This is such a niche topic, but can we combine our knowledge about the drinks packages on cruises? For those of you who are where I was ten minutes ago: it seems that cruises charge extra for drinks such as soda, interesting coffee (anything other than pouring it from a Church Fellowship Urn and adding your own cream and sugar), and booze. You can pay for those drinks individually, again and again all day long, or you can buy a “drinks package” where you pay a lump sum per day to cover a whole bunch of those drinks (usually unlimited in the case of soda and coffee, limited-but-nice-high-limit in the case of alcohol). The price is PER DAY, but cannot be different from day to day (that is, if you only drink on weekends, you cannot opt to pay for the alcohol package only on the weekend days). Which means it is ACTUALLY per-week.
There are LEVELS: I am not totally clear on this, but the gist seems to be that the lowest-price level is all the soda you can drink; the second-lowest is all the soda and specialty coffees you can drink; the third lowest is all the soda and specialty coffees and virtually all the lower-priced wine/cocktails you can drink (a nice high limit on the alcohol drinks, like 15/day); and the most expensive is all the soda and specialty coffees and virtually all the lower/higher-priced wine/cocktails you can drink (again, a nice high limit on the alcohol drinks, like 15/day). My assumption is that the alcohol drinks on cruises are NOT AT ALL strong, if the limit is 15/day. But I don’t know; I could be wrong. This is one of the many areas where the experienced among us could offer their expertise.
I am someone who enjoys drinking, especially on vacation/holidays, and also I find it very difficult to pay $8/$10/$12/$16/whatever for a drink. (One of the ways Paul Served My Interests on our recent road-trip is by continually encouraging me to order a drink at dinner, and even a SECOND drink since he was driving, and further indulging me by saying things like “Sure, you’re right, this is too expensive for Usual—but we don’t usually do this. This is a special situation.”) So FOR ME, there is significant value in buying a drinks package that means I have an auto-Paul and DON’T HAVE TO THINK/FRET ABOUT IT. FOR ME, the no-brainer option is the drinks package, EVEN IF the math does not work out in the end. (Though I would plan to keep track of it on the first cruise, and use that information to inform future cruises—because I can also imagine working well with a self-managed Generous Drinks Budget, with the knowledge that the amount I was spending was Less Overall.) Also: the boozy-drinks package includes the sodas and special coffees, which I would enjoy but would find it difficult to pay extra for: I’m not paying $4 for diet Coke if I can have water for free; I’m not paying $7 for a fancy coffee drink if I can have a regular coffee for free. Ordering the drinks package is a sensible choice, FOR ME, in terms of VACATION ENJOYMENT/RELAXATION/INDULGENCE. My guess is that ME getting that package would also have significant value to Paul, to give him a break from the Support Role; and indeed, he not only supports the idea of me getting the Highest Drinks Package, he actively encourages it.
Here is my MAIN ISSUE: passengers have to buy the same package as everyone in their cabin. So Paul and I are REQUIRED to choose the same path. But Paul BARELY drinks. Sure, he will have a beer. He might have a cocktail if he doesn’t have a beer and we are on vacation / out for our anniversary. And he DOES NOT AT ALL think/fret about the cost if he wants a beer/cocktail. So FOR HIM, the boozy-drinks-included package is an UTTER WASTE: he would buy exactly the number of drinks he wanted to buy, without giving it a single thought, and he would never buy enough of them to be worth it. With soda and coffee drinks, he would literally never think of the price, he would buy exactly as many as he wanted—but he would buy many, Many, MANY more of those than of alcohol drinks. For him, the all-you-can-drink soda package, or more likely the all-you-can-drink-soda-and-coffee package, would be MUCH WISER deals. But even though we are very, very different, we have to choose the same package.
I am obviously going to have to math this out, because what the cruise seems to be asking me is if I can drink enough for almost-two. And NO I CANNOT. But there are other factors, such as the aforementioned Anxious Frugality: WILL I order the number of drinks (soda/coffee/alcohol) that I would like to have, if I have to think of the price every single time? Also: Paul drinks lots and lots of soda and coffee, so he is going to want the unlimited-soda(/coffee) package, and that’s about a third of the price of the unlimited-all-drinks package, so the price of that package cancels out of the price of the larger package (i.e., if the all-inclusive package is $60, and he would have bought the $20 soda package regardless, the all-inclusive package is only $40 more, not $60; and if the soda/coffee combined package is $30, then the all-inclusive package is only $30 more, not $60); and also my Anxious Frugality applies to other people in my party ordering multiple $4 sodas and $7 coffees per day—however much I would LIKE to mirror the support I receive. And actually, it is likely if he ordered just the soda/coffee he wanted in a day, with no package deal, he would EXCEED the price of the alcohol drinks I would order. And I think he(/ANYONE) would appreciate me NOT looking sideways at every soda/coffee drink order. You see how quickly this gets complicated. But the cost of the daily all-inclusive alcohol package!!! times two, when one of us barely drinks alcohol!!! Good heavens!!!
We have been on several cruises, and have bought the deluxe drink package before the cruise on each, after our first cruise. On that cruise, we bought the package after the first day, as it was a deal even though we didn’t get a discount on it. We have found that you can get as much as a 20% discount on the price if you purchase it before you depart. We are very social drinkers, and enjoy trying lots of different fruity drinks while hanging out in the pool, as well as having a glass or two of wine at dinner, and then fancy cocktails at the lounges in the evening. The fruity drinks are not as strong, but you need to be mindful of some of there others, or you will be the star of an Instagram video falling up the main staircase of the ship! Luckily, my husband and I are similar categories of drinkers, so it is worth it. We also drink soda and fancy coffees, but the package only applies to the ship coffee shop. If the ship also has a Starbucks, that is not included in the drink package. Maybe you can think of it this way: by not getting the deluxe for both of you (and saving $30 each), you can enjoy whatever boozy drink you would like because while you will have to pay for them, you won’t be drinking $60 of drinks/day, so you are still saving money since you didn’t buy the 2 deluxe packages and “waste” the money.
This! Take the difference between the two-person Soda/Coffee Package and… use it to buy whatever else you want, per day. This may also give you a sense of whether you *can* do that or not, internally, since it’ll probably be somewhat similar to No Drinks Plan vs. Drinks Plan in general.
Also if it is day-to-day, I bet they also allow you to upgrade mid-cruise if you are simply… not getting things you really want and would enjoy and could afford because of the Plan not including those.
(that said, if it were not “whole cabin has to have the same package” thing, I’d vote for you getting the fancier one this time so as to just not think about it at all. I also have one of those stupid corners of my brain that needs an override or Cancel Sticker on it sometimes and I GET IT. There was one term in college where I *could* have skipped buying the unlimited bus pass and it might have worked out math-wise if I had used the bus a little less, which I could have… but I bought the bus pass simply so that I would not be trying to math out whether to catch a fortuitously-timed bus if it would “only” save me X numbers of blocks of walking, esp. given that number might differ if it were raining or if I was in a hurry or carrying groceries or tired or whatever. SO much better to just: either wait at a bus stop if the wait was worth it, or see bus fortuitously going correct direction at correct time when randomly out and about, catch bus, exit bus when close enough to destination no matter how short a trip that was, done. Exactly zero “is three blocks really worth $1.25? not usually, but it’s uphill with groceries and I have a lot more to do today, does *that* make it worth it?” mental space! Only the normal “will it likely be faster to walk or wait for the bus?” mental probabilities for trips that were short enough, which is… much more doable than the more complex “but each ride COSTS real MONEY” math.)(then I had tighter financial circumstances for several years and would not have gotten the unlimited bus pass if it had still been available as a non-student, but: that is also how Tight Budgets work and that’s fine [although it’d be neat if we could work out societal ways of reducing decision fatigue for those who have to live with tight budgets and who are not healthy 20-somethings with a lot of time and no major responsibilities]. The Era of Deboning My Own Chicken Breasts was worth it in many ways, but also I was glad when that era ended because I was earning enough per hour to make Work more remunerative than Deboning Chicken Breasts per hour.)(to be honest, we mostly just did not have meals requiring deboned chicken breasts in those years because I hated the task, BUT it was a good marker for me of time/money tradeoff.)
Check out Emma Cruises! Despite my never having gone on a cruise, I somehow started getting recommended cruise videos on YouTube. Emma from Emma Cruises is frugal and has been cruising for years. I’m sure there are others with good tips, this is just the person I’ve seen. https://emmacruises.com/buying-a-drinks-package-5-things-many-people-dont-realise-until-its-too-late/
Watching the videos has made me curious about cruising. I like the idea of traveling without having to deal with all of the logistics of getting from place to place.
If you buy early enough, you can get a drink package included at no charge. My husband doesn’t drink much but he likes his soda, I don’t drink much but I need my fancy coffee. You don’t need the top tier, that includes the fancy alcohol. Just get the second one from the top, the drinks are still perfectly good, just not top shelf. See if they have an early bird special. We’ve gotten that on both Holland America and Princess for reserving months in advance. Princess had fancy desserts included too, so we both made a point of visiting the gelato bar every day. I really liked that. I think we got free room service on Princess too, which was handy when we both came down with Covid.
Highly recommend working with a travel agent who can get you credits and freebies at no charge to you especially if you explain the dilemma. I think Emma Cruises (mentioned above) just opened a travel agency and I can also highly recommend Flair Travel (disclaimer, owner is my best friend) for this.
I personally did the math after my one and only drinks package experience and realized a la carte would be cheaper so now do that. But I also have no problem pretending Vacation Money Isn’t Real and buying without guilt, so in your shoes I’d probably just budget it in as being worth the peace of mind.
if you can afford the alcoholic drinks package for both of you without any hardship i would get that and think of it as including a No Anxiety About Drink Buying fee
You could purchase the unlimited soda coffee for each of you and allocate the additional money you would have spent on both getting the drinks package with alcohol to your personal alcohol budget. Then if this causes stress next time buy the full packages.
Yes, this. Buy each of you soda and fancy coffee, and then allocate either the price difference to the alcohol package (either just yours, as this seems like it would have been a no-brainer if you hadn’t both had to buy the same package, or his as well if it makes it less stressful) and that is your generous alcohol budget.
I wonder if it helps to think about the overall cost in anxiety/ stress of not buying a package. The cost of a cruise is already significant so adding a smaller charge to ensure that your stress is minimized and good vacation feelings maximized actually helps you get full value out of the cost of the cruise overall?
I’ve never been on a cruise before, so I have no helpful advice, but this is the sort of thing I love to create a spreadsheet for. But perhaps going into too much detail calculating likely costs of all the possible options would be too anxiety-inducing? Either way, Swistle, I’m looking forward to your cruise-related posting and to all your readers’ gems of advice!
If your cruise is after Thanksgiving, check for Black Friday sales on drink packages (and also excursions).
Hmmm.
Given what you describe about your and Paul’s preferences/decisions and my almost entirely lacking knowledge about anything cruise-related beyond what you have written here, I think in your shoes I would buy level 1 or level 2 and set aside the difference between that and level 3 or 4 as your “booze” budget. I would then label this decision a “pilot” and keep track of costs but only to know whether next time I should buy level 3 or level 4 (i.e. rather than starting at 3 or 4 and subsequently down-leveling on later cruises, I’d do the reverse).
Currently traveling in Ireland, where I will admit I am routinely ordering a half-pint of cider at dinner, which is way more alcohol than I usually drink (= almost none, I mean, not the half pint as a quantity itself but the fact that I am doing it NIGHTLY! Oh, the craziness!). But, I am drinking no other purchased beverages except that I do drink milk with some at-home meals (because! Cost! And the cider is cheap and tasty, compared to what’s readily available in the US. And on tap!). Meanwhile my hubby is buying (in addition to cider at dinner!) cans of coke at about $1.75 per can which, rationally, I know isn’t THAT expensive but still makes me cringe (also, he drinks a lot of those. I drink tap water.).
Other than that, we bought a french press after we got here so we can use the teapots our B&Bs/hotels provide to make decent coffee rather than the instant provided, because yuck. And your description — the Church Fellowship Urn — made me laugh. That’s exactly the right name for those things!
Oh … we are also buying about 1 latte each every other day or so, but again, they are well done and typically under $5 even after we sit at a table and get served, which is so nice — and definitely better than home.
So, yeah, I get the obsessing-about-the-price-of-beverages thing.
Not quite the same, but we went to an all-inclusive resort for our first vacation in 15 years. Alcohol was included and although my husband and I agreed that neither of us were actually drinking our “money’s worth”, it was awesome to not nickel and dime ourselves and feel like it was “free” every time we had a drink.
Most cruise lines, you can call and speak to a human on the telephone in order to allow the two of you in the same room to purchase different level packages – for example if one person does not drink alcohol, they can get the mid-tier package, but the other can get the top-tier package.
I like the idea of buying the drink package to reduce the anxiety about ordering each drink.
We just got back from our first cruise. We did not buy the drink package, as we are not big drinkers, neither alcohol nor soda. A few times we ordered something special to drink, but we spent less that way than we would have on the package. Sometimes I would have paid extra to get a super hot or even moderately hot cup of tea, but I don’t think that such a thing is to be had on a cruise, or indeed in many American restaurants.
I get vertigo easily (still feeling it, 7 days after getting off the ship) and knew I didn’t want to compound that with alcohol while on the cruise.
My brain has been thinking over the same conundrum for a cruise we have booked next year. We have cruised as a family before but only on Disney, which does not have drink packages. Next year we are going on a different line so we’re facing this decision for the first time. I usually like some drinks on vacation, but my husband does not drink at all. He enjoys fancy coffee drinks, but I hate coffee. We both drink soda frequently. I think my initial plan was to get the package for non-alcoholic drinks, and try to set my brain to allow myself to order a drink when I felt like it without feeling guilty about the price since it would be significantly less overall than booking the alcohol package. As much as I enjoy the freedom that a prepaid package provides my cost-conscious mind, I couldn’t justify paying the price for the alcohol package for someone who would get $0 value out of it.
However, we ended up moving from 4 people in one cabin to booking two separate cabins for our family for more space. We had to book the trip this way with my husband & son in one cabin, and my daughter and me in the other. Now I have the option to add the alcohol package for myself only, so while I thought I had come to a decision, I now have new factors to consider when deciding if it makes sense just for me.
I’ve been on three cruises and we’ve bought the drink package every time, despite the fact that I am not a heavy drinker and I absolutely feel like it was worth it (as long as you can afford it without inconvenient trade offs- like, if we had to choose a lower room category in order to afford the drink package, I probably wouldn’t do it). For me, it is a key part of the VACATION ENJOYMENT/RELAXATION/INDULGENCE. I also have Anxious Frugality and being able to abandon that while on vacation by prepaying for a package is 100% worth the cost. An added benefit for me was the fact that I like frozen drinks, which tend to melt. Paying a la carte, I would have been drinking each one down to the dregs to ‘get my money’s worth’, but with the drink package, I had no problem abandoning the last inch or so and getting a fresh one whenever I wanted. I was also much more likely to explore new drinks and/or not finish things I didn’t like instead of having the ‘well, I paid for it, I guess I have to drink it’ mindset. Obviously I’m intellectually aware that I’ve paid for it either way, but the mental shift of having it prepaid and not tallying the cost of each item was key to my enjoyment.
Life is short, get the package. I just bought a house and find it absolutely INSANE that folks will fret about a $10 trash can vs a $15 trash can after I had to spend tens of thousands on a down payment for a $450k home (which is not all that grand but reflects inflation and property values). I don’t want to sit in my expensive home hating my trash can if I could have bought the one with the lid I preferred for $5 more. Buy the package.
I am very reassured to see all the people who do Worth It or Not? math. My people!
We went on our first cruise this summer. My husband is a significant social drinker. I am a very light drinker. We both, however, very much want good coffee, and some non-alcoholic drinks. I also wanted our kids to be able to enjoy smoothies, drinks, etc without stress. So, I bought the non-alcoholic drink package and figured we’d pay for any alcoholic drinks. We were surprised to find neither of us felt much like alcohol on the trip. We bought one bottle of wine for a dinner and I think maybe two drinks all week. Vacation normally means more interest, not less, but not that week. Something about the movement of the ship perhaps? At any rate, I was pleased with my decision.
One latte – $4.50
One Shiraz – $7.45
Not once having to think about drink prices on vacation – Priceless.
Never been on a cruise. If my spouse wanted to discuss drink prices on vacay, tho, I’d likely lose my battle to not roll my eyes. I’ve heard the rooms are small on cruise ships. No eye rolls or drink stress will fit.
On my last cruise, I had the all-you-can-drink-of-everything package. I enjoyed several fancy coffees (a cappuccino at breakfast felt so indulgent), a handful of sodas, and I tried every themed cocktail at every bar. When I added it all up at the end, I think I about broke even with choosing to pay per drink. BUT if I had to pay for every drink, I wouldn’t have tried as many things. I wouldn’t have indulged in cappuccinos! I would’ve thought, hmm, I only really want a little bit of a mocha and not a whole one, so I shouldn’t get it. But I really enjoyed my 2/3 of a mocha! Get the package. Save yourself the math.
Very frequent cruiser here!
You didn’t say if the cruise was going to be just you and Paul or if any of the kids will be going too. If kids are going and you’re booking 2 rooms then the best solution is to book and adult and a kid in each room, then buying the drink package for just 1 room. If you’re booking just 1 room that’s when you have to figure out the math.
Buying drinks as you go, you can expect to pay $12-$17 for each cocktail and $7-$10 for each beer (including gratuity). Specialty coffees, bottled water, sodas, etc go for $2-$6 each. On the cruise lines I travel with I know drinking just 1 specialty coffee, 2-3 waters and 4 cocktails is generally the break even point. I pretty much only drink while on vacation and I generally consume 6-10 cocktails a day. (Low end on port days, high end on sea days) I travel either solo or with another “cruise-only” drinker so for me the drink package makes sense. Some cruise lines have 2 tiers of drink packages, I only get the lower tier because I don’t care about getting the absolute top shelf liquor.
One nice thing about having the package is the freedom to try all sorts of drinks I wouldn’t otherwise pay to try. If I don’t like something I don’t feel any anxiety about wasting money on the drink and just move on to something else.
Feel free to message me if you have more questions about cruising – it’s my favorite way to vacation!
No specific opinion but popping in to say, I’ve only been on one cruise, when I was 15, and my brother was 12. We got the unlimited soda package, but on about day 3, my brother discovered he could order virgin margaritas to be delivered to his deck chair, poolside, and charge them to the room. Ala cart. THAT was a fun surprise for my mother on when she was settling the tab at the end of the week. 👀
We don’t get the package bc it is a bit on the absurdly expensive side, but I do order a drink at lunch and dinner (soda for lunch and cocktail ish for dinner) and don’t feel guilty about the price because it is significantly cheapr than if I had got the package lol. We cruise a lot and some cruise lines (ahem carnival) it is kinda a pain to get a soda. So we will just carry on some and then only order one a day.
Can I just add that this is one place where Some People have spoiled it for the rest of us? It used to be that you could just get the package you wanted for each person (I don’t drink at all, Matt likes a drink with dinner on vacation) and then too many people did that as a hack and ordered one package and both drank and now they make zero exceptions and it’s now the whole cabin has to be on the same plan. It was within the last five years or so that they went to the No Exceptions plan.
this may be too late to be helpful, but my cruise experience: i ABSOLUTELY made a spreadsheet up front using average drink prices, how much I expected me/hubs to drink per day, and then tried to make the decision on whether the all inclusive drink price was either better, or at least close enough to be worth the lack of hassle. My math came out to: it’s not worth it.
HOWEVERRRRR Chris very much did NOT want to think about paying per drink, so we went with the all-inclusive package anyway, and this is what I learned:
-I drank way more than I expected, ha. I assumed I would be more on the Paul Plan, but Vacation Alice (+being around Vacation Chris) meant I went way over my expected daily beverages.
-part of this is because it’s fine to try lots of fun drinks! if you don’t like the daily drink special, no worries! I didn’t feel compelled to grimly suck it down because otherwise I would have wasted the money – nope, just put it down and ask for something else! easy/breezy!
-i heard this anecdotally, and then also experienced it anecdotally: it’s easier & quicker to get drinks when you have the package, because they don’t have to have you sign for each drink (or something? I forget what the exact “reason” was)
anyhoo I ended up having no regrets, and would probably go w/the drink plan again now even though I drink even LESS than I did several years ago.
We’ve only cruised on American Cruise Line (so rivers, inside passage in Alaska, etc in America). They’re more expensive compared to the normal cruise costs, but they are considered all inclusive. There’s 1-4 free excursions per stop (besides paid ones). tips are included, drinks of all types are included as is all food, entertainment, etc. There’s no separate dining that has to be paid for & they do not have a pool, casino, nightclub or broadway shows,. We’re able to enjoy various entertainment throughout the day & every evening if we wish to stay onboard for whatever reason. (Also they will not leave without us if an excursion they know we’re on does not get back on time.)
We’ve only taken 2 so far, but have 4 more booked. So we drink a little more then normal, try foods that we would never have paid in a restaurant for (not knowing if we’d enjoy it) & enjoy the trip. A heavy night of alcohol drinking is maybe 3-4 drinks & we’d never do that nightly. But yes, drinking soda all day if we’re aboard ship, would be common. I know this doesn’t help you decide about the drink package, but if anyone is looking to cruise & thinks that making these decisions sounds complicated, maybe they will check out American Cruise Line. (So far, I believe their largest ship hold 300 guests.)