What the app stores
- Trip-level and daily spending visibility
- Excursion and onboard purchase tracking
- Compare budget vs. actual before you overspend
- Works alongside drink package planning tools
See the real cost of your cruise—fare, excursions, drinks, gratuities, and onboard spending—in one cruise budget planner made for vacationers.
The fare on the booking page is not the cost of the trip. Gratuities, Wi-Fi, drinks, excursions, transfers, and port-day cash sit in different places, and the cabin folio only shows the charges you put on the ship after you board.
The method below separates those stacks so a calm folio does not hide a prepaid package or a single expensive port. Prices vary by line and sailing — use your own booking, not a sample total from someone else’s week.
Brochure fare is rarely the trip total. A useful cruise budget separates fixed voyage costs from optional onboard spend so you can decide where upgrades actually improve the vacation.
Build a daily all-in estimate for your actual habits—not an idealized “we will barely drink” plan. Then compare that total to a more inclusive fare or suite upgrade.
If your “budget” cruise reaches premium per-diem after add-ons, you may be happier on a quieter ship with fewer surprise menus.
Check your onboard account every other day, not on disembarkation morning. Categorize drinks, excursions, and dining separately so one expensive port does not silently wipe a week of restraint.
Model gratuities, one specialty dinner, moderate drinks, two paid excursions, and Wi‑Fi for one person. If that stack approaches the price gap to a more inclusive fare, compare both totals side by side before you buy add-ons.
Children change the math: soda packages, kids dining patterns, and stroller-friendly port choices can outweigh adult drink packages. Budget the childcare value of clubs separately from entertainment so you do not undercount what makes the trip workable.
Expect higher excursion and lunch-ashore spend, lower spa spend, and more transfer variability. Sea-day packages matter less when you are off the ship for most daylight hours.
Pick two prepaid joys and one flexible category. Example: lock specialty dining and a landmark excursion; keep drinks flexible. Rigid zero-spend goals usually fail on evening four and then overshoot.
The cabin folio starts empty on embarkation and only records what you charge to the ship: drinks, specialty dining, Wi-Fi, spa, photos, casino, and auto-gratuities. Flights, hotels, insurance, prepaid packages, and many excursions never appear there. If you only watch the folio, you will feel disciplined about a small onboard number while the money that locked weeks earlier stays invisible.
Split the trip into three timing stacks and keep them in one note: pre-cruise lock-ins (anything you would still lose if you cancelled tomorrow), onboard drip (daily cabin-card charges), and port-day swing (cash, pier tours, taxis, lunches ashore). Review the onboard account every other day, not on the morning you leave the ship. One expensive port should not be allowed to hide inside a week of “we barely spent.”
In the SeaDays app
Include fare, taxes, gratuities, excursions, specialty dining, drinks, Wi‑Fi, spa, and souvenirs. SeaDays helps you capture categories most spreadsheets miss.
Yes. Use the drink package calculator landing page and Voyage Analytics together to decide whether a package beats pay-as-you-go for your habits.
No. SeaDays is a cruise vacation planner for passengers. Budget tools are designed for trip planning, not corporate accounting.
The guide above stands on its own. When you want the itinerary, notes, and roll call in one place, open the app.