Every large cruise line sells an unlimited drinks package, and every one of them prices it so the average passenger loses. The arithmetic is simple. What makes it hard is that most big lines publish neither the package price nor their bar menu prices until you are aboard and committed. Here is the math, the numbers each line does publish, and the rules that decide it.
The short answer
Buy the package only if you will drink five or more cocktails a day, every day, counting port days and the morning you disembark. Below that, pay as you go. The exception is a bundle that includes charges you were already paying, such as Princess Plus, where the break-even falls to roughly three drinks a day once crew appreciation is credited against it.
| Line and package | Per person, per day | Per-drink cap | Drinks a day to break even |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival, Cheers | $69.95 plus 20% service charge, so $83.94 | $20 | 5 cocktails at $14, or 8 wines at $9.50, or 11 beers at $6.50 |
| Princess Plus | $65 all in, including $18 crew appreciation and wi-fi | $15, maximum 15 a day | About 3, after crediting crew appreciation |
| Royal Caribbean Deluxe | Not published, set per sailing, plus 18% | $14 | About 6 at a $75 net rate |
| Celebrity Classic | Not published, plus 20% | $12 | Cannot be calculated before you board |
| Holland America Signature | Not published, plus 20% | $12, maximum 15 a day | Cannot be calculated before you board |
| Norwegian, drinks under More at Sea | Reported at $30 for sailings up to 7 nights | Not published | Cannot be calculated before you board |
| Virgin Voyages | No package sold | None | Not applicable, prices include the tip |
Why does the gratuity cancel out?
People talk themselves into the package because it includes the tip. It does not save you the tip. The same service charge lands on a single drink at the bar, so when the percentage matches on both sides it drops out of the comparison entirely.
Carnival is the clean worked example, because it is the only major line that publishes both halves. The Cheers package is $69.95 per person per day pre-purchased, plus a 20% service charge, so $83.94 all in. Carnival also applies a 20% service charge to drinks bought individually in US waters. A $14 cocktail therefore costs $16.80. Divide $83.94 by $16.80 and you get 5.0 drinks. Divide the net $69.95 by the net $14 and you get the same 5.0.
So the break-even is the net package price divided by the menu price of the drink you actually order. Nothing else. That holds on any line charging the same percentage on packages and on single drinks, which is most of them.
The exception is a flat-priced bundle. Princess sells Plus at $65 per guest per day with no service charge on top, while adding a nonrefundable 20% to drinks bought individually. There the package really does remove the 20%, and the arithmetic changes in its favour.
What does each line actually publish?
Carnival publishes the package price and sample bar prices: beer from $6.50, wine by the glass from $9.50, mixed drinks from $7.50 to $20.00. That is enough to do the sum at home.
Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America and Norwegian publish neither a package rate nor a bar price list. Royal Caribbean prices the Deluxe package per sailing inside its Cruise Planner, so the figure depends on the ship, the date and when you look. Third-party trackers put the pre-cruise range at roughly $65 to $120 per person per day before the 18% gratuity, a band wide enough to flip the decision on its own. MSC withdrew its Easy and Easy Plus packages and is replacing the range for summer 2026 sailings, with prices visible only inside a logged-in booking. Treat that silence as information. A price that appears only after your deposit is not a price you were meant to compare.
Which number matters more, the price or the cap?
The cap, usually. A package capped at $12 on a ship with $15 cocktails is one you top up on every round.
| Package | Covers a single drink up to | Daily limit |
|---|---|---|
| Carnival Cheers | $20.00, then 25% off the menu price above it | 15 alcoholic drinks per 24 hours, 6am to 6am |
| Royal Caribbean Deluxe | $14 | No stated daily count |
| Celebrity Classic | $12 | No daily limit |
| Celebrity Premium | $19 | No daily limit |
| Princess Plus | $15 | 15 drinks |
| Princess Premier | $20 | Unlimited |
| Holland America Signature | $12 | 15 drinks |
| Holland America Elite | $16 | 15 alcoholic drinks |
Who else in your cabin has to buy it?
This is the rule that decides the question for couples, and the one people find out last.
- Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Celebrity and Holland America all require every guest of legal drinking age in the stateroom to buy the same package.
- Princess applies package purchases to guests 1 and 2 on the reservation. Guests 3 and 4 need not match.
- Virgin Voyages sells no package, so nobody is dragged into one.
Run the common case. Two adults share a Carnival cabin, one drinks and one does not. The package still costs $139.90 net for the pair, and one person is using it. That person needs ten $14 cocktails a day to break even. Nobody does that for seven days. Pay as you go.
Where does the math go wrong?
- Port days count. You pay the full daily rate on a day spent ashore, and the ship’s bars are where the package works.
- Embarkation and disembarkation count too, charged in full despite an afternoon boarding and an early exit. On a seven-night sailing that is two of your seven days running well under capacity.
- The onboard price is higher. Carnival charges $74.95 aboard against $69.95 pre-purchased, Princess $70 against $65 for Plus. Buying at the gangway costs 5 to 8 percent more for the same thing.
- Daily counts are real. Carnival stops serving alcohol on the package after 15 drinks in a 24-hour period. If drink 16 was justifying the price, the line has thought of that.
- Exclusions are broad. Royal Caribbean’s package excludes room service, mini bar items, souvenir glassware, specialty beers listed on bar menus and anything sold inside licensed Starbucks stores.
- Packages cannot be shared or transferred on any line. Buying one for the drinker and passing drinks across the table gets it cancelled.
- Taxes can land on top. Carnival notes that state and local taxes may still apply on some US itineraries.
- Do not count drinks you would never buy. A package that throws in bottled water and specialty coffee is worth only the coffee you would genuinely have paid for.
When is the package genuinely worth buying?
Buy it when your honest daily count clears the break-even on every day of the sailing, not on your best day. Buy it when everyone of drinking age in the cabin drinks at about the same rate, because the all-adults rule prices the abstainer at full fare. Buy it when the cap sits above the drinks you order.
One respectable reason remains to buy a package you will not quite break even on. A fixed price turns a variable bill into a known one. Paying $10 a day for that certainty is a decision. Paying $40 a day for it is a mistake.
The same test applies to any prepaid all-you-can-consume deal. We ran it on resorts in the all-inclusive break-even, and the drinks line works the same way there. If you are costing the trip as a whole, start with what a cruise actually costs per day.
Frequently asked questions
Can one person in a two-adult cabin buy the package?
Not on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Celebrity or Holland America. All four require every guest of legal drinking age in the stateroom to buy the same package. Princess is the outlier: its packages attach to guests 1 and 2, and guests 3 and 4 need not match.
Does the package work when the ship is in port?
At the ship’s own bars, yes, and the daily charge runs even on a day you never board. Ashore it depends on who runs the bar. A venue operated by the cruise line at its private destination is usually covered. A bar in town is not.
Can I remove the gratuity on the package?
Royal Caribbean says gratuities may be modified at the guest’s sole discretion at Guest Relations, before the morning of disembarkation. Princess states plainly that its 20% service charge on optional purchases is nonrefundable. Do not build a break-even on clawing it back.
What if I only want soda and coffee?
Buy the non-alcoholic package. Carnival’s Bottomless Bubbles soda programme is $9.50 per adult per day and $6.95 for children, and Cheers Zero Proof is $29.99 per person per day. Against $83.94 all in, that is the whole decision.
Is a package sale price actually a discount?
Sometimes. Where the line publishes a fixed rate, as Carnival and Princess do, the pre-cruise price genuinely undercuts the onboard one. Where the price is set per sailing, as on Royal Caribbean, a banner claiming a reduction is measured against a number you never saw. Screenshot the price when you first look, then judge the sale against that.
Which line is cheapest for a moderate drinker?
Virgin Voyages, on published prices. It sells no package, prices beer at $7 to $9 and a basic cocktail at $11 with the tip included, and lets you prepay a Bar Tab for bonus credit. Three drinks a day there costs less than any big-line package breaks even at.
Sources: Carnival Cheers package terms and drink packages pages (carnival.com); Royal Caribbean beverage package FAQs on inclusions, the stateroom purchase rule and gratuities, and its 2026 beverage package flyer (royalcaribbean.com); Princess Plus and Premier package pages and the Crew Appreciation and Service Charge policy (princess.com); Celebrity Cruises beverage package FAQs (celebritycruises.com); Holland America beverage package FAQ (hollandamerica.com); MSC Cruises drink packages page (msccruisesusa.com); Virgin Voyages drinks and Bar Tab pages (virginvoyages.com). The Norwegian figure of $30 per person per day for sailings up to seven nights is reported by trade press describing the More at Sea booking flow, not published by the line, and is marked as such above.
Researched from primary sources and checked September 2026. General information, not advice.
