Are drinks packages worth it?

I would say nearly all customers seem to ask about drinks packages, whether they are included or how much they can expect to pay for them onboard there chosen cruise ship and the answer varies massively.

Some cruise liners are all inclusive as standard now, such as NCL cruises who decided to take the plunge and include drinks as standard which is fantastic, along with the new Thomson’s TUI Discovery ships and of course luxury cruise liners.

But form time to time many other cruise liners offer a ‘free’ all inclusive package as part of a deal or promotion and you can expect to see this form time to time with Royal Caribbean and celebrity cruises, Thomson and Fred olden , and even MSC cruises too.

It really does make a difference to your onboard account if you have a drinks package included, your literally wiping 000’s of your onboard bill especially if your on a  longer 14 night sailing! Although sometimes these free packages can be fairly limited, for instance on my recent Celebrity Eclipse cruise it included a free standard drinks package but the options were limited on what was included but for $12 per day more we could up this to the classic package which include a much wider variety of alcoholic drinks so we opted to pay the difference. Other draw backs you can find are they may only include local brand spirits and not the top shelf well known brands.

There are certain cruise liners you can expect to never find a all inclusive package on whether free or payable which are P&O and Cunard cruises, they do not offer or promote any kind of ‘all inclusive’ add on.

If you decide to pay for a drinks package prices can vary extensively, for instance Fred Olsen offer a drinks add on for £10 a day, MSC charge £21 per day, but Royal Caribbean and Celebrity can charge around $55 per day !

Do you have any good or bad experiences on cruise ship drinks packages? Let me know!