Before you tick that box at checkout on your next cruise booking, it is worth sitting down with a pen and doing the actual sum the cruise line would rather you skipped. Drink packages are sold as an easy way to settle up once and relax for the rest of the sailing, but the fine print on gratuity and daily rates means the real cost often lands well above $130 a day per person. For a reader who enjoys a glass of wine with dinner and little else, that is a fair amount of money to hand over for peace of mind.
Most cruise lines now sell beverage packages in three tiers: a soft drink only option, a non-alcoholic Refreshment package covering mocktails, coffee, tea and juice, and a Deluxe tier that adds cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, beer and wine by the glass, plus a discount on select bottled wine. Royal Caribbean’s structure is typical of the industry, and most major lines run something close to it.
The daily rate is only half the story
Celebrity’s basic drink package runs to roughly $89 per person per day, which sounds manageable until a 20% gratuity is added automatically on top. That single line item pushes a 7-night package for two travellers to around $1,495 all up, according to a breakdown shared on the cruise forum Reddit. Gratuity rarely features in the headline price quoted at booking, and it catches plenty of first-time package buyers off guard.
Sale pricing moves the numbers around further. One Australian cruiser checking Deluxe Beverage Package pricing on Anthem of the Seas found it quoted at close to $137 a day, well above the advertised base rate once the usual discounts had dropped away, according to a post in the Facebook group Jenn and Lauren RCCL. The lesson is the same either way: the number on the booking page is a starting point, not the final bill.
What the package does and does not cover
A Deluxe package generally covers drinks at every onboard restaurant and bar, but it typically excludes room service and minibar purchases, and may not apply once you step ashore on a private island. Daily drink limits also apply on most packages, so unlimited is rarely unlimited in practice. On short 2-4 night sailings departing Australia, Royal Caribbean does not sell the Deluxe package at all, which rules out the whole calculation for travellers booking a quick local getaway.
There is also a cabin rule worth knowing before two people travel together: on most major lines, if one adult in a cabin buys the package, every adult sharing that cabin generally has to buy one too. It is designed to stop one person buying a package and quietly sharing it, and it means a solo drinker in a shared cabin cannot simply opt out to save money.
The loyalty wrinkle that splits cruisers
For cruisers who sail often enough to hold status, the maths gets more complicated again. Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society gives Diamond members four free drinks a day, Diamond Plus members five, and Pinnacle Club members six, all at no extra cost. Some cruisers argue those free drinks should be subtracted before anyone works out whether a paid package will break even at all.
Matt, who hosts the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast, bought a Deluxe package on Utopia of the Seas despite already receiving six free drinks a day as a Pinnacle Club member, then spent an entire follow-up episode defending the decision after listeners called his maths wrong. It is a reminder that even seasoned cruisers can talk themselves into a package that does not actually pay off.
When the package is worth buying
The honest break-even point comes down to how much you would genuinely drink in a day, not how much you could theoretically drink. A traveller who enjoys three or more beverages a day, and wants one fixed cost rather than watching a running bar tab, is the person a Deluxe package genuinely suits. An occasional drinker who has a glass of wine at dinner and nothing else will almost always come out ahead paying as they go.
Timing helps either way. Packages bought online before sailing are typically cheaper than the same package bought once aboard, and wave season discounting, now underway, is traditionally when cruise lines sharpen package and fare pricing to fill cabins for the year ahead. Not every line sells packages at all – Disney Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages manage onboard drink spend differently and skip the traditional package altogether.
Confirm before you book: package pricing, gratuity rates and sailing restrictions vary by cruise line and shift with sale cycles, so check the current figure for your own sailing before you decide.
Do the sum honestly before the cruise begins, and the choice stops being about the cruise line’s marketing and starts being about your own holiday. A package bought because you will actually use it, every glass of wine and sundowner already paid for, is worth every dollar. One bought out of habit or fear of missing out is simply an expensive form of worrying.
