Is the Cruise Drink Package a Trap or a Total Steal?

Ready for your fast pass to the perfect vacation? This is Talk Travel to Me. Join host Kristy Ouellette and the Mickey Guru team for one big travel question every episode. Solo insights or expert round tables all with a sprinkle of magic and the ultimate insider edge. Fasten your seatbelt, it's time to talk travel.

Hey traveler, welcome back to Talk Travel to Me. This week I'm flying solo and answering the question: is the cruise drink package a trap or a total steal? Is it actually worth it? Before we get going though, I want to explain that I'm going to be avoiding certain words because I don't want the various platforms to flag this episode as mature content. I think it's going to be easy enough for you to follow along, but if you do get lost, reach out to me. Alright, let's get to it. Let's talk about it. So as you might expect, clients ask me this question all the time. And every single time I'm asked, I say the exact same thing: well, it depends. And that's where the real conversation begins, because we talk about their specific sailing. Who are they traveling with? What kind of experience do they intend to have? And then we start running the numbers to help them decide if a beverage package makes sense for them.

But let's think about it. Anybody that's ever gone on a cruise, and probably most of you just out in the world, have seen the emails that come through. Norwegian's big on it—Free at Sea! And oh my gosh, we could go down a rabbit hole with that one because no, none of it is actually free. I don't know how they get away with it. But all of the cruise lines are out there trying to upsell you on a variety of things, and that could be excursions, it could be onboard activities, it could be beverage packages, which is what we're going to talk about today. So let's actually look at it. All of the big cruise lines have their version. Royal Caribbean calls it the Deluxe Beverage Package. Carnival has Cheers. Norwegian does the bundling it in with the Free at Sea promotion. And essentially what all of them are is that you're paying a flat daily rate, usually somewhere between $70 and $120 per person per night. And the packages cover most drinks, spirited or otherwise, up to a certain price point. Now it is important to note here that Disney Cruise Line does not offer a traditional drink package and neither does Virgin Voyages. They act a little bit different in this realm.

Each of the cruise lines has their own fine print and they throw it at you. And it's hard to keep track, even as a professional that works with all of these lines every single day. It makes it a little confusing. Norwegian's Free at Sea includes spirited beverages, mocktails, soda, juice, specialty coffee and teas, but no bottled water. Royal Caribbean and Carnival do include the bottled water and everything else that the other one does as well. And Carnival limits you to one adult beverage every 10 minutes, with no more than 14 in a 24-hour period. It should not be surprising that Carnival has to add those extra stipulations that the other cruise lines just don't—it is definitely a more party atmosphere. All of the cruise lines do have a max per-drink cost: Norwegian is $15, Royal is $14. And to be fair, that's going to cover most options available onboard anyway. But if you happen to be into like the top-shelf stuff, you'll be paying the difference. Royal makes it super easy: if the drink is $15, they use your package for $14 and they charge a dollar to your room. It's super easy. I've not tested that on Norwegian, but I would assume it's probably the same.

None of the cruise lines include beverages served via room service or the in-room refrigerator. Although I have to admit, I've not seen one of those stocked mini-fridges on a cruise line in a very long time, if ever. But those specialties, things like that, those aren't included. Some cruise lines like Royal Caribbean and Norwegian allow their beverage packages to be accessed and used on their private islands. So when you go to Royal's Perfect Day at CocoCay, you give them the same room card and you get to purchase all of the same things using that beverage package right there on the island. But Carnival offers their package as a shipboard option only so that they can collect more money from you when you're on their private island. And then one of the things that a lot of people don't realize, and it causes a lot of conflict, is that if one person in the cabin buys it, all adults of legal age have to buy the beverage package as well. That's cruise line policy across the board. MSC goes even further, requiring people in the room that are not of legal age to purchase a separate minor's package. What?

And I actually am running into this right now because I am headed out on a Princess cruise in just a couple of days with my sister. And I actually was considering the package on Princess because theirs includes—they have a Plus or Premier on Princess, and it includes all the drink options, but also Wi-Fi and some specialty dining things and excursion credits and things like that. But I can't get it unless my sister wants it, and she doesn't. She's like, 'I'm going to drink mostly water from the tap, so I'm not interested in all that extra.' So that where it really comes back to, if I wanted it, I'd be paying double in the room because they won't let me just buy it. And the reason for that, in case you're not used to cruising or this is a new concept to you, is because people misbehave. They will have... back in the day they used to let one person buy it. They would even say, 'OK, let's say, Kristy, you want it, but Eric, he doesn't want it because he is in a recovery program, so we'll let him buy the refreshment package, which has no spirits. You can get the spirited package and we're fine.' Except people started doing that and then just sharing. You can't do that; that's just not how it works. So now across the board, the cruise lines are like, 'Nope, one person has it, they all have it,' so they don't have to be policing people looking for loopholes and making bad decisions. And honestly, I feel like... I understand people can make it seem like it's an OK thing to do, but to me, it's theft of service and I don't think that's great. So that's something to know for sure. And that's when you're doing the math for your family to figure out what is it actually going to cost you, because if you both have to get it and you're not all on the same page with it, it probably isn't going to make sense.

But the pitch always looks like this: 'Hey, the drinks run 14 to 16 dollars a piece, so all you got to do is drink five or six a day and you've broken even.' Sounds like a good deal, I guess, if you're going to drink five to six spirited beverages a day, because if it includes water, those are much cheaper—you're not getting the value there. So you're going to drink five or six a day for every day of your cruise. So if you're on a seven-day cruise, you're going to drink... wait, five times... six times seven... like, are you really going to do that? And think about an actual cruise day, especially a port day. Let's say you're off the ship by 8 a.m. Did you start your day with juice with bubbles in it? Maybe. But if you didn't, you're going to be trying to get your five or six drinks in at the end of the day. You're back on board at what, five or six o'clock maybe? How are you going to do that in such a short time? Now, it's not a challenge, folks—it's not a challenge, and it's also not a judgment call. Everybody does this vacation thing differently. So if that's something that you're like, 'Yeah, I could totally do that for seven days,' sure, maybe this is for you. But that's one of the things that we talk about, too, is like, how long is your cruise? If it's a three-night cruise and you're going with a bunch of friends, I tend to have a lot more clients that are booking a spirited beverage package at that point. But a seven-night cruise with family, or a seven-night cruise with anybody, really, you may not have it in you to have that much in your system for that time.

And here's the other thing that gets people: gratuities. And this is a good example. They all add on an 18 to 20 percent gratuity automatically. So whether you're buying it on Norwegian, whether you're buying it on Carnival, or Royal Caribbean, or even that Free at Sea one with Norwegian, yeah, you're paying 18 percent of what the package would have cost if you were paying it in gratuities. I am a tipper—let me just say I think those bartenders work so hard and they deserve a tip—but that's where I want you to just be aware of how a free promotion ends up costing you hundreds of dollars. A package that says like eighty-nine dollars a day is actually going to be closer to 105 when you figure in those gratuities. So let's talk about who it might actually work for, because I don't want to pooh-pooh on this. It is truly just an individual type of decision and dependent on a particular trip, right? Because we all know that not every trip is the same; the outcomes are different, and what we're looking to experience is completely different. So if you're someone who genuinely drinks, let's say, spirited grape juice at dinner, or you enjoy multiple things in small glasses throughout the day—this is harder than I thought! Maybe you drink a lot of specialty coffees and your cruise is heavy on sea days where you're going to be on the ship a lot, and light on the port days, the math might work in your favor. Some people also love the all-inclusive feeling, and I tend to fall in this category on certain kinds of trips like the one I'm taking with my sister. I was like, 'I'd rather just take care of it all upfront and not have to even think about it.' If that's the case, these plans can have a real value—just you have to go in knowing that you're paying for the feeling of 'all-inclusive, I don't have to worry about or think about anything' as much as the actual beverages you're going to consume, right? Because the packages are built to feel like a deal. The cruise line sets those per-drink packages knowing that most people won't hit that break-even point, especially on a port-heavy itinerary.

But that's not always the main concern. Before you buy, though, think about what you actually like to drink on a normal vacation day and do the math out. It might make more sense for you to go with a different kind of package. Most of them offer things like a soda-only package, or my favorite on Royal Caribbean honestly is the Refreshment Package, which has the mocktails and the coffees—everything except those spirits. And then if you are looking for a spirited beverage every once in a while, you can literally just order one, or you could get something in a tiny glass and put it into your virgin piña colada, right? So you could do it like that, and it makes a lot more sense. Royal Caribbean has a specialty coffee card that you can purchase ahead of your cruise, and it's $33.99 currently. And I will tell you that one of the challenges with Royal Caribbean is their pricing is different for every single ship and every single sailing, and they change daily. So the numbers I'm giving you with the Royal Caribbean thing, just take with a grain of salt. I'm looking at one right now for a cruise that I'm going on, which is Legend of the Seas, February 20th, 2027. And I say it like that for a reason—you're invited! Mickey Guru Travel Company actually has group space and we have hugely discounted rates for people that want to do that sailing with us. So if it's you, the current cost of a specialty coffee card for that sailing is $33.99. And they say that that gets you 15 specialty coffees at a great value—from a double espresso to a chai latte or a decadent frappuccino. Now, they say that it is about 50 percent off the individual price if you bought it just one at a time. The interesting caveat with this coffee plan, though, is you get 15 punches on your card. They do one punch for like the regular size hot chocolate or a specialty tea or if you get like a tall chai latte kind of thing. But if you want a double espresso, if you want a large beverage, or a large hot specialty tea—which is two tea bags—they take two punches for that. So you could end up with only seven drinks. I just don't like the way it lays out. Is it going to save you money? Possibly. If you are somebody who doesn't partake in other beverages and you just want to be able to have your specialty coffee, it might be a go for you.

The other option here is forgo the packages and just set aside money in your budget to pay a la carte for what it is that you want. Certainly, if you are somebody that drinks one, two, or even just three things a day and you're OK with drinking tap water, you don't need bottled water, all of that, you're fine with drip coffee or a regular old tea bag—like all of those things—you don't really need to go that extra level. Set aside some money to pay the bill at the end and you're fine. Another alternative that's worth knowing is that many cruise lines will actually let you bring a bottle of spirited grape juice, or sometimes they let you bring a few of those hoppy kind of beverages on embarkation day. So you can do that, enjoy those things, and not really have to spend much more money outside of that. All right, so I guess the answer to this one is again, maybe it depends. Happy to walk through this with you for your specific cruise if you're curious to make sure that you're getting the most for your vacation dollar. So that is one more question unpacked. Next week, we're going to be answering the question: what is a realistic souvenir budget for a family vacation and how do you stick to it? We have some great actionable tips in that episode, if I do say so myself, so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. Now, if today's episode got you thinking—whether you've got a travel stumper you want me to tackle or you're ready to stop crossing your fingers and let a pro handle the heavy lifting for your next getaway—I would love to hear from you. Find everything you need at mickeyguru.com or look in the show notes and come find us on Instagram and TikTok. Say hi, share this episode with another family who needs to hear it, and let me know: has the drink package been worth it on your vacations? See you next week, traveler.

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