How does the drink package calculator work?

We build two totals. One is what the package really costs: the advertised daily price times the number of nights times every adult the cruise line forces to buy in, plus gratuity. The other is your bar tab if you paid drink by drink, using current onboard prices for that line. Whichever is smaller wins.

Does gangwaze include gratuities?

Yes, on both sides, at each line’s real rate. Norwegian Cruise Line adds 20%. The per-drink service charge is applied to the à-la-carte side too, otherwise the comparison would flatter it.

No, and no cruise calculator can do it accurately. Some ports and home states charge tax on alcohol served while the ship is docked, which depends on where you sail from and how long you are in port. That sits on top of the numbers here, and the rules panel flags when a rule like that applies to your sailing.

How does gangwaze determine drink prices?

From the gangwaze beverage pricing database: menu prices kept per line and per drink. You can accept the category average or pick the exact drinks you order.

Can I calculate drinks for everyone in my cabin?

Yes. Choose My Cabin, set how many adults are in the room, and give each person their own profile. Copy one guest’s profile onto another if they drink roughly the same.

What if my cabin mate drinks much less than I do?

That is exactly the case worth running. Both cruise lines make every adult in the stateroom buy the package, so one light drinker can sink a deal that would have worked for you alone. The By passenger view shows who carries whom.

Can I use different drink amounts for sea days and port days?

Turn on “Calculate sea days and port days separately”. We already know how many of each your itinerary has, so you only set two numbers per drink, not one per day.

How does the break-even drink package price work?

It is your bar tab converted into a daily package price. Divide what you would have spent à la carte by the number of nights and paying guests, strip out gratuity, and you have the highest daily price at which the package still makes sense for you.

Can drink package prices change before my cruise?

Constantly. Cruise planner pricing moves with promotions and demand, and the price on board is usually the highest you will see. Watching the price is often worth more than the calculator itself.

// gangwaze tools · Norwegian · updated 2026

Norwegian Drink Package Calculator

Is the Norwegian drink package worth it? Choose your exact ship, date, and drinks and we’ll give you a definitive answer.

Free · no account · about 90 seconds · avg. drink prices updated Aug 2026

// norwegian drink package calculator

Run your numbers

free · no account · about 90 seconds

Step 1 of 5Cruise

// 01 · your sailing

Which cruise are we pricing?

We pull nights, itinerary, sea days and the line’s package rules straight from the gangwaze sailing database.

Start hereShip

Sail date

Pick a ship first

// 02 · what it costs

Actual Norwegian drink package cost

Norwegian adds 20% gratuity to the Free at Sea Unlimited Open Bar at purchase and it is not optional. That gap, $21.80 a day, is the single most common surprise on the folio. Everything below already includes it.

// the gratuity gap, per person per day

Advertised

$109.00

On your folio

$130.80

Package

+20%

Per person · 7 nights

$915.60

Per cabin · 2 adults

$1,831.20

US state tax is added to the drink price on some homeports and is not included in any figure here. It is charged per drink, not per package.

// pre-purchase vs onboard

Pre-purchase, before you sail

Cheaper than buying onboard on every line we track

$130.80

First-party

Onboard cost once on the ship

Norwegian prices this higher. We hold no sourced figure, so we will not print one.

not sourced

Tracking

Buying ahead is the cheaper of the two on every line we track. The one thing we will not do is guess by how much.

// price source

Norwegian Unlimited Open Bar standalone purchase rate: secondary source, not confirmed against Norwegian's published terms

First-party. Price, gratuity, the $15 covered-drink cap and the package rules all sit behind the figures on this page.

Checked Aug 2026

// 03 · real drink prices, by category

How much are mixed drinks on a Norwegian cruise? $15.00

That is the median of 30 individually priced cocktails, from real onboard menu photographs. Every category below is the same: counted, not estimated.

Median cocktail

$15.00

30 priced cocktails, $15.00 to $15.00. Add 20% at the bar and one costs $18.00.

Median beer

$10.00

14 beers, $10.00 to $10.00 across the whole list.

Every drink vs the cap

of 86 alcoholic drinks are priced above the $15 cap. On Norwegian the cap never binds.

All 135 Norwegian drinks, priced individually

Searchable, filterable by category, and flagged against the package cap. It lives on its own page so this one can stay about the decision.

Drinks priced135Categories11Above the cap0

See all 135 Norwegian drink prices

Cocktails

30from $15.00

Beer

14from $10.00

Hard seltzers

2from $10.00

Wine by the glass

20from $12.50

Spirits & shots

20from $12.50

Mocktails

8from $15.00

// 05 · what is included, and what is not

The Unlimited Open Bar package covers 100% of the bar

86 of the 86 priced alcoholic drinks on Norwegian sit at or under the $15 cap, so the package pays for those in full.

Menu coverage

100%

86 of 86
priced alcoholic drinks

One mark per priced alcoholic drink · 0 above the $15 cap

Coverage and break-even always travel together on this page. A low break-even on a package that covers a third of the menu is not a bargain, it is an accounting trick.

// drink category coverage (under & over)

Cocktails30 · 0

Beer14 · 0

Hard seltzers2 · 0

Wine by the glass20 · 0

Spirits & shots20 · 0

Mocktails8 · 0

Soda6 · 0

Specialty coffee & teaexcluded

Bottled waterexcluded

Fresh juice8 · 0

Energy drinks6 · 0

at or under the $15 capabove it, or excluded

// where the cap bites

Nothing on this menu exceeds the cap

Every priced alcoholic drink sits at or under $15, so the package pays for all of them in full.

// 06 · price tracker

Does the Norwegian drink package ever go on sale?

4 observations from Jul 2026 to Oct 2026, ranging $109.00 to $440.00.

Unlimited Open Bar price per day · before gratuity

Tracking

$169.00

+55.0% change

$109.00Jul 2026$169.00Oct 2026

July 2026October 2026

This chart is built to read the same at two points and at two hundred. As reports come in the line grows to the right; it does not get redrawn as a trend until there is one.

// drink package sales alerts

Drink Package price drop alerts

Finish the calculator at the top of this page and the result comes with a price alert. Pick your ship and sail date, confirm your email with a six-digit code, and we will write to you when the Unlimited Open Bar package is reported at least 5% below the price you were quoted.

·Drops only. A rise never triggers an email.
·Tied to your sailing, and it stops on your sail date.
·Triggered by reports that agree, not by one anecdote.

Set a price alert

// how this grows

4 points today, more as people report.

Prices people actually paid are collected in the calculator at the top of this page, not here. Reports are held until three independent observations agree for a ship and month, so nothing arrives on this chart as a single anecdote.

Report what you paid in the calculator

// 07 · rules and limits · 6 held

Every drink package rule, in plain language

4 apply on every Norwegian sailing. 2 depend on your cabin, your homeport or what you order, and those are the ones that change the answer.

01always

Gratuity

Norwegian sells the Unlimited Open Bar at $109 per person, per day, and adds a 20% service charge on top: $130.80 a day for every adult on the booking. Under Free at Sea the package is bundled into your fare instead and you pay only the prepaid service charge, around $21.80 a day.

02cabin

Cabin purchase rule

Every guest 21 and over on the same reservation must take the package, not just your stateroom. One light drinker on the booking can sink a deal that works for you alone.

03over

Max drink value

Drinks up to $15 are covered. Above that, the ultra-premium Connoisseur brands like Don Julio 1942 and Johnnie Walker Blue, you get $15 off the listed price and pay the rest.

04always

Daily limit

No daily drink cap, unlike Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Norwegian asks only that you drink responsibly and staff may decline to serve.

05always

Not included

Specialty coffee and bottled water sit outside the open bar: both are sold as separate packages. Bottles of wine and champagne are 20% off rather than included.

06always

Free at sea

This compares buying the Unlimited Open Bar against paying per drink. If you took the beverage perk through Free at Sea you already chose it over wifi or an excursion, so enter the package price you were quoted, not the prepaid gratuity, which is a different question entirely.

// 09 · break-even by drinking style

Find yourself on this list

The Unlimited Open Bar package pays for itself at 8.4 alcoholic drinks a day, with the $15 cap already counted. Ignore the cap and it flatters itself to 8.4.

Light0 to 4 a day

The package does not pay off anywhere in this band, and on a two-adult cabin it is worse still, because the buy-in rule charges you for a package the second person barely uses. Pay at the bar. This is the honest answer and it does not change by line.

Bar tab at 4/day

$61.95

a day at the average drink

With the package

$130.80

costs $68.85 more

NOT WORTH IT

Moderate5 to 8 a day

The break-even sits inside this band, so one drink a day either way flips the verdict. Watch the $15 cap here: 0 priced drinks sit above it, so a night of top-shelf ordering moves the real number away from the naive one.

Bar tab at 6/day

$92.93

a day at the average drink

With the package

$130.80

costs $37.87 more

IT DEPENDS

Heavy9 a day or more

Clear of break-even with room to spare, and price stops being the question. The two things left to watch are the daily limit and the fact that nothing is covered at a regular port of call.

Bar tab at 9/day

$139.40

a day at the average drink

With the package

$130.80

saves $8.60 a day

WORTH IT

Break-even is the package price with gratuity divided by the average value it actually delivers per drink, so the $15 cap is inside the number rather than assumed away.

Real onboard Norwegian drink prices

Gratuity, taxes and package rules included

Your personal break-even drink price

Norwegian drink package price tracker

// 10 · methodology

How the calculator works

Two totals, honestly compared. What the package really costs once the line has taken its cut, against what your drinks would ring up one at a time.

What the package really costs

The advertised daily price times the nights on your sailing times every adult the cruise line forces to buy in, plus the package gratuity. That last multiplier is the one people forget.

$109.00/day · 20% gratuity · cabin buy-in

What your bar tab would be

Your drinks at that line’s current menu prices, with the same bar gratuity applied. Accept the category median or pick the exact drinks you order.

135 priced drinks · 11 categories

Whichever is smaller wins

We also charge the spend that leaks past the per-drink cap, so a package with a low cap is not flattered by a headline break-even it cannot deliver.

$15 cap · 0 drinks above it

Every figure here is an estimate. Onboard menu prices, package prices, gratuity rates and cruise-line rules change without notice, and what you are charged at the bar is the cruise line's call, not ours. Use this to make a decision, not to argue with a bartender.

// 11 · Norwegian drink package faq

Frequently asked questions

// questions answered

Answered from the same 135 priced drinks and 6 published rules the calculator uses.

Sailing a different line?

The hub compares every line we track, then routes you to that line's own calculator.

Back to the hub

It pays for itself at 8.4 alcoholic drinks a day at $109.00 plus the 20% gratuity, which works out at $130.80 a day. The package covers 100% of Norwegian's 86 priced alcoholic drinks in full. Below about four drinks a day it is not worth it, on this line or any other.