The Carnival cruise drink package, called CHEERS!, costs $69.95 per person per day before a 20% service charge. Bought online before you sail, that comes to $83.94 a day; bought on board, it rises to $89.94. You pay for every night of the cruise, and every adult in your cabin has to buy it too.
That is a lot of money for a week at sea, so the real question is whether you will drink enough to make it pay. This guide covers every Carnival beverage package, the rules that trip people up, the break-even math, the new FunPacks bundles and the dynamic pricing Carnival switches on from December 1, 2026.
Carnival Drink Package Prices at a Glance
Carnival sells three standalone beverage programs. The figures below come from Carnival's own CHEERS! Q&A and package pages, with the 20% service charge added.
| Package | What it covers | Base price per day | With 20% service charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHEERS! | Up to 15 alcoholic drinks plus unlimited non-alcoholic drinks | $69.95 | $83.94 online, $89.94 on board |
| CHEERS! Zero Proof | Unlimited premium non-alcoholic drinks | $29.99 | about $36 |
| Bottomless Bubbles (adult) | Unlimited soda and juice | $11.99 | $14.38 |
| Bottomless Bubbles (child) | Unlimited soda and juice | $6.95 | $8.34 |
Some guides quote $69.95 as if it were the final figure. It is not. Budget on $83.94 per adult per day for CHEERS!, because that is what lands on your account.
On a seven-night cruise, that is $587.58 per adult, or $1,175.16 for a couple sharing a cabin. Add that number to your fare before deciding whether the cruise itself was a bargain.
What CHEERS! Includes
According to the CHEERS! package page, the program covers all spirits and cocktails, plus beer and wine by the glass, with a menu price of $20 or less. That ceiling covers almost the whole bar menu, since Carnival lists most mixed drinks between $8 and $20.
Non-alcoholic drinks are unlimited and do not count toward the daily cap. That includes specialty coffees and teas, bottled water, soda, juice and energy drinks, which matters more than people expect: a morning latte and an afternoon water add up over a week.
What it leaves out
Full bottles of wine and champagne are not included, but CHEERS! gives you 25% off them. The package also does not work on Carnival's private destinations in the Bahamas, including Celebration Key and Half Moon Cay, so a beach day there means paying for drinks separately.
State and local taxes are also charged to your onboard account when you use the program in US waters, on top of the daily rate.
The Rules That Catch People Out
The price is only half of the decision. The fine print shapes who can buy it and how much value you get back.
- Every adult in the cabin must buy it. If one guest aged 21 or older in a stateroom buys CHEERS!, every other adult assigned to that stateroom must buy it as well.
- The cap is 15 alcoholic drinks per 24 hours. The day runs from 6:00 am to 6:00 am, and once you reach 15, the bar cannot sell you more alcohol that day.
- One drink at a time, no sharing. You cannot order a round for the table on your package, and the crew can stop serving you before the cap.
- It covers the whole cruise. You cannot buy CHEERS! for a single sea day; it is sold for every day of the voyage.
- Pre-purchase closes the night before. Online sales end at 11:59 pm the day before embarkation, and buying ahead saves $5 per day.
The cabin rule is the one that changes the math most. A couple where only one person drinks pays for two packages, which roughly doubles the break-even point for the drinker.
Kids and adults under 21 cannot buy CHEERS! at all. They can buy Bottomless Bubbles or CHEERS! Zero Proof, which have no minimum age.
Is the Carnival Drink Package Worth It?
Carnival publishes sample onboard prices, and they make the break-even math easy to run. Beer costs $8 to $8.50 for most 16-ounce pours, wine by the glass runs $11 to $15.50, specialty cocktails sit around $12.25 to $14.25, soda is $3, specialty coffee is $3 to $5.50 and bottled water is $2.50 to $4.75.
Against $83.94 a day, that works out to roughly 10 beers, or six cocktails at $14, before you count anything non-alcoholic.
A realistic sea day
Picture a day at sea: two specialty coffees ($10), a bottle of water ($3.50), a soda ($3), three beers by the pool ($25.50) and three cocktails at dinner and the show ($42). That comes to $84, almost exactly the package price.
Six alcoholic drinks a day, plus your coffees and water, is roughly where CHEERS! starts paying for itself. Fewer than that, and you are paying for drinks you never ordered. These are menu prices, so if your sailing adds a service charge to individual bar purchases, the break-even drops a little further.
Port days change the picture
You pay the same daily rate on port days, but you spend many of those hours ashore where the package does not apply. On a seven-night itinerary with four port stops, you may only drink at full pace on three days. Knowing when the ship will actually arrive helps you plan those port days, and Primo Nautic sets the captain's reported ETA beside its own route-based estimate.
Count your sea days before you buy. Sea days are where the package earns its keep, and they are also when family at home tend to wonder where you are. With Primo Nautic, they can follow the ship's live position and the weather at its location, so a quiet day at sea reads as exactly that.
Who Should Skip It
CHEERS! suits steady drinkers on itineraries with several sea days. For everyone else, there is usually a cheaper path.
- Light or occasional drinkers come out ahead paying at the bar, since two or three drinks a day costs well under $84.
- Couples where only one person drinks pay for two packages, which almost never adds up.
- Wine drinkers can bring one sealed 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne per adult on embarkation day, with a $15 corkage fee if you open it in a dining room or bar.
- Soda and coffee fans get most of what they want from Bottomless Bubbles or CHEERS! Zero Proof at a fraction of the price.
The carry-on allowance also covers up to 12 sealed cans or cartons of non-alcoholic drinks per person, brought on board on embarkation day. Spirits and beer are not allowed in your luggage.
Carnival FunPacks: Check These First
In October 2026, Carnival launched four FunPacks that bundle a drink package with Wi-Fi and other extras. The FunPacks terms say they are sold per guest, per day for the full cruise, only through My Cruise Manager, and only between October 13 and October 30, 2026, for sailings departing October 31, 2026 through December 31, 2027.
| FunPack | Price per day | Drinks | Main extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kidstarter (ages 3 to 17) | $25 | Bottomless Bubbles | Social Wi-Fi, 1,000 arcade tokens |
| Zero Proof (ages 3 and up) | $50 | CHEERS! Zero Proof | Value Wi-Fi, $50 excursion and $25 dining discounts |
| Social (21 and up) | $60 | CHEERS! Social, 3 alcoholic drinks a day | Premium Wi-Fi, 1 excursion up to $100, 1 specialty dinner up to $55 |
| Epic (21 and up) | $99 | Full CHEERS!, 15 drinks a day | Premium Wi-Fi, 2 excursions, 2 specialty dinners, sparkling wine, laundry |
The drink package inside each FunPack includes its service charge. That makes the Epic pack easy to judge: CHEERS! alone is $83.94 a day, and Carnival's Premium Wi-Fi plan runs about $25 a day, so the two together cost more than $99 before you count the excursions and dinners.
The Social FunPack for moderate drinkers
CHEERS! Social is new and only sold inside the Social FunPack. It covers your first three alcoholic drinks each day, valued up to $20 each, plus unlimited non-alcoholic drinks. Extra drinks after the third are charged at menu price, and unused drinks do not roll over.
For someone who wants a glass of wine at dinner and a cocktail at the show, this is a far better fit than full CHEERS!. If you planned to buy Wi-Fi anyway, compare the bundle with our breakdown of cruise ship WiFi prices before deciding.
Excursion and dining benefits must be reserved online before sailing, no later than three days before departure. Anything you do not book in time is forfeited, so a FunPack only pays off if you plan ahead.
Dynamic Pricing Starts December 1, 2026
Carnival is ending its flat daily rates. As Cruise Critic reported, drink packages and Wi-Fi plans move to dynamic pricing on December 1, 2026, with rates that vary by sailing length, itinerary and season.
Carnival has not published price ranges for the new model. In practice, the same CHEERS! package could cost one amount on a short off-season sailing and another on a holiday week in the Caribbean, so the $69.95 base rate is best treated as a reference point rather than a promise.
If you are already booked, check the price shown in My Cruise Manager now and again closer to sailing. Whatever rate you are quoted, judge it against the break-even math above rather than against the old flat price.
How Carnival Compares With Other Cruise Lines
Carnival sits in the middle of the market. The figures below come from a line-by-line guide published by The Points Guy in September 2026.
| Cruise line | Main package | Daily price | Whole cabin must buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival | CHEERS! | $69.95 plus 20% | Yes |
| Norwegian | Free at Sea | $28.50 to $32 in gratuities | Yes |
| Holland America | Elite Beverage Package | $60.95 plus 20% | Yes |
| MSC | Premium Extra | $50 to $60 pre-booked, $82 to $95 on board | Yes |
| Princess | Premier Beverage Package | $84.99 plus 18% | No |
| Celebrity | Premium Drink Package | From $100 | Not stated |
Royal Caribbean prices its Deluxe Beverage Package by ship and itinerary, and it only covers drinks priced up to $14, against Carnival's $20 ceiling. If you are still choosing between the two big lines, our guide to Carnival and Royal Caribbean covers the differences beyond the bar.
Princess is the only major line on this list without a whole-cabin rule, which makes it the easier choice for a couple where only one person wants a package.
Conclusion
CHEERS! costs $83.94 per adult per day once the service charge is added, $89.94 if you wait until you are on board, and it must be bought for every adult in the cabin for the entire cruise. It pays off at roughly six alcoholic drinks a day plus your coffees and water, which makes it a good deal for steady drinkers on sea-day-heavy itineraries and a poor one for everyone else.
Light drinkers, single-drinker couples and soda fans are better served by paying at the bar, bringing their bottle of wine, or choosing Bottomless Bubbles or Zero Proof. If you are sailing before the end of 2027, the FunPacks, especially Epic for heavy drinkers and Social for moderate ones, can beat the standalone packages, as long as you book them by October 30. From December 1, every price depends on your sailing, so run the numbers against the rate you are actually quoted.
