It’s been several years since I wrote my first article about what it would take to retire on board a Carnival Cruise ship. We’ve all seen the articles where some retired couple claims that living on a cruise ship is less expensive than life on land. While this may be true in some cases, the financial realities have changed quite a bit in just two years as cruise lines reach record bookings, record occupancy rates, and record pricing. So, I decided to take a refreshed look: How to Retire On A Cruise Ship – 2024 Edition!

Cruise Fare

The biggest line item expense to retire on a cruise ship is of course your cruise fare plus taxes and port fees. A couple years back, we were consistently booking cruises at about $90 per person per day (pppd). When I look today? The least expensive sailing on one of Carnival’s new Excel-class ships starts at $125/pppd!

By balancing older and newer ships in the mix, we’ve been able to keep our rate down to about $115/day – a jump of nearly $25/day or $175 per person on a week long sailing.

Excursions

When I wrote the first article, I accounted for two excursions and a lunch in one of the ports – a total of $175/person. The excursions we booked often included drinks, lunch and transportation and we’d spend about $15/person in port for a nice lunch.

If we were to book two of those excursions today? Most all-inclusive options start well north of $100 and only climb from there. Two excursions will likely cost about $230/person. Add lunch (which you can still get a reasonably priced lunch for about $15/person) and your on-land spend is $245/person. This averages out to $35pppd on a 7 day sailing.

Cruise Fare + Excursions Tally

Between the cruise itself and the things you’ll likely do in port, the daily price has jumped from $125/day to $150/day. That’s a 20% increase in just two years. It adds on an additional $175/person on a 7-day sailing – which you’ll see in a little bit adds up.

Total: $150/day

Other Expenses

Of course, there are other expenses you’ll need to factor in to retiring on a cruise ship. In this section, I break down what you may need to consider, along with what we spend in the “other” category:

• Drinks: We don’t purchase a lot of drinks on board. When we do, we might by a drink or two. We usually stick to carrying on a 12-pack of soda and a bottle of wine. Assuming 3 cocktails at the current price of $16/drink and the cost of a 12-pack of soda ($10 at CVS!) and bottle of wine ($12 from home), you’d add on an average of an additional $10/day in drinks over a 7 day sailing.
• Laundry Service: Laundry can get quite expensive if you’re paying $15/bag for the cruise line to wash your clothes for you. You could avoid that fee by doing your own laundry (on ships that still even have the option) for $3.50/wash and $3.50/dry – or $7 a load. But, if you’re living on board a cruise ship, you’ll likely reach the cruise line’s top tiers quickly which provides you free laundry on board. Platinum members get 3 bags and Diamond members get unlimited. Adding $0 to the tally for this expense.
• Gratuities: Like everything else, gratuities have also increased since I first wrote about retiring on a Carnival Cruise ship. At $16/day for a standard room, you’re looking at another $112/week. You can offset most of this expense by owning 100 shares of Carnival stock. As a shareholder, Carnival provides a Shareholder Benefit of $100 for every 7-day sailing. This means, you’re left with $12 for the first person and $112 for the second person, or a combined total of $124. This averages out to $8.86/person per day.
• Wi-Fi: I didn’t include Wi-Fi in my estimate when I wrote my first article as some may not feel the need to be connected to the internet all the time. What I neglected to take into account is that if you’re living on a cruise ship, you will absolutely need to purchase Wi-Fi at points throughout the year. Depending on your situation, you may not need it on every sailing. And good news, each person in the stateroom doesn’t need to purchase it as Carnival allows you to share it across devices. The Value Wi-fi allows you to do most tasks (email, pay bills, etc.) and so I’m selecting that for my estimate at $19.55/day or $136.85. For a 7-day cruise, that adds $19.55/day to the room. Divided amongst two passengers, you’re looking at another $9.78/day added to the total. Assuming you purchase internet across half of your sailings, you knock that $9.78 in half to $4.89 per person per day.

Cruise Fare + Excursions + Other Expenses Tally

If you’re still with me, we’ve now got a better idea of what you can expect to spend each day for transportation, lodging, meals, entertainment, and other expenses if you were to retire on a Carnival Cruise. When adding the $150/day from above to the $23.75/day in drinks, laundry, gratuities, and Wi-Fi, we get a new grand total of $173.75/day.

Total: $173.75/day

Annual Cost to Retire on a Carnival Cruise Ship

If you were to simply take that $173.75 and multiple it by 365 days, you’d be looking at a grand total of $63,419/person to retire on a Carnival Cruise ship. Assuming double occupancy in our numbers above, that’s $126,837.50 you’ll need to plan for each year in retirement to make this dream a reality.

But wait a minute… Anyone that has booked a cruise at a peak time (summer, spring break) or a holiday cruise knows that the average daily cruise rate skyrockets. That means you’re likely adding thousands of dollars/person to that total. Let’s spread that out across the entire year and add an additional $20 per person per day to the rate.

New total to make your retirement dreams a reality: $193.75 x 365 = $70,718.75/person.

Total: $193.75/day

What About Health Insurance?

Ok. So now we’ve locked in on the cruise cost. But there’s one more thing that will likely be a deal breaker for most: the cost of healthcare. As I mentioned in my original article, Medicare doesn’t typically cover you when you’re outside of the US and so you’d need supplementary health and travel insurance. Depending on your factors, this could easily run in the thousands of dollars.

While we would typically recommend Travel Insurance, most plans cap out at 45 days of travel, so that won’t cut it. As a result, you’ll likely need a pricier healthcare plan to cover any medical needs while at sea and home. Let’s do some back-of-napkin math and assume $1k/month for healthcare-related expenses. This equates to $32.88/day in additional cost.

Final Total: $226.63/day

Cruise Ship vs. Nursing Home

When all is said and done, the average person will spend approximately $226.63/day to retire on a Carnival Cruise ship. That’s $82,719.95/year or $165,439.90 for two people.

That’s an increase of about $40k since I first wrote about retiring on a Carnival Cruise ship in 2022. And while I added in about $3,600 per stateroom to account for Wi-Fi and accounted for healthcare expenses, the majority of the increase comes from cost increases across the board.

So is the claim still true that it costs less to to live on a cruise ship than it does in a nursing home? According to Paying for Senior Care, the average cost for a Nursing Home in 2024 has jumped to $285/day – or $104,025/person ($208,050 for two people). So, indeed, the claims that retiring on a cruise ship is cheaper than retiring on land could be true!

That, of course, comes with a lot of fine print and asterisks. First and foremost, these prices assume that you are comfortable spending a year of your life in an interior cabin. If you’d like daylight in your stateroom? That’s going to cost you a pretty penny. And if you’d like to upgrade to sister Carnival Corporation brand Princess Cruises, your daily costs could easily double. It also assumes you’re staying on the same ship – or a ship within close vicinity to the cruise port where the ship docks. It doesn’t account for airfare or travel expenses getting to alternate ports. Finally, these numbers don’t include costs for any land expenses you may have (apartment, cell phone, PO box, etc.).

How Long Can I Live At Sea?

Let’s assume you’re ok staying in an interior Carnival stateroom for years at a time. And that your expenses mostly match those that I’ve listed in this article. The question now is: How long can I live the cruising lifestyle in retirement? Let’s take a look!

The moral of the story is the same several years later: depending on how long you plan to live on a cruise ship, you’re going to need a pretty nice nest egg to make it happen! Especially considering these figures don’t account for inflation and other costs that may arise.

Final Thoughts

It’s fun to dream about living a life at sea and retiring on a Carnival Cruise ship. However, as you break down the numbers, the lifestyle requires a significant amount of money to achieve the dream.

A more reasonable goal may be to balance this cruise life with a land-based life for half of the year. This could help you stretch your finances out longer to make it possible to enjoy retirement on a cruise ship!

Disclaimer: This article is purely for fun and fantasy. No claims are being made and you should consult your own financial and tax advisors as you plan for your retirement.