I Bought the Drink Package on my Carnival Cruise. Here's What I Learned.

Russ Fulgham
Jul 21
7 min read

Should you buy a drink package on your next cruise? (Photo: Aaron Saunders)

Contributor Aaron Saunders - Found on Cruise Critic site.

I have a confession: For the hundreds of cruises I’ve taken, I’ve never purchased an inclusive drink package.

Usually, the rationale for refusing is that I don’t drink that much. The thought of having to imbibe up to 15 beverages per day seems an unattainable goal for me, even though I do have a fondness for cold beers, pool drinks and wine with dinner when I am at sea.

But when I embarked Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Conquest for a quick weekend jaunt from Miami to Bimini and back, I was thinking about purchasing a drink package. That idea germinated when I ordered my first drink, just before dinner: a pint of Carnival’s ThirstyFrog Red Ale.

For my three-day cruise to the Bahamas, the total price to purchase Carnival’s Cheers! Package onboard was $265.32, including 18% gratuity. For the price of admission, I’d get alcoholic beverages priced up to $20, soft drinks, bottled water, specialty coffees, teas and juices – not to mention all manner of mocktails and nonalcoholic beverages like soft drinks – for one pre-determined price.

Staring down at the receipt for my $10 pint of ThirstyFrog ale, this seemed like a good value. And while the cost of drink packages can vary dramatically from line to line (and even sailing to sailing), this seemed like a good deal. Paying $10 for a beer was stressing me out, and now that cruise lines have smartphone apps, I didn’t even need to leave my bar stool: a few taps, and I was the proud owner of Carnival’s Cheers! Drink package for the next three days.

Here's what I learned – and whether I’d purchase a cruise drink package again:

Key Takeaways

Carnival’s Cheers! Package on a three-day Conquest sailing cost $265.32 onboard, including gratuity, and covered drinks up to $20 plus nonalcoholic beverages.
Drink package ownership led the author to order more drinks than usual, including an extra last-call martini and several cocktails over one evening.
Peace of mind was the main benefit, because the package fixed the onboard bar bill upfront and removed price worries for coffee, water, and drinks.
Stateroom policy requires every age-eligible person in the cabin to buy the package, which can quickly double or triple the total cost.
The author would not buy a package again, saying it encouraged overindulgence and worked best only for travelers who know their own drinking habits.

1. I Drank More Than I Normally Would Have With my Drink Package

Piano bar libations (Photo: Aaron Saunders)

Drink package in hand, I ordered a second pint of ThirstyFrog in the Atrium Bar while listening to the strings trio play classical hits. Seeing the bill print out with a balance of $0.00 was a bit of a rush I wasn’t expecting. I’ve been on luxury cruises where the alcohol is included, but this is Carnival! For some reason, the fact I’d paid for this package made it seem, well, fun.

Throughout the evening, I enjoyed several more drinks: cocktails in the Piano Bar, a martini in the Punchliner Comedy Club during the late-night comedy set. Wine with dinner. I also used the package to purchase bottles of water to accompany the drinks – some hydration to ensure I didn’t wake up the next day feeling unpleasant. Carnival states you can only order one drink at a time, but servers usually let you order two in one go if one beverage is nonalcoholic.

And yet, with the piano bar hopping and the music playing, I found myself ordering another martini at last call. In no way did I need this martini. Had I been paying $16 a pop for these, I would have probably stopped two drinks prior. Still, I found myself saying yes to a last-call special – simply because I could.

Knowing when to stop – and how to think about the drink package, especially when you’re surrounded by people who are practically shot-gunning martinis and frozen concoctions – is one of the hardest aspects of having the package. Merely having it encourages overconsumption. In the “old days,” when you just had to pay per-beverage, the financial part of your brain would kick in: Do you really need another $16 martini?

With the drink package, you’re good to go until you reach your limit – whether you can handle that amount of alcohol or not. And far be it from me to judge: To each their own. But I noticed I let things run away from me on my first day, and thereafter made a conscious effort to think of the package as peace of mind rather than a drink limit to hit for the sake of it. Because even after a first day where I indulged more than I wanted to, I came in $13 short of hitting the daily package price.

2. Purchasing a Drink Package Offered Peace of Mind – and Budget

My first "included" drink aboard Carnival Conquest (Photo: Aaron Saunders)

After popping a couple Tylenol the next morning, I took a different approach to having Carnival’s Cheers! Drink package: I’d stop trying to figure out the “value” of each drink and how close I was to hitting the daily package price.

My first order of the day: a stop at the JavaBlue Café on Promenade Deck 5 for a cappuccino. I do this every morning on Carnival cruises, and it was nice to not pay $6 – or, at least, to not worry about paying $6. I even ordered a sparkling water – another small but nice indulgence – and didn’t think twice about it.

Now, is a $6 coffee and a $3.50 bottle of Perrier making “good use” of the package, financially? No, probably not. But was it nice to not worry about how much it cost? You bet. And herein lies what became the best aspect of having Carnival’s Cheers! Beverage package for me: knowing exactly what my bar bill – alcoholic or not – would amount to on this cruise.

By purchasing the beverage package, I knew what I’d walk off the ship owing, barring extra purchases like shore excursions, spa treatments and the like. I’ve been on some cruises where I’ve looked at my onboard account statement and thought, “Jeez, I should have bought the drink package.” This wouldn’t be that cruise.

And as my second day wore on, the more convinced I became that this – not the 15 drinks per day – is the biggest advantage to purchasing the drink package: you know what you’re paying right up front.

I also used the drink package to be more adventurous with my beverage choices: I tried some mocktails and cocktails I wasn’t sure I’d like, just for the heck of it. If I didn’t like it, I knew I could always discard it and pick something else without a $16 charge hanging over my head for my poor menu selections.

However, our last day – a port stop in Bimini, Bahamas – definitely didn’t eek out as much value, as I only ordered a few drinks. Knowing I could have saved some money on this port-intensive day did give me pause.

3. The Value of the Drink Package Decreases Every Time You Add Someone Else to Your Cabin

A refreshing pool deck beer comes included with a drink package (Photo: Aaron Saunders)

Here’s the biggest stumbling block, to my mind, of cruise line drink packages: everyone in your stateroom who is of age must also purchase the drink package.

That’s fine and dandy if you and your friend, spouse, or partner both drink at roughly the same level. Few couples I’ve met, though, actually do.

I was travelling solo on this cruise, which made adding the drink package a no-brainer. But if I added a friend to my cabin, that $265 Cheers! Beverage package becomes $530. If there are three adults in a cabin, it becomes $795 – and that’s likely more than most people paid for a cruise of this length in an entry-level stateroom.

So even if I drink enough to get the value out of the program, my cabin mates – who are forced into also purchasing it so I can imbibe with impunity – may not extract the same level of value from that same package. Worse, they may end up in a situation where they feel compelled to drink – and that’s never a good thing.

4. Would I Buy a Drink Package Again? Should You?

The Alchemy Bar is a popular hotspot at night for the cocktail set (Photo: Aaron Saunders)

So, we’ve arrived at the million-cocktail question: Would I buy another drink package?

For me, the answer is no. I didn’t like that I felt tempted to “game” the system by drinking more or higher-cost drinks. Without a financial incentive to stop drinking, overindulgence is almost a given.

Even more curious is that this doesn’t happen to me on luxury lines where all beverages are already included in the price of your cruise. But having paid a certain amount to have all my drinks included on Carnival Conquest, I felt obligated to get the most from my purchase. And that’s the wrong way to think about having a drink package.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t get the drink package on your next cruise. Only you know whether it’s the right purchase or not based on your habits and style of cruising.

For me, I’ll stick with paying as I go – and refusing that last-call martini!