While cruises offer an all-inclusive vacation experience, the "all" part does not include drinks on most Royal Caribbean International (RCL), Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) cruises. Your basic cruise fare includes meals in a variety of restaurants, but if you want anything other than very basic drinks (water, milk, coffee, tea, and some not-juice juices) you end up paying extra,
You can pay as you go on an a la carte basis, but many customers opt for an all-inclusive drink package which means something different on each cruise line.
Carnival's Cheers! all-you-can drink package recently had its price go up to $59.95 per person, per day plus 18% service charge if you purchase before your cruise. Passengers who wait to make the purchase onboard will pay $64.95 per person, per day plus 18% service charge. Carnival also places a 15-drink limit on passengers when it comes to alcoholic beverage.
Royal Caribbean's Deluxe Beverage Package comes with all the alcohol you can safely consume (there is no limit, but visibly impaired passengers won't be served), but it has no fixed price. What you pay per day can vary from under $60 to around $100 per day depending upon the length of your cruise and overall demand.
Norwegian, which charges even more for its drink packages recently raised prices and now, it's doing something customers looking for a deal won't like at all.
Carnival
Norwegian Cruise Line Drops a Drink Package
Norwegian charges the most for its drink packages and those prices have actually recently gone up. The cruise line offers the Unlimited Open Bar Package, which includes all drinks up to $15, now costs $109 per person per day (up from $99). The Premium Plus Beverage Package, which includes pretty much every drink the cruise line serves, has climbed from $128 to $138 per person per day.
The cruise line did, however, have a cheaper alternative. It offered a "Corks and Caps" package for $65 per passenger per day which included beer and wine, but no hard liquor. The cruise line has not made any comment on the change, but it has taken the beer and wine drinks package off of its website.
Norwegian does bundle drink packages with some of its cruise fares as part of its "Free at Sea" deals.
MSC May Offer the Best Drink Deals
MSC, which has been trying to make inroads in the U.S. market may have the best deal when it comes to beverage packages. The cruise line actually has three separate alcoholic beverage packages:
- Easy Package: This one offers limited beer, wine, and hard liquor choices, but if you're not picky, it's unlimited and you can get well versions of most drinks
- Easy Plus Package: This package includes any drink up to $9 (which includes a surprising amount of drinks)
- Premium Extra Package: Basically, this includes anything except really fancy liquor.
MSC has by far the best deal of any of the three cruise lines with the Easy Package coming in at $38 per person, per day while the Easy Plus Package costs $51 per person, per day. The Premium Extra Package, at $71 per person, per day comes in slightly higher than what you would pay for Carnival's package and in-line with the normal range for what Royal Caribbean charges (although it can be more or less depending upon your cruise).
