I decided 2024 was going to be the year of the cruise, and started looking for options in December 2023. I hoped to travel early in 2024, but as I started researching I realized it is generally advised to book your cruises as far in advance as possible for the best deals. Here I was looking just a month or two out from my desired sail date – whoops! No excuses though, we have goals to achieve – and on a budget. Cruises are renowned for being expensive, but exactly how much are we talking?
You not only have the cruise fare, but also any drink or specialty dining packages, excursions, accommodations the night before and possible after, and your transportation to the cruise port itself. If you are a solo traveler like me, you will likely also have to pay a “solo supplement” on your cruise fare. Cabins are generally priced based on double occupancy, so as a solo traveler you will need to cough up extra, potentially the whole double occupancy fare, so the cruise line can make up the revenue lost by not filling the ship to capacity.
If you read other cruise blogs you might be convinced, like I was, that you also need to purchase an array of novel ‘must have’ items specifically for cruising. Most of the cruise-specific items I purchased turned out to be duds, so check out this post for my own packing recommendations.
I had set aside $2000 in my budget for this trip and set out to find something that would allow me to achieve my goal of taking my first cruise while having an enjoyable winter vacation.
How I picked a cruise
This was my first cruise ever, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. Being in close proximity to other humans with limited control over my itinerary is basically my worst nightmare. I also had a nagging fear of getting seasick, or being at the epicenter of the outbreak of some new pandemic contagion (dramatic much?). Everything turned out wonderfully in the end, but this uncertainty led me to hedge my bets and choose one of the shortest itineraries I could find. I figured I could endure about 4 days of pretty much anything, even if it was awful. Four days would still be enough time to get a feel for the overall experience to determine if cruising is for me.
I live on the East Coast of the US, so my nearest cruise port options are Boston, New York/New Jersey, Baltimore, and Florida. With a quick Google flight search, it looked like the cheapest flights with the most options were to Florida. I was planning to do this trip in early 2024, so the thought of escaping the Pennsylvania snow for some Florida sunshine was already easing my mind about this whole cruise experience.
CruisePlum is a great tool for cruise searches. I set the filters to search for the most economical deals on cruises for solos in the 3 -4 day range, leaving from Florida, in an interior cabin, in January/February/March of 2024. I sorted the results by price, looking for the best deal since I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on an experience I wasn’t even sure I’d like. The cheapest options were all with MSC Cruises – never heard of them.
I figured they are the cheapest for a reason and thought it prudent to do a bit of research on them before making my final decision. Their online reviews are mixed at best, with many people complaining about the food quality, service, and bugginess of their app and website. However, there were also many positive reviews touting the modernity of the ships and the overall value for price. It is solidly considered a “budget” cruise line, but many reviewers noted that as long as you go into the experience with that mindset, you won’t be disappointed. As a vegetarian, I don’t care much about the quality of meat and seafood, and as a solo traveler was not planning on getting wasted alone so I don’t need excellent bar service.
I decided to roll the dice, and look a chance on MSC. I February 2024 I took my first solo cruise – a 4 day, 3 night cruise to the Bahamas out of Port Canaveral, Florida, with stops in Nassau and MSC’s private island, Ocean Cay.
Getting There
A catastrophizer to my core, I was immediately paranoid about flight delays causing me to miss my cruise. Most people advise arriving in your port city the night before embarkation, but even that felt like it was cutting things too close for my liking. Florida is a pretty nice vacation destination on its own, so I decided to arrive 2 days before my cruise departure to have extra buffer and spend the extra day hiking and birding outside of Orlando.
There are numerous shuttle services available from Orlando to Port Canaveral, but since I planned on exploring on my own it made more sense to get a rental car. At least, it did at the time. Little did I know the drama that would ensue.
I planned to spend most of my time outdoors, so only needed simple accommodations to sleep and shower. I booked 2 nights a reasonable AirBnB in Titusville that was conveniently located between the port and several birding hotspots. When I checked out, it was only a 30 minute drive to the car rental return location in Port Canaveral, followed by a short, complimentary shuttle ride to the port itself.
On Board Expenses
The cruise fare already included all meals in the buffet and main dining room, basic drinks like water and coffee, and numerous entertainment options each night. I did plan to have a few cocktails while on board, but working out the math of the drinks packages, I’d need to drink 5-6 cocktails per day to make it worth it. I knew I wasn’t going to do that, so I opted to just pay for drinks as I went.
Traveling on my own, I knew my friends and family would be worried about me and want regular status updates on my well-being. I knew I’d also want to indulge in a bit of toxic social media scrolling even in the midst of beautiful surroundings, because I’m human. I sprung for the basic internet package that allowed unlimited browsing, but no video messaging.
The most appealing aspect of cruising to me is the opportunity to explore different places each day. During my trip, there were numerous travel advisories about crime in the Bahamas which made me hesitant to explore Nassau on my own. On our day in Nassau I decided to book an excursion through the cruise line to Blue Lagoon, a nearby private island with white sandy beaches and enclosures for various marine animals.
Our other island day was to MSC’s own private island, Ocean Cay, which is only accessible to cruise ship passengers. For this day I decided to do a relaxing beach day and rented a beach umbrella to protect my pasty-white skin from the Caribbean sun. Ocean Cay is classified as a marine reserve and they’ve taken steps to preserve local biodiversity and promote a return to a more natural ecosystem. To do my part, I also sprung for some reef-safe sunscreen.
One slightly hidden fee was the mandatory on-board gratuities. Tipping servers and housekeeping on board is considered optional as every passenger is charged a $16 per day service charge that is then divided between all employees. I honestly appreciated this approach because it meant I did not need to fumble around with cash to tip every person I encountered, although they would have liked me to.
Getting Home
On the final day of the cruise, we had to be out of our rooms by 7am to begin the disembarkation procedure. I envisioned this process being mass chaos – a circuitous line 5,000 passengers deep of grumpy children, hungover, sleep deprived adults and everyone disappointed vacation was over. Maybe I’d get lucky and some nearby entertaining fist-fights would break out nearby to make the time pass faster.
Just like getting to the port on time, the uncertainty of when I’d actually get off the boat made me hesitant to book a flight home on the same day we disembarked. To ease my mind, I again went for the option of staying in Florida one extra night and spending any extra time exploring. I rented a car to spend my final day birding, and grabbed a hotel near the airport before my early flight home the next day. I was able to redeem the annual $50 hotel credit that comes with my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to make the hotel stay more affordable.
My Itinerary
Day 1 – Fly to Orlando, pick up my rental car, and drive to AirBnB accommodations in Titusville, Florida
Day 2 – Birding at Orlando Wetlands park, dinner and drinks at Playalinda Brewing Co.
Day 3 – Drive to Port Canaveral, return rental car, take a shuttle to the port, and sail away to the Caribbean
Day 4 – Arrive in Nassau, Bahamas and take a ferry to the private Blue Lagoon island for a day of birding and relaxing on the beach
Day 5 – Arrive in Ocean Cay and spend the day swimming in the warm Caribbean waters and lounging on the beach under my umbrella
Day 6– Disembark in Port Canaveral, take a shuttle to pick up my rental car, complete the Black Point Wildlife Drive, drive back to Orlando, have an early dinner near the hotel.
Day 7– Return the rental car at Orlando Airport and fly back to Pittsburgh at the crack of dawn
Final Costs
| Expense | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Roundtrip Flights from Pittsburgh to Orlando | $343.80 |
| Rental car before embarkation + tolls (2 days) | $100.57 |
| Rental car after embarkation + tolls/gas (1 day) | $128.63 |
| AirBnB before embarkation (2 nights) | $271.15 |
| Hotel after debarkation | $118.07 |
| Coffee and restaurants in Florida | $214.15 |
| Cruise Fare | $308.00 |
| Internet Package | $48.00 |
| Blue Lagoon Excursion | $95.00 |
| Ocean Cay umbrella rental | $15.00 |
| On-board cocktails (6) | $72.97 |
| Mandatory gratuities | $48.00 |
| Total Cost | $1763.34 |
In the end I came in a bit under my initial budget, but it still wasn’t a cheap vacation.
While I am glad I went to Florida early and stayed a day late to avoid any stress, those extra accommodations did add a lot of expense to the overall trip. You could definitely save a lot of money by taking a little more risk with scheduling your flights closer to embarkation/debarkation days. The rental car was more expensive than taking a shuttle, but I think the freedom to explore additional areas along the way made it worth it for me.
My final cruise invoice listed 6 onboard cocktails, but in reality I had several more than that. Each time I ordered I gave the bar tender my cruise card, but when I got my final bill it was clear not every drink I got resulted in a charge. I estimate I received 1-2 free drinks per day, which I attribute to the general chaos of the bar area. I mostly ordered margaritas, which would have been included in the most basic drink package. As most other passengers did seem to have drink packages, my assumption is the bar tenders sometimes did not pay much attention when they took my cruise card and just assumed I had a drink package too. I wouldn’t count on this “hack”, but it was a pleasant surprise.
I really did enjoy the cruise experience overall and have no problem sailing with MSC in the future. To make it more economical I would definitely recommend going for a longer period of time to get more bang for your buck from the land-portion of expenses.
I’ll be taking my own advice with an 8 day, 7 night cruise through the Norwegian Fjords in May 2025!
