Cruise drink packages are advertised as free, and the gratuity line on your invoice is how they find out they are not. Norwegian's "Free at Sea" - sometimes "Free At Sea Plus" - includes an open bar, but the package gratuities that ride along with it can push the true cost past what you would spend drinking off a menu. Having run this math on more sailings than I care to admit, my answer to whether drink packages are worth it is now usually no - and the drinks I do buy have never felt like a restriction.
Norwegian advertises "Free at Sea" - or in some markets "More at Sea" - and the drink package is one of the headline perks: an open bar with cocktails, wine, beer, and soft drinks included, all week. The word "free" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, because the package gratuities are very much your responsibility. What the cruise line does is charge the service gratuity not on what the bar tab would realistically run for a guest like you, but on the package's theoretical list value - and that number is inflated. So it is not 20 percent on $60 a day. It is 20 percent on $100-something a day, which means the actual cash amount is way inflated. As of May 2026 the numbers look like this: Norwegian's beverage package gratuity runs $28.50 per person per day on sailings of six nights or longer, and it jumped to $32 per person per day on the short 2-5 night sailings. On a 7-night sailing for a couple, that is about $399 charged to your account before you have taken a single sip from a "free" bar. Norwegian only held its base daily service charge steady at $20 per person this year - there is no similar restraint on the package layer. The onboard average drink price runs around $15, and every individual check - whether you have a package or not - adds that 20 percent service charge plus tax. So two adults, a drink each at dinner, a couple of cocktails by the pool, a beer on the balcony: that is a realistic 6-8 drinks per day for a couple, roughly $90 a day all-in, or about $630 across the week. Congratulations - now the free package looks like a bargain. Except most people on most cruises aren't 8-drink-a-day guests, and the package price is per person for the entire sailing, with no half-week refund if you skip a day. If your real week looks like three or four drinks a day for two people - and be honest with yourself here, that is more drinks than most people think they will order - you are consuming in the range of what the package gratuity alone costs you. At that point you have paid a nuisance fee to be allowed to keep ordering, and the line has already banked your money whether you show up to use it or not. Norwegian is the loudest example, but it is far from the only structure worth reading carefully. Most of the major lines wrap a gratuity or service charge into their packages: Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Holland America all fold a gratuity into the per-day package price that you are charged whether your cocktail has arrived or not. And even where the package covers the drink itself, an 18-20 percent service charge still shows up on the receipt for premium a la carte pours - taxes, minibar items, and other non-covered items ride along too. Read the inclusion sheet before you buy, not after the charge hits your folio. These figures all shift season to season, so treat them as approximate and check the current terms for your sailing before you book. This has led me to abandon the drink package entirely, and as I have gotten older, I have become more comfortable doing so - having a drink package and feeling like I needed to get my money's worth is not a vacation attitude. Without the drink package, I feel less inclined to consume too much, because walking to the bar is a deliberate choice each time instead of a running tab you have already invested in. Why we picked it: adults-only, with tips and most dining included. Promoted by FlowAds The honest result across my last few cruises without a package: I never felt like I could not have a drink. I bought whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it. I ended up spending less, and I felt healthier, since I was also more sober the entire cruise. That last part is worth saying plainly, because Caribbean cruises can naturally skew toward overconsumption, and the same is true for short Baja cruises to Ensenada and Mexican Riviera sailings that start and end right here on the West Coast. All-inclusive games reward the guest who drinks the most; if you are not that guest, the house has already won before you board. Run your own numbers, and be brave about who you actually are as a drinker. If you are honest that it is two glasses of wine at dinner and a poolside beer most days, the package loses to a modest bar tab almost everywhere. If you are the guest who genuinely gets their quota in every day of a 7-night sailing, the math can still work for you even with the gratuities - the calculator does not judge. But generally speaking, cruise lines have made drink packages too expensive and deceptively priced, layering big gratuities under the word "free" and charging you on numbers you will never drink. So I just do not want to play that game - order what you like, when you like, and stay in control of both your vacation and the receipt. One more layer even the package buyers miss: the service charge on every drink does not reach the crew member who made your week better as a personal thank-you - that part is still on you, and six people beyond your room steward you should tip covers exactly that gap. And if the package-versus-tips-versus-envelope cash stack for your sailing makes your eyes cross, the cruise tip calculator on this site lets you model the package upgrade, its built-in perk gratuities, and the rest of your tipping budget in one place. And if you are looking at upcoming sailings and want a hand answering the package question for your specific itinerary - Heather Hills at Flow Voyages can help you book a cruise to Alaska, the Mexican Riviera, or anywhere along the Pacific coast, with the included packages priced out so there are no surprises on your folio. Thanks for reading. We hope this was helpful! Why stop now? Participate In Our Polls | Ask or Answer A Cruise Question | Contact Heather to Book Your Next Cruise!
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