50 into your cruise fare without blinking, and continue to enjoy cruises out of their city.
However, the trick to onboard spending is that it can never be absorbed into your cruise fee unless you’re sailing with a luxury cruise line such as Viking or Regent Seven Seas where everything is included.
This means that if cruise fares are similar in the USA and Australia, but Americans or at least passengers on American ships are spending more, the cruise lines will of course opt for more USA ships.
Other regularly touted factors such as regulatory costs, fuelling costs, supply costs, and more also play an important role. However, the numbers suggest that onboard spending might even be the main culprit.
Cruisers know as well as anyone that your bill when you step off the ship often far eclipses what you paid to get onto the ship in the first place. Your cruise fare is just the start of your expenses, before drinks packages, wifi packages, shore excursions, specialty dining and more begin to pile on.
Do you think the numbers above explain why so many cruise ships are leaving Australia?
Private islands and destinations
Another worthwhile note, and a crucial factor as to why this problem exists for Australians, is the use of private islands and destinations. Companies such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean are investing millions of dollars into building private island and beach club destinations across the Caribbean.
For example, Royal Caribbean has just announced a new Perfect Day experience in Mexico, at Costa Maya, coincidentally where Carnival Legend often visits. This experience will join the already hugely successful Perfect Day at CocoCay. Meanwhile, Australia’s touted perfect day experience has been downgraded to a currently unnamed beach club in Lelepa.
When cruise lines have private destinations they are greatly maximizing their own profits.
When people get off a cruise ship in the South Pacific, they’ll either do a cruise line-authorised shore excursion, their privately booked shore excursion or simply wander the island. Whatever they choose, the cruise line is not collecting all of the revenue.
However, when a cruiser steps off their ship onto Perfect Day at Coco Cay, Carnival’s private island, or a Royal Caribbean Beach Club, every dollar they spend is falling right back into the pockets of the cruise line.
Major cruise lines have lots of this infrastructure set up in the Caribbean, but none yet in Australia. This provides another strong reason as to why ships are leaving our shores for the warm Caribbean waters, where not only will be more dollars be spent, but a higher portion of those will end up in the cruise lines pockets.
