It depends on arithmetic most people never do. Drink packages run $60–$100+ per person per day on the big lines. Onboard, cocktails cost $12–15, wine $10–15, beer $8–9, specialty coffee $5–6, soda and bottled water $3–4. The naive math — alcohol only — says the package loses. The real math counts coffee, water, and soda, too: a realistic sea day of two coffees, three beers, two wines, and a show cocktail clears $75 without anyone being drunk.
Port days kill the value
A typical 7-night Caribbean itinerary spends 3 days in port, off the ship 8am–5pm — but the package charges full price for those days anyway. Port-heavy itineraries make the package work much harder to pay off.
The money move: buy early, then rebook when it drops
Cruise Planner package prices routinely swing 30–40% before sailing. Buy early, keep watching, and when the package drops, cancel the old one and rebook at the new price. On Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, standalone Cruise Planner extras can be canceled and rebooked at the lower price any time up until sailing, with refunds to the original payment method in 3–7 business days. Catching one 35% drop on a 7-night sailing is worth roughly $200 per person.
Warning: bundled fares can't be unbundled
Celebrity's All Included bundles drinks into the fare. It cannot be unbundled, and repricing a bundled fare means repricing the whole cabin — before final payment only. Standalone extras are flexible; bundles are not.
The personalized answer
Your real math depends on your sailing, ship, and port days. The Ultimate Cruise Playbook runs it for your exact trip — most cruisers find $400+ in savings. Already booked? The same cancel-and-rebook trick works on your cabin fare.