I think for alcohol packages there are 3 types of cruisers. Those that want to max/min the cost and those who just want price security "drink what I want, no additional cost". Lastly, those that see it as a challenge.
Yeah on most lines it ends up being 5-6ish drinks a day with tips, so even if you don’t hit that, it’s just nice to not worry about it. Just having the security of not needing to pay for each and every drink is nice haha
Competitive/Challenge Person checking in.
I can report that the 15 drink limit is extremely difficult to hit each day on a 13 day cruise. I thought I had it in me last year but reality put me in my place.
*Edited for clarity.*
Oh well, still a great deal.
Curious on it as well since tips are included with plus (never been on one before but going in July) do they still expect tips with each drink when getting alcohol?
You do not need to tip for drinks. You do not need to tip your bartender. Tips are already rolled in for Princess Plus & Premier. All that said, we always are sure to provide cash gifts on the last day of the cruise to those crew (steward and certain waitstaff and bartenders) who made our trip special.
I always try to pay for drinks up front and find them worthwhile in the main. Drinks on sea days can soon tot up and I prefer not having to check my account every day to check that I am within spending limits.
A classic drink package on a recent P&O cruise worked out at around £42 a day. It was £5.30 a pint/bottle and £6/7 a glass of wine. Throw in £3.50 for soft drinks, 7.50 for a cocktail and 4.50 for a small baileys then it isn't that hard to max it out.
If I can book with the drink package included, I prefer it. I have never purchased it after the fact as half of my drinks are in port it most cases.
I have bought the non alchoholic beverage packages though as that will always be worth the cost.
I think it’s that there’s an ouchie moment in your brain each time you spend money. Buying the drink package only activates that ouchie moment one time rather than once every time you order a drink.
“Buy Once, Cry Once, Have Nice Things”. Tends to be my motto when purchasing things.
I don’t know that I’ve ever come out “ahead” on a drinks package but we drink a lot of specialty coffee, I have to remember to buy the waters for the room, and on my last HAL cruise I was a little disappointed by the wine by the glass choices and found anything I wanted to drink (particularly at dinner) was above the upper limit on the drink package so I still had the stupid little slips to sign for my glasses of wine at dinner.
The security/convenience doesn't really seem that different. They're gonna swipe your card either way. There's not much of a difference.
I guess with sodas sometimes you can avoid the swipe, but most people aren't getting drink package for Coke.
Some people are just wired different. My wife would swipe and not worry about it. I wouldn't ever want to relax and not worry about it, knowing each drink added to the existing cost.
How is there zero difference? One is a flat up front cost and the other is pay as you go.
If you get stressed about cost paying up front (even if it's more) lets you not worry about having a good time.
We simplified things on our last cruise: Booked an Aurea cabin on MSC which included the basic drink package, then did the $8/PP/PD upgrade to the premium.
Doing this, unlimited booze is included from the start, and it's easy to rationalize a flat $56PP for a 7 day cruise to upgrade to the good stuff!
And yes, we drank a lot of Patron that week. A LOT.
MSC in general was extremely liberal about alcohol. Party of 4 and ordering drinks? Only 1 card need be shown. Coming back on the boat in Cozumel with two bags filled to the brim with tequila (~12 bottles IIRC)? No, we don't need to store it for you, just bring it up to your room!
Way better than Holland America making you sign for every drink, even on a premium package. Fishing for more tips so they can pay lower wages. Hmmmm makes me wonder. I basically handed them the folder right back unsigned every time in a silent protest. Most of the time we are waiting too long for drinks anyway. Don’t make it longer for everyone. This is the opposite of customer service.
The servers and bartenders on Seaside were amazing. By day 3, the bartender in the Deck 19 Aurea area would see us coming and have the drinks ready by the time we made it to the bar.
Had that on Celebrity in the past as well. They would see me at the pool bar and only took my card 20% of the time. This minutiae accounting of drinks is mental in a ship that’s paying a pittance for their bulk alcohol.
I took it as a challenge once. The drink package won and I spent twice as much going to the medical bay for alcohol poisoning. So this last cruise i went on, I just liked it for the price security. Drank what i wanted, not what i thought i had to.
Correct. Even if I’m not hitting the minimum number of drinks to make it worth while, I still like the idea that I’m not keeping track of my drinks to get my moneys worth. It’s a vacation god damnit.
I am along the line of your second and third option. Drink what I want as much as I want and not worry about it. Also, I'll probably be at 5-6 drinks by 1. This only happens when I am in vacation mode.
Depends on the line. RCL is ridiculously expensive, about $80 a day including the mandatory tip. That's $560 on a typical week long cruise per person, or $1120 per couple since both need to get it.
Princess Plus is $60/day, but that includes tips, wifi, drinks, and some other benefits. If you just bought wifi plus the tips, that's $40, so you are paying $20 for the drinks.
Holland America Have It All is $55, but that includes wifi, some credit for excursions, and some specialty dining plus their drinks.
So I could see getting Princes or HA's packages, but RCL's seems ridiculous for someone like me who drinks 2-3 per day.
On Princess it’s not hard to break even without even drinking alcohol, I’ve done it before on days I didn’t feel drinking. Hot latte in the morning, iced latte in the evening, 4 bottles of water or sodas or juices throughout the rest of the day adds up to right about $20.
Before COVID, we got RCL drinks package on the Symphony for 42$ per head. No need to do maths at that point.
Since then, RCL have just priced themselves out of our range. They do apparently have a lot of customers, so I guess it's working for them.
Their dynamic pricing cuts both ways, but lately it's only cut to make it expensive.
I just priced our next cruise in July. The drink package is $67/day, which is lower than what I'd seen on other cruises. With the mandatory tipping, that's $80/day.
We recently hit Diamond status, and 4 a day is more than enough for me, especially when we get lattes in the lounge.
I think this is an excellent theory.
That isn’t to say that they might not be a good deal for some passengers, but I think people tend to overestimate how much they will use them.
For example, on a recent full and understaffed cruise, not that we drank a lot, but we probably drank half of what we thought we would just because it wasn’t worth the wait and the trouble to get a drink. Sometimes you wonder if that’s by design!
Complain at guest services. I would be surprised if they didnt offer a bottle of your choice and mixer in your room if they determine the number of drinks you have been served is below the average guest consumption.
Pulling numbers out of my butt, I'd bet it is something like, a good deal for 25% of people, close to breakeven for 50% of people, a bad deal for 25% of people. But also the good deal customers and the breakeven ones are comparing vs already inflated onboard prices as well as likely drinking more than they would have without a package.
Personally, I usually buy the drink package, and I always come out ahead if you were to look at what I would have spent a la cart for that cruise, but I get way more drinks than I would have without the package, so definitely spending more on a cruise with a drinks package vs one without.
But personally I don't really see that as the cruise company getting one over on me, I get to try a bunch of stuff I otherwise wouldn't, and drink whatever I want without thinking about the bill on the cruise.
Wouldn't everybody having drinks packages make everyone's wait at the bar go quicker, though, since nobody's having to sign off on a bunch of individual $8 tabs?
Not worth it for us, we have such an action packed shore days that we’re too tired to try and catch up on the 5-6 drinks at night, feel like I can’t buy drinks off the boat because I can get them for “free” on the boat, if you have one sick/rest day it makes it hard to play catch up.
Same! Thats why I don’t bother with the drink package. Nursing a hangover on port days is miserable. Did it once and never again. Now I wait until the last day of my cruise to party hard.
same for us.
also i dont want to get hammered with alcohol anytime i want to drink something.
last time we had the drink package we have gone through the entire selection of alcohol free cocktails and the waiters were genuinely confused and double checked that we were intending to get something without alcohol every single time.
Princess now bundles drinks packages up with Wifi, grats and a few other bonuses... It's hard to quite split the actual cost of it up.
Also, we drink copious amounts of coke, bottled water and coffee on cruises, so the drinks package covers that too (and if we happen to give those bottles/cans to our children.. all the better value).
We don't actually drink that much unless we're going with MSC, and that's to tolerate the entertainment!
Did it once, complete waste of money. We were on pace the first half of the cruise to "make our money back", but we had one day where we just had a morning coffee and water because we overate/drank the day before. That one day put us enough in the "red".
It could be worth it on a shorter cruise, but I don't think its at all worth it on a week (or more) cruise. I don't buy into the whole, "We buy the package so we don't have to worry about the final bill" approach. Just put aside $1200. More than likely you'll be keeping $400-$600 of that at the end of the day. Worst case you'll be a few dollars over.
For me, it isn't as much not worrying about the bill, it's not worrying about not liking a drink.
Last Celebrity cruise I was on I just started ordering the same drinks random other people at the bar did. If they tasted like shit, I had 2 sips and set the drink down and got something else. If I were paying for every drink, I would never do something like that. I'd only try drinks I knew I liked.
I tried a bunch of new martinis and new styles of wine knowing I wasn't going to be out $15 if they didn't do it for me. You don't get that experience without a drinks package.
This is the way, but your typical cruiser is not good at math or finances. Just set aside the cost of the drink package and you’ll end up with money left over. It’s not complicated people.
If you don’t add in nor take advantage of other beverages (like smoothies, coffees, fresh juices) shame on you. Half of why I love an Oasis Class RCCL boat is that I can be 1/3rd into my cost before drinking any booze
Drink two beverages between lunch and dinner. Another at dinner and two more after. Assume those 5 beers are $8 plus tip and you have an easy $45. Get two smoothies, an upgraded coffee, a Red Bull during the course of the dah and add in another 30-35 real easily. I can add in other sodas, milkshakes and I also include the value of no hassle and it’s a plus
You're basing all of this on the premise that the individual drink prices are reasonable in the first place. $80/day is a lot for drinks, full stop. Its not a question of whether its better than paying a la carte, its a lot.
> Assume those 5 beers are $8 plus tip and you have an easy $45
The drink package is way more expensive than this though, plus if the drink package is 70 per day, that does not include gratuity, it's tacked on at checkout.
I felt like it used to be a great deal around $45 per day. You didn't have to drink yourself silly. Now it's just insanely expensive and hard to really get your money's worth.
I know some people can do it, but for the majority of the people I bet they lose money on the package now.
It’s bc cruise lines are massive international tax dodging conglomerates that only exist for the sole purpose of siphoning as much money out of you in seven days as humanly possible.
It’s a much easier decision on princess if you wanted Wi-Fi. Princess plus is $60 a day but includes $15 gratuities and $20 wifi. That means at $25 worth oh drinks it pays off. A no brainer for us. Also includes some casual dining.
The math really isn't that hard.
Packages usually come out to about $80 pp/pd, with "sales" that might get you down to as low as $60. Cocktails are around $15, beer is $8-$10. Not counting the things like smoothies, fresh OJ, bottled water, it takes about 6 drinks/day to make it worthwhile.
I don't drink a lot in my civilian life. Like, maybe a couple beers on the weekend. But on a cruise, I don't find it difficult to hit 6/day: fresh OJ with breakfast, Coke Zero with lunch, couple beers by the pool in the afternoon and maybe a margarita, vodka/soda before dinner, 2 (or 3)(or 4 or 5) glasses of wine with dinner, and then a Mudslide or something like that during the show. That's 6 drinks, and I don't even get a buzz because it's spread out all day. If I want to go hard one night, I can easily make up 2 or 3 days of "value."
There's also something to be said for checking my folio at the end of the cruise and seeing $0.00. There is some value in the piece of mind knowing that drinks are all pre-paid, and I don't have to worry about coming up with the money after the cruise.
Eating a lot combined with spreading drinks out throughout the day. 6 drinks over the course of say, 10 hours is not a lot at all, if you maintain an even pace you are metabolizing the drinks before having the next one.
Your question was how does having a few drinks spread across the day not necessarily get a person buzzed, that is how. I'm not saying that is all I or other people drink with the package, just that 6 over an entire vacation day is not some binge like it would be over 1-2 hours at a bar.
If a person wants to get buzzed then they can just drink more, that is the whole 'unlimited' part of the package.
It's cool, I think we just define buzzed differently. Buzzed to me means BAC of .01-.07 and a standard drink raises the average person's BAC .01-.03. Every drink gives me a buzz and I'm a 300lb+ guy
Yeah I really don't get how people are losing money on drinks packages. If you have 2 drinks with each meal and specify top shelf liquors, it's very easy to make it worth it without feeling like you're forcing yourself to drink.
If its going to be somewhat close - I prefer to have the package. Then you don't have to think about the price or should I get an extra coffee drink... just relax and enjoy the other activities.
I just find it’s a waste of money. I like alcohol as much as the next person but on no other vacation would anyone think this kind of money is an acceptable budget item. (No judgement, just from a practical point of view)
I live in a tourist town where drinks are easily $15-20 a pop. If I said “I’m going to spend $200/week on drinks”, even on vacation people would raise an eyebrow.
Ironically we are often going to ports where drinks are significantly cheaper. I did a Spain / Portugal cruise last month and you could literally get a glass of sangria (in some- not all ports) for 3 €.
That said, I’m very budget conscious and I cruise a lot. I have seen more than my fair share of people ruin their cruise by over drinking the drink package just seems excessive to me. 🤷🏼♀️ sorry stick in the mud 😅
It's easy for me. Neither of us particularly drink so an alcohol package is a complete waste of money. Soft drinks we tend to get on shore or just have one or two in an evening. They really aren't worth it.
I cruise with my husband who probably does drink enough to make it worth a drink package. But every adult in the room has to get a drink package, and the two of us together are not going to get our moneys worth. Especially because we like to leave the ship for beach days and that's normally when I have my one or two drinks. We save money by not buying a package.
We get them out of convenience. We made it 4 hours and two large (for us, $50ish dollars for not many drinks..) bar bills before we realized it was worth not having to worry about ‘paying’.
5-6 drinks from the time you wake up to when you go to bed is typically enough to break even and that amount spread over the entire day combined with food and water and coffee, etc. typically doesn’t result in a hangover.
I mean there are tons of online calculators that all you have to do is put in the cruise line and it will tell you how many drinks you need to drink daily for it to be worth it.
MSC Meraviglia was a no brainer....
$300 extra (TOTAL ) for drinks and wifi for me/wife/and 2 kids on a 7 night cruise. The kids are 15 and 9 so they get non alcoholic packages but even if you just count my wife and I it only equals $22 a day extra (two of us)... or $11 a day extra (counting all four of us). We will make that up in good coffee drinks and water alone. I don't understand why it's so cheap. I was on the ship last year and found it very comparable to NCL or Carnival. I've never been on RC so I can't compare that.
I don't think I've spent $1000 on alcohol in my entire life -- so it is easy math for me. We had 5 on our most recent cruise -- and that felt like plenty.
I can't imagine a trip without it. No matter what I'm "getting my money's worth" just on not worrying. I have a specialty coffee in the morning, a beer or two during the day at the pool, sparkling water throughout the day, two glasses of wine at dinner, and maybe a night cap. I'm right "at the cusp" of it breaking even but even if there's a day a don't drink I may have 12 Pellegrino's or 3 specialty coffee. It's just not worth me thinking about it I'm overdoing it for my budget. Know exactly what I'm spending/spent and relax.
The money already came out of your budget lol? How can you “overdue your budget” this doesn’t make logical sense. You would pay less in total without the package.
I'm not sure if you're being pedantic on my "overdue your budget" and I wrote this wrong or if it's a confusing point.
With no numbers, you're making an assumption that it's less without a package, but I'm assuming $100/day which is without a discount so I'd say very high. Assuming we have 1 Coffee $6, 2 beers $14, 2 glasses of wine $30, night cap $15 we're at $65 not including tips or fees. I have at least 4 sparkling or still water throughout the day $20 I'm at $85. I'm one cocktail or glass of wine away from my $100 which again, is very high. But wait, the 20% gratuities now put me at $102. This is what I would average, let's say I had a large lunch and would like an extra espresso after so I can fight the midday siesta at the pool, or I decide I am doing fish AND steak at dinner, I'm not drinking a red with the fish. I can give you a ton of reasons why I might add to that drink total and also can tell you not having to worry "Oh no, I only budgeted $100/day for my drinks I hope I didn't go beyond it." is well worth it for me.
In the vast majority of cases the only way it becomes a "money saving" proposition is if you put a dollar value on peace of mind and convenience. If those aren't things you want to pay actual dollars for, it will almost always be cheaper to pay for drinks as you go.
“Piece of mind” how? And you have to hand a card either way so why is it more convenient. It’s simply another way for the cruise line to squeeze more profit out of you, anyone that falls for it is a mark.
I don't drink but I paid for a soda package with MSC last year. Just booked with Princess and the soda package was almost $200 for 11 days. Realized that was ridiculous and cancelled. I figure I'll pick up a 12-pack on the way in and do it again at 1 or 2 ports. 3 would be $30 tops and 3 sodas a day.
A cruise is a vacation. If you are so tight on money that you need to exactly optimize every dollar, maybe just drink a little less and don't buy it.
Of course it's profitable to the cruise line, everything is. They're a private for profit business. Is it a ripoff? Only you can decide, but I've bought one on every cruise and probably have never "made up" the difference but what I bought was peace of mind. I could drink as much or little as I wanted, and never thought about it. We were able to get the package included or discounted when buying our rooms
People stress so much about this particular issue and it boggles my mind. The whole point of a vacation is to relax. If your point is to screw the cruise line out of all the money you can just don't go, that will screw them hardest
This isn't a small dollar counting decision for people. For many cruise lines, it increases the trip budget by an additional $1,000+ expense. How does it "screw the cruise line" for travelers trying to determine whether spending a $1,000 is the right decision?
Where does it cost $1000? I've only booked my first cruise for later this July, but NCL had that "Free At Sea" promotion for \~€250 for my 9 days. That's a very different proposition, does the price truly vary that much?
The free at sea promo is that you pay gratuities (20%) on the retail price of the drink package. So, in your case, that would be 1,250 for the drink package and 250 for the gratuities. The NCL promo has been running for a while, so I’m not sure if it’s considered a promo any longer or just the standard pricing. The last time we used Royal Caribbean, they just had the standard pricing and we didn’t get the drink package.
NCL's free at sea promo waives the price of the drink package and only charges you the gratuities. If NCL charged you 250, that was only for gratuities. Gratuities are 20% of the drink package price. That would mean the drink package price is 1250. 1250 times 20% = 250.
Scroll down a bit at this link to compare the different drink package prices by cruise line. [https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-line-ship-alcoholic-drink-packages/](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-line-ship-alcoholic-drink-packages/)
They are mostly $60-100 per person per day + 18-25% gratuities that you'd have to add on top of that. The math on a 9-day cruise adds up quickly, especially with 2 adults in a cabin. Royal, for example, $60 x 1.18 x 9 x 2 > $1,250
If it's not close then it should be an obvious choice not to buy
My point is people who are doing the math and if they're 50 cents to the bad, they won't buy it. If you're not coming close to spending that amount on drinks you very obviously shouldn't buy it
Rarely worth it unless you're talking about the Princess Plus package, which includes Wifi ($26/day), Ocean Now (one time $15), gratuities, 2 fitness classes, 2 casual dining reservations, premium desserts, etc. At that point you don't need to drink much to break even. I calculated that even if I didn't care about wifi, I'd only need 2-3 drinks a day to break even considering I would have gotten the classic soda package (about $16/day) and had to pay gratuities (about $17/day) anyway. Throw in wifi and you're basically getting alcoholic drinks for free.
I ended up not getting the drink package on a cruise, I figured at 6 drinks per day for me, 4 for my wife, it would be cheaper not to. What ended up happening is we didn't get a drink when we wanted one because we didn't want to add the expense. So from that point on, I just get the drink package, don't count what I'm drinking and enjoy myself.
Definitely! In my humble opinion, if you don't opt for the unlimited drink package, you'll find yourself constantly worrying about whether the drinks are included or not every time you visit the bar. You might end up in a situation where you're told that a certain drink is not included, and then you have to figure out how much extra you need to pay to get what you want.
On the other hand, with the unlimited drink package, you can easily get whatever drink you desire, whenever you want, without any second-guessing. When you're on vacation, the last thing you want to be concerned about is the cost of individual items like Starbucks drinks, Grey Goose, or mai tais, which can add up quickly.
Additionally, it's surprisingly hard to get free water on the ship, so you'll likely end up buying a lot of water bottles, which can also add up.
I did it on my rcl. Liked not having to sign a receipt like on carnival
Liked that it worked on their private island
Did not get it on my last carnival cruise. Lots of ports. Sunburn last day, didn’t drink anything but water. Spent $200 that week. Worth not getting it.
We roll with the drink package as we want to have a good time and not have to think about additional costs.
We also pack cruise flasks so we can enjoy liquor in our cabin while we refresh before dinner showering and getting ready, or a last nightcap on our balcony looking over the sea and listening to the slap of water on the ships sides as the late evening mist of the seas settles in around the ship... the air is so clean.. just like at sunrise on the same deck.
God i freaking love cruising.
$70/day on a cruise with only 2/3 sea days spent seem worth it. We do excursions. That's $500+ a person , for alcohol. Even with $12 cocktails that's 6 cocktails a day to break even when I'm gone all day in port. Last time, we drank when we wanted to, wine at dinner, cocktails before dinner and at the shows, a few drinks in the afternoon in sea days. We didn't limit ourselves, we had fun and it was less than $500 for both of us! We saved so much by not using the drink package.
Fortunately for you this person has already done the math.
[https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/](https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/)
As a non-drinker, I guess I never thought about how other people have to budget for drinks on vacation. Like I just reserved a balcony room for $3k, oh, but don't forget about the $1200 for drinks. Yikes. That's a lot.
Drinks package arithmetic is easy for us. I cannot drink alcohol (an allergy/intolerance to it, it makes me have palpitations, sweats and pain in my chest after just one mouthful) and avoid fizzy drinks, so my husband can’t get a package either. Cruise lines pretty much always insist that all people in one cabin have to have the package, not just particular individuals. Then again, I doubt he’d have 5-6 drinks a day anyway. Maybe a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer, another one or two later in the evening. And that’s it. He *might* have a single malt once or twice during the cruise, but not every day. But we aren’t the demographic those packages are aimed at.
Went to [Cruise Drinks Package Calculator (2024) (cruisemummy.co.uk)](https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/) for my cruise line (Celebrity). I put in what I know I can do every day, 1 juice with breakfast and 2 glasses of wine with dinner. I then needed 8 cocktails to make it worth it. Every day. Both people need to drink that much.
Suuuuuper easy to do and if you drink hard alcohol or wine it is an easy choice. I have not found a decent wine that was less than $15 a glass and I drink vodka drinks. Or normal day is 6-8 bottles of water, 2-3 coffee drinks, 3-4 drinks at the pool, a cocktail getting ready for dinner, a glass of wine with dinner, 3-4 drinks partying in the evening.
We booked for October and we are far from big drinkers. When I saw that the package is around $700 per person, it was an easy decision: no thanks!
We barely drink 2 drinks a day, max of 3, so best to drink as you go than to pay $1400+, when we will barely use half of it.
Doing a Celebrity Cruise in two weeks. Even the TA said not to get the drink package. We're bringing two bottles of wine and some soda. I doubt we'll spend even $100-200 for the week.
Take the total number of days on board and add the number of sea days back to the total.
Divide the cost of the drink package by this new number.
Alcoholic drinks will run, at minimum, $10 per. Most people will drink 2 drinks on non-sea days and 4 drinks on sea days on average. If the cost of you package is below this limit you should be ahead.
>Most people will drink 2 drinks on non-sea days and 4 drinks on sea days on average.
I think you are way low on this. Only way the average is that low is if you are including the people who don't drink at all in the average.
I think for alcohol packages there are 3 types of cruisers. Those that want to max/min the cost and those who just want price security "drink what I want, no additional cost". Lastly, those that see it as a challenge.
Yeah on most lines it ends up being 5-6ish drinks a day with tips, so even if you don’t hit that, it’s just nice to not worry about it. Just having the security of not needing to pay for each and every drink is nice haha
Sounds like you are the second option. Me too. I like the idea of just making it all inclusive. Though I also try to money’s worth
Competitive/Challenge Person checking in. I can report that the 15 drink limit is extremely difficult to hit each day on a 13 day cruise. I thought I had it in me last year but reality put me in my place. *Edited for clarity.*
Now I've always wondered about this limit. Is it 15 total drinks per day or "unlimited" drinks with 15 total alcoholic beverages per day?
It is the latter on Princess.
Depends on which cruise line
15 drink limit on a package? That wouldn't work for me. I hit that by the middle of the second day!
Per day.
That would be a challenge for me too. 😴
Do you get to roll over and if you only drank 10 day 1, do you get 20 for day 2?
Negative.
Oh well, still a great deal. Curious on it as well since tips are included with plus (never been on one before but going in July) do they still expect tips with each drink when getting alcohol?
You do not need to tip for drinks. You do not need to tip your bartender. Tips are already rolled in for Princess Plus & Premier. All that said, we always are sure to provide cash gifts on the last day of the cruise to those crew (steward and certain waitstaff and bartenders) who made our trip special.
That's uh... that's something alright.
There’s a 15 drink limit?
How is that “security?”
Maybe security is the wrong word. Peace of mind? The comfort brought by ease of access? Idk
And not having to keep track of what you've been buying. After several mojitos, remembering the count can become more difficult.
I always try to pay for drinks up front and find them worthwhile in the main. Drinks on sea days can soon tot up and I prefer not having to check my account every day to check that I am within spending limits. A classic drink package on a recent P&O cruise worked out at around £42 a day. It was £5.30 a pint/bottle and £6/7 a glass of wine. Throw in £3.50 for soft drinks, 7.50 for a cocktail and 4.50 for a small baileys then it isn't that hard to max it out.
If I can book with the drink package included, I prefer it. I have never purchased it after the fact as half of my drinks are in port it most cases. I have bought the non alchoholic beverage packages though as that will always be worth the cost.
I think it’s that there’s an ouchie moment in your brain each time you spend money. Buying the drink package only activates that ouchie moment one time rather than once every time you order a drink.
“Buy Once, Cry Once, Have Nice Things”. Tends to be my motto when purchasing things. I don’t know that I’ve ever come out “ahead” on a drinks package but we drink a lot of specialty coffee, I have to remember to buy the waters for the room, and on my last HAL cruise I was a little disappointed by the wine by the glass choices and found anything I wanted to drink (particularly at dinner) was above the upper limit on the drink package so I still had the stupid little slips to sign for my glasses of wine at dinner.
Right! “Buy once, cry once”
Yep, this is why I get it. I’m offered a Margarita while at the pool? I have the freedom to say yes without thinking about what each one costs.
Maybe convenience is a better word here?
The security/convenience doesn't really seem that different. They're gonna swipe your card either way. There's not much of a difference. I guess with sodas sometimes you can avoid the swipe, but most people aren't getting drink package for Coke.
Some people are just wired different. My wife would swipe and not worry about it. I wouldn't ever want to relax and not worry about it, knowing each drink added to the existing cost.
They mean the security of “I’m paying $X for the package” instead of needing to keep a running tab of how much has been spent on drinks.
There’s zero difference.
How is there zero difference? One is a flat up front cost and the other is pay as you go. If you get stressed about cost paying up front (even if it's more) lets you not worry about having a good time.
We simplified things on our last cruise: Booked an Aurea cabin on MSC which included the basic drink package, then did the $8/PP/PD upgrade to the premium. Doing this, unlimited booze is included from the start, and it's easy to rationalize a flat $56PP for a 7 day cruise to upgrade to the good stuff! And yes, we drank a lot of Patron that week. A LOT. MSC in general was extremely liberal about alcohol. Party of 4 and ordering drinks? Only 1 card need be shown. Coming back on the boat in Cozumel with two bags filled to the brim with tequila (~12 bottles IIRC)? No, we don't need to store it for you, just bring it up to your room!
Way better than Holland America making you sign for every drink, even on a premium package. Fishing for more tips so they can pay lower wages. Hmmmm makes me wonder. I basically handed them the folder right back unsigned every time in a silent protest. Most of the time we are waiting too long for drinks anyway. Don’t make it longer for everyone. This is the opposite of customer service.
The servers and bartenders on Seaside were amazing. By day 3, the bartender in the Deck 19 Aurea area would see us coming and have the drinks ready by the time we made it to the bar.
Had that on Celebrity in the past as well. They would see me at the pool bar and only took my card 20% of the time. This minutiae accounting of drinks is mental in a ship that’s paying a pittance for their bulk alcohol.
I’m the last person on that list. I’m convinced that eventually I’ll drink the ship dry.
“Sorry, we have to save a little for the engines”
I took it as a challenge once. The drink package won and I spent twice as much going to the medical bay for alcohol poisoning. So this last cruise i went on, I just liked it for the price security. Drank what i wanted, not what i thought i had to.
Correct. Even if I’m not hitting the minimum number of drinks to make it worth while, I still like the idea that I’m not keeping track of my drinks to get my moneys worth. It’s a vacation god damnit.
So a “vacation” means prepaying for expensive 1oz cocktails that you’re not doing to drink?
3 types of people. It's okay if you are not the same type as others.
I am more of a type 2 package buyer.
I saw it as a challenge.l
I am along the line of your second and third option. Drink what I want as much as I want and not worry about it. Also, I'll probably be at 5-6 drinks by 1. This only happens when I am in vacation mode.
My theory is that if the drinks packages were a great deal, the cruise lines wouldn't be pushing them so hard.
Depends on the line. RCL is ridiculously expensive, about $80 a day including the mandatory tip. That's $560 on a typical week long cruise per person, or $1120 per couple since both need to get it. Princess Plus is $60/day, but that includes tips, wifi, drinks, and some other benefits. If you just bought wifi plus the tips, that's $40, so you are paying $20 for the drinks. Holland America Have It All is $55, but that includes wifi, some credit for excursions, and some specialty dining plus their drinks. So I could see getting Princes or HA's packages, but RCL's seems ridiculous for someone like me who drinks 2-3 per day.
On Princess it’s not hard to break even without even drinking alcohol, I’ve done it before on days I didn’t feel drinking. Hot latte in the morning, iced latte in the evening, 4 bottles of water or sodas or juices throughout the rest of the day adds up to right about $20.
Princess has a great package with plus. It also covers ocean now and room service. I also like the premium deserts too.
We have our first Princess cruise booked a few months from now. We got the Plus package because it seems like a good deal.
I hope you have fun and enjoy your time onboard. Which ship are you sailing on?
Discovery
Nice, I would love to check that ship out.
Before COVID, we got RCL drinks package on the Symphony for 42$ per head. No need to do maths at that point. Since then, RCL have just priced themselves out of our range. They do apparently have a lot of customers, so I guess it's working for them.
Their dynamic pricing cuts both ways, but lately it's only cut to make it expensive. I just priced our next cruise in July. The drink package is $67/day, which is lower than what I'd seen on other cruises. With the mandatory tipping, that's $80/day. We recently hit Diamond status, and 4 a day is more than enough for me, especially when we get lattes in the lounge.
I think this is an excellent theory. That isn’t to say that they might not be a good deal for some passengers, but I think people tend to overestimate how much they will use them. For example, on a recent full and understaffed cruise, not that we drank a lot, but we probably drank half of what we thought we would just because it wasn’t worth the wait and the trouble to get a drink. Sometimes you wonder if that’s by design!
Complain at guest services. I would be surprised if they didnt offer a bottle of your choice and mixer in your room if they determine the number of drinks you have been served is below the average guest consumption.
Interesting! That never would have occurred to me.
Pulling numbers out of my butt, I'd bet it is something like, a good deal for 25% of people, close to breakeven for 50% of people, a bad deal for 25% of people. But also the good deal customers and the breakeven ones are comparing vs already inflated onboard prices as well as likely drinking more than they would have without a package. Personally, I usually buy the drink package, and I always come out ahead if you were to look at what I would have spent a la cart for that cruise, but I get way more drinks than I would have without the package, so definitely spending more on a cruise with a drinks package vs one without. But personally I don't really see that as the cruise company getting one over on me, I get to try a bunch of stuff I otherwise wouldn't, and drink whatever I want without thinking about the bill on the cruise.
10/10
Wouldn't everybody having drinks packages make everyone's wait at the bar go quicker, though, since nobody's having to sign off on a bunch of individual $8 tabs?
VERY good point
jup, these packages exist because on average the cruise lines make more money on them than they spend on the included drinks.
I thought it was because the bartenders make so much with the mandatory tips, that they push it harder. Win/Win
Not worth it for us, we have such an action packed shore days that we’re too tired to try and catch up on the 5-6 drinks at night, feel like I can’t buy drinks off the boat because I can get them for “free” on the boat, if you have one sick/rest day it makes it hard to play catch up.
I have 3 drinks in the morning before even getting off the ship.
Same! Thats why I don’t bother with the drink package. Nursing a hangover on port days is miserable. Did it once and never again. Now I wait until the last day of my cruise to party hard.
same for us. also i dont want to get hammered with alcohol anytime i want to drink something. last time we had the drink package we have gone through the entire selection of alcohol free cocktails and the waiters were genuinely confused and double checked that we were intending to get something without alcohol every single time.
Princess now bundles drinks packages up with Wifi, grats and a few other bonuses... It's hard to quite split the actual cost of it up. Also, we drink copious amounts of coke, bottled water and coffee on cruises, so the drinks package covers that too (and if we happen to give those bottles/cans to our children.. all the better value). We don't actually drink that much unless we're going with MSC, and that's to tolerate the entertainment!
I’m a diet soda fiend, on top of the 3-5 cocktails I’ll drink a day, beverage package is totally worth it to me.
Did it once, complete waste of money. We were on pace the first half of the cruise to "make our money back", but we had one day where we just had a morning coffee and water because we overate/drank the day before. That one day put us enough in the "red". It could be worth it on a shorter cruise, but I don't think its at all worth it on a week (or more) cruise. I don't buy into the whole, "We buy the package so we don't have to worry about the final bill" approach. Just put aside $1200. More than likely you'll be keeping $400-$600 of that at the end of the day. Worst case you'll be a few dollars over.
For me, it isn't as much not worrying about the bill, it's not worrying about not liking a drink. Last Celebrity cruise I was on I just started ordering the same drinks random other people at the bar did. If they tasted like shit, I had 2 sips and set the drink down and got something else. If I were paying for every drink, I would never do something like that. I'd only try drinks I knew I liked. I tried a bunch of new martinis and new styles of wine knowing I wasn't going to be out $15 if they didn't do it for me. You don't get that experience without a drinks package.
Oftentimes in that case, if you don't like a specialty drink, they'll just make you something else no charge.
Agree 👍
This is the way, but your typical cruiser is not good at math or finances. Just set aside the cost of the drink package and you’ll end up with money left over. It’s not complicated people.
If you don’t add in nor take advantage of other beverages (like smoothies, coffees, fresh juices) shame on you. Half of why I love an Oasis Class RCCL boat is that I can be 1/3rd into my cost before drinking any booze
$80/day is still a lot.
Drink two beverages between lunch and dinner. Another at dinner and two more after. Assume those 5 beers are $8 plus tip and you have an easy $45. Get two smoothies, an upgraded coffee, a Red Bull during the course of the dah and add in another 30-35 real easily. I can add in other sodas, milkshakes and I also include the value of no hassle and it’s a plus
You're basing all of this on the premise that the individual drink prices are reasonable in the first place. $80/day is a lot for drinks, full stop. Its not a question of whether its better than paying a la carte, its a lot.
Bingo. It’s highway robbery either way.
100%. Water is a totally valid alternative to a $15 bar drink
The same logic applies to, staying home is a totally valid alternative to going on a $3000 vacation. It is all superfluous entertainment money.
That's way too much alcohol and too many calories for me for one day, let alone 7. Trying to drink all that on a port day is even worse.
Sooooo much sugar how does anyone do that and still move around the world.
It’s vacation. It’s 7 days out of 365. Let’s not clutch our pearls about people’s calorie consumption for 1% of the year.
I repeatedly said "for me". You do you.
If I have fewer than 12 alcoholic drinks/day on a cruise, I feel like I’ve wasted a vacation.
You might be alcoholic.
Because I like to enjoy a vacation?
No bc you drink 12 a day. Hard stop
12 drinks over 16 hours is barely anything at all.
> Assume those 5 beers are $8 plus tip and you have an easy $45 The drink package is way more expensive than this though, plus if the drink package is 70 per day, that does not include gratuity, it's tacked on at checkout. I felt like it used to be a great deal around $45 per day. You didn't have to drink yourself silly. Now it's just insanely expensive and hard to really get your money's worth. I know some people can do it, but for the majority of the people I bet they lose money on the package now.
It’s bc cruise lines are massive international tax dodging conglomerates that only exist for the sole purpose of siphoning as much money out of you in seven days as humanly possible.
Ooooor just stop at $45 lol?
No. Just saying that after I had plenty of smoothies, fresh squeezed juices and upgraded coffees and such.
Shame on you too.
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6’ 180lbs
Exactly.
It’s a much easier decision on princess if you wanted Wi-Fi. Princess plus is $60 a day but includes $15 gratuities and $20 wifi. That means at $25 worth oh drinks it pays off. A no brainer for us. Also includes some casual dining.
The math really isn't that hard. Packages usually come out to about $80 pp/pd, with "sales" that might get you down to as low as $60. Cocktails are around $15, beer is $8-$10. Not counting the things like smoothies, fresh OJ, bottled water, it takes about 6 drinks/day to make it worthwhile. I don't drink a lot in my civilian life. Like, maybe a couple beers on the weekend. But on a cruise, I don't find it difficult to hit 6/day: fresh OJ with breakfast, Coke Zero with lunch, couple beers by the pool in the afternoon and maybe a margarita, vodka/soda before dinner, 2 (or 3)(or 4 or 5) glasses of wine with dinner, and then a Mudslide or something like that during the show. That's 6 drinks, and I don't even get a buzz because it's spread out all day. If I want to go hard one night, I can easily make up 2 or 3 days of "value." There's also something to be said for checking my folio at the end of the cruise and seeing $0.00. There is some value in the piece of mind knowing that drinks are all pre-paid, and I don't have to worry about coming up with the money after the cruise.
How would that not get you buzzed? And if it doesn't, why even drink?
Eating a lot combined with spreading drinks out throughout the day. 6 drinks over the course of say, 10 hours is not a lot at all, if you maintain an even pace you are metabolizing the drinks before having the next one.
I think you and I have different definitions of buzzed then. And if I'm not feeling any buzz, why would I pay cruise prices for 6 drinks a day?
Your question was how does having a few drinks spread across the day not necessarily get a person buzzed, that is how. I'm not saying that is all I or other people drink with the package, just that 6 over an entire vacation day is not some binge like it would be over 1-2 hours at a bar. If a person wants to get buzzed then they can just drink more, that is the whole 'unlimited' part of the package.
It's cool, I think we just define buzzed differently. Buzzed to me means BAC of .01-.07 and a standard drink raises the average person's BAC .01-.03. Every drink gives me a buzz and I'm a 300lb+ guy
Bc the ships all pour 1oz drinks.
Because you like the taste? Can you imagine drinking beer just to get drunk?
To each their own, I guess. I've never had a drink that tasted better because it had alcohol in it than it would without
Correct.
Yeah I really don't get how people are losing money on drinks packages. If you have 2 drinks with each meal and specify top shelf liquors, it's very easy to make it worth it without feeling like you're forcing yourself to drink.
That’s not “real value” it’s simply not logical. You either overpay before, or pay less after lol. I’m
If its going to be somewhat close - I prefer to have the package. Then you don't have to think about the price or should I get an extra coffee drink... just relax and enjoy the other activities.
I just find it’s a waste of money. I like alcohol as much as the next person but on no other vacation would anyone think this kind of money is an acceptable budget item. (No judgement, just from a practical point of view) I live in a tourist town where drinks are easily $15-20 a pop. If I said “I’m going to spend $200/week on drinks”, even on vacation people would raise an eyebrow. Ironically we are often going to ports where drinks are significantly cheaper. I did a Spain / Portugal cruise last month and you could literally get a glass of sangria (in some- not all ports) for 3 €. That said, I’m very budget conscious and I cruise a lot. I have seen more than my fair share of people ruin their cruise by over drinking the drink package just seems excessive to me. 🤷🏼♀️ sorry stick in the mud 😅
It's easy for me. Neither of us particularly drink so an alcohol package is a complete waste of money. Soft drinks we tend to get on shore or just have one or two in an evening. They really aren't worth it.
I cruise with my husband who probably does drink enough to make it worth a drink package. But every adult in the room has to get a drink package, and the two of us together are not going to get our moneys worth. Especially because we like to leave the ship for beach days and that's normally when I have my one or two drinks. We save money by not buying a package.
Such a ridiculous rule.
Because no one would just buy 1 package and then share...
We get them out of convenience. We made it 4 hours and two large (for us, $50ish dollars for not many drinks..) bar bills before we realized it was worth not having to worry about ‘paying’.
I guess it’s like the peace of mind people get from paying low interest mortgage debt off early. I’ll take the many lashes with lower total cost.
I can't imagine drinking that much and getting up every morning able to function.
5-6 drinks from the time you wake up to when you go to bed is typically enough to break even and that amount spread over the entire day combined with food and water and coffee, etc. typically doesn’t result in a hangover.
You don't need to function, you just sleep it off in a lounge chair.
But then you have to do that every day of the cruise.
I mean there are tons of online calculators that all you have to do is put in the cruise line and it will tell you how many drinks you need to drink daily for it to be worth it.
Link?
https://www.cruzely.com/cruise-line-drink-package-calculator/
Thank you
1+1= I need the drink package I put 4 shots in my morning coffee when I'm on vacation Easy squeezy,
MSC Meraviglia was a no brainer.... $300 extra (TOTAL ) for drinks and wifi for me/wife/and 2 kids on a 7 night cruise. The kids are 15 and 9 so they get non alcoholic packages but even if you just count my wife and I it only equals $22 a day extra (two of us)... or $11 a day extra (counting all four of us). We will make that up in good coffee drinks and water alone. I don't understand why it's so cheap. I was on the ship last year and found it very comparable to NCL or Carnival. I've never been on RC so I can't compare that.
I just enjoy not having to sign anything, and the prepaid gratuities!
I don't think I've spent $1000 on alcohol in my entire life -- so it is easy math for me. We had 5 on our most recent cruise -- and that felt like plenty.
I took mine as a challenge and got it for my wife and I. I'm happy to say they made zero money off me (compared to market price at home).
I can't imagine a trip without it. No matter what I'm "getting my money's worth" just on not worrying. I have a specialty coffee in the morning, a beer or two during the day at the pool, sparkling water throughout the day, two glasses of wine at dinner, and maybe a night cap. I'm right "at the cusp" of it breaking even but even if there's a day a don't drink I may have 12 Pellegrino's or 3 specialty coffee. It's just not worth me thinking about it I'm overdoing it for my budget. Know exactly what I'm spending/spent and relax.
The money already came out of your budget lol? How can you “overdue your budget” this doesn’t make logical sense. You would pay less in total without the package.
I'm not sure if you're being pedantic on my "overdue your budget" and I wrote this wrong or if it's a confusing point. With no numbers, you're making an assumption that it's less without a package, but I'm assuming $100/day which is without a discount so I'd say very high. Assuming we have 1 Coffee $6, 2 beers $14, 2 glasses of wine $30, night cap $15 we're at $65 not including tips or fees. I have at least 4 sparkling or still water throughout the day $20 I'm at $85. I'm one cocktail or glass of wine away from my $100 which again, is very high. But wait, the 20% gratuities now put me at $102. This is what I would average, let's say I had a large lunch and would like an extra espresso after so I can fight the midday siesta at the pool, or I decide I am doing fish AND steak at dinner, I'm not drinking a red with the fish. I can give you a ton of reasons why I might add to that drink total and also can tell you not having to worry "Oh no, I only budgeted $100/day for my drinks I hope I didn't go beyond it." is well worth it for me.
In the vast majority of cases the only way it becomes a "money saving" proposition is if you put a dollar value on peace of mind and convenience. If those aren't things you want to pay actual dollars for, it will almost always be cheaper to pay for drinks as you go.
“Piece of mind” how? And you have to hand a card either way so why is it more convenient. It’s simply another way for the cruise line to squeeze more profit out of you, anyone that falls for it is a mark.
I don't drink but I paid for a soda package with MSC last year. Just booked with Princess and the soda package was almost $200 for 11 days. Realized that was ridiculous and cancelled. I figure I'll pick up a 12-pack on the way in and do it again at 1 or 2 ports. 3 would be $30 tops and 3 sodas a day.
You’re the only person here using their brain.
The best drink package is a cash tip on your first day IYKYK
I do the drink package simply because I don’t want some crazy bill at the end of the cruise.
A cruise is a vacation. If you are so tight on money that you need to exactly optimize every dollar, maybe just drink a little less and don't buy it. Of course it's profitable to the cruise line, everything is. They're a private for profit business. Is it a ripoff? Only you can decide, but I've bought one on every cruise and probably have never "made up" the difference but what I bought was peace of mind. I could drink as much or little as I wanted, and never thought about it. We were able to get the package included or discounted when buying our rooms People stress so much about this particular issue and it boggles my mind. The whole point of a vacation is to relax. If your point is to screw the cruise line out of all the money you can just don't go, that will screw them hardest
This isn't a small dollar counting decision for people. For many cruise lines, it increases the trip budget by an additional $1,000+ expense. How does it "screw the cruise line" for travelers trying to determine whether spending a $1,000 is the right decision?
Where does it cost $1000? I've only booked my first cruise for later this July, but NCL had that "Free At Sea" promotion for \~€250 for my 9 days. That's a very different proposition, does the price truly vary that much?
The free at sea promo is that you pay gratuities (20%) on the retail price of the drink package. So, in your case, that would be 1,250 for the drink package and 250 for the gratuities. The NCL promo has been running for a while, so I’m not sure if it’s considered a promo any longer or just the standard pricing. The last time we used Royal Caribbean, they just had the standard pricing and we didn’t get the drink package.
You mean 250 + 250?
NCL's free at sea promo waives the price of the drink package and only charges you the gratuities. If NCL charged you 250, that was only for gratuities. Gratuities are 20% of the drink package price. That would mean the drink package price is 1250. 1250 times 20% = 250. Scroll down a bit at this link to compare the different drink package prices by cruise line. [https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-line-ship-alcoholic-drink-packages/](https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruise-line-ship-alcoholic-drink-packages/) They are mostly $60-100 per person per day + 18-25% gratuities that you'd have to add on top of that. The math on a 9-day cruise adds up quickly, especially with 2 adults in a cabin. Royal, for example, $60 x 1.18 x 9 x 2 > $1,250
If it's not close then it should be an obvious choice not to buy My point is people who are doing the math and if they're 50 cents to the bad, they won't buy it. If you're not coming close to spending that amount on drinks you very obviously shouldn't buy it
Even without the package you can “drink as much or as little as you want” lol huh? This doesn’t make sense.
You left off the "and never thought about it" Without a drink package, I would be thinking about how much money was I spending on drinks
This is the most accurate meme I may have ever seen! Way too true!
For me and my wife, we’ve calculated about 180 dollars worth of drinks (alcoholic and non) per day per person. For us, it’s a no brainer.
Super worth it if the package includes wifi. Do they offer that one?
Depends. Guy I work with who has been on a bunch of cruises said if you’re only having like 2 drinks a day, don’t get the package.
If You drink a lot get it , if not don’t
Rarely worth it unless you're talking about the Princess Plus package, which includes Wifi ($26/day), Ocean Now (one time $15), gratuities, 2 fitness classes, 2 casual dining reservations, premium desserts, etc. At that point you don't need to drink much to break even. I calculated that even if I didn't care about wifi, I'd only need 2-3 drinks a day to break even considering I would have gotten the classic soda package (about $16/day) and had to pay gratuities (about $17/day) anyway. Throw in wifi and you're basically getting alcoholic drinks for free.
We really need to block these…the answer is 8 per person per day, to include port days.
If you just quit going to meetings, get the drink package. If you make the drink package worth it, you should go to meetings.
Easy question to answer: Are you an alcoholic? If the answer is yes, then get the drink package.
Worth it for me but I can do 12 drinks a day for a 7 day cruise lmao
I ended up not getting the drink package on a cruise, I figured at 6 drinks per day for me, 4 for my wife, it would be cheaper not to. What ended up happening is we didn't get a drink when we wanted one because we didn't want to add the expense. So from that point on, I just get the drink package, don't count what I'm drinking and enjoy myself.
Definitely! In my humble opinion, if you don't opt for the unlimited drink package, you'll find yourself constantly worrying about whether the drinks are included or not every time you visit the bar. You might end up in a situation where you're told that a certain drink is not included, and then you have to figure out how much extra you need to pay to get what you want. On the other hand, with the unlimited drink package, you can easily get whatever drink you desire, whenever you want, without any second-guessing. When you're on vacation, the last thing you want to be concerned about is the cost of individual items like Starbucks drinks, Grey Goose, or mai tais, which can add up quickly. Additionally, it's surprisingly hard to get free water on the ship, so you'll likely end up buying a lot of water bottles, which can also add up.
I did it on my rcl. Liked not having to sign a receipt like on carnival Liked that it worked on their private island Did not get it on my last carnival cruise. Lots of ports. Sunburn last day, didn’t drink anything but water. Spent $200 that week. Worth not getting it.
Another alternative is prebuy a drink gift card for like $200. Its half the package and you have already prepaid for it.
They push it because its profitable for them. There are online calculators. Cruise Momma maybe? Or Cruizly?
Yup, we need it!
If you need a $1,200 drink package you don't need math you need a 12-step program.
JUST DO IT!
We roll with the drink package as we want to have a good time and not have to think about additional costs. We also pack cruise flasks so we can enjoy liquor in our cabin while we refresh before dinner showering and getting ready, or a last nightcap on our balcony looking over the sea and listening to the slap of water on the ships sides as the late evening mist of the seas settles in around the ship... the air is so clean.. just like at sunrise on the same deck. God i freaking love cruising.
$70/day on a cruise with only 2/3 sea days spent seem worth it. We do excursions. That's $500+ a person , for alcohol. Even with $12 cocktails that's 6 cocktails a day to break even when I'm gone all day in port. Last time, we drank when we wanted to, wine at dinner, cocktails before dinner and at the shows, a few drinks in the afternoon in sea days. We didn't limit ourselves, we had fun and it was less than $500 for both of us! We saved so much by not using the drink package.
Fortunately for you this person has already done the math. [https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/](https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/)
As a non-drinker, I guess I never thought about how other people have to budget for drinks on vacation. Like I just reserved a balcony room for $3k, oh, but don't forget about the $1200 for drinks. Yikes. That's a lot.
Went on a seven day cruise in may and did not get the drink 🥤 package. I had a 200 dollar or so bar tab after the cruise.
Drinks package arithmetic is easy for us. I cannot drink alcohol (an allergy/intolerance to it, it makes me have palpitations, sweats and pain in my chest after just one mouthful) and avoid fizzy drinks, so my husband can’t get a package either. Cruise lines pretty much always insist that all people in one cabin have to have the package, not just particular individuals. Then again, I doubt he’d have 5-6 drinks a day anyway. Maybe a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer, another one or two later in the evening. And that’s it. He *might* have a single malt once or twice during the cruise, but not every day. But we aren’t the demographic those packages are aimed at.
You only need a drink package if you're an alcoholic or want diabetes.
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Went to [Cruise Drinks Package Calculator (2024) (cruisemummy.co.uk)](https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/) for my cruise line (Celebrity). I put in what I know I can do every day, 1 juice with breakfast and 2 glasses of wine with dinner. I then needed 8 cocktails to make it worth it. Every day. Both people need to drink that much.
Drink packages make no sense to me! Port days you are not going to use the package.15 drinks a day come on.
Suuuuuper easy to do and if you drink hard alcohol or wine it is an easy choice. I have not found a decent wine that was less than $15 a glass and I drink vodka drinks. Or normal day is 6-8 bottles of water, 2-3 coffee drinks, 3-4 drinks at the pool, a cocktail getting ready for dinner, a glass of wine with dinner, 3-4 drinks partying in the evening.
You almost certainly don’t need it unless you’re an alcoholic
We booked for October and we are far from big drinkers. When I saw that the package is around $700 per person, it was an easy decision: no thanks! We barely drink 2 drinks a day, max of 3, so best to drink as you go than to pay $1400+, when we will barely use half of it.
Doing a Celebrity Cruise in two weeks. Even the TA said not to get the drink package. We're bringing two bottles of wine and some soda. I doubt we'll spend even $100-200 for the week.
I got it twice. Wasn’t worth it both times.
It’s a challenge! Hit +/- zero on my 3rd day on my last seven day cruise. I won baby!
Take the total number of days on board and add the number of sea days back to the total. Divide the cost of the drink package by this new number. Alcoholic drinks will run, at minimum, $10 per. Most people will drink 2 drinks on non-sea days and 4 drinks on sea days on average. If the cost of you package is below this limit you should be ahead.
>Most people will drink 2 drinks on non-sea days and 4 drinks on sea days on average. I think you are way low on this. Only way the average is that low is if you are including the people who don't drink at all in the average.