Cunard gratuities 2026: what changed, and what you'll really pay

What Cunard adds to your bill each day

Two automatic charges apply before you order anything.

The first is the Hotel & Dining service charge — Cunard's daily gratuity, a fixed per-person, per-night amount that funds restaurant and housekeeping crew. In 2026 it is $18 per person, per night in Britannia and Britannia Club, and $19 in Queens and Princess Grill Suites. It is charged in US dollars to every guest, adults and children at the same rate. Britannia has gone from $16 to $18 in about two years. Cunard's own wording is that you may increase or decrease this charge at the Purser's Office once on board; it does not say the charge can be removed entirely. (For how this works across the industry, see our guide to how cruise gratuities work.)

The second is the bar service charge: 18%, added to every drink. It is already built into package prices, so package buyers do not pay it twice. Pay-as-you-go drinkers pay it on every round.

For a couple in Britannia on a 7-night sailing, the daily gratuity alone comes to about $252 before any extras.

Cunard service charge in 2026: now 18% (and on food you pay for)

For years Cunard added a 15% service charge to bar bills.

In 2026 that became 18%. The wording on current menus changed as well: it now reads that the charge applies to "all food & beverage purchases" in the bars and restaurants. The previous menus said "all bar purchases."

Where you read it matters. Cunard’s own service-charges page describes the 18% as applying to “each beverage purchase made in our bars or restaurants” — drinks only. The menus you are actually handed on board say something wider. We checked Cunard’s current 2026 sample menus in August 2026: thirteen of them carry the line “Please note that all food & beverage purchases are subject to an 18% service charge,” including the Golden Lion pub food and bar menus, Tramonto, Aji Wa, Coriander and the Pavilion. The menu is the version that reaches your bill.

The change is bigger than three points on drinks. The charge now reaches food that never carried one before — the pub menu, the alternative and specialty restaurants, the chargeable café items. It does not touch your ordinary included meals: dinner in Britannia or the Grills is in your fare and attracts no service charge. What it hits is anything you choose to pay extra for. Over a long voyage, those percentages add up.

Cunard Beverage Collection and Premium Beverage Collection

The Beverage Collection is Cunard's standard drinks package, covering any drink priced up to $13.50; the Premium Beverage Collection raises that cap to $20.

Cunard sells both through its "World of Drinks" Collections, and each works on a per-drink price cap: order under the cap and the drink is covered; order over it and you lose part of the value. This cap-based structure is common on premium lines; we unpack how it works in premium cruise drinks, decoded.

Prices fall the longer the cruise. On a 7- to 14-night voyage the Beverage Collection is $76.50 per person, per day when pre-booked, about $1,071 for a couple over 7 nights. Booking through My Cunard before you sail saves around 10% against the onboard price, and the 18% service charge is included.

The Beverage Collection is valid at every bar and restaurant on board — the buffet, the main dining rooms and the specialty restaurants included — so you're not limited to one lounge. In the specialty restaurants it covers your drinks but not the restaurant's cover charge, which is a separate dining fee. It doesn't cover the in-stateroom mini-bar, room-service drinks, or anything bought in the onboard shops, and it ends at the gangway: drinks ashore aren't included. (Queens Grill and Princess Grill suites get a stocked mini-bar anyway, as a suite perk separate from any package.)

Is the Cunard drinks package worth it? The break-even math

The Beverage Collection pays off only if you drink steadily. Here is the arithmetic on a typical voyage:

So you need roughly five drinks a day to come out ahead, and that assumes your drinks sit at or below the $13.50 cap. Soft drinks, specialty coffees, bottled water and mocktails count toward the total too, which helps if not everyone in the stateroom drinks alcohol (though everyone in the stateroom must buy the same package). If your usual order is Champagne or cocktails priced above $13.50, the package covers less of each round and the break-even climbs. Our calculator can price your own Cunard voyage — the daily Hotel & Dining charge for your stateroom (Britannia or Grill), the Beverage Collection and Wi-Fi — or you can see how Cunard's all-in costs line up against other premium lines in the onboard cost table, and read the wider question of whether cruise drink packages are worth it.

Premium is a different sum. The Premium Beverage Collection runs about $13.50 a day more than the standard one — $63–$108 a day by voyage length, against $49.50–$94.50. That buys a higher $20 cap, so it only pays off on drinks priced between $13.50 and $20; anything under $13.50 the standard package already covers. A $20 drink costs about $6.50 over the standard cap, so the upgrade earns its keep at roughly two such drinks a day. Below that, stay on the standard collection.

The new Signature bundles

New for 2026, Cunard also sells the Beverage Collection inside a bundle.

The Signature Package adds Essential Wi-Fi and a dining credit; Premium Signature does the same with the $20-cap drinks, Premium Wi-Fi and a bigger credit.

Here's the tell. On a 7- to 14-night voyage the Beverage Collection alone is $76.50 per person, per day. The Signature bundle — that same drinks package plus Wi-Fi plus a $25–$50 dining credit — is about $75 (Cunard lists it as £60). The bundle costs slightly less than the drinks by themselves; the Wi-Fi and dining credit come along for nothing. The Premium tier is the same trick: about $90 a day, essentially the price of the Premium Beverage Collection on its own.

One thing the credit is not: dining. It is money toward a cover charge at an alternative venue, so it is worth what you choose to spend it on and nothing if you eat in the main restaurants. We don't count it against your fare.

That's how Cunard advertises "up to 30% off versus buying the pieces onboard." The catch hasn't changed: a bundle built around the drinks package only saves you money if you'd have bought the drinks anyway — five or more a day, at or under the cap. If you wouldn't, Cunard is discounting something you didn't need.

Source: Cunard "A World of Drinks" and Signature Packages pages, verified July 2026. Cunard lists Signature prices in GBP (£60/£70 per day on a 7–14-night voyage); USD equivalents are approximate.

The fine print that limits you

The price is not the only thing to weigh. The packages come with rules:

• 15 alcoholic drinks per 24 hours, with the count resetting at 6 a.m.
• One drink at a time, with a wait of about 10 minutes before the next.
• Everyone in the stateroom must buy the same collection. You cannot share one package between two people.
• Packages are sold for the whole voyage, on cruises of 5 nights or more.

The value slipped because the caps held still while the prices rose. A signature spritz that cost $10.50 now sits at the $13.50 ceiling. According to a detailed June 2026 Cruise Critic thread documenting current onboard menus, the same Queens gin now appears at $15, $15.50 and $17 — above the standard cap — and drinks that previously fell within the package now price above it. The package reads the same on paper and covers a little less in practice.

The Grills "free drinks" question

Grill Suite guests are often told their drinks are included.

Sometimes they are, but only through rotating promotions, such as the "Treat Yourself, On Us" offer whose booking window has since closed. It is not a standing benefit, so check whether your own booking carries it.

Offers like this are aimed at the US market and change with the booking window, so two Grill Suite bookings on the same voyage can carry different benefits depending on when they were made and which terms applied. None of it is part of the standard Cunard fare, and our estimate leaves it out — if your booking includes one, count it as money off the figures here.

The Grills is a fare-based class rather than a bolt-on, which is what makes it behave differently from the other ship-within-a-ship enclaves.

Cunard vs Princess, Celebrity and Holland America

All four are premium lines, but they price drinks and tips differently.

Cunard is the only one of the four still charging 18% rather than 20%. On the paid Beverage Collection, a drink priced over the cap is charged at the difference; Princess and Celebrity publish the same rule for their capped packages. (Celebrity's caps are $12 and $19.)

Want to put two specific cruises side by side, all-in? Use the cruise comparison tool. Holland America's published per-drink cap is $12.

Pack for the dress code, and mind your baggage bill

Here is a cost that never appears in a cruise quote: Cunard is the most formal of the major lines, and dressing for it can cost you at the airport.

When I crossed on the QE2 back in 2002, the dress code was not a polite suggestion. On that transatlantic, every sea day but the last was a formal night, dinner jacket included. Cunard has eased off since then. A week-long Crossing on Queen Mary 2 now carries two Gala Evenings, with black tie or a dark suit for men and a gown or cocktail dress for women, and "smart attire" on the other nights. It is still among the dressiest ships you can book, and the code is enforced. Arrive underdressed and the main dining rooms and the Grills will turn you away, with the buffet as your fallback.

That formality carries a cost most people never budget for. A tuxedo, a gown, and the shoes to match are the kind of weight that tips a suitcase past the airline's 50-pound limit or pushes you into a second checked bag. On a transatlantic, where many people fly one way and sail the other, a second bag or an overweight charge can run $100 or more each way, depending on the airline and the fare — check your carrier's current fees. The free formal nights end up with a price tag, payable at the check-in desk.

Two ways to keep it down:

• Rent the formalwear on board. Cunard hires out dinner jackets and full tuxedos from the onboard shops — from about $90 for one night up to around $250 for five, according to recent guest guides — and you can take the jacket alone if you packed your own shirt and trousers. If the tuxedo is the one item forcing a second suitcase, renting can cost less than the baggage fee. There is no hire service for women's formalwear, though the boutiques sell eveningwear.
• Use the launderette. Every Cunard ship has free self-service laundries as well as a full laundry service. On a longer voyage you can pack fewer outfits and wash as you go, for a lighter bag and a smaller airline bill.

Cunard drinks and gratuities: FAQ

Can Cunard gratuities be removed or adjusted?

Cunard's own wording is that guests may increase or decrease the Hotel & Dining service charge at the Purser's Office once on board. Cunard does not say the charge can be removed entirely. It describes the 18% bar charge as automatically added, and offers no equivalent way to adjust it.

What drinks are covered by the Beverage Collection?

Drinks priced up to $13.50 each, including cocktails, wines and sparkling wines by the glass, beers, spirits, soft drinks, juices and mocktails. The Premium Beverage Collection raises the cap to $20. Drinks above your cap are charged separately.