There’s no question that pre-purchasing a drink package can be an effective way to manage costs on a Royal Caribbean cruise, especially for travelers who enjoy having a cocktail, beer, or specialty coffee in hand throughout the day.
Royal Caribbean’s drink package is designed to offer unlimited beverages at a fixed daily rate, which can make sense for cruisers who plan to drink consistently. When individual cocktails can cost up to $14 each, the math can work in your favor, but only if you’re able to drink enough to justify the upfront cost.
On a recent four-night sailing aboard Mariner of the Seas, I purchased Royal Caribbean’s Deluxe Beverage Package for the first time.
The Deluxe package is the cruise line’s only alcoholic drink package and covers nearly every beverage most guests would want onboard, including cocktails, beer, wine, premium coffees, sodas, and fresh juices.
However, one important rule is that all adults of legal drinking age in the same stateroom are required to purchase the package together.
Drink packages are often framed as a convenience. Once you’ve paid in advance, there’s no worrying about a mounting bar tab at the end of the cruise. That appeal alone is enough to sway many cruisers to purchase a drink package.
However, despite having sailed with Royal Caribbean roughly 30 times, I had never felt compelled to buy a drink package because of my loyalty status. As a Diamond Plus member in Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society, I receive five complimentary drink vouchers per day, each valid for beverages priced up to $14.
Between me and my husband, that amounts to ten free drinks daily, which has historically been more than enough for us. We rarely exceeded that allowance, making a drink package unnecessary on most sailings.
So why did we decide to try Royal Caribbean’s drink package this time, and why will we never do it again?
Making the splurge on Royal Caribbean’s drink package
Anyone who cruises often knows how dramatically the onboard atmosphere can change depending on the itinerary, the length of the sailing, and who you’re traveling with.
This particular cruise was a four-night, post-holiday getaway to the Bahamas and we were cruising with friends for the first time!
In addition, port-heavy itineraries usually leave little time to drink onboard. Whenever we’ve traveled with our parents, purchasing a drink package never made sense, as they’re “one and done” type of drinkers. Also, longer itineraries can even work against the package, as drinking heavily day after day becomes less appealing.
But this sailing was different. With two sea days and just one port stop, we expected to spend most of our time onboard the ship lounging by the pool, socializing, and enjoying time with friends.
Everyone else in our group planned to buy the drink package, so we decided this was the ideal opportunity to finally give it a try.
The drink package was a hefty purchase; for us, it more than doubled the cost of our cruise. Luckily, a nicely timed Amex Offer became available on our credit card to earn reward extra points for Royal Caribbean purchases, which slightly helped soften the blow.
Calculating our breakeven logic
With an estimated $14 each for drinks, our drink package’s breakeven was about 6-7 drinks each day for each of us.
Of course, you can also enjoy bottled water, premium coffees, smoothies and other drinks with the drink package. While $15 is the most expensive cocktail onboard in the Bamboo Room, you can also enjoy beer and wine for slightly less than this price.
However, we can’t forget the fact that we would have each received 5 complementary daily drinks on this cruise when calculating our breakeven point. If you consider this fact, we actually had to drink closer to 13 daily drinks each to make the drink package worthwhile.
We started off strong, but quickly lost stamina
Once we boarded our cruise ship, we immediately started chipping away at our drink package. There was no time to waste! My cocktail choice is always a mojito, while my husband loves an amaretto or whisky sour.
We started strong with sailaway party cocktails, followed by happy hour in the tiki-themed Bamboo Room. We opted for caffeine-heavy espresso martinis at dinner, along with all of our friends at the table. Later, we indulged in after-dinner drinks and shots as we danced our first night away in the nightclub.
Keeping track of how much we drank on the first day, we did indeed breakeven between the two of us. However, as we dozed off to sleep, my husband stated, “I don’t want to do the drink package again, it’s too much pressure to get our money’s worth.”
The following morning, we continued our drinking marathon with lattes and mimosas at breakfast, despite not feeling our best. A tinge of a headache couldn’t be ignored, along with feeling unreasonably bloated from the copious amount of alcohol consumed.
Poolside piña coladas seemed to consistently hit the spot though; most of the afternoon was spent on the top deck during our sea day with waiters insisting on getting us more drinks.
Our dinner choice cocktail was an espresso martini again, as we all needed a caffeine pick-me-up from day drinking.
I couldn’t imagine doing this for two more days given how I was already slowing down and losing my ambition to try making the drink package worthwhile.
Calling it quits
On the evening of the second day, I told our friends that I was throwing in the towel on my drinking marathon. I didn’t want to feel hungover for another morning, nor did I want to keep feeling so bloated.
It’s difficult to consistently keep up with excessive drinking. As much as I hate to admit my own aging, it’s getting harder for me to recover from alcohol like I used to. A little bit of heartburn and some persistent tummy rumbles signaled that my body wasn’t wanting to make the drink package worthwhile anymore either.
I will spare you the details of how many drinks we had because my mother might have a heart attack when she reads this; but, between cocktails, bottled water and coffee, we only reached our breakeven threshold on the first two days.
My husband slowly started to fade by this point too; in agreement, we opted to start ordering drinks without feeling the pressure of making the drink package worthwhile anymore. Like most wives, I took great pride in the fact that I was right about us not needing the drink package.
The final tally
At the end of the cruise, I reviewed everything we consumed onboard. We paid $736 for the drink package, while our complimentary drink vouchers alone carried a value of up to $560. To truly break even, we would have needed to drink well over $1,300 worth of beverages.
Our actual consumption came in closer to $1,100. If we were cruisers without loyalty perks, the package would have paid for itself. For us, the math simply didn’t add up. Not to mention, most of those drinks were ones that I forced myself to order with the hopes of breaking even.
In this way, it’s worth noting that having the drink package encouraged us to drink more than we normally would have. Without the internal pressure to “get our money’s worth,” we likely would have consumed fewer drinks with more intention.
We would have been better off ordering drinks with our Diamond Plus vouchers and paying out of pocket for any other drinks that we may have wanted.
Why Royal Caribbean’s drink package wasn’t worth it for us
At the end of the day, the Royal Caribbean drink package was not worth it for us since we lost money and couldn’t totally recoup the package’s cost.
I’m glad we tried Royal Caribbean’s drink package, if only to remove the lingering “what if” from future cruise planning. If we couldn’t make it worthwhile on a short, sea-day-heavy cruise with friends, then it’s safe to say it’s not a good fit for us.
The drink package does create a more all-inclusive feel, especially when everyone in your group has one. Not worrying about individual charges or budgets can be freeing.
But for us, that convenience was overshadowed by the constant mental math and subtle obligation to drink more than we otherwise would have. I also felt pressured to order more expensive drinks than I usually do, just to get my money’s worth.
Our Diamond Plus benefit of five complimentary drinks per day remains the sweet spot. It gives us flexibility, enjoyment, and value without pressure. And for our future Royal Caribbean cruises, that’s exactly where we’ll stay.
