I am in the same boat (excuse the pun, or enjoy it as you see fit). Never thought I'd like cruising, but ever since my first one it's now my favourite way to travel.
After cruising for a few years I looked into the price of an all inclusive resort and no thank you. We can cruise twice a year for what the average all inclusive goes for for 7 days.
You can book a 7 day Northbound Alaska trip out of Vancouver on NCL leaving this April for $2,382 pp taxes and fees in. I would also do the 7 day Southbound again to Vancouver, slightly more expensive but now I'm on vacation for 14 days for `~$5k.
Flights not included, as they are not offering included airfare since it's less than 120 days until the sail date.
Certainly not peak Alaska cruising season by any stretch, but I'm sure it has it's charms early season and it wouldn't be crowded. I picked this example because it was the cheapest currently offered. Lots of Bermuda and Caribbean offerings as well that are still less than $1k/pp for 7 days or more.
Cruise pricing can seem strange, because it is. All of the lines seem to obfuscate the actual out the door price for some odd reason. They give you a base price, but there is daily service charges and other fees that add up substantially. This is all clearly stated in the contract and on the booking pages but people miss is and ***** about it later. The important thing to do when pricing a cruise is to make sure you select to pre-pay service charges. This way the ~$20pp/day fee will be included in your original invoice, not on one you get on your last day onboard. The last day on a cruise is always busy at the customer service counter with people who couldn't be bothered to read the T&C's they agreed upon.
Wife and I are doing a 12 day Scottland, Ireland and Norway cruise that ends in Iceland in late May this year. We are at $5,485 taxes in for flights into London 2 days before cruise, transfer to the port from London, all cruise fares and service charges and our flights home. through NCL. Only thing we are paying for on top of this is our London hotel for 2 days and food and that's going to be close to $1,000 CAD when it's all said and done.
All that being said, I find a cruise ship is just a resort that moves. Crowds are not an issue and service is normally excellent. It's amazing how you can be on a ship with ~2000 passengers and you end up only seeing the same ~50 people over and over again. Where do the others go?
