How Much My £99 Cunard Cruise Actually Cost Me

The price you see advertised for a cruise is almost never what you actually pay. There are always extras – some mandatory, some optional – but they can all add up fast.

I thought I’d found an absolute bargain: a two-night Southampton to Hamburg cruise for just £99. I couldn’t resist, so I also booked the back-to-back return sailing from Hamburg to Southampton for another £99.

Sounds like a four-night Cunard cruise for £198 total, right? Well… not quite! The real cost was a lot more – and when I checked my bank statement, even I was shocked. Here’s exactly what I spent and where the money went.

Single Supplements – £160

As I opted to travel solo on this trip, I had to pay a single supplement of £80 for each segment.

Yes, I could have just paid £38 more and brought a friend along for the four nights. But I planned to spend the vast majority of this trip working, so I wouldn’t have been much fun. Plus, I like to spend some time alone; I find it invigorating.

Gratuities – $64

At the time of my cruise, Cunard charged $16 per person per day for gratuities. So for the four nights, I was billed $64. That cost has increased now, with gratuities being $17 per day, or $19 per day if you stay in a Queens or Princess Grills Suite.

That money goes to the crew members to help supplement their wages.

I did meet one person who said that she would be removing the gratuities as she didn’t think that the service was very good. While you can do that by visiting guest services, I wouldn’t advise it.

Crew members work very hard and don’t get paid a lot. And many of them work behind the scenes doing the jobs that you don’t see.

Suggested read: Can You Refuse To Pay Gratuities On A Cruise?

Extra Tips – $24

Tipping extra on top of the gratuities is completely optional. However, each time you order a drink or room service, you’ll be asked to sign for it, and there’s a box where you can add an extra tip.

I tipped cash to my cabin stewards and added a small tip for the servers who brought me room service. You don’t need to do that, but if it makes you happy, and it makes them happy too, then why not?

Suggested read: How Much Extra People Usually Tip Cruise Crew

Drinks – $47

The included drinks with Cunard are very good. As well as the standard tea, coffee, water and fruit juices with breakfast, you do get some drinks included that I didn’t expect.

You can get fruit juice in the buffet at any time of the day, not just at breakfast as on most cruise ships. You can also get cranberry juice and lemonade. The lemonade is particularly delicious and I drank lots of that.

Cunard allows you to bring a bottle of wine on embarkation to drink in your cabin. There’s also a half bottle of sparkling wine in the fridge which was a very nice and unexpected touch.

With so many included drinks, I didn’t buy many. Just two pints of lager, a mojito, a glass of wine and a diet Coke. These five drinks added up to $47 (including the 15% service charge).

Wifi – $72

As I spent much of this cruise working, I did buy the wifi package for the two sea days. That costs $36 per day for the fast wifi.

It’s powered by Starlink and was fast enough to do anything I wanted to do, including video calls with clients.

On the port day, I stayed on the ship but used my 5G connection. This didn’t work in my inside cabin, but was fine to use outside or in the public areas near a window.

Cunard does give you one hour of free internet access per cruise, so if you don’t have work to do, you could just use that as well as your 5G when the ship is docked.

My Total Spend

My initial cruise fare was £198 plus an extra £160 for single supplements. I then spent $207 (£163) on board on tips, wifi and drinks. ($20 of this was paid in cash to the room stewards).

In total, over the four days, I spent £521.

I don’t think this is a bad price for a four-night solo cruise. Especially as the next night I stayed at a Premier Inn in London for the Sailawaze Excellence Awards and paid £230 for a basic room!

My Surprise Bill!

When I returned home from my cruise and checked my online banking statement, I had a bit of a shock!

My card had been charged six times while I was on board, totalling £288.48.

I would have expected to be charged about £150 based on my spending, so I was really shocked to see the actual amount billed was almost double this.

I have contacted Cunard via their website to ask for a breakdown of the charges and will update this here once I hear back from them.

Freebies

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Cunard includes some extras that you don’t get with sister lines like P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises.

In my cabin, there was a bottle of sparkling wine in the fridge. There were also some slippers in the wardrobe that I took home with me after the cruise. I also took the notepad and pencil as a souvenir. In fact, I have a full list of things you can ‘steal’ from cruise ships.

When I went to the buffet, I was impressed to see that fruit juices were available all day. This definitely saved me money on soft drinks, which were particularly pricey at $4.50 each, plus a 15% gratuity.

Wine was also expensive to buy on board, at $12, plus 15% gratuity for a glass of house rose.

Being able to bring a bottle on board with me saved me some money there. And as my cruise was technically two back-to-back cruises, I could have brought on another bottle in Hamburg if I wished.

The complimentary hour of wifi was also a nice touch that I wish more cruise lines would offer.

The nightly chocolates on the bed were welcomed too. And I love that room service was free!

On the first of my back-to-back cruises, I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that the inside cabin I had booked had been upgraded to an obstructed-view balcony! I’ve never had a free upgrade in over 40 cruises, so well done, Cunard, for being the first!

Many other cruise lines like MSC, Princess and Celebrity make guests ‘bid’ how much they will pay for the upgrades.

It’s great that Cunard gives these for free. I wasn’t the only one; I spoke to other cruisers on board who had the same thing happen to them, too.

What I Didn’t Buy

I do sometimes like to use the thermal suite of the spa on a cruise. But at $59, I felt that this was a little expensive for a sauna and a soak in a hot tub. Instead, I used the hot tubs by the pool. It wasn’t busy, so I had them to myself most of the time.

I also brought my own snacks with me. I spotted some M&Ms on the ship for $11.25, so I was glad I did that! 

To Conclude

Although my cruise cost considerably more than £99, I still felt that it offered good value for money. Short cruises like this are perfect when you want to decide if a cruise line is right for you or not.

I’m hoping that the overcharging was indeed a mistake and that I will be refunded for it soon. I’ll let you know.

If you’re interested in seeing whether I would cruise with Cunard again, you can read my next article, Is Cunard Too Posh For Me? to find out. To make sure you never miss a new article, sign up for my free newsletter and get all the updates in one place.

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