Celebrity Classic vs Premium Beverage Package: Which One Is Actually Worth It?
We tracked 100,000+ Classic and Premium drink package prices across 14 Celebrity ships. Here is what each tier actually costs and when the upgrade pays off.
Most people should stick with Classic. The Premium upgrade only pays off if you regularly order top-shelf spirits or reserve wines, and even then, it depends on your ship.
We track prices daily across all 14 Celebrity ships. Classic runs $58 to $81 a day depending on the ship, and Premium runs $72 to $99. But the number that actually decides this is the gap between them, and that gap is a narrow $13 to $18/day on every ship in the fleet. Here is how it breaks down and when the upgrade is worth it.
Quick Answer: Classic or Premium?
TL;DR| If You... | Buy This | Price/day (by ship) |
|---|---|---|
| Drink house cocktails, beer, and house wine | Classic | $58-$81/day |
| Order top-shelf spirits or reserve wines | Premium | $72-$99/day |
| Mainly drink water, coffee, and soda | Non-Alcoholic Package | $36-$49/day |
| Drink 1-2 cocktails per day max | Buy a la carte | $12-$26/day |
- Celebrity requires all adults in the cabin to buy the same package. No mixing Classic and Premium in the same stateroom.
- The gap runs $13 to $18/day. It's $14 on most ships and $18 on the three newest. The ship you pick changes the upgrade math.
- All prices are before gratuity. Celebrity adds 20% at checkout.
Celebrity Classic vs Premium Beverage Package: Full Drink List
Classic Drinks Package
The Classic package covers cocktails, beer, wine by the glass, spirits, and frozen drinks up to $12 per serving. It also includes specialty coffee, bottled water, fresh-squeezed juice, and smoothies.
That $12 limit is the key constraint. Most house cocktails, draft beers, and house wines on Celebrity fall under this threshold. But anything with a premium spirit, a Grey Goose martini, a pour of Macallan 12, a glass from the reserve wine list, will exceed it.
You also get a 15% discount on wine bottles purchased onboard.
Premium Drinks Package
The Premium package raises the per-drink limit to $19 per serving. This unlocks top-shelf spirits, premium cocktails, and Celebrity's reserve wine list, basically everything behind the bar except the ultra-rare bottles.
The wine bottle discount bumps to 20%, and you get access to the same non-alcoholic drinks as Classic.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Classic | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Per-drink limit | $12 | $19 |
| House cocktails | Included | Included |
| Draft beer | Included | Included |
| House wine | Included | Included |
| Top-shelf spirits | Not covered | Included |
| Reserve wine list | Not covered | Included |
| Premium cocktails | Partial (depends on price) | Included |
| Wine bottle discount | 15% | 20% |
| Specialty coffee | Included | Included |
| Bottled water | Included | Included |
| Smoothies | Included | Included |
| Freshly squeezed juice | Included | Included |
Beverage Package Cost by Celebrity Ship
The upgrade cost depends on your ship, but only slightly. Every ship in the fleet prices the Classic-to-Premium jump between $13 and $18/day. For full ship-by-ship pricing, see our Celebrity drink package prices guide.
| Ship group | Classic | Premium | Daily Gap | 7-Night Cost (per person) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millennium | $58/day | $72/day | $14 | $98 |
| Mid-fleet (5 ships) | $67/day | $81/day | $14 | $98 |
| Upper-mid (5 ships) | $81/day | $94/day | $13 | $91 |
| Newest (Xcel, Apex, Beyond) | $81/day | $99/day | $18 | $126 |
Let us check the Cruise Planner daily for a better price
When the Classic or Premium price drops on your sailing, we email you — you cancel, rebuy at the lower price, and keep the difference. One drop can pay for a year of Pro.
Is the Premium Drinks Package Worth the Extra Cost?
The only question that matters: how many premium drinks per day justify the gap?
On Celebrity, a top-shelf cocktail runs $13-$16. A glass from the reserve wine list starts around $14. A pour of premium whiskey is $14-$18. All of these exceed the Classic package's $12 limit, meaning you pay the difference out of pocket on Classic or get them included on Premium.
Break-Even Calculator
| Daily Gap | Premium Drinks to Break Even |
|---|---|
| $13-$14/day (most ships) | 3 drinks/day |
| $18/day (newest ships) | 4 drinks/day |
Math assumes each premium drink saves you about $5 versus paying the overage on Classic (the gap between the Classic per-drink limit and a premium cocktail). Check your ship's specific gap in our pricing guide.
Run the numbers for your specific cruise with our drink package calculator.
We track Celebrity beverage package prices daily
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Celebrity Cruises vs Royal Caribbean Drink Packages
Celebrity Classic and RC Deluxe land in a similar price range, but RC covers more per drink. RC's Deluxe includes drinks up to $14/serving, which sits between Celebrity Classic ($12) and Premium ($19). If you are comparing across both lines, RC's Deluxe Beverage Package is the closer match to Celebrity Premium on coverage.
We monitor both lines daily (14 Celebrity ships, 30 RC ships), so the numbers are apples-to-apples:
| Metric | Celebrity Classic | Celebrity Premium | RC Deluxe Beverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price range (by ship) | $58-$81/day | $72-$99/day | $49-$90/day |
| Per-drink limit | $12 | $19 | $14 |
| Ships tracked | 14 | 14 | 30 |
For a detailed breakdown of RC's tier structure, see our Royal Caribbean Refreshment Package vs Deluxe comparison.
Do Celebrity Drink Packages Go on Sale?
The Premium tier drops more often than Classic, so timing your Premium purchase matters more. Classic prices tend to hold steady on most ships. Premium prices swing more week to week.
Celebrity Reflection's Premium package dropped from $103 to $86 on certain sailings. Celebrity Xcel's Premium dropped from $112 to $93 in the same window. These are data-verified movements, not "I heard there was a sale" forum posts.
We dig deeper into Celebrity package sale patterns and timing in our guide on when Celebrity drink packages go on sale.
Captain's Club Beverage Package Discounts
At Elite tier (15% off), Premium drops to right around Classic's retail price on most ships, which makes the upgrade nearly free. A 15% discount takes a typical $94/day Premium down to about $80/day, essentially matching Classic at $81 on the top-tier ships.
| Captain's Club Tier | Discount | Premium After Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Classic (2-4 cruises) | No discount | $94/day |
| Select (5-9 cruises) | 10% | ~$85/day |
| Elite (10+ cruises) | 15% | ~$80/day |
| Elite Plus / Zenith | 20% | ~$75/day |
If you are at Select tier or above, factor your loyalty discount before deciding. The upgrade math shifts heavily toward Premium.
Should You Get Classic or Premium?
Classic is right if:
- You drink house cocktails, draft beer, and house wine
- You do not care about top-shelf spirits or reserve wines
- You want predictable spend and do not plan to order premium drinks
- You have no Captain's Club status (no discount makes Premium less compelling)
Premium is right if:
- You order premium spirits, aged whiskey, or cocktails with name-brand liquor
- You enjoy wine and want access to Celebrity's reserve list
- You have Captain's Club Select or higher (the discount makes it a no-brainer)
- You expect to order 3 or more premium drinks a day, which covers the $13-$18 gap
Neither package is right if:
- You drink fewer than 4-5 beverages per day total (alcoholic and non-alcoholic combined)
- You mainly drink water and the occasional coffee
For the broader question of whether any cruise drink package is worth the money, we broke down the break-even math across multiple cruise lines. Also deciding on WiFi or specialty dining? We track those prices daily too.
If you book Celebrity in Canadian dollars, pounds, euros or Australian dollars, track these packages in your own currency. Otherwise a routine exchange-rate move can look like a price drop the day you start watching, and you'd chase a sale that isn't there. Here's how to set your currency.
How We Track This Data
We monitor Celebrity Classic and Premium Drinks Package prices daily across 14 Celebrity ships. Our dataset includes 52,000+ price records per package tier, collected over more than six months of daily tracking since early 2026. We also track Royal Caribbean package prices daily across 30 ships, which allows us to benchmark Celebrity pricing against its sister brand.
As our tracking window grows, we will update this guide with longer-term trends and seasonal pricing patterns.
Our Celebrity price tracker scores every Celebrity fare 0-100 based on 8.6M+ price snapshots, so you know whether the cabin price is fair before you start adding packages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Graham H — Founder, All Aboard Deals
Graham has been cruising for over a decade and has sailed on 15+ cruises across Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian, and Virgin.
He built All Aboard Deals to track cruise prices the same way traders track charts — monitoring 29,000+ sailings and spotting fares that fall well below their recent averages.
Editorial Standards
All guides are based on real pricing data, live fare checks, and historical trends. Content is updated as ships launch and prices change. Questions or corrections? Contact us