Evaluating Cruise Ship Drink Packages: Which Are Worth the Investment?

You’ve packed your sunscreen, your boarding passes are printed, and you’re ready for a relaxing cruise vacation. Endless amounts of dining options lay ahead, and most of them will be included in your fare. One thing that’s not always included (unless you’re on a luxury, all-inclusive cruise line) is the alcoholic beverages. For most cruisers, enjoying a drink by the pool or with dinner is one of the best parts about cruising — but it does come at a cost.

Almost every mainstream cruise line offers different ways to save on alcoholic drinks, soda, and coffee — usually in the form of a drink package. As someone who has worked on and cruised on various cruise lines, I’m no stranger to a drink package. In this article, I will dive into many major cruise lines’ drink packages or money-saving options on drinks. I will lay out how much the packages will actually save you, highlight of what’s included and what’s not, if there are any limits or rules with the package, and ultimately — tell you if it’s worth it. Knowing if the package is worth it depends on the individual and how much they are planning to drink. So, for the purpose of this article, I will assume that the average cruiser has about four cocktails per day.

If you’re sailing on Norwegian Cruise Line, you can buy the unlimited open bar package. The open bar package includes unlimited soft drinks and juices, over 100 different cocktails, beers, seltzers, wine, and straight spirits. The price of the unlimited open bar depends on the length of the cruise. For example, a four-day cruise cost $120 total for the open bar, which amounts to $30 a day. For a longer cruise, the savings get even better. If you’re on a longer cruise for 8-11 days, the drink package will cost $27 a day. If you’re cruising for over 12 days, that price goes down even further to $23 a day.

An average cocktail aboard NCL will cost you between $10 and $15. Most beers are about $7 to $8 and a glass of wine ranges from $9 to $12. If you are on one of the shorter cruises that is $30 per day for the unlimited drinks, and you are having at least three drinks that cost $10, this package is already worth it. For the longer cruises, the price is even lower, so it’s a no-brainer. I recently used the drink package for a 10-day cruise, and I thought it was more than worth it to pay $27 a day. I enjoyed knowing that the drinks were all covered and paid for beforehand.

Celebrity Cruise Line has two different drink packages. There is the Classic Drink Package and the Premium Drink Package. The Classic Package covers premium coffee, bottled water, beers, cocktails, spirits, and more that cost up to $10 a drink. The Premium Package, on the other hand, covers drinks that cost up to $17. Cruisers have said that the Classic Package feels a bit restrictive, especially for those who enjoy trying unique cocktails or craft beverages.

At the base, the pricing for the Classic Package is $89.99 per day, while the Premium Package is $104.99 per day. With an average of $10 per non-premium drink onboard, you would need to drink about nine drinks per day. Now, this doesn’t have to be all alcoholic — it can include coffee and tea as well. For the Premium Package, which covers top-shelf liquor, which can cost around $17, you would have to drink more than six premium drinks per day to make that worth it. Ultimately, if you aren’t an extremely heavy drinker, I don’t think this package is worth it. Having nine drinks per day is quite excessive, even if it includes other non-alcoholic beverages. The prices of both of these packages add up fairly quickly, especially if you are on a longer cruise.

With Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, there is one main drink package that includes alcoholic beverages and other drinks that cost extra money onboard. This is called the Deluxe Beverage Package, and it can get you Coke beverages, premium coffees, and teas, milkshakes from Johnny Rockets, wine, cocktails, beer, spirits, and more up to $14 per drink.

Now, for this drink package, the price depends on the length of your cruise and which ship you are sailing on. It generally ranges between $56 to $105 per day. Unfortunately, the website doesn’t share the package prices for each cruise before you commit to booking, so you won’t find out the price until you’ve already locked in your reservation.

The great thing about this beverage package is that it includes a wide array of drink options, which could make the price worth it. If you have a specialty latte (about $6), a coke (about $4), a milkshake ($7), plus about four alcoholic drinks per day (averaging $10/drink) — that would cost about $57 within that day. If that sounds like the amount of drinks you’d have per day, I believe that it’s worth it. Unfortunately, the odds of it costing over $60 per day are highly possible –– and in that case, I say it’s not worth it.

Carnival Cruise Line offers a few drink packages that cover many different aspects. There is the Bottomless Bubbles which gets you unlimited soda, two separate wine packages that allow you to get bottles of wine at a discounted price, and then there is the Cheers! package, which covers everything.

The Cheers! package costs $82.54 per day. This covers everything from soda, specialty coffees, all spirits, beer, and wine that are $20 or less on the menu. There are a few stipulations with the package, like a limit of 15 alcoholic drinks per 24-hour period. You can also only order one drink at a time, which stops people from sharing their package with others.

On Carnival, the average beer cost will be about $6.50, wine is $9.50, and mixed drinks and cocktails range from $7.50 to $20. If you plan the more expensive mixed drinks and cocktails, and have about four per day — the package is worth it. However, if you’re sticking towards the lower-priced, you’d have to drink nine to 10 drinks daily. Now, the package does include soda and coffee — but those drinks only cost about $3 on average. Ultimately, this depends on how much you are planning to drink. Carnival’s pricing for the beverage package doesn’t offer a great deal for someone who isn’t going to drink more than five average drinks per day.

Eating and drinking aboard Disney Cruise Line can be exciting, however, Disney doesn’t offer any official drink packages that are similar to the other cruise lines. One plus is that soda on Disney is completely free – which most other cruise lines don’t offer. Other companies use free soda as leverage for their beverage packages. That’s not the case with Disney.

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, that’s something that isn’t included with your ship fare. Instead, you’d pay per drink — unless you opt into the money-saving options to add on to your reservation. The first option is to buy a pre-purchased wine bundle, which allows you to buy full bottles at a discounted price. The prices depend on what your ship’s departure port is, but on average you will save about 25% on each bottle. You can choose bundles that get you between three to seven bottles of wine.

Another option is to get a beer bundle, which is the same idea as the wine. For this option, you can pre-order bundles of different six-packs of beer or seltzers. These bundles cost about $6 per beer, which is close to the price you’d pay ber beer at a bar onboard. The difference, however, is that you don’t have to pay the included gratuity. I’ve personally done this when cruising on DCL, and I thought that it was worth it to save that amount from the gratuity and benefit from discounted bottles of wine.

Princess Cruise Line offers two main beverage packages – the Plus Beverage Package and the Premium Beverage Package. These include non-alcoholic options like soda, bottled water, and juice. The difference between them, however, is that the Plus Beverage Package covers alcoholic beverages that cost up to $15. The Premium Package covers drinks up to $20.

The Plus Beverage Package costs $64.99 per day. This means that if you are drinking four of the most expensive cocktails onboard per day, the package would be worth it. If you’re also enjoying beer or wine, the average price for a bottle or glass would be around $7 to $12. If you are having about six beers or glasses of wine per day, this would also be worth it. The Premium Package costs $84.99 per day and is geared towards people interested in drinking the more expensive cocktails throughout their sailing, or a larger variety of spirits and wines to choose from. There is even a private Woodford Reserve Bourbon that was exclusively made for Princess included in this package.

Ultimately, I think that both packages are worth it. If you want to stick with the basic cocktails, spirits, wines, and beers (which still includes a huge variety), and you’re drinking between four to eight drinks per day, get that Plus Beverage Package. If you’re interested in trying newer cocktails and special spirits, get the Premium Package.

Holland America Line offers three different drink packages. There is the Have It All Package, the Elite Beverage Package, and the Signature Beverage Package. Each package is roughly the same price per day — so, what’s the difference between them?

The Have It All Package is $60 per day, and includes wifi, specialty dining, shore excursions, and the Signature Beverage Package. This includes 15 drinks per day with drinks up to $11. These drinks include beer, cocktails, wine, soda, and coffee. Now, the Signature Beverage Package itself costs $60.95 — which is a bit odd, since the Have It All Package includes more for 95 cents less. If you drink between five and six drinks that cost $11 per day onboard, this is definitely worth it. Getting the Have It All Package also gets you those other perks, so it’s a great deal.

The Elite Beverage Package costs $65.95 per day and covers drinks that cost $15 or less. It also has unlimited non-alcoholic drinks, whereas the other package keeps the 15-drink limit, no matter the type. For just a few bucks extra a day, this package is definitely worth it. With fewer limits and more drink options, you’d be saving a good amount of money. You only need to order between four and five $15 drinks per day to break even.

On MSC, there is now only one option when it comes to a drink package that includes alcohol. Other packages were discontinued in December of 2024, however the remaining package offers quite a variety. The Premium Extra Package includes drinks that cost up to $16, specialty coffee and tea, soft drinks, bottled water, premium-brand spirits, wine, high-end cocktails, beer, and more. There is a 15-drink limit on the alcoholic options, however, you can get as many sodas and coffees as your heart desires.

The price for the Premium Extra Package isn’t explicitly listed on MSC’s website, however, it does say that if you book the package ahead, it would be 40% off. Other cruisers have stated that for a seven-day cruise, the package comes out to about $70 per day – although this number can fluctuate depending on your cruise length and region. If this number is the average, however, we do think that the package is worth it. If opting for those $16 high-end cocktails, you’d only need to drink about four to make it worth it. Plus, if you’re sprinkling in cheaper drinks like coffee, soda, bottled water, or wine at dinner — the package still pays for itself.

Virgin Voyages has an almost all-inclusive atmosphere onboard, with some of the best cruise ship dining offerings at sea. The cruise line doesn’t offer any traditional beverage packages, but it offers a unique option you can’t find anywhere else. On Virgin Voyages, you can actually opt to pre-purchase your bar tab before sailing.

For this option, you can prepay in different increments, and each increment gets you an extra amount of money to spend onboard as credit. For example, if you pre-pay a $200 bar tab, you get $25 credit. If you pre-pay a $1000 bar tab, you would get $250 credit. If you believe that you will be spending more than $200 (the minimum for a pre-paid tab) on drinks onboard, this will definitely be worth it. This allows you to get extra money added to your onboard account, which basically transfers to a few more free drinks.

Amelia Dobbs, a frequent Virgin Voyager cruiser, shared with us that she enjoys how convenient the prepaid bar tab can be, allowing her a little extra money to spend on drinks onboard. She also likes how it doesn’t have to be spent on just alcohol, but premium coffee, special smoothies, and juices.

Margaritaville at Sea, part of the Margaritaville restaurant chain, has two cruise ships in its fleet. Both ships sail out of Florida and have short cruises that go to Mexico, The Bahamas, and other nearby islands. The ships have a “party-style” vibe to them, and many people intend drinking a lot of alcohol once onboard. The cruise line is named after an alcoholic drink, after all!

Margaritaville at Sea offers a package called the Unlimited Beverage Chill. This includes all beers, glasses of wine, and cocktails that cost up to $20. It also includes unlimited soda, bottled water, juices, and other non-alcoholic beverages. The package doesn’t include drinks ordered from room service, or specialty coffee options. There is also a 15-drink cap for alcoholic beverages and select specialty drinks.

Although the price depends on the sailing, it usually costs about $64.99 per day. Many of the cocktails onboard are about $14, so if you had four of those cocktails per day, plus a coffee or soda, it would be worth it. There is also bubble tea available onboard, which costs about $7, so even adding one of those per day during your cruise could add up — making the beverage package worth it all together.

Azamara Cruises has two different beverage packages available. However — Azamara actually includes some alcohol with the cruise fare. Basic beers and seltzers, bottom-shelf rum, vodka, tequila, gin, brandy, and bourbon are available. It also includes wine by the glass, juices, espresso-based coffees, and more. Now, with all of that being free onboard, are the drink packages worth it?

There is the Premium Package, which costs $31.95 per day, and the Ultimate Package, which costs $39.95 per day. Both of these include a larger array of alcohol choices, which is laid out very clearly on the cruise line’s website. Now, if you are planning on spending money on specific types of wines, beers, or spirits that aren’t included onboard — one of the packages may be worth it. Especially if you are interested in cocktails at popular, specialty bars onboard like the Atlas Bar. They cost about $17.95 per drink. For just two of those cocktails per day, it might be worth it to get the package. If you are okay with the base availability of alcohol, however, the packages may just end up being an extra expense that may not be entirely necessary.

When comparing cruise lines’ drink packages or offerings, I considered quite a few things. Since drinks onboard vary in price from line to line, it isn’t completely fair just to base the comparison off the price of the beverage package itself. Instead, I looked at how much an average drink costs onboard, what the drink package covers in terms of drinks, and how much you’d need to drink for it to be worth your money.

As an experienced cruiser myself, I deduced that the average cruiser has about four alcoholic drinks per day — and I used that as a baseline for seeing if the drink packages would be worth it. I also considered that many of these packages included soda, specialty coffees, teas, and bottled water — something many cruisers tend to spend on as well. With this information, I was able to decide if I thought that a beverage package was ultimately worth the money or not.