If you love your Starbucks or your daily sodas on your Norwegian cruise, then be prepared to open your wallet a little bit wider.
The cruise line offers two “all you can drink” packages that focus on these two beverages, and both are jumping in price, up to 27% in one case. We noticed the change on the Norwegian Cruise Line website.
The cruise line’s Unlimited Soda Package — which includes “endless fountain soda throughout your cruise” — was priced at $9.95 per day.
Now, updated pricing shows a cost of $12.50 per day. That’s an increase of $2.55 per day for the offer, or more than 25%.
In addition, NCL charges a 20% gratuity on the cost, so passengers will now pay a total of $15.00 per day for unlimited soda. Over the course of a 7-day cruise, the cost of the package jumps from $83.58 in total to $105.00 — or more than $21.
Note that this soda package last increased in price from $7.95 to $9.95 per day in 2022.
However, the increase on the Unlimited Starbucks Package comes out to even more. This offer gives you all the Starbucks you want each day of your cruise.
Previously, this package was priced at $12.95 per day, plus a 20% gratuity. Now the NCL website shows a higher price of $16.50 per day or $19.80 after the gratuity charge is included. That’s an increase of more than 27%.
This means the total cost jumps from $108.78 to $138.60 for the package on a 7-day cruise, or nearly $30.
A History of Pushing Prices Higher
Following the return from the pandemic, cruise lines across the board increased prices for many items, including everything from drink packages to gratuities to wi-fi packages.
Even so, Norwegian is known for pricing these items higher than most. For instance, it has some of the highest gratuity charges of the mainstream cruise lines. And while the line normally offers a special with the basic drink package as part of the cruise fare, it’s priced at $109 per day (before gratuity) if bought separately, which is one of the highest rates you’ll find.
That history makes it less surprising that NCL is pushing prices higher with the soda and Starbucks packages. In fact, we plan to continue watching prices for other packages and gratuities to see if other increases are on the way.
For the time being, if you’re a soda or coffee drinker on NCL, then be ready to shell out more money.
I saw the price increase today for my 5-day cruise this fall. I was contemplating adding the Starbucks drink package, and with that price point, it’s a definite NO now. I’ll use my gold card (gift card and earn stars.)