What does the Deluxe Beverage Package actually cost?
Royal Caribbean advertises a price before the mandatory 18% beverage gratuity, and that price moves by ship and sail date. The tracked fleet median is $75 per person per day, which comes to about $88.50 all-in — $177 a day for two, or roughly $620 per person over a 7-night sailing. Per-ship prices run $49–$90 before the 18%, so price your own Cruise Planner rather than the median.
Do both of you have to buy it?
Yes. Every adult of legal drinking age in the stateroom has to buy the same package — and for the math to work, both of you have to drink it. One steady drinker plus one light drinker loses money nearly every time.
Do you drink enough to come out ahead?
At $88.50 a day you need close to five drinks daily, counting specialty coffees, sodas and bottled water, and you need them every day rather than averaged across the week. At one or two a day you're handing the bar money — skip it.
Does your itinerary change the answer?
More than most people expect. Every port day is a day you're ashore and not drinking, and the package charges for it anyway. Sea-day-heavy sailings are where it earns its keep; port-heavy ones rarely do. Perfect Day at CocoCay counts as a drinking day — the package works there, which isn't true of every line's private island.
What isn't in that price?
Gratuities and Wi-Fi, both billed separately. Daily gratuities run $18.50 per person per night in a standard stateroom and $21.00 in any suite — a Junior Suite counts, charged for children and infants too. VOOM Wi-Fi is about $20 per device per day bought pre-cruise. The drinks package covers neither.
Sailing solo, or in a suite?
Solo, the all-adults rule never bites — it's a clean call between your own drinks and the daily price. In a suite, check what you already hold: Star Class includes the Deluxe package, the daily gratuities and VOOM, and Sky Class includes VOOM. Buying any of them twice is money gone.
Take the fare you've found, add your nights and guests, and the calculator works out what the sailing ends up costing once gratuities, drinks and Wi-Fi are on the bill. Royal Caribbean is already selected.
Price this for my Royal Caribbean sailing →The Deluxe Beverage Package
Royal Caribbean's top drinks package covers cocktails, spirits, wine by the glass, beer, non-alcoholic cocktails, fresh juices, smoothies, premium coffees, and bottled water.
It works shipwide and at Perfect Day at CocoCay, which is worth more than it sounds: Carnival's Cheers! package is not honored at Celebration Key, Half Moon Cay or Princess Cays.
What the terms actually say
- The $14 per-drink cap Royal's own terms cover "any single beverage item with a value up to $14." Premium cocktails and higher-end spirits by the glass regularly cost more. What happens above it depends on where you look. Royal's package terms say only that the package excludes beverages above $14. Its Star suite page is more specific — there you pay the difference, and Royal's worked example is a $20 glass of wine billed at $6 — but that page is about suites whose package comes with the room, and no page aimed at someone buying the package says the same. Budget for paying the difference; don't count on it. It's in the terms; it isn't in the marketing.
- No daily drink limit Unusually, Royal publishes that there isn't one. Princess and Holland America both stop counting at 15 drinks a day; Royal's answer is a flat "no, there is not a daily limit." If you're comparing packages across lines, this is a real difference and nobody advertises it.
- The stateroom rule Every adult of legal drinking age in the same stateroom under the same booking must purchase the same alcoholic package. No opt-out. One person drinks regularly, the other doesn't? Full price for both.
- The gratuity that isn't in the advertised price An 18% gratuity is added at checkout and is not included in the price shown when you're shopping. At $75 per person per day for a 7-night sailing for two, the package costs $1,050 — plus $189 in gratuity — totaling $1,239 before you've ordered a drink.
- Licensed Starbucks outlets — excluded Ships with a licensed Starbucks charge full retail, and no package covers it. If specialty coffee is a daily habit, budget $70–$100 per couple on a 7-night sailing.
- Souvenir glassware — excluded Drinks served in pineapples, coconuts, or souvenir cups are not covered.
- Coca-Cola Freestyle machines — changed March 15, 2026 The package stopped including a Freestyle Cup on that date, with no cut to the price. You can still use the machines, but the cup now costs $4.99 onboard, and it's only valid for that sailing — lose it and a replacement is another $4.99. Standard canned and fountain sodas are still included.
- Port-specific surcharges On certain itineraries an additional local tax may appear on your receipt when ordering with the package. This varies by port and isn't disclosed pre-cruise.
- Not sold on short Australian sailings Royal's terms exclude the alcohol-inclusive packages from 2–4 night sailings departing Australia.
What's included that often goes unnoticed
If you order wine by the bottle at dinner rather than by the glass, the package discounts it: 40% off bottles up to $100, 20% off anything above. It also covers Johnny Rockets milkshakes, Red Bull, Powerade and CocoLove coconut water.
Pricing and when to buy
There is no single fleet price. The package runs $49–$90 per person per day before the 18% gratuity depending on ship, sail date and how early you buy, and the tracked median across 30 Royal Caribbean ships is about $75 per person per day pre-cruise. Buy it aboard and you pay 10–40% more. Pre-purchase in the Royal Caribbean app (My Royal Cruise) once your reservation is paid.
If the price drops before you sail, you can cancel and rebook at the lower rate — see the cancel-and-rebook rule below for the timing.
Less well known: if you buy the package and find in the first day or two that you're not using it, it's worth asking Guest Services for a pro-rated refund. It's discretionary rather than a policy, but it happens more often than guests expect.
Is it worth it? The break-even
At the $75/day median plus the 18% gratuity, the real daily cost is about $88.50 per person. Bar menus vary by ship, but on recent sailings cocktails ran $12–$16, beer $7–$10 and specialty coffees $5–$7 — note that the top of that cocktail range is already above the $14 cap. So two cocktails and a coffee a day costs roughly $29–$39 bought individually, which is nowhere near break-even. Three cocktails and a coffee runs $41–$55 — still under. It takes five or more drinks a day, specialty coffees included, before the package starts winning.
The bar moves with the price. On a ship at the top of the range, $90 per person per day plus 18% works out at about $106 a day, and five drinks daily barely covers it. The median is a useful reference point, not your price — the number that matters is the one in your own Cruise Planner.
Alternatives
| Option | What it covers | Best for | Price per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deluxe Beverage Package | Alcohol plus all non-alcoholic drinks, shipwide and at CocoCay | Steady daily drinkers (about five or more a day) | $49–$90 +18% |
| Refreshment Package | Non-alcoholic only — sodas, juices, smoothies, premium coffees; works at CocoCay, and children can buy it separately | Coffee and soda drinkers; families with kids | $29–$40 +18% |
| Pay as you go | Nothing bundled — you pay per drink and skip the stateroom rule | Light or non-drinkers | Per drink |
Both packages trigger the stateroom rule — every adult in the stateroom has to buy the same one. Not sure which side of the line you're on? Open the calculator and weigh your own drinking against the package price for your sailing.
Gratuities: the full picture
The daily charge
Royal Caribbean posts a daily gratuity to every guest's SeaPass account unless you prepaid at booking. For how this charge works across the industry, see cruise gratuities explained.
- US and UK bookings: $18.50 per person per day in standard staterooms; $21.00 per person per day in any suite, Junior Suites included. Two guests in a standard stateroom on a 7-night sailing pay $259 in daily gratuities.
- Australian bookings: Gratuities are included in the published fare — no separate daily charge. Drink package prices on Australian sailings also have the service charge built into the listed price.
- Children: The daily gratuity applies to every guest in the stateroom regardless of age, including infants. A family of four in a standard stateroom pays $518 in daily gratuities on a 7-night sailing. The booking pages don't make that obvious.
- Star Class suites: daily gratuities are included in the suite product, so there's nothing posted to your account. Sky Class and every other grade pay the standard rate.
Prepay or pay onboard?
Prepaying locks in the current rate — useful if a rate increase has been announced. Paying onboard means the nightly charge posts automatically to your SeaPass account. Either way the total is identical unless rates change between booking and sailing.
Can you modify or remove the daily gratuity?
Yes. Royal Caribbean's published ticket contract says gratuities "may be modified at the guest's sole discretion" at the Guest Relations desk, any time before the morning of disembarkation. The wording matters: it makes the daily gratuity discretionary rather than a charge you're contractually obliged to pay. If you didn't prepay, you can go to Guest Relations from embarkation day onward. If you did prepay, expect to work through Royal Caribbean or your travel agent before sailing instead — Guest Services often can't reverse a prepaid charge once you're aboard.
Gratuities on top of the daily gratuity
The daily charge isn't the whole picture. These percentages are added automatically at the point of purchase, on top of it:
- 18% on all individual drinks and beverage packages
- 18% on specialty dining cover charges
- 18% on room service orders (on top of the $7.95 service fee)
- 20% on spa and salon services
Buy a drinks package, eat at two specialty restaurants, have one spa treatment and order room service twice, and the gratuities across those line items come to more than the daily charge you were watching.
Wi-Fi: VOOM Surf + Stream
Royal Caribbean offers one Wi-Fi product fleet-wide: VOOM Surf + Stream, running on Starlink satellite. It covers streaming, video calls, social media, and general browsing. There's no longer a cheaper browse-only tier.
Pricing is dynamic here too. The tracked median across 30 ships is about $20 per device per day pre-cruise, with the spread running roughly $18 to $35 by ship and sail date. Wait until you're aboard and the rate is around $39 per device per day, so buying early typically saves a third to a half. One plan covers up to four devices, and the per-device rate drops as you add them — if two of you need to be online, buy a two-device plan rather than two separate ones.
Who already has it
Royal Suite Class Sky and Star staterooms include VOOM Surf + Stream for one device per guest, so there is nothing to buy. Star Class goes further and covers the Deluxe Beverage Package and the daily gratuities as well. Sky Junior Suites and Sunset Junior Suites are not Sky Class and get none of this — they pay the standard rates. The Key also bundles Wi-Fi for one device per person.
Wi-Fi is covered by the cancel-and-rebook rule as well, so watch the Cruise Planner price after you buy. And if you sailed in a Sky Junior Suite before and remember free VOOM, that was a limited perk on the newest ships (Icon, Star, Spectrum and Utopia), and it ended April 30, 2026.
The Key: Royal Caribbean's priority program
The Key is a daily add-on bundling priority services, and on the sailings we've tracked it runs from about $25 to over $50 per person per day.
It's sold only through the Cruise Planner before you sail, never onboard, and every guest aged six and above in the stateroom has to buy it — the same all-or-nothing logic as the drinks package. Royal doesn't publish a price for it, or a fixed benefit list: its own FAQ says only that The Key "may not be available during all sailings" and that benefits "may vary by ship and destination, and may be subject to change without notice." So treat both the price band and the list below as what we've observed, not as a rate card.
What it usually includes
- Priority embarkation during a dedicated arrival window
- VOOM Surf + Stream Wi-Fi for one device per person
- Reserved seating at main theater shows
- 20% off specialty dining booked on day one of the sailing
- Exclusive disembarkation breakfast with choice of departure time
- Carry-on bag delivery to your stateroom on embarkation day
- Priority tendering at tender ports
- Fast-track access to select onboard activities
- $60 one-time spa discount against a treatment of $250 or more
It was cut back in early 2025 and partially restored that August. If you bought The Key on an earlier sailing and liked it, check the current list before buying again. Note too that the specialty-dining no-show fee — up to $50 per person at Supper Clubs, Hibachi, Omakase and Chef's Table — applies to Key holders who pre-booked online just like anyone else. Cancel 24 hours ahead to avoid it.
Is it worth buying?
Price it against Wi-Fi alone, since that's the perk with a number attached. Standalone VOOM is about $20 per device per day pre-cruise, so if The Key lands within $5–$15 of that, the rest of the list comes along for very little and it's an easy buy. At $35 a day or more, with Wi-Fi not a priority or loyalty status already covering several of the benefits, it's much harder to justify.
The perks that actually move the decision are Wi-Fi, reserved show seating on the newer ships where productions fill fast, and the disembarkation breakfast if you have an early flight. The $60 spa discount only counts if you were booking a $250-plus treatment anyway — a bonus, not a reason to buy.
The cancel-and-rebook rule
Buying early doesn't commit you to the price you paid, and that applies to everything in the Cruise Planner — drinks package, Wi-Fi, dining packages, shore excursions and CocoCay add-ons.
If you've bought an item and the price later drops in the Cruise Planner, you can generally cancel and rebook at the lower price, with the refund going back to your original payment method. The window closes 72 hours before the sailing date; after that, pre-cruise purchases are non-refundable.
So check your Cruise Planner every few weeks between booking and the cutoff. Royal Caribbean runs sale events through the year, and prices on popular items can fall 20–30% in one.
To see where these three land in your all-in total — fare, port fees, gratuities and dining together — see what a Royal Caribbean cruise really costs.