In case you didn’t know it already, we really like beer and wine, and we really like eating great meals while drinking beer and wine. So when we were preparing for our Celebrity cruise, we knew we would need to purchase a beverage package to make sure we didn’t have to nickle and dime ourselves to death every time we wanted a glass of wine.
But our biggest question is the beverage package worth it – and possibly even upgrading to the premium package – Would it be worth the money? You may be wondering that too. It’s one of the trickiest decisions to make because wading through the details of the packages can be daunting. And let’s be real here – it’s expensive, especially when you’ve already shelled out the money for the cruise itself.
If you’re a regular cruiser, maybe you’ve already figured this out, but for us newbies, deciding what to spend your money on while on board is a bit of a mystery. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up paying more than you bargained for when the bill comes at the end of the cruise.
See what we learned from booking our first cruise. But how do you decide when you don’t know what everything costs or how much you’ll actually be drinking on board? That’s why we decided to keep track of all our beverage purchases on board to see how they added up.
This should give you some perspective on whether the beverage package is worth it. Read on to find out what we learned. Also see our recommendations on specialty dining onboard.
Additional reading:
→ Make your cruise planning easier with these helpful apps.
→ Read our guide to booking your first cruise.
→ Read about Scandinavian cruises, Caribbean Cruises or Northern Europe cruises.
What are the Various Beverage Packages?
First of all, let’s look at what each beverage package covers and what the prices are for each. Remember that cruise companies don’t all have the same plans or the same coverage, so you’ll need to consult your cruise guide for specific information.
Here’s a handy guide from Frommers with many of the top cruise lines covered – but the prices are slightly out of date. We were on a Celebrity cruise, so we will be speaking specifically about Celebrity’s beverage plans here.
There are four main Celebrity beverage packages, along with a few other outlying options.
- Classic Non-Alcoholic Package
- Premium Non-Alcoholic Package
- Classic Package (with alcohol)
- Premium Package (with alcohol)
Classic Non-Alcoholic Package
This package allows you to drink any canned or fountain sodas on offer, which are all Coke products. You can also get fresh and bottled juices, premium coffees and teas, and non-premium bottled water.
The cost of this package is $18.00 per night.
Premium Non-Alcoholic Package
The premium non-alcohol package includes all of the items mentioned in the classic package, but adds additional soda choices, specialty coffees and teas, premium bottled water from Evian, Perrier and San Pellegrino, frozen drinks and smoothies, Red Bull and specialty waters from Vitamin Water.
If you prefer to drink higher-quality bottled water or specialty coffees, then you’d probably want to upgrade to this package. We have a friend who drinks specialty coffee every morning along with a smoothie, so she would benefit from this package because the upgrade is only $4/day and the difference in cost of the coffee & smoothie is more than that.
The cost of this package is $22.00 per night.
Classic Package
This is where we get to the good stuff. Also the expensive stuff. Also the confusing stuff. The Classic package covers certain alcohol choices, but you have to be very careful with your ordering so you don’t go over the limits. You can choose from beers, spirits, cocktails, liqueurs, frozen drinks and wine-by-the-glass up to $9 (you’ll be charged the difference if you go over $9).
You’ll also get a 15% discount on all wines by the bottle purchased on board, even bottles from the Reserve & Rare Wine lists, though I’m not sure why you’d do that, since you can already get as many glasses as you want individually. If you were picky enough to need a bottle list, then the classic package is not for you.
The cost of this package is $55.00 a night.
Premium Package
This is the king of all packages. With the premium package, you pretty much have free reign over what you’re drinking. However, there are still some specifications you have to follow to avoid overages. In this package, you can choose from craft beers, top-shelf spirits, premium cocktails and wines-by-the-glass up to $13.
Craft cocktails, martinis and cocktails from the Molecular Bar are all included. You’ll get a 20% discount on all wines by the bottle purchased on board, including bottles from the Reserve & Rare Wine lists.
While this sounds like it covers almost everything, and it does for the most part, there are still drinks that exceed the $13 limit. However, you will only have to pay the difference in price between the two, rather than the entire cost. So if you purchase an $18 glass of wine, you’ll pay just $5 for it, not $18.
The cost of this package is $65.00 a night.
What Do Most Drinks Cost?
One very important consideration is how much each drink costs. That’s the only way to determine if you can easily stay under the price point.
It’s fairly easy to distinguish between the non-alcohol packages because it really just depends on the quality and selection of non-alcoholic drinks you’re looking for – there’s no additional cost involved, so moving forward, I’ll only be discussing the alcoholic beverage packages on Celebrity.
Here is a cost break-down of most drinks you can purchase on board. These costs come from the Celebrity Silhouette 2017 sailing. (Remember that prices often change and may be different based on ship and itinerary).
Premium Water (Evian): $5.50
Premium Tea from Tea Forte (hot or iced): $5.50
Frozen Drinks & Smoothies: $4.50-8.50
Martinis: Most martinis were $12
Molecular cocktails: $13
Coffee: Standard espresso coffee drinks are $4 plus $2 for an extra shot of espresso if desired. This includes plain espresso, cappuccino, latte, and americano.
Beers: There was a fair selection of beer on the ship, but you couldn’t get every beer in every venue. If you have the classic package, you might have to frequent one specific venue to get the one or two beers that are covered by the package.
Cellar Masters had a pretty comprehensive list of beers, but the only ones covered at $6 or less were Bud Light and Estrella Lager. When you stretch the budget to $13, there are only two beers on the menu that aren’t covered – Nestbeer Hatachino Wood Aged IPA (Japan) for $26.50 in a 720 ml size and Fuller’s Vintage Ale 2011 (England) in a 500 ml size for $16.50.
This is an example of the beers available at Cellar Masters, but it’s pretty consistent. At each venue, there are 2-3 mass market beers under $6, with a majority under $13, and a few really special bottles over $13. You just have to check around and find the beer you like.
Wine by the glass: Each venue (bar, restaurant, lounge) on the ship has its own list of wines, so you can’t get the same wine at every place. I say this because we did find decent glasses of wine up to $9, but that $9 wine wasn’t available everywhere. Some, or perhaps most, venues didn’t have any glasses under $9.
Here is an example of the white and red wine list at Cellar Masters, which has the largest selection of wine on board. From this list you can see there was 1 sparkling, 2 whites and 1 red that were included in the classic package. With the premium package, there was 1 sparkling, 7 whites and 8 reds to choose from.
At most of the specialty dining restaurants (except Murano), there were one or two choices for $9 and a handful of choices under $13. If you allowed the sommelier to choose your wines (as we did) you may receive one or two that are over $13, so if you’re opposed to going over, you’d want to tell them in advance.
We occasionally were given glasses with up-charges, from $14-18 a glass, which was not a big deal to us because we only had to pay the difference, and the quality of the wine was usually significantly better.
Liquors: Many liquors are included in the Classic Package and you won’t have a problem ordering a well drink, like a Rum & Coke or a Gin & Tonic, as long as you aren’t picky with your brand. Most top-shelf liquors are not included in the classic package, but are included in the premium.
Here is a list of liquors in each category (there are also other drinks included on this list if you’re curious).
Ways to Save on a Beverage Package
So, we’ve discovered that the beverage packages are a little pricey. If you were to purchase it out-of-pocket, it would be a hefty addition to your cruise fare. There are ways to mitigate the cost of the packages, if you’re a savvy shopper.
1. Get a deal from the cruise line
When we booked our cruise, Celebrity was running their famous 1-2-3 GO! promotion, which allows you to choose from a variety of perks. If you book an oceanview stateroom or higher, you are eligible to choose one of three offers. Low and behold, beverage packages are one of the offers.
If you choose it, you will get the classic beverage package for two with beverage gratuities covered by Celebrity. This is a $110/per day value (129.80 when you add in the gratuities they are paying for you). The other options are free gratuities (up to a $32.90/per day value – depending on your stateroom), and up to $300 on-board credit (depending on the length of your cruise).
And if you’re sailing to Europe, you can choose two offers! If you drink alcohol and want to enjoy ordering drinks without having to worry about signing for them every single time, the classic package offer will save you a ton of money.
You would have to be drinking more than a glass or two a day to make it truly worth it, but combined with all the other drinks that are included (specialty coffees, teas, water, etc), it’s a huge perk. On a 7-day cruise, it’s a $770 value and on a 12-day cruise, it’s a $1320 value.
2. Book through a travel agent offering exclusive deals
Many travel agents offer their own incentives to sweeten the deal for their clients. This can come in many forms. We were offered an additional $75 on board credit, plus they gave us whatever the third Celebrity offer was that we did not pick.
So, based on value, we chose the beverage package and the free gratuities from the 1-2-3 GO promotion, and our travel agent gave us the $300 on board credit as an additional perk (plus $75 more on board credit). I’ve also seen travel agents give beverage packages as perks and upgrade packages to premium as well. It pays to shop around.
What’s the Verdict? Is the Beverage Package Worth It?
We were given the Classic Beverage Package by Celebrity for free as a perk, but we decided to go ahead and upgrade to the Premium Beverage Package so that we could do the research and see if the package was worthwhile and if we could actually get our money’s worth out of it.
The cost of the Celebrity Classic beverage package for a 12-day cruise is $660/per person, so $1320 for both of us. The cost of the Premium package is $780/per person, so $1560 for both of us. We only paid the difference, which was $10/per day per person plus the 18% gratuities that are added to the purchase price.
Our total out-of-pocket cost was $283.20. If we hadn’t gotten the initial package for free, our total out-of-pocket cost would have been $1794. Could we really drink enough to get our $1,794 worth? That’s a pretty tall order. Especially since we were in a port almost every day, with only 2 sea days.
Would that allow enough opportunity to get the most from the beverage package? There was only one way to find out. So we diligently recorded every single drink we consumed on board for the entire 12 days of our cruise.
The Beverage Breakdown
As you can imagine, the best day for getting your money’s worth from a beverage package is a sea day. You’re on board the whole day and with nothing better to do, you’ll probably opt for a leisurely breakfast with mimosas, sitting by the pool sipping frozen drinks, reading a book in the library with a glass of wine, a pre-dinner cocktail and maybe a glass or two of wine at dinner.
Don’t forget the water, tea and coffee you will also likely drink throughout the day.
Here is what a typical sea day looked like for us:
| 2 Evian water | 11.00 |
| 2 Mimosas | 15.00 |
| 2 iced teas | 11.00 |
| 1 beer | 11.00 |
| 2 glasses Champagne | 18.00 |
| 3 glasses wine w/lunch | 27.50 |
| 7 glasses wine w/dinner | 97.00 |
| 2 cocktails | 24.00 |
| 1 port | 14.50 |
| 1 lemoncello | 9.00 |
| Total: 23 Drinks | Total: $238.00 |
If every day had been a sea day, we would have spent $2856, surpassing the break-even line by $1,062. Of course, not every day was a sea day. We had some days where we weren’t on the ship for any meal, like in Copenhagen, where we didn’t re-board the ship until 10pm.
We also had, sadly, two days where I was not feeling well and stayed in my cabin most of the day. Here is one of our lowest beverage-consumption days for comparison sake.
| 1 Evian water | 5.50 |
| 1 hot tea | 4.50 |
| 1 beer | 9.00 |
| 1 glass wine | 27.50 |
| 1 cocktail | 13.00 |
| Total: 5 Drinks | Total: $44.50 |
If this is all you drank in a typical day, even the classic package would not be worth it for one person, because you wouldn’t have spent the $55 minimum to break even. Most days, we fell somewhere in between these two extremes.
Over the course of our 12-day cruise, we consumed a total of 173 drinks. I kept very detailed notes of how much each drink cost and whether it was covered under the classic package or if we needed the premium package to cover it.
The most interesting part of this whole breakdown is that 115 of the 173 drinks we had were NOT covered with the classic beverage package. We had to have the premium package to order them without paying the full cost of each item.
| Drink | Drinks Consumed | A la Carte Costs | Total Costs |
| Evian Bottled Water | 20 | 5.50 | 110.00 |
| Hot/Iced Tea | 13 | 4.50-5.50 | 64.50 |
| Soda | 1 | 3.50 | 3.50 |
| Smoothies | 2 | 5.50 | 11.00 |
| Beer | 7 | 8.00-12.50 | 54.50 |
| Wine | 70 | 8.00-18.50 | 757.50 |
| Cocktails | 32 | 12.00 | 384.00 |
| After-dinner drinks | 23 | 8.00-$10.50 | 278.50 |
| Champagne | 5 | 9.00 | 45.00 |
| Total Drinks | 173 | 1708.50 |
We drank a total of $1708.50 worth of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. As you recall, the full cost of the premium beverage package was $1794. So, we fell $85.50 short of getting our money’s worth from the package.
I was actually surprised by that outcome, because we’d read the breakdown of the Celebrity beverage package by our friends at EatSleepCruise.com and they actually managed to come out ahead.
They were on a 7-day cruise, where the cost of the package would have been $826 and they managed to spend $990. From their list, it looks like their drink of choice was martinis and molecular cocktails, which are the highest-priced drinks you can buy without exceeding the limit, so that explains the difference.
We mostly drank wine, which ranged from $9-11 on average. We also didn’t purchase much water. The takeaway here is that you have to drink a fair amount of alcohol to get your money’s worth from a beverage package, especially the Premium beverage package, if you’re paying the full cost for it, out-of-pocket.
We didn’t overdo it by our typical vacation standards, but for some people the amount of wine and cocktails we consumed would definitely be overdoing it. You don’t want to spoil your vacation by being drunk the whole time.
And you can’t possibly consume enough water, coffee and tea to compensate for less alcohol. Since we didn’t pay for the classic package, we actually came out WAY AHEAD, even though we didn’t break even with the true cost. We drank $1,708 worth, but only paid $283. HUGE win for us.
We saved $1,425 dollars by upgrading to the premium beverage package. Upgrading was the obvious choice for us too, because most of the drinks we ordered would not have been covered under the classic plan.
Additional Thoughts
- One of the things we really liked about having the premium beverage package on Celebrity was that we could have wine pairings with our meals, which is something we really enjoy and makes dinner feel more special. At the beginning of our meal, we’d just let the sommelier or server know that we had the premium package and would like to pair our courses with appropriate wines. They would usually inquire into what types of wine we liked and then pair each course accordingly. Without the premium package, we would have ended up paying for every glass because there weren’t enough choices under $9.
- Something to consider when determining if a package is worth it is the gratuity that is added to each drink. An 18% service charge will be added to soda, wine and water when you purchase. All packages are also charged an 18% gratuity above the purchase price.
- Some people don’t care to shell out the money for an oceanview or higher stateroom, in which case the 1-2-3 GO! promotion doesn’t apply. If you wanted to know if the beverage package was worth the upgrade to a higher stateroom, you’d have to factor in the additional cost of the stateroom upgrade.
- You can purchase the package in advance or on board. It’s the same cost, no matter what. But one interesting thing to remember is that you can purchase the plan at any time during the cruise, for the remaining days. This can come in handy if there are a lot of port days early on where you won’t be drinking much. They will prorate the cost of the plan for the remaining days, which can end up saving you a lot. You cannot, however, cancel the package midway through.
- It’s always wise to consider how many sea days and port days you have. If it’s a port-heavy itinerary, you may be better off paying for drinks as you go.
- I know we spent more on drinks than we would have if we didn’t have the package, because it was easy to just hand over our sea pass to “pay” for it, and because we knew it was covered so we splurged more. If you want to be carefree about your drinking on a cruise, I highly recommend getting a package, even if you don’t come out ahead in the end. It makes for a much more relaxed and stress-free vacation.
Conclusion
Have you been on a cruise where you purchased the beverage package? What are your thoughts on the benefits and value of doing so? What do you think – is buying the beverage package worth it on a cruise?
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Laura Lynch, creator and writer of Savored Journeys, is an avid world traveler, certified wine expert, and international food specialist. She has written about travel and food for over 20 years and has visited over 75 countries. Her work has been published in numerous guidebooks, websites, and magazines.
Great post! I really enjoyed the detail. I do agree with you that one reason we came out ahead had to do with our drink choices. Our cruise was shorter, so it is questionable if we could have maintained our pace for 12 nights. Also, we are big coffee and bottled water drinkers, I guess we are just very thirsty! LOL. Anyway, great article and breakdown of the packages and your experiences. Can’t wait to read more about your cruise.
I don’t drink alcohol, so I checked out your comparisons for the non-alcoholic package. $18.00 per day??!!
I think I would just opt for tap water! (Is that even an option?)
Absolutely. It’s available as well as Iced Tea lemonade. Hot tea and coffe available all day long
A very informative post! It’s good they provide you with the option to purchase the plan anytime during the cruise. I think I would consider this with the Premium package.
Very informative, i like how you presented the details:)
Good article! Very detailed and helpful. Regardless whether the Beverage Package does save or not save money in the end, to me it seems like a nice opportunity to stop yourself from comparing prices and weight up how much you want to be granting yourself. I can definitely see the worth 🙂
I agree. We paid for the package long before our cruise, so the money part wasn’t even on our minds. We were just ordering what we wanted and enjoying it. The only reason I was aware of how much we were spending was for this little experiment, but that was worth it!
This has to be one of my favourite posts, it touches that little finance spot in me. The transparency is awesome and thank you for the in-depth analysis. I’m not much of a cruiser, but I’m actually astounded at how costly the beverage packages are. Thanks so much for this amazing post!!
Thanks! I wanted it to be as detailed as possible if we were going to embark on the research. It is pretty crazy how expensive it is, right?!
This is insanely researched to the last detail! Wow. You’re incredible! But then again, if there’s one thing my husband and I agree we should spare no expense on when we travel, it’s food and drink. (We’re gluttons. And we love our tipple).
There is no doubt the packages are weighed in the Cruise Lines favour. Taking into account days ashore etc you would have to be a fairly heavy drinker to gain any benefit from an alcoholic package. . each to there own but for casual drinker does not appear to be a viable proposition. Great article.
Yes, John, you’ve got that right! If you’re not a big drinker, you won’t benefit from having the package, unless the convenience is worth the money to you. Not having to sign for every drink is pretty appealing.
You can also purchase a bottle of wine at dinner and whatever you don’t consume, they will cork it and save it for the following night. Also, you can bring a small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages (we bring water) on board and one bottle of wine each when you emcark.
Nicole, those are very good points! If you don’t think you’re going to be drinking much, skipping the beverage package and going with a bottle or two of wine will definitely save you a ton of money.
Great post. We got the premium drink package on our recent cruise on Silhouette and found it to be very liberating.
Another benefit of the package (at least on Celebrity) is that your don’t have to sign the receipt. This greatly reduces the hassle of getting a drink.
I did notice that the bartenders became disappointed when they found out that you had a package. It also seemed like they would de-prioritize you against the other “paying” customers. I suspect that this is because they don’t have any upside potential from serving you.
That’s interesting, Jeff, that the bartenders seemed disappointed. I don’t think I noticed that, but I was too busy not having to sign for my drinks to notice probably. It’s so convenient!
Very helpful – an outstanding summary – making very clear the things that are hard to tell from the cruise line’s website. Knowing what we know now, we’ll be looking for a package included in the price, like in your article. You’ve warned us off going for the Standard or Classic packages – we’d spend the whole cruise looking at the drinks we couldn’t have! Your drinks count is not excessive, but we think we’ll probably stay well under that so will pay as we go. It’ll be interesting to see how we end up. I think we might spend more than the Classic package, but that’s because we’ll be sometimes drinking more expensive stuff. I like some of the hints on here, like taking a half-drunk bottle away for the next day.
Glad it’s helpful for you Matt. There are some things you need to know before you decide and I wasn’t able to find this info anywhere else. Have a great cruise.
Laura Lynch Thanks for breaking it all down I have a 13 day cruise followed by a 12 day cruise coming up in April. We chose a classic beverage package for the 2nd cruise as a perk (go better or go best perks). Do you know if the 18% gratuity is included in the perk? Do you pay 18% of the $55 per person per day or do you pay 18% of the actual drink price per day???? You said they didn’t have many choices of wine on the menu at night that were under $9 per glass but there were some right? Can you tell me if the speciality coffees after dinner were included in the classic beverage package? I guess I need to go over the list of drinks part of the classic package again.
The classic beverage package includes server gratuities. You should just be able to hand over your cruise pass for any drink under those costs and that will take care of everything. No need to pay additional gratuities. There were very few glasses under $9, even under $13, but I believe there was always at least 1, and if there wasn’t, you could request a glass from somewhere else. Check all the menus, find one or two you like under $9 and just ask for that wine everywhere you go. Premium coffees are included (unfortunately I don’t drink coffee so I don’t know what premium includes).
I also forgot to add another question but it has nothing to do with beverage packages. Does anyone on here recommend travel insurance company to go with? I figure with my husband and I older now and going out of the country for such a long time maybe we should look into travel protection. I am not so concerned about getting my money back if I have to cancel my trip at the last minute but concerned with expenses if something were to happen while we are on the trip. Medical coverage and transportation costs if we don’t make it back on the ship.
Kimberlee, check out this recent post regarding medical insurance. There are some recommendations in there. I do think it’s very important http://www.savoredjourneys.com/2016/01/deal-with-illness-and-injury-while-traveling/
On my last cruise on Norwegian’s Epic, people I met around the bars ‘bought’ me free drink after free drink.They were given beverage packages so they didn’t care. They would buy the drinkthen bring it over to where I was sitting, usually out on the pool deck. That was a cheap cruise for me.
That’s pretty awesome! Very nice of those other passengers.
Great Post! Could you tell me which travel agent you used? Would it be cheaper to book the cruise through the actual cruise line?
We used cruisedeals.com and got a few extras that only came through them, making it more worth our while to book through them. The prices fluctuate. Once you lock down the price, you should still watch it and then cancel and rebook if the price goes down.
Can you tell me please whether her the Standard package is worth getting
Doubtful – you get quite a limited selection (one wine, one beer, etc), and cannot choose a more expensive drink and pay the difference. You have to pay the full price of the drink. On our next cruise, we have the Standard package included in the price and will be upgrading to Premium (with Premium you do get to pay for the difference on more expensive drinks). On our last cruise, we didn’t have a drinks package and were fine. We were able to have a glass of wine with the meals, treat ourselves to cocktails most days, and still paid nowhere near the package prices. It’s actually quite hard work to keep up with the package price!!
Hi Matt!
You wrote:”You have to pay the full price of the drink”
I asked this directly from Celebrity. They replied:
“Regarding the Classic beverage package, you are absolutely correct. It includes beers, spirts, cocktails, liqueurs, frozen drinks, and wine by the glass up to $9 per service. To use your example, if a $10 glass of wine is ordered, you would be charged the overage amount of $1 plus 18% off that $1 (so actually $1.18 would be charged). ”
So the truth wasn’t as bad as one could have understood from your post.
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It doesn’t look like you added the 18% gratuity to the a la carte drink costs. My math would have you paying $2,016.03 if you didn’t have the premium package. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Great article!
I find the drink packages well worth it. I drink a lot of water, and getting bottles of Evian with my drinks was awesome. Trying new wines, different beers, and great martinis was fun without having to worry about how much we are spending.
Also, I never saw a bartender be “upset” with someone with a drink package. Most people seem to have it, and the few that didn’t, the bartenders usually reccomended them getting it.
Very good point, Scott. If you drink a lot of water, it’s a great deal to just be able to grab water whenever you want. I’m sure the bartenders appreciate the package so they don’t have to mess with payment and explaining drink prices all the time.
Thanks for this great article. We received the classic package as a freebie through our travel agent. We were debating upgrading – but you’ve convinced me we will – we like our wine, and it’s about $130 Canadian per person. We will get our value haha
Hi Maggie. Yes, if you will be drinking wine regularly with meals, you’re way better off upgrading. Just remember, there are still limits to which wines you can drink. So worth it though, not to have to fuss with paying.
Hi, we are travelling with celebrity next week, we have upgraded to premium and thanks for your thoughts and findings . May I ask, can you order drinks to your cabin on the premium package ?
Hi Tim, drinks ordered to your cabin on room service is not included in the package. Unfortunately, you have to get your drinks at one of the bars or restaurants.
Many thanks for that , hope we don’t spill too much 😀😀🍷🍷
Awesome article & well written. Thanks for that!
Thanks Susan.
One thing that confused me–why did you include iced tea and hot tea? Aren’t those free for everyone, package or no?
I have also been trying to find out whether frozen drinks like pina coladas are included with the classic, but I can’t seem to get a straight answer. Thanks!
Beth, unfortunately even water isn’t available to everyone. Iced tea is pretty exoensive depending on the venue. That’s why I showed the costs. They are not free.
I’ve found that the only drinks that are free are those available in the buffet dining areas. So if you want free drinks,you always have to trek there, from wherever you are to get them! It’s just not very convenient.
Frozen drinks are included in the classic package. Had them many times on Celebrity.
With regard to the statement that you can buy the beverage package later in the cruise at a pro-rated price, I asked this very question to Celebrity yesterday and was told on the phone you could. Then someone called me back the next day and told me that he was 120% sure it could not be done. Very very strange. I wish I knew the truth.
I personally side with the pers9n who called you back. I dont think you can buy it on board for prorated rate. It would be nice to get a straight answer.
Thanks for such a legitimate and thorough assessment of what is undoubtedly one of the biggest scams in this incredibly scam-a-licous, nickel and dime industry. You 100% validated everything we spent hours researching and learning on our own (if only we had found your article sooner!), especially about Celebrity cruises. It’s also worth noting that Celebrity’s per drink cost (for everything including coffee, water, beer, and wine) is nearly DOUBLE the cost of any other line (outrageous!). The biggest joke is that you have to pay for all days up front, and can’t do partial days (i.e., only those at sea) as they know you would catch on to the scam mid-cruise, when it’s too late to make a smart decision to opt-out. Anyway, thanks again for such great work on consumers’ behalf!
Thanks for your comment, Craig. I agree, they have a captive audience and can get away with charging high prices.
We are booked on Aqua Class and not sure if bottle drinks are given in the room. Are we allow to use our bottle to collect water from the restaurants ?
Angela, I know they give you bottled water in your cabin regularly in Aqua Class. But I’m afraid I don’t know if they’ll refill your bottles in the restaurants. My guess would be no.
Thank you for such an informative summary. We are taking our fist cruise in many year on the Celebrity Equinox at the end of July 2018. I was positioned to purchase the Premium drink package online at a 10% savings but noted they added a 17% service charge. I assume that’s in addition to the 18% gratuity. Do you know if I would be charged the same service charge if I waited until I boarded the ship to purchase a package.?
Kenny, I’m not sure where you see the 17% charge. There is always 18% added to bar bills and you’ll additionally pay the *suggested* tip amount per cabin per day at the end. But there isn’t a 17% charge in addition. My advice is to call Celebrity to purchase the package and they’ll explain all the charges. With the beverage package, it’s never cheaper to purchase on board.
Hi Laura what great research!. I don’t drink much at all, just the opposite for my man. Is it compulsory to buy 2 drinks packages per couple . can we purchase only one package? Thanks Julie
Hi Julie. You can purchase only one package, but it isn’t possible for 2 people to use 1 package.
Hi Laura
My husband drinks more than me and I’d probably have a cocktail at the pool and a glass of wine at dinner. Is it not possible to order two drinks at once under one name ie a beer and wine at dinner?
Can I make two trips to the pool bar for a cocktail one minute appart?
Any tips on how to get drinks for both on one package?
This is great! I’m going on my first cruise (only 4 days) and it’s super port-heavy. I’ve been trying to figure out if I should pay as I go or just do the basic alcoholic drink package and I’ve decided to pay for the drinks as I go, especially since I’d have to be choosing cheaper drinks if I chose the classic package anyway. It was really helpful the way you went through the details!
So glad it was helpful to your, Michaela. Enjoy your cruise!
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Hi undersided about drinks package if you were to have 4 beers and 4 gins would it be cheaper to pay as you go thank you
Do you mean per day? If you were to have 8 drinks per day, it would definitely be worthwhile to get the drinks package. The classic drinks package covers beers and house gin.
We are going on a Celebrity cruise to South east Asia soon. We don’t drink a lot of alcohol and are going on a lot of shore excusions. Is water included in soda drinks package? I assume tea/coffee included in cruise price.
Mary, yes water is included in the non-alcoholic drink package. You have to get the premium non package to add premium waters. If in Aqua class you also get 2 free premium water per day. Coffee and tea is included in cruise during meals, but specialty coffee and tea is extra outside mealtimes.
One thing you should also mention that I learned last time I cruised: if you get a complimentary classic package (either from the cruise line or from a travel agent), you can *upgrade* to the premium package for just the difference (10 dollars a night, which is actually 12 because they apply the gratuity to it). While I don’t think I’d ever drink enough to make the full 78 bucks a day worth it, you bet your *butt* it’s worth 12 bucks a day to go from the classic to the premium package. 🙂
I also learned that, at least when I asked a couple years ago, they were also completely willing to let me upgrade without my wife (which is good, because I can drink a lot, and my wife is a super lightweight.)
Durr, I noticed right after I posted that that you absolutely did say that, oops.
That’s actually exactly what we did and highly recommend, as you save quite a bit.
I believe you can only upgrade from the classic drinks package to the premium beverage package on the first or second day of any cruise. I do not believe that you can upgrade from day three on word at least this is what I was told by a travel agent. Can anyone confirm that? Thank you.
Steve you need to call Celebrity to be sure.
Dear Laura!
This was a very useful article! Thank you
There was one thing that you wrote.”We had to have the premium package to order them without paying the full cost of each item.”
I understood that Classic package holders would have to pay the whole $10(+18% ) for a glass of wine instead of only the $1 that is over the covered $9 limit. (If ordering a glass of $10 wine as an example)
I asked Celebrity and they wrote:
“Regarding the Classic beverage package, you are absolutely correct. It includes beers, spirts, cocktails, liqueurs, frozen drinks, and wine by the glass up to $9 per service. To use your example, if a $10 glass of wine is ordered, you would be charged the overage amount of $1 plus 18% off that $1 (so actually $1.18 would be charged). ”
So the truth was better than one was afraid for 🙂
Good overview. We try to book Celelbrity cruises when they offer the free Classic Package as an option, and agree that the selection of wines included are very few. We never drink enough to make it anything close to worthwhile if we bought it on our own though. The Premium upgarde may not be worth it if you’re primarily a wine drinker because the wines included up to $13 a glass are not much better. One thing I noticed in your drink itemization is that you had some glasses of wine over $9 or $13 – on the day you only had a few drinks, the 1 glass of wine is listed at $27.50. This would have triggered an upward to either drink package, so the cost of the packages should be increased to reflect these upcharges. But it is convenient!
Good point, thanks!
Thank you for doing all this legwork. We are in a dilemma because I don’t drink but hubby does and the perk applies to both in the room. I do drink lots of tea. So, we might just go for it. However, it’s worth it to call the travel agent / celebrity to see if you can add the drinks package for a discount (instead of the $60/day cost for 2019).
Yes, it’s always worth it to call and check. Since you won’t be drinking alcohol, $60/day is quite steep.
Nice work. We have gone both ways on two transatlantic crossings. Still debate whether to do premium on the next one! Packages definitely encourage more drinking, alcohol & otherwise. We drink a lot so can usually reach package levels if we want.
We did find that the 1\2 price specials worked out. We could buy a bottle of wine before dinner and get a second bottle free! We would then take the second to dinner.
Just took a cruise with Celebrity. (It was a good cruise) We purchased the Classic drink package. (up to $9 drink). We noticed that many people had drink packages. Two things we experienced, The bartenders at the bar were slow (not the same pace as a bar in the states where the quicker people are served, the more money is made). Not sure if this in intentional to slow the amount of drinks being served. Also In the evening hours, it became difficult to find bars that offered any drinks that were $9 or less. I guess when a cruise ship has sold a certain amount of beverage packages, it becomes a business decision to use tactics to limit the quantity of beverages being served.
Those are great observations, William. Thanks for sharing them. I’m sure they use tactics like that for exactly those reasons. I also found it difficult to find drinks under 9, if you didn’t want to have to pay the difference. Even with the premium package it was limited.
Laura, are you saying that the drink prices change (increase) in the evening?
is this on the Eclipse ?
Hi William, We ran this experiment on the Silhouette, but the prices are the same on the Eclipse.
Hi
Lopved your article.
I am travelling on Celebrity for the first time with hubby and he will have the premium package. I am usually a glass or two of wine with dinner person and maybe I cocktail .
My question is, can you share the bottles of wine at dinner purchased by hubby? we were able to do this on Princess Cruises.
Does he have the “wines by the bottle” package? In the premium beverage package, bottles of wine are 20% off regular price. He would be way better off ordering wine by the glass. And in that case, no it can’t be shared. You can sneak a sip here and there though.
I currently have the premium bev package for 2 of us and the non-alcoh one for 2 kids on princess (retails a total of $1321). They currently have a new deal where they give you more on board credit but no bev package.
currently, the cruise price is $7042 (includes taxes and gratuity and bev packages for 4) and $475 OBC so our net cost is $6567.
The new deal has the cruise price of $6838 (includes taxes and gratuity, NO bev packages) and $1005 OBC so our net cost is $5833.
So we would have an extra $734 OBC to use for drinks, spending, excursions, whatver.
Do you suggest we switch to the new deal with no bev package or keep the existing deal?
Thank you.
Ngan, I think it really depends on how much you intend to drink, what you prefer to drink, and how long the cruise is. If you’re not planning to drink a lot, maybe just a glass of wine with dinner and a premium coffee per day, then you’re probably better off going with the new deal. It won’t cost you that much to add on a few drinks. But if you’re planning to consume a lot of alcohol, it might not be worth it.
been trying to get all this information and tried everywhere jut about to give up and found this,
great information . well worth waiting for ,
will now upgrade to premium package ,
thanks,
You’re welcome, Paddy. Have fun.
Not sure if I missed it but it looked like your comparison of your final drink tally a la carte total did not include the gratuity where your package price total included it.
If that is correct you came out ahead.
Going on a 16 day South American cruise on the Eclipse and trying to figure out if I get the classic package. It looks like from some of your responses that it’s difficult to find drinks under 9 dollars that qualify. Is it worth it?
There’s always beer, cocktails, and wine that are under $9 on every menu. It’s just not a huge selection. If you’re picky with your drinks (especially wine, you may need the premium package – or pay the difference in price – to get more choices. If you’re not picky, there’s always something in every category to drink.
I’m puzzeled?!@# Is there a beer and wine package on Celebrity?
Lyn, they have a classic and a premium beverage package that include beer and wine, plus all other drinks. The difference between the two, besides the price tag, is that the premium package includes more premium level wines and beers.
Hi Laura,
Great cruise notes and very helpful. Do you have an idea of the cost of good/vintage wines by the bottle? I will soon sail on the Celebrity Eclipse to South America.
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Thanks for the great analysis! We are cruising on Silhouette on December 22 for 12 nights. Can you clarify availability of coffee with any of the drink packages? I haven’t been on Silhouette but assume they have a coffee bar. Is that where you get your coffee drinks? What about smoothies?
Hi Jaz. The best place on board for coffee is Café al Bacio. The AquaSpa Café has great smoothies. The classic package includes premium coffees and teas and juices.