Norwegian Cruise Line Drink Packages: What's Included and Is It Worth It?

Norwegian Cruise Line popularized the Free at Sea promotion, a booking incentive offering a choice of perks including a complimentary beverage package, free specialty dining, shore excursion credits, Wi-Fi, and a discounted friends and family cruise. The beverage package has become Norwegian's most selected Free at Sea perk and is the primary way most NCL passengers access onboard drinks. Here is exactly what it covers, what it costs in 2026, and how to decide whether to select it over the other Free at Sea options.

Here is the quick answer. Norwegian's standard package, now called the Unlimited Open Bar Package, covers spirits, wines by the glass, cocktails, beer, and non-alcoholic drinks priced up to about $15 each, with no daily drink limit. Through Free at Sea, the package itself is free, but you pay the mandatory 20% gratuity on its retail value, which typically runs somewhere in the $20 to $29 per person, per day range depending on current terms. The one detail worth getting right before you sail: package coverage extends to Great Stirrup Cay, but not to Harvest Caye in Belize, since that island's venues are locally owned rather than run by Norwegian.

Norwegian's Approach to Drink Packages

Understanding exactly what Norwegian's beverage package covers, and where the limits and additional charges appear, is essential for budgeting your cruise accurately and deciding whether to select the beverage perk over the other Free at Sea options. Norwegian has also introduced tiers beyond the standard package in recent years, including a Premium Plus upgrade that removes the price cap entirely, and a broader Free at Sea Plus bundle that layers in Starbucks, Wi-Fi, and prepaid gratuities.

What the Norwegian Drink Package Covers

What's Included

The Unlimited Open Bar Package, received through Free at Sea or purchased separately, covers:

• Spirits and cocktails up to roughly $15 retail value per drink
• Wines by the glass up to roughly $15 per glass
• Beers, both domestic and many imports
• Non-alcoholic cocktails and mocktails
• Soft drinks, juices, and bottled water at most venues
• Coffee and espresso drinks at most venues, excluding Starbucks locations, which require a separate add-on package

The roughly $15 per-drink cap covers the vast majority of bar menu items on NCL ships. Premium spirits, such as top-shelf whiskeys, aged rums, and premium cognac, along with selections from the ship's Connoisseur's Collection, may exceed the cap and require an upcharge for the difference, though a discount is typically applied to those premium selections. Always check the price of a drink before ordering premium spirits, since the bartender will let you know if an upcharge applies. Passengers who want to remove this cap entirely can upgrade to the Premium Plus Beverage Package, which adds top-shelf brands like Grey Goose, Casamigos, and Woodford Reserve with no per-drink ceiling, for an additional daily charge.

What's Not Included

• Drinks exceeding the roughly $15 cap on the standard package, where you pay the difference
• Room service beverages
• Mini-bar items
• Bottles of wine or spirits purchased by the bottle rather than by the glass
• Starbucks beverages, which require the separate Starbucks package
• Bar service at Harvest Caye, Norwegian's private destination in Belize, since its restaurants and bars are locally owned

The Service Charge: The Key Detail

This is the most important thing to understand about Norwegian's Free at Sea beverage package. When you select the beverage package as your Free at Sea perk, Norwegian gives you the package at no charge, but requires you to pay the 20% gratuity on the package's full retail value. For a 7-night sailing, this service charge commonly runs somewhere between $140 and $200 per person in total depending on the current rate Norwegian is applying, billed at booking or as an onboard charge.

In practice, the "free" drink package is genuinely free in terms of the alcohol itself, but you are paying a non-trivial service charge on top. Factor this into your cost comparison, since it is not a hidden fee so much as a disclosed surcharge that catches passengers off guard who did not read the fine print. Current per-day gratuity rates have varied across recent Free at Sea promotions, so confirm the exact figure on ncl.com or with your travel agent at the time of booking.

Free at Sea vs. Purchasing the Package Outright

Norwegian offers the Unlimited Open Bar Package for standalone purchase outside the Free at Sea promotion too. The daily rate for a purchased package runs around $109 per person, per day before the 20% gratuity, putting the full price closer to $130 a day. When evaluating whether to select the beverage perk through Free at Sea, compare the package's retail value across your cruise length against what the other Free at Sea perks, specialty dining, an excursion credit, or Wi-Fi, would cost you separately.

For moderate to heavy drinkers, the beverage package is typically the highest-value Free at Sea perk. For light or non-drinkers, the specialty dining perk or excursion credit often delivers more value, and non-drinkers can instead choose the standalone Unlimited Soda Package, priced separately and at a lower daily rate.

Is the Norwegian Drink Package Worth It?

Norwegian requires that both passengers sharing a cabin take the same package if either person selects it. You cannot have one person with the package and one without. This matters most for couples where one person drinks significantly more than the other, since it changes the math on whether the package pays for itself.

Norwegian Drink Package FAQs