Carnival’s budget-friendly cruise exposed as expert details hidden costs

A cruise expert warns that your booking bill may be deceiving.
“If you aren’t careful, your Carnival cruise could quickly become as expensive as an Oceania one,” Brittany Chang wrote in Business Insider.
This is because nowadays even “US budget-friendly cruise lines” are loaded with hidden fees that can result in racking up a hefty sum by the end of your trip. Thankfully, the cruise expert shared her best tips to keep down costs.
Carinval Cruise is known for being among the top budget-friendly options in the US.
In 2024, its most affordable itinerary is $164 per person for a four-night sailing from Miami with Carnival, which is more than $20 cheaper than Royal Caribbean and Norwegian’s cheapest choices.
That totals about $40 a day for food, accommodations, onboard entertainment, and travel destinations. However, hidden fees during your journey will likely change the total sum.
“If you’re prone to giving into these little luxuries, you can kiss your budget goodbye,” she warns.”
She shared that she paid $735 for a solo interior cabin on Carnival Firenze, a four-night trip from Long Beach, California, including optional gratuities. As the company’s latest vessel, she says she expected to pay a premium, especially since she purchased tickets less than 10 days before embarkation.
If that sounds relatively expensive, you’d be right. Carnival Firenze is the company’s latest vessel, and newer cruise ships generally command a pricing premium.
She says she “thought [she] knew what to expect when it came to the cruise industry’s ‘pay-to-play’ game, in which mass-market cruise lines have been increasingly slapping fees on on-board amenities and activities.
As a result, add-ons such as alcohol, WiFi, and specialty dining always costs extra.
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She says she caved and spent $85 for wifi throughout her trip for work purposes.
The cocktails cost around $13 and beers and seltzers cost around $9 per pop, where as specialty restaurants like teppanyaki and Italian cost about $40 per person and the steakhouse was $49.
These costs were to be expected, however, she was shocked to find out that “almost everything beyond the bare minimum carried an additional fee.”
“Even complimentary dining venues dangled tempting dollar sign-afflicted dishes — including the buffet, where guests had to pay for chicken wings,” she said, adding that empanadas were $1.50 a piece, lobster rolls were $18, speciality slice of pizza such as a Korean barbecue steak was $6, juice was $5 and a bag of popcorn was $5.
“That darn dollar sign symbol tormented me morning to night, on and off the ship,” she writes.
In addition to food, excursions came with tons of hidden fees, including $4 for a shuttle downtown at their second stop in Ensenada, Mexico, from the port.
However, she says the “most egregious ‘incident’ came during afternoon tea.
“The daily schedule denoted pay-to-play events with a small dollar sign symbol,” she explained, but “‘Tea Time’ didn’t have one, so off I scurried, excited for some free mid-afternoon caffeine and sweet treats.”
“After I took my seat, a waitperson arrived at my table with an organized box of tea bags, giving me just enough time to review my options before announcing they were $1.50 each,” she said. “On principle, I declined.”
However, a few minutes later, he returned and said there were some free options stashed behind the up-charged bags. They were the same as those available in the buffet: Lipton and Bigelow’s green tea.
All of this being said, she said she was appreciative of fun free activities such as its mini-golf course, waterslides, and fear-of-height-inducing ropes course, which are additional costs at competitors Norwegian Prima ($10/per person for mini-golf and $29/per hour at arcade) and Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas (where mini golf is free but ziplining costs $49).
“So yes, going on an ultra-cheap Carnival Cruise is possible if you’re like me, stubbornly unwilling to spend extra,” she says. “But if you’re a pushover who easily gives into temptation, be sure to develop a backbone before you cruise with Carnival.”
She adds: “If you don’t, mai tais and movie popcorn costs could add up quicker than expected.”