Cruise Prices Plummet

Talk about budget travel. It's now cheaper in some cases to take a Carnival Cruise than it is to stay at a Motel 6, Bloomberg.com reports. Carnival Corp. is offering a cruise for as little as $38 a night. A four-night trip on Carnival's Inspiration, leaving Miami on April 22, costs $149 including meals and some beverages, according to the company's website this week.

The price drop comes just months after Carnival suffered tremendously bad press when an engine fire on the Carnival Triumph left 3,100 passengers at sea for several days with limited food and toilet service.

"The prices did go down," Manny Lubian of Futura Travel Inc. told Bloomberg. "An empty ship doesn't make as much money. They'd rather have bodies in them, buying drinks and spending money."