Buying the Royal Caribbean drinks package vs pay as you go is one of the biggest budgeting questions before a cruise. The Deluxe Beverage Package can add hundreds of pounds to the total cost, but cocktails, wine, coffee, bottled water and soft drinks can also add up quickly when bought individually. There is no single answer that works for every passenger.
I used the Deluxe Beverage Package on a short Independence of the Seas cruise, where I spent most of my time onboard and was travelling with someone who drank in a similar way.
On my later back-to-back cruises on Liberty of the Seas, I chose the Classic Soda Package and paid separately for the alcoholic drinks I wanted. Both approaches worked, but for very different cruises.
This guide compares the Royal Caribbean drinks package vs pay as you go, using real onboard prices and my own spending, so you can work out which option is likely to be cheaper for you.
Watch My Royal Caribbean Drinks Package Guide
Royal Caribbean Drinks Package or Pay As You Go?
A Royal Caribbean drinks package allows you to pay in advance for a set range of drinks throughout your cruise. The Deluxe Beverage Package includes eligible alcoholic drinks as well as most of the non-alcoholic drinks covered by the Refreshment Package. The Refreshment Package covers a wider range of non-alcoholic drinks, including mocktails, bottled water, speciality tea and coffee, fresh juice and fountain soft drinks. The Classic Soda Package is the cheapest option and focuses on fountain soft drinks and Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
Paying as you go means every chargeable drink is added to your onboard account individually. Neither approach is automatically better. A package can work well if you regularly order several drinks every day and value knowing the cost before travelling. Paying separately can be much cheaper if you drink lightly, spend several days ashore or are happy using the drinks already included in your fare.
How Much Does the Royal Caribbean Deluxe Beverage Package Cost?
Royal Caribbean uses dynamic pricing, so there is no fixed price for the Deluxe Beverage Package. The amount can vary by ship, sailing date, cruise length, demand and promotion.
When I monitored the prices for my back-to-back Liberty of the Seas cruises, the lowest Deluxe price I saw for the two-night sailing was around £75 per person, per day. For the seven-night cruise immediately afterwards, the lowest daily price was closer to £54 per person. That meant Deluxe would have cost approximately £150 for the two-night sailing and around £378 for the seven-night cruise. Across both sailings, I would have paid more than £500 for the Deluxe Beverage Package.
The package was considerably cheaper per day on the longer cruise, but the total cost was much higher because I had to pay for seven days. This is why you should look at both the daily price and the total amount for the cruise.
Ignore the Advertised Discount
Royal Caribbean regularly advertises large percentage reductions on its drinks packages. However, the advertised discount does not always tell you whether the offer is genuinely better than a previous price.
A package showing 35% off can still cost more than an earlier offer showing a smaller discount if Royal Caribbean has changed the underlying price. The figure that matters is the actual cost per person, per day.
Take a screenshot whenever you check your Cruise Planner. This makes it much easier to compare real prices when another promotion appears. You should also calculate the total for everyone in the cabin rather than looking only at the daily figure for one passenger.
What Do Drinks Cost When You Pay As You Go?
The menus during my 2026 Liberty of the Seas cruises provide a good indication of how much individual drinks can cost. Most cocktails were around $15. Standard beer was generally $8.25, while wine by the glass commonly ranged from $9 to $17. Standard spirits usually started at around $10.50, while fountain soft drinks were $3.50.
Standard zero-proof drinks were normally $8, with premium spirit-free cocktails priced at around $12. Fresh juice and smoothies from the Vitality Café were $10. The standalone Starbucks charged $3.95 for brewed coffee, while many espresso-based and cold drinks cost between $5.25 and $7.25.
Those prices can add up quickly, but the important question is whether you would genuinely buy enough of them every day to exceed the cost of a package.
A Typical Pay-As-You-Go Day
Someone paying separately might start the day with a speciality coffee, have a soft drink with lunch, order a cocktail in the afternoon and have a glass of wine with dinner.
Using the Liberty of the Seas menus, that could mean approximately $6 for the coffee, $3.50 for the soft drink, $15 for the cocktail and between $10 and $15 for the wine. The total would be around $34.50 to $39.50. Adding another cocktail in the evening would take the total close to $50 or more.
That may still be below the Deluxe Package price offered for some sailings, especially when the package costs the equivalent of £70 or £75 per day. On a sailing where Deluxe is closer to £50 per day, the same drinking pattern could bring you much closer to breaking even.
How Many Drinks Make Deluxe Worth It?
You will often hear that you need five or six alcoholic drinks each day to make the Deluxe Beverage Package worthwhile. That can be a reasonable starting point, but it is not a rule that applies to every cruise. The break-even point depends on the price you have been offered and the type of drinks you normally order.
Five $15 cocktails would cost $75. But five beers at $8.25 would cost $41.25. A passenger who drinks cocktails, wine and speciality coffee could reach the package price more quickly than someone who mainly drinks beer.
Deluxe also includes bottled water, soft drinks, mocktails, fresh juice and speciality coffee from participating venues. These drinks should be included in your calculation, but only when they are things you would genuinely buy without the package.
Counting several bottles of water or extra coffees simply because they are included can make the package appear better value than it really is.
Is Deluxe Worth It for Two Adults Sharing a Cabin?
The cabin rule can have a major effect on the calculation. If one adult of legal drinking age buys the Deluxe Beverage Package, Royal Caribbean will usually require every other adult of legal drinking age in the same cabin to buy it as well. This may work when both passengers drink in a similar way.
If Deluxe costs £54 per person, per day, two adults would pay £108 per day. Over seven nights, the cabin total would be approximately £756. Both passengers would need to use enough included drinks to justify that total.
If one passenger regularly drinks cocktails while the other only has one glass of wine each evening, paying as you go may be far cheaper for the cabin overall. This is one of the main reasons Deluxe can be difficult to justify for couples with very different drinking habits.
Is Deluxe Better Value on a Short Cruise?
A short cruise can make Deluxe easier to use because passengers often spend most of their time onboard. Short sailings may also have a livelier and more social atmosphere, with more time spent around the bars.
That was my experience on Independence of the Seas. I was travelling with my sister, we spent most of the cruise onboard and we regularly ordered soft drinks and cocktails. The Deluxe Package probably did work financially on that sailing.
However, short cruises do not always have lower package prices. The cheapest Deluxe price I saw for my two-night Liberty cruise was around £75 per person, per day. That was considerably higher than the lowest daily price on the following seven-night sailing.
You still need to compare the real daily price rather than assuming that a shorter cruise will automatically produce better value.
Is Deluxe Worth It on a Longer Cruise?
A longer cruise often has a lower Deluxe price per day, but you must buy the package for the full cruise. At approximately £54 per day, my seven-night Liberty price looked much more reasonable than the £75 price on the two-night cruise.But the total was still around £378.
The itinerary also included several port days when I would have spent much of the day ashore. I would have needed to use the package consistently every evening and on every sea day to justify the total cost. The longer the cruise, the more important it becomes to consider whether you would really drink at the same level every day.
How Port Days Affect the Value
Port days often make paying as you go more attractive. You may leave the ship after breakfast and return shortly before dinner. That gives you far fewer opportunities to use a package than on a full sea day.
You might have a coffee before leaving, one drink when you return and a couple of drinks during the evening. Even when those drinks are relatively expensive, the total may still be well below the daily Deluxe price.
A port-intensive Mediterranean or European itinerary can therefore make Deluxe much harder to justify than a cruise with several sea days or calls at Royal Caribbean’s private destinations.
Bar Queues Can Reduce the Value
The financial calculation assumes that you can order the drinks you want without spending too much time waiting. On both my short Independence and Liberty cruises, the bars were particularly busy on embarkation day. Some waits on Liberty were around half an hour.
That will not happen on every sailing, but it can reduce how much practical use you get from a package, particularly on a short cruise. Unlimited drinks offer less value when you are regularly waiting a long time to be served.
Trying quieter venues can help. On Liberty of the Seas, the Solarium Bar and Cantina Fresca were sometimes less busy than The Lime & Coconut around the main pool deck.
What Drinks Are Already Included Without a Package?
You do not need a package to have something to drink onboard. On Liberty of the Seas, water, lemonade, iced tea, standard tea and coffee were available in the Windjammer.
Standard tea and coffee were also available from Café Promenade and Sorrento’s. If those options suit you, your only additional spending may be an occasional cocktail, glass of wine or speciality coffee. Using the complimentary drinks can make paying as you go considerably cheaper.
Can Bringing Drinks Onboard Reduce the Cost?
Royal Caribbean allows passengers to bring a limited number of drinks onboard on embarkation day. Each guest of legal drinking age may bring one sealed 750ml bottle of wine or champagne.
You can also bring up to 12 non-alcoholic drinks per stateroom in cans, bottles or cartons, with each container no larger than 500ml. These drinks need to be carried onboard rather than placed in checked luggage.
Using the embarkation allowance alongside the complimentary drinks around the ship can reduce how much you need to buy. This can make paying as you go more practical, particularly for passengers who only want a small number of alcoholic drinks.
The Hybrid Option: A Cheaper Package Plus Individual Drinks
The choice is not limited to Deluxe or paying separately for absolutely everything. A cheaper package combined with individual alcoholic drinks can offer a useful middle ground.
For my seven-night Liberty cruise, I bought the Classic Soda Package and paid separately when I wanted alcohol. This meant my regular soft drinks were covered and I could use the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
When I wanted a cocktail, I bought one. I had the convenience of a package for the drinks I used most often without paying the much higher Deluxe price.
The Refreshment Package can work in a similar way for someone who regularly buys mocktails, speciality coffee, bottled water and fresh juice but only drinks alcohol occasionally. The most sensible package is often the one that covers what you buy every day, with everything else purchased separately.
What I Spent on Liberty of the Seas
Across the full nine days of my Liberty of the Seas back-to-back cruises, I spent less than £200 onboard. That total didn’t only include drinks. It also included a speciality dinner and several shop purchases.
By comparison, the Deluxe Beverage Package would have cost more than £500 across the two cruises at the lowest prices I saw. I still bought the alcoholic drinks I wanted, but I never felt that I was missing out by not having Deluxe.
More importantly, I did not feel pressure to order additional drinks simply to justify something I had already paid for. For the way I cruised on Liberty, the Soda Package plus paying separately for alcohol was clearly the better option.
When the Deluxe Beverage Package Is Likely to Be Cheaper
Deluxe is more likely to work financially when you regularly have several alcoholic drinks every day and also buy bottled water, speciality coffee, soft drinks or mocktails.
It can make sense on a short, social cruise where you spend most of your time onboard. It may also work well when both adults in a cabin drink in a similar way and will both use the package consistently.
The convenience of knowing the majority of your drinks have already been paid for may also be worth something to you, even when the financial saving is small.
When Paying As You Go Is Likely to Be Cheaper
Paying separately is more likely to work when you only have one or two alcoholic drinks per day. It can also be better for port-intensive cruises, where you spend long days ashore and have fewer opportunities to use a package.
Couples with very different drinking habits may save significantly by avoiding the Deluxe cabin rule. Paying as you go can also work well when you are happy using the complimentary water, lemonade, tea and coffee already available around the ship.
Is the Refreshment Package Better Than Paying As You Go?
The Refreshment Package is most likely to provide value when you regularly order several premium non-alcoholic drinks every day. A morning speciality coffee, fresh juice, bottled water, two mocktails and several soft drinks can quickly add up.
On Liberty of the Seas, standard zero-proof drinks were around $8, fresh juices and smoothies were $10, and fountain soft drinks were $3.50.
However, standalone Starbucks was not included. If you mainly drink standard tea, coffee, water and lemonade, paying separately for occasional extras will probably be cheaper.
Is the Soda Package Better Than Paying As You Go?
The Classic Soda Package is easier to calculate because it covers a much narrower range of drinks. Fountain soft drinks were $3.50 on the Liberty menus.
You can compare the daily Soda Package price with the number of soft drinks you would normally buy. If the package costs the equivalent of four individual drinks per day, you would need to drink around four each day to break even.
The included Freestyle cup also adds convenience and gives you access to a wider choice of flavours. For someone who only has one or two soft drinks a day, paying separately is likely to be cheaper.
Convenience Versus Saving Money
A drinks package does not need to produce a large financial saving to have value. Some passengers prefer paying before the cruise and not checking the price every time they order.
A package can make budgeting easier and remove the feeling that every drink is increasing the final onboard account. However, that convenience should not be confused with saving money.
It’s possible to enjoy the simplicity of a package while still spending more than you would have paid individually. The best decision depends on whether your priority is getting the lowest overall price or knowing most of the cost in advance.
How to Decide Which Option Is Best for You
Start by checking the real daily price in your Cruise Planner. Then look at the Royal Caribbean drinks menu and write down what you would realistically order on a sea day and a port day.
Do not calculate based on the maximum amount you could consume. Use what you would actually choose if every drink were being added to your account. Multiply that spending across the full cruise and compare it with the package total.
For Deluxe, remember to calculate the cost for every adult required to buy it. You should also consider the drinks already included in your fare, the embarkation allowance and whether a Soda or Refreshment Package combined with occasional alcohol would work better.
Is the Royal Caribbean Drinks Package Worth It or Should You Pay As You Go?
The Royal Caribbean drinks package is worth considering when you regularly buy several chargeable drinks every day and the daily package price is low enough.
Deluxe worked reasonably well for me on a short Independence of the Seas cruise because I spent most of the time onboard and was travelling with someone who drank in a similar way.
Paying as I went worked much better on Liberty of the Seas. I was travelling solo, had several port days and only wanted occasional alcoholic drinks. The Classic Soda Package covered what I drank regularly, and I paid separately for everything else.
There is no package that is automatically best for every passenger. The right choice depends on the real package price, your itinerary, who you are travelling with and what you would genuinely drink each day.
Related Guides
My Royal Caribbean Drinks Menu and Prices guide shows the onboard cost of cocktails, beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks and coffee, along with downloadable menu PDFs.
My Royal Caribbean Drinks Package Guide 2026 is a full comparison of the Deluxe Beverage Package, Refreshment Package and Classic Soda Package, including pricing tips and the main package rules.
The Royal Caribbean Deluxe Beverage Package guide explains the alcoholic package in more detail, including its inclusions, exclusions and cabin rules.
The Royal Caribbean Refreshment Package guide covers the non-alcoholic package and compares it with Deluxe and Soda.
The Royal Caribbean Classic Soda Package guide explains how the fountain drinks and Coca-Cola Freestyle cup work.
You can also read my Liberty of the Seas Bars Guide for a full look at the bars, lounges, coffee venues and Freestyle machine locations onboard.
Royal Caribbean Drinks Package vs Pay-As-You-Go FAQs
Is it cheaper to buy a Royal Caribbean drinks package?
It depends on the daily package price and how much you would normally drink. Passengers who regularly buy several alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks may save with Deluxe, while lighter drinkers will usually spend less by paying as they go.
How many drinks make the Deluxe Beverage Package worth it?
There is no fixed number for every cruise. The answer depends on the package price and whether you normally drink cocktails, beer, wine or spirits. Several alcoholic drinks alongside coffee, bottled water and soft drinks may be needed to break even.
Is paying as you go better on a port-intensive cruise?
It often can be. Long days ashore reduce the amount of time available to use a package that you have paid for every day.
Does everyone in the cabin need the Deluxe Beverage Package?
If one adult of legal drinking age buys Deluxe, every other adult of legal drinking age in the same cabin will usually need to purchase it as well.
Can I buy a cheaper package and pay separately for alcohol?
Yes. You can buy the Classic Soda or Refreshment Package and pay individually for any alcoholic drinks you want.
Are any drinks included without a package?
Yes. Basic water, lemonade, iced tea, standard tea and coffee are available at selected venues without a drinks package.
Is the Soda Package cheaper than paying as you go?
It can be if you regularly drink several fountain soft drinks each day. If you only have one or two, paying individually may cost less.
Is the Refreshment Package worth it?
It is most likely to work when you regularly buy mocktails, speciality coffee, bottled water, fresh juice and soft drinks throughout the day.
Useful Cruise Items to Consider
These are a few simple items that can make your cruise more comfortable and help you stay organised onboard. I personally use variations of these when cruising, and they’re all practical rather than essential.
Magnetic hooks Perfect for extra storage in your cabin
Packing cubes Keep your suitcase organised
Cruise luggage tags Protect your tags at the port
Travel Extension Lead UK For charging multiple phones, cameras, and laptops
Toiletry organiser Great for small bathrooms
You can also browse my full Cruise Essentials list for more useful items I use or recommend for cruise holidays.
This article may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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