Is the cruise drink package worth it?
No hype and no sales pitch — just the math, run with your own numbers.
It’s worth it if your honest daily bar tab would beat the package’s daily price — and it isn’t if it wouldn’t. Nobody behind a sales desk can answer it for you, but the math takes two minutes. Here’s how to run it.
The drink package is the most debated purchase in cruising, and both camps argue like it’s a personality trait. It isn’t. It’s arithmetic with exactly two numbers in it — and one of those numbers only you know.
The only math that matters
Number one: what the package costs per day. Your line shows you that price when you book — multiply it by the number of days you’ll sail, and that’s the package’s true total.
Number two: what you’d actually spend per day paying as you go. Picture an honest vacation day — not your best day and not your worst. The morning coffee. A drink by the pool. Something with lunch. Wine at dinner. Maybe one more after the show. Add that day up at onboard prices, multiply by the same number of days, and compare the two totals. Whichever is smaller wins. That is the entire science of the drink package.
The package tends to win when…
- Most of your days are sea days. You’re on the ship, near the bars, from breakfast to the last show.
- You drink steadily across the day — not just a glass at dinner, but the coffee, the pool drink and the nightcap too.
- Half the value is not thinking about it. Never signing a tab or doing mental math for a week is worth real money to some travelers — count it honestly if it’s worth it to you.
Paying as you go tends to win when…
- Your itinerary is port-heavy. On port days you’re ashore for most of the day — but the package charges you for every day, port days included.
- You’re a light drinker. A glass of wine at dinner has never needed a package to make sense.
- The cabin math doesn’t work. Check your line’s fine print on whether everyone in the cabin has to buy in — if it does, run the math for the whole cabin, not just the person who drinks.
Run it before you book
Do this math at the kitchen table, not at the pool bar on day three. Write your two numbers down, compare them, and buy — or don’t — with your eyes open. Either answer can be the right one. The only wrong answer is the one you never actually calculated.
Sailings first, packages second
The package decision rides on the sailing. Find yours through our cruise door — the same price as booking direct; we checked — then run your drink math with the real numbers in front of you.
