‘Is the drink package worth it?’ might be one of the most common questions in cruising, and that’s for good reason.
Drink packages can be insanely expensive. A “cheap” package will run $70 per day, and that’s before the daily gratuity (sometimes called a service charge) is tacked on. This is a mandatory charge of usually 18-20% on the cost of a package.
So a $70 drink package with a 20% gratuity charge will be $84 per day. But that’s just for one person. Cruise lines require that if one adult in the cabin buys a drink package, then all adults have to buy it.
And then there is the fact that you have to buy the package for every day of the cruise. So if you want to take it easy for a day or you are in port, you’re still paying for the package.
That means a couple paying $84 per person, per day for a week-long cruise would pay a total of nearly $1,200 for the drink package during the course of their vacation.
That’s a high price to pay for anyone.
Estimates of What You’ll Drink Are Good, But Not Perfect
Drink packages are priced that high because, well, drinks are highly priced. It’s not unusual to pay $8 (plus gratuity!) for a beer. Cocktails? A “cheap” drink is $10 a glass, with many going in the $14 range, again, before gratuity. Even a soda can be $4 on the ship.
That’s why our usual advice is for cruise passengers to do the math on what they think they will drink each day and compare that to the cost of the package. In fact, we even put together a calculator you can use to quickly estimate what you’d spend based on what you drink.
But we’ll be honest, it can be hard to estimate what you will drink over the entire cruise. There may be some days where you have a lot and then other days that you take it easy. There are some days that you’re in port where the drink package doesn’t work until you’re back on the ship.
So you can do all the estimates and figuring and math that you want, but it’s actually hard to figure out exactly what you’ll spend until you actually take your trip.
Luckily, there is a very simple test we suggest if you’re on the fence about the drink package.
A 2-Second Test to Know if the Drink Package Is Worth the Money
If you’ve done the math or you just don’t want to bother but still want an idea if the drink package is worth it, then our advice is simple. You only need to consider how you feel when you hear that a drink package is offered.
If you’re someone that gets excited when you hear there is a drink package available, then it’s likely that the package will be worth it for you.
If you don’t care much when hearing you can have “all you can drink” or you are on the fence, then it’s more likely that you won’t get your money’s worth.
Now, we aren’t being judgemental here. However, there are some people that just aren’t on vacation without a drink in their hand. For them, drinking isn’t just a piece of the experience, it’s a main component of enjoying themselves.
For instance, Carnival has a 15-drink per day limit on their drink package. While we think that’s more than plenty for most people, we have received comments complaining that this figure is too low.
For the passengers that cruise like this, then the drink package is something that’s going to be well worth it.
People that aren’t as excited, however, will have a tougher time. Keep in mind that if a drink package is $70 per day (before gratuity) and beers are $8 each, then you need to drink nine beers a day to get your money’s worth. It would take six cocktails a day priced at $12 each every day of the cruise to break even.
We think those excited about a drink package would be able to meet those figures.
More on Drink Packages:
- How Much Drinks Cost on a Cruise
- Cruise Line Drink Package Calculator
- Worth It? 15 Cruise Drink Package Questions & Answers to Know
