Drinks Packages

[minesawine]

Hi - I am not a massive drinker but I do like to have a few on holiday and was thinking about the drinks package on Carnival Cruises. I am on an 8 day cruise and it costs $37.50 plus tax and gratuity per day. Which covers up to 15 drinks per day. I suppose in hot weather, including soft drinks and water, I would drink 15 per day, but I am just not sure whether it is worth adding such a big expense onto my holiday.

But if I dont, will I be counting the pennies if I want to get a drink because I have heard they are really expensive.

Can anyone give me their opinions on drinks packages. Are they good value?

We went on a cruise last year with royal Caribbean. We didn't get a drinks package and it worked for us. We were allowed to take on 2 bottles of wine each which we did and drank those on the balcony. Water and flavoured water was free on board. One night we went for a cocktail each. Overall it worked out way cheaper than the package, but we're really not big drinkers!

If you haven't already it is useful to sign up to Cruise Critic and go to their forum. You can find other people who will be on your cruise in 'roll calls' and quite often they will have cruised on the ship/line before and therefore well placed to advise you as it varies from ship to ship
(Eg what is available free on each line, cost of drinks, if service added etc) also worth checking the cruise reviews as people often comment on cost of drinks/packages

We've cruised with Royal Caribbean and usually drink 1 or 2 cocktails per day each plus maybe one other alcoholic drink each and the occasional coke, otherwise just drink the free soft drinks, it still worked out much cheaper than using the packages.