Deen on Deck. It's a travel blog.

Ahhhhh, that IS the question, isn’t it? Believe it or not, this is easily THE question I get asked most often by folks going on their first cruise. Should I get the drink package? Well, my friends, you know, when you ask me, it’s rarely going to be that simple.

The first consideration for most people is going to be cost. How much will the drink package cost you? On some cruiselines, it’s automatically included (Celebrity, for example) and in many others, it’s not. However, it can be added as part of a promotion. Lately, I’ve been in the habit of taking a Halloween cruise every October with some buddies of mine. For this one, the drink package (Carnival’s Cheers) has been a stellar value — $50 one-time fee for the entire 4-5 day cruise. If you drink at all and get an offer like that, I definitely reccomend you take it.

Now, as we’re all aware, you’re not always going to get an offer like that. For a Royal Carribean cruise I have coming up, the cost for the drinks package for the entire cruise is well over $300 — more than I spent on the entire cruise. So yeah, that’s going to a no.

I know some people really enjoy that “all-inclusive, you can just have fun and not worry about it” feeling. Yes, I get it. I’m definitely one of those people too, and that’s worth something. And your sodas and lattes are included with most drink packages as well — also worth something. I have a crippling Coke Zero addiction, and it gets expensive – both home and abroad. So, in the end, how do you decide?

A good rule of thumb — most drinks on a cruise are comparable to mid-tier restaurant pricing – no more, no less. Wine or beer is going to run you $6-8, the more fancy Hep-cat drinks are coming in at $10.95 exactly. I’m looking at you, Carnival’s Alchemy Bar. So, simply find out the price of the drink package on YOUR cruise (they’re all different, even between ships and sailings – current menus are always available online for the price of a quick Google search) and do the math. Gonna drink more than 5-6 drinks a day? The package may be for you. Just a one or two a day kinda cruiser like myself? Save a little money and go a la carte.

Two more thoughts I’ll leave you with: Many think that you can bring absolutely NO beverages aboard with you. This is actually not true. On Carnival and Royal, you can bring up to 12 cans of SODA per person (or canned milk or water, just nothing alchoholic) and one bottle of wine. So keep this in mind in your drink calculations. Thought two: have a lot of port days? You typically cannot use your drink package in port on Carnival – so those hours are wasted, drink package-wise. No pun intended.