Which Royal Caribbean Home Port Is the Cheapest?

For a week at sea, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Tampa and San Juan are the cheap places to start, and Barcelona, Rome and Port Canaveral cost about twice as much a night. Much of the gap is the ship, not the port.

For a seven-night Royal Caribbean cruise, the cheapest home ports are Los Angeles (a middle $74 a night), New Orleans ($89), Tampa ($97) and San Juan ($97). The dearest are Barcelona ($266), Rome ($222) and Port Canaveral ($206). That is 3.6 times between the top and the bottom of the list, and 2.8 times between Barcelona and Tampa. Across all 724 seven-night cruises we priced, the middle night is $135.

Every number comes from our own price data, as captured on 19 October 2026. For each seven-night sailing we took the lowest interior fare per person, divided it by seven, and took the middle (the median) for each home port. Only seven-night cruises are compared, so a port that runs short cruises does not look dearer just for that. The box at the bottom says exactly how. This ranks what Royal Caribbean is asking today for sailings that have not left yet. It is not a verdict on any port.

A week from each home port, cheapest first

These are the 14 home ports with at least 20 priced seven-night sailings. Ports with fewer are left out of the ranking and named under the table.

Lowest interior fare per person, taxes and port fees included, for seven-night cruises leaving 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2027, priced on 19 October 2026. Typical ship built is the middle year of the ships on those sailings, from our ship pages. Left out for too few sailings: San Diego (11 sailings, a middle $73 a night), Southampton (8 sailings, a middle $147 a night), Brisbane (10 sailings, a middle $155 a night), Seward (9 sailings, a middle $156 a night), Colón (19 sailings, a middle $172 a night), Cartagena (17 sailings, a middle $195 a night).

Why: the ships at the cheap ports are older

Look at the "typical ship built" column. In the cheaper half of the table, the middle ship was built in 2002. In the dearer half it was built in 2021. Tampa, San Juan and New Orleans, the cheap Florida, Caribbean and Gulf ports, are served by older ships (built in 1997, 1997 and 2003). Miami and Port Canaveral are served by the newest (2024 and 2025). Galveston is the exception: its seven-night ship was built in 2018 and still costs only $104 a night.

The clearest proof is to hold the port fixed and change the ship. Out of Miami, Independence of the Seas (built 2008) costs a middle $95 a night on a seven-night cruise and Hero of the Seas costs $231, 2.4 times as much, from the same port. Out of Port Canaveral, Harmony of the Seas costs $142 and Star of the Seas costs $225. So a port is partly a stand-in for the ships based there. Our night-by-night look at every ship has the full list.

Ships with at least 12 priced seven-night sailings from Miami, Port Canaveral or Tampa. Same fares as the table above. Hero of the Seas does not enter service until August 2027, so its fares are a first look.

Short cruises, three to five nights

Short cruises give a different order of ports. Across 886 priced sailings of three to five nights the middle night is $149, higher than on a week because the fixed costs of a cruise are spread over fewer nights. San Diego is cheapest at $94 a night, then Tampa ($101) and Galveston ($121). Of the ports listed, Port Canaveral is the dearest at $179.

Ports with at least 19 priced sailings of three, four or five nights, leaving 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2027, priced on 19 October 2026. Lowest interior fare per person, taxes and port fees included. The mix of three, four and five nights differs by port, so the whole-sailing column is not comparable across rows.

What to do with this

If the lowest night is what you want, look at the ship first and the port second. A cheap port on an older ship is the lowest-cost way to a week at sea. If you want a newer ship, you will pay for it from any port. When you sail matters too, and that is a different question: our cheapest week from each home port answers it port by port. If you hold a Club Royale offer, what an offer is worth shows where it saves the most.

What this does not tell you

• It is the lowest interior cabin. Other cabin types do not always follow the same order.
• A night is a night of fare. It does not count flights to the port, parking, what the itinerary visits or how many nights are at sea.
• Ports are not spread evenly over the year. Los Angeles has the cheapest week, but its seven-night cruises are Mexico sailings spread over five months only. Seattle, Vancouver, Rome and Barcelona sail their seven-night cruises in the warm months, which are dearer almost everywhere, while Tampa and San Juan sail all year. Season and port are mixed together here.
• Sample sizes are modest: the smallest port in the ranking has 21 sailings and the largest 92.
• This is one day of fares, 19 October 2026. Fares move daily, and nothing here is a quote.

Sailings with no fare

29 cruises in the window had no fare when we looked. They are shown as unpriced, left out of every figure above and never estimated. We also left out 179 cruise-and-land-tour packages, because a tour fare covers days on land and cannot be read as a price per night at sea.

How we measured this

The legtolegcruises.com Logbook is independent editorial and is not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International or Club Royale. Offers, fares, and program rules vary and change often; confirm every detail with Royal Caribbean before you book.