Your Cruise Your Way Cruise Blog

If you’ve cruised before, or are in the process of researching your initial venture at sea, chances are you’ve already decided cruising may be a better vacation value than a land based visit to a city, or number of cities, and staying in a hotel. That being the case, if you’re going to Europe, the value is now better than ever from a euro conversion perspective. Today, a euro will cost you about $1.44 in U.S. dollars, thus diminishing your purchasing power on a land based European vacation by about 30%. What does that mean to you? When you consider that all vacations are essentially made up of four components, it quickly becomes apparent what you might miss. Conside your accomodation, entertainment, dining and how you get to and from your locations. Airfare is purchased stateside, and would be need for both types of vacation, so it really doesn’t impact the calculation except that good travel agents have a source for airfare that is less expensive than simple online purchases. Companies like 1-800-FlyEurope specialize in helping travel agents find the best deals for you. Let’s take a look a look at the components side by side.

Starting with your hotel, the hotel room is usually larger than a cruise cabin depending on category chosen. Bathrooms are definitely bigger as a rule. BUT, you have to go from hotel to hotel in order to visit multiple cities, and that means packing and unpacking multiple times. Definitely a plus on a cruise is unpacking once. Bottom line is how much time do you spend in your room? Aren’t you there to see the sights?
Entertainment costs are extravagant in Europe, whether you see a play or musical, but are always included in the price of the cruise. Most sightseeing would be the same for both, but may be less expensive on a cruise due to the amount of business a cruise line gives a particular vendor.
Dining costs would be in favor of the cruise hands down! 8 meals a day, 24 hour room service would require a second mortgage to pay for in Europe if you went to the same cities and ate the same kind of meals in fine restaurants that you would get on a cruise. Not to mention the room service costs to bring you items that you can just as easily pick up on a buffet and take back to your room.
The last component, getting to and from your locations, again goes to the cruise because it’s included in the price and is considerably cheaper than adding up trains, planes and automobiles getting around Europe. And that’s if you even had an idea about how to get to where you were going. Is it all beginning to make sense now?
Holland America recently published a comparison in dollars of a 12 day European cruise as opposed to a land based trip from Venice to Barcelona. The difference will shock you. I have included the table they used.

So, is cruising in your future as far as a European vacation. It certainly makes it look more attractive from a cost basis. If you want to convert your vacation cruise estimate into euros, here’s a nifty little tool. XE.com Personal Currency Assistant. You’ll be surprised.