Thus your options are limited both by the number of cruise ships and dates. Therefore, there is little or no competition to drive down the prices like at high volume ports like Port Canaveral, Ft Lauderdale and Miami.

My suggestion is to go to the web site for each of these cruise lines and search for cruises departing from Charleston.

You have two options, a short cruise of 5 days with Carnival or a longer cruise of 10/11 days with Celebrity. The best thing is to look at all of the options on the dates and go when the price is the lowest. Also, you generally always get the best price by booking well in advance and that means a year or more in advance. Once you look at the prices shown on the cruise line web sites, print off the cruises that interest you and then shop online or check to see if a travel agent has a lower price. My bet is you’ll not find a lower price; my experience is the cruise lines have the best prices.

I live only 4 hours drive from Charleston and wish they had more options. What I have done is driven to Port Canaveral (about 10 hrs for me) and there are more options and better ships and prices. The Royal Caribbean ship Freedom of the Seas now cruises out of Port Canaveral and that’s a great ship (just 3 yrs old) with great prices.