Cruise Deals Including Drinks Package: How to Book Smart (Without Overpaying)
Why drinks packages matter more than the cabin price
I learned this the hard way. Years ago I booked what looked like a bargain fare on a Mediterranean cruise, €399 for seven nights, and felt pretty smug about it. Then the bar bill arrived at the end of the week: €480. For two of us, mostly wine at dinner and the odd cocktail by the pool. That “cheap” cruise wasn’t cheap at all.
That’s why cruise deals including drinks package have become the thing I actually look for now, not discounted balcony cabins. A standard drinks package runs around €55 to €70 per person per day on the big mass-market lines, sometimes more. On a seven-night sailing, that’s €385 to €490 per person tacked onto your bill. When a promo wraps that cost into the fare, the maths changes completely.
Dutch travellers have an advantage here, by the way. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and IJmuiden (for ocean sailings) are regular turnaround ports for lines like MSC, Costa and TUI Cruises, and the UK
-based lines price aggressively for the North European market. That means the drink-inclusive promos show up more often in our backyard than they do for, say, travellers flying in from overseas.
Which cruise lines actually include drinks in the fare?
There’s a difference between a drinks package as a permanent feature and one bolted on as a promotion. Confusing the two is how people end up disappointed.
Genuinely included, more or less always:
- Premium lines: Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn and Viking Ocean include wine, beer and spirits in the base fare. No package, no stickers, no wondering if the mojito is covered.
- Luxury-lite: Azamara and Oceania include a decent wine and beer package as standard, with a premium upgrade available.
- German-market lines: TUI Cruises (Mein Schiff) and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises include a solid drinks package on nearly all sailings. Very popular with Dutch and Belgian cruisers, and I understand why.
As a promotion, on and off:
- MSC Cruises: their “All Inclusive” rate includes the Easy Drinks Package and often pops up during sales, particularly on winter Mediterranean and Northern Europe sailings.
- Costa Cruises: runs similar drink-inclusive fares for the European market.
- Celebrity Cruises: their “Always Included” pricing made a basic drinks package standard for a while, though they’ve since shifted to “More at Sea” style bundles that throw in Wi-Fi and gratuities too. Check the current version before you book.
- Royal Caribbean and Norwegian: periodically offer “free” drinks packages (or free-for-two) as a booking perk on select sailings. “Free” with air quotes, since the perk fare is often higher than the non-perk fare.
How to tell a real drink-inclusive deal from a fake one
Here’s the part nobody tells you at the travel fair. A €799 fare with a drinks package isn’t a deal if the same cabin was €549 without it two weeks earlier. Cruise lines know that “included” triggers something in our brains, and they price accordingly.
My rule of thumb is simple. Take the drinks package value (roughly €60 per person per day on mainstream lines), multiply by the number of passengers and nights, and compare it against the fare difference between the package fare and the bare fare. If the fare difference is less than the package value, you’re ahead. If it’s more, you’re paying extra for the word “included”.
Quick example. A 7-night MSC sailing from Genoa: bare fare €589, All Inclusive fare €719. The difference is €130 per person. The Easy package is worth maybe €350 per person over the week at bar prices. That’s a genuinely good deal, and I’d book the inclusive rate without hesitating.
Flip side: I once saw a “free drinks package” promo where the inclusive fare was €260 higher than the standard fare on the same cabin. Two passengers, seven nights, one of them barely drinks. We would have lost money. The maths saved us.
Watch the fine print
- Service charges on packages: some lines add 15-18% gratuity on the package’s retail value, even when it’s “included”. Ask before you book.
- Both passengers rule: most lines require every adult in the cabin to buy (or receive) the package. No solo drinker deals.
- Caps and limits: cheaper packages like MSC’s Easy tier exclude premium spirits, and some set a per-drink ceiling (say, drinks under €9 or €10).
- Specialty coffee, bottled water and mini-bar items are sometimes outside the package. Read the inclusions list, not the marketing headline.
Where to find the best drink-inclusive fares from the Netherlands
Booking from NL, I’d start with three routes, and I use all of them depending on the trip.
Direct with the line during a sale. MSC, Costa and TUI Cruises run their drink-inclusive promos two or three times a year, usually around January (wave season, the big one), late spring and autumn. Sign up for their newsletters. It feels old-fashioned, but the promo emails genuinely beat the aggregators for these fares.
A Dutch cruise specialist. Agencies like CruiseTravel and the cruise desks at D-reizen successors or larger agents sometimes hold group rates with drinks included, and they’ll price-match. The advantage is a human who knows which sailings have the real bundles. Worth it if your trip is complicated.
Price comparison sites. Useful for scanning, terrible for booking. Check the fare on CruiseDirect or similar, then verify the package details on the line’s own site before paying. The aggregators frequently blur what “drinks included” actually covers.
Is a drinks package worth it for your drinking style?
Honest answer: not always. If you drink one glass of wine at dinner and a coffee in the afternoon, you’ll never get your money’s worth at €60 per day. Buy drinks individually and skip the bundle.
If you enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail, wine with dinner, a nightcap, and a beer or two at the pool, the maths works in your favour from day one. And there’s a psychological benefit people undervalue: no bill anxiety. When drinks are covered, you stop calculating. For me, that alone improves a holiday.
Families get a different calculus. Kids’ drinks packages cost far less (often €20-30 per day) and soda packages make sense if your teenagers drink cola like it’s a sport. Adults in the same cabin will usually be required to take the package too, so factor that in.
Real sailings where drinks-inclusive pricing tends to appear
| Route | Typical line | When the inclusive fares show up |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Europe from Amsterdam / Rotterdam / Kiel | MSC, Costa, TUI Cruises | Wave season (Jan-Feb), autumn sales |
| Winter Mediterranean (Italy, Spain) | MSC, Costa | Frequent, sometimes year-round |
| Canary Islands round trips | TUI Cruises, MSC | Late autumn and winter |
| Caribbean fly-cruise | Celebrity, Royal Caribbean | Perk-based promos, not true inclusion |
The pattern to notice: European lines bundle drinks on European itineraries. The American lines prefer the perk system, which is less generous once you do the arithmetic.
Mistakes I see people make with these deals
Number one is booking the headline price without checking what the package covers. The gap between a “basic” and “premium” drinks package is the difference between house wine and a decent Rioja, between well vodka and Grey Goose. If the deal only includes the basic tier, decide whether that’s enough for you before you celebrate.
Number two: forgetting taxes. On some itineraries, drinks packages carry local taxes or service charges, particularly on European sailings. Small amounts, but they add up.
Number three: assuming the deal will still be there next week. The genuinely good drink-inclusive fares often have limited cabin categories attached. If the maths is clearly in your favour, book it and set a price-alert as a backstop rather than waiting for a miracle.
FAQ
Do cruise deals with drinks packages include gratuities?
Sometimes, not always. MSC’s All Inclusive rate covers the package but service charges may still apply. Celebrity’s bundles historically included tips along with drinks and Wi-Fi. Always check the fare breakdown line by line.
Can I buy a drinks package on board instead?
Yes, but it usually costs more, and on some lines you must buy it within the first day or two of the sailing. Booking it as part of the fare is almost always the cheaper route. Occasionally lines run onboard sales on day one, but I wouldn’t gamble a week’s drinks on it.
Are drink-inclusive deals cheaper in wave season?
Generally yes. January and February bring the year’s best bundle offers, especially for Northern Europe and Mediterranean summer sailings. If your dates are flexible, plan your booking around that window.
The short version
Do the package maths before you book anything. Multiply roughly €60 per person per day by your headcount and nights, compare against the fare difference, and book the inclusive rate only when it genuinely wins. The European lines (MSC, Costa, TUI Cruises) offer the most honest drink-inclusive fares from the Netherlands, and wave season is when the best of them land in your inbox.
