I paid $200 to go on a 7-day cruise. It was the cheapest cabin I've ever booked, but I didn't feel cheated out of anything.

11.09.2023 - 12:41 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nick Jackson, a cruise-goer who stayed in the cheapest cabin he could find. It has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2014, I went on my first cruise. Quickly, I fell in love with it and have since been on 10 cruises all together. 

Prior to the pandemic, my family and I would go on cruises every single year. These trips are a big deal in my family, and it's one of the biggest things you will find me talking about. 

There are so many things I like about cruises, including the food and the entertainment. I also like choosing from all the available rooms. For example, you can opt for one with a balcony, an ocean-view room, or an interior room. An interior room is usually the cheapest because there are no windows and so no natural lighting.

After the pandemic in June 2022, my family and I decided to book a cruise with Carnival. 

The trip was for seven days and would take us to Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Cayman; and Montego Bay, Jamaica. For this cruise, we booked one interior room at $950 a person.

This included: entertainment, access to the pools and slides, our cabin, housekeeping and most food options.

Although we were willing to pay $950, we realized it was very expensive. So we chose not to pay for everything up front — we knew that once it got closer to the departure date, we could most likely get our trip for cheaper and rebook it then.

After taking many cruises, we've learned if a cruise doesn't fill up quickly enough, the prices can become cheaper. However, if the cruise is still filling up, the prices probably wouldn't be discounted. 

We weren't sure what would happen, but we knew it wouldn't hurt to look again once the date got closer.

I saw that we could get the same exact interior cabin for $200 per person — everything was exactly the same, just $750 cheaper.

It was such a deal we canceled our original booking and booked the cheaper one instead. We lost our deposit when we did this, but because the price was so much cheaper than the original fare, it was worth it.

My family and I were surprised to see a deal like that. I've been on 10 cruises and have never seen one that good before. In fact, we wondered if they would cheap out on things after we got on board. 

To our surprise, they didn't. Even though we got a cheaper room, they didn't skimp out on anything at all. In fact, even our tropical interior room was nice — it came with a nice TV, and movies like any other room would.

We had so much fun. We went to nightly parties, singalongs, and we went to extensive buffets, too. 

And, because of the money we saved by rebooking, we were able to spend some of it elsewhere, like at a specialty restaurant and at gift shops. 

Going forward, I'll