We see prices that are below $50 per person per day with a few below $40 per person a day, says Kevin Weisner, vice president of CruiseDeals.com (www.cruisedeals.com). He says that because more ships were in Europe over the summer than in previous years, more ships are repositioning to the Caribbean, too.

The cost to reposition a cruise ship—moving it from one seasonal region to another, such as from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean—is an enormous operational expense that can range from $500,000 to over $2 million per journey. In 2026, the largest portion of this cost is fuel; a modern mega-ship can consume hundreds of tons of fuel per day during an Atlantic crossing. Other significant costs include canal tolls (a Suez or Panama Canal transit can cost upwards of $600,000 for a large vessel), port fees at the departure and arrival points, and the wages for a full crew of 1,000 to 2,000 people who remain on board. To offset these massive costs, cruise lines sell "Repositioning Cruises" to the public at significantly discounted rates, sometimes as low as $50 per day. These sailings are popular in 2026 among retirees and digital nomads because they offer many consecutive days at sea. While the ship is "making no money" in the traditional sense during a transit, these passenger fares help cover the baseline operational costs of moving the multi-billion dollar asset to a more profitable market for the next season.