Cruise Concerts: How Much Too Much?

Now that cruise passengers are comfortable with paying extra for upscale restaurants, are concerts next?

For example, in Las Vegas, to see Celine Dion in a "small venue," your ticket price starts at $117. Donny and Marie starts at $108. Elton John is $115…Rod Stewart $89. You get the picture.

Our last stadium concert event was country super star Tim McGraw, near San Diego. With tickets almost $100 each and a two-hour drive to get there, we figured the evening cost between $250 and $300 by the time you added over-priced food and over-priced gas. To make matters worse, we had to bob and weave to see the stage through the flailing arms of other concert-goers, and…don't get us started.

On the way back, we decided we'd rather have paid $100 to see it (that would have been nice) on TV. Even better would have been to pay more to see the show in a small venue…like a cruise ship.

Maybe the biggest stars are still out of reach for cruise lines, but maybe not. Sitting with 500 other customers to watch a name act at work would provide an intimacy you can only find in small-venue Vegas these days. For that kind of show, when you've paid over $100 to bob and weave and not see the show, does the price really matter?

Crown Princess
12 nights
May 24, 2012
Venice, Dubrovnik, Corfu, Olympia, Athens, Mykonos, Ephesus, Santorini, Naples, Rome
Inside:  $999
Cost per day: $83
www.princess.com