P&O Drinks Packages: Worth It Or Not?

When booking a P&O cruise, one important decision that you’ll need to make is whether you should purchase a drinks package to make your cruise all-inclusive, or whether you’d be better off paying for drinks individually.

So, are P&O drinks packages worth it?

For some people, yes. For others, definitely not! To decide for yourself, you’ll need to know:

1. How much are drink packages on P&O Cruises?
2. How much are drinks on P&O Cruises?
3. How many drinks will I drink each day?

In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about P&O drinks packages so that you can easily decide whether the P&O all-inclusive drinks deal is worth it or not.

If you just want a quick answer as to whether you should buy a P&O drink package, I’ve made a handy tool that will work it all out for you…

Just enter your email address below and get the P&O Drink Package Calculator sent straight to your inbox for free.

P&O Cruises Drinks Packages 2024

P&O don’t sell cruises as ‘all-inclusive cruises’ like other cruise lines such as Marella Cruises do. However, In 2019, P&O Cruises introduced a new drinks package that can turn your cruise from a full-board cruise to an all-inclusive cruise.

And then, in 2023, the cruise line revamped its selection of drinks packages, making it easier than ever to find one that suits you.

Suggested read: What’s included in a P&O Cruise?

I love to drink cocktails, pints of beer and large glasses of red wine on my cruises. But I wouldn’t buy P&O’s drink package. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t either, though. Read on for all of the info you need to decide…

P&O drinks packages – the cost

The cheapest drinks package on a P&O Cruise is £14.45 per day, but this includes just a limited selection of soft drinks. The most expensive drinks package is the Deluxe and this costs £60.50 per day. You do save 10% on all drinks packages if you book before you cruise.

When people talk about the P&O Cruises drinks package, they’re usually referring to the Deluxe or Classic packages – the ones that include alcohol.

Unlike other cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, which varies the price of its drinks package depending on your itinerary and any promotions, the P&O Cruises drinks package price is always fixed. The only change is if you book in advance where the prices are around 10% cheaper:

1. The Deluxe drinks package – £54.45 per person, per day
2. The Classic drinks package – £43.95 per person, per day
3. The Alcohol-free drinks package – £24.25 per person, per day
4. The Refresh drinks package – £12.95 per person, per day

Here’s what each package includes

Some cruisers are disappointed when they book a package and then discover that their favourite drinks cost extra. So, here’s what you’ll get with each package…

1. P&O Cruises Deluxe Drinks Package

You’ll also get a 20% discount on any items which are excluded from the package

P&O Cruises’ Deluxe drinks package doesn’t include:

• All Signature whiskies, cognac and rums
• Bottles of wine, spirits and Champagne
• Selected fine wines by the glass
• Large bottled water
• Freakshakes
• Seven Wonders/Seven Treasures cocktails
• Anderson’s Bar exclusive cocktails
• Drinks sold in the shops
• Buckets of beer, or wine, beer and spirit flights
• Self-service drinks or vending machine drinks
• Room service drinks
• Mini-bar items
• Drinks in The Retreat

Further down this guide, there’s a list of P&O drinks prices so you can see which drinks are included in the package and which would cost extra.

2. P&O Cruises Classic Drinks Package

You still get the 20% off any drinks not included in the package.

It has the same list of exclusions as the Deluxe drinks package, but you also don’t get:

• Premium cocktails
• Premium spirits, or spirits in double measures
• Premium wines, or large wines
• Craft beers
• Perfect Serves
• Certain items from Costa, or medium Costa drinks

3. P&O Cruises Alcohol-Free Drinks Package

As you’d expect, the exclusions for this package cover just anything non-alcoholic. It’s important to note that this package (and the Refresh package) do not come with a 20% discount on drinks not included in the package – you’ll be paying full price.

4. P&O Cruises Refresh Drinks Package

The Refresh package replaced the children’s package, but the key difference is that adults are now allowed to purchase this package. It’s now just an entry-level package for anyone who only wants certain soft drinks and juices.

P&O Cruises Wine Packages 2024

P&O Cruises offers wine packages that give you a saving of around 15-20% when you buy six or twelve bottles of wine, compared to buying bottles individually. You can enjoy your wine in any restaurant or have it delivered to your cabin.

P&O Cruises don’t make it easy to find out about these wine packages and you can only buy them on the ship, not before your cruise.

The two wine packages are:

• The Captain’s Collection – 6 bottles for £149 or 12 bottles for £279 (saving up to 15%)
• The Commodore’s Collection – 6 bottles for £249 or 12 bottles for £450 (saving up to 20%)

You can see which wines are included in the wine packages here.

No longer available – the P&O Cruises Hot Drinks package

P&O Cruises did offer a hot drinks package for £10.95 per person, per day, but this has now been discontinued. It included small Costa coffees, hot chocolate and teapigs teas.

The best alternative to the P&O Cruises hot drinks package for 2024 is the non-alcoholic drinks package, although this costs more at £26.95 per person, per day.

Can you get a discount on a P&O drink package?

The only way to get a discount on a P&O drinks package is to book it before you sail, where you’ll get 10% off the total price. There’s no other way to get the package cheaper – it’s always the same price on any ship and at any time of the year.

P&O Drinks Prices 2024

Before you go ahead and buy a drink package, you should look at how much the drinks cost on P&O Cruises.

P&O Cruises bar prices are pretty cheap, particularly in comparison to some other American cruise lines. P&O Cruises drinks prices tend to be similar to the prices of your local pub in the UK.

If you’d like to take a look at the full P&O Cruises drink menus, you can see photos of those here: P&O Cruises Drinks Menus & Prices

Cocktails included in the packages

Both the Classic and the Deluxe drinks packages include cocktails, but the Deluxe is more comprehensive. These drinks package changes are very new, so a definitive list isn’t yet available for which cocktails will be included in each package, but as examples, Pina Coladads and Mai Tais are included on the Classic, while an Aperol Spritz or Sunset Cooler is included on the Deluxe package.

Here are the cocktails that are likely to be included in each package:

Certain cocktails are excluded from both packages – that’s the Seven Wonders or Seven Treasures cocktails in the Amber and Emerald Bar and the exclusive cocktails served in Anderson’s Bar.

Any free drinks?

On P&O Cruises you can always get tea, coffee, water, cordial, and milk free of charge from the buffet restaurant. Fruit juices are also available for free at breakfast time.

The tap water on cruise ships is safe to drink and tastes fine, but it may not always be very cold, particularly during warm weather.

You can get glasses of iced water for free from any bar or restaurant. Iona also has stations where you can refill your own bottle with cold, filtered water.

Taking your own alcohol on your cruise

P&O Cruises allows each adult aged 18 years or older to bring up to one litre of wine or Champagne on board the ship to drink in their cabin. You can also bring an unlimited amount of water and soft drinks at the start of your cruise and at each port of call.

When it comes to allowing guests to bring their own drinks on board, P&O Cruises policy used to be more generous than any other cruise line – you could previously bring beers and spirits. But that changed in May 2024.

On our cruise on-board Britannia we brought a litre of gin and a litre of rum with us along with several large bottles of lemonade. This saved us over £400 compared to what it would have cost to buy these drinks at the bar. So it’s a shame that’s no longer allowed.

Suggested read: Can You Take Drinks on a Cruise Ship?

If any additional alcohol is purchased, either in duty-free or ashore, it will be confiscated until the end of your cruise.

If you do bring your own drinks on-board that, make sure you pack glass bottles in an inflatable bottle protector from Amazon to stop them from smashing in your case.

Beware the corkage fee…

There is no charge for drinking your own alcohol in your cabin or on your private balcony. However, any alcohol consumed in the dining rooms, bars, restaurants, pool or lounge areas, will be subject to a corkage fee of £20 per bottle.

Are P&O drinks packages worth it?

I see a lot of people online asking if the P&O Cruises drinks package is worth it. To work that out, you need to think about how many drinks you are likely to have each day, and whether they add up to more than £48 or £60 per person, per day.

It’s important to bear in mind, that on the majority of days of your cruise, you’ll be off the ship exploring the ports, and so you won’t drink as much as you will on sea days. On a sea day, I usually drink two to three times as much as I would on a port day.

P&O Drinks Package Calculator

For 2024 and beyond, P&O drinks packages that include alcohol cost £48.45 per day or £60.50 per day. The price for two people on a 14-night cruise would be £1,356.60 for a Classic package, or £1,694 for the Deluxe packages.

If you would normally spend more than that amount on refreshments, then yes, the package is worth it. If not, then you’d be better off paying for your drinks individually.

You can use my drinks package calculator tool to work out how much you can expect to spend on drinks on your P&O Cruise if you don’t buy a package.

Just pop your details in this form and the calculator will be sent straight to your inbox…

For most people, a drinks package on P&O Cruises doesn’t give good value for money and you will be better off paying for your drinks individually. If you mostly drink cocktails, large glasses of wine and double spirits, you’ll definitely want to choose the Deluxe package if you get a package – but it may still be cheaper to pay for drinks individually.

A package may be worth it if…

• You drink a lot of alcohol every day on holiday
• You have a lot of sea days or plan to stay on-board when your ship’s in port
• You plan to spend a lot on kids’ drinks (as kids get a free drinks package when the adults get one)
• You don’t want to bring your own alcohol in your luggage

For everyone else, you’re probably better off buying your drinks individually.

What changed in 2023?

Before these new drinks package tiers came in, back in 2023, there were three drink package options – Ultimate, Non-Alcoholic, and Children’s.

The Ultimate is very similar to the Classic, the Non-Alcoholic is similar to the Alcohol-Free and the Children’s is similar to Refresh. However there are some key differences:

• Classic used to include all drinks up to £6.95 but the price limit has now gone, to be replaced by a set list of drinks
• The Classic package does now include all drinks from the Alcohol-Free package – previously it didn’t
• The Alcohol-Free package now includes mocktails and non-alcoholic beers and wines, but no longer includes coolers or frappes from Costa
• The Refresh package is now available to all guests, not just children, but hot chocolates have been removed from the package.

The Deluxe package is a completely new package designed to address some of guests’ concerns that their favourite cocktails or large glasses of wine weren’t included in the Ultimate package.

But it’s not necessarily a good thing, as £60 per person, per day (or £55 if you get the discount) is a lot of money, and you need to make sure you’re getting the value from the package before you pay for it. Especially as you have to pay for it for every day of your cruise.

Useful things to know

Like any other cruise line, P&O doesn’t let you share a drink package. That means that each adult in a cabin must purchase their own drink package. Children receive a free drink package when adults buy one.

You have to buy the package for your entire cruise, too – you can’t just buy it for a couple of days. And once you’ve bought it and started cruising, you can’t get a refund, though you can cancel it before you sail.

Guests must be aged 18 or older to consume alcohol on P&O Cruises. However, if the cruise is in USA or UAE waters then you must be 21 or older both to drink alcohol and to purchase the drinks package.

Aurora, Azura, Britannia and Ventura have self-service Enomatic wine machines and Britannia also has a self-service beer machine. These are not included in the drinks package. If you have a drinks package, do not use these machines as you will be charged.

And the packages don’t cover the minibar in your room either – they’re just for the bars and restaurants around the ship.

Plus, one handy thing to note – with the P&O Cruises Deluxe drink package, you can order double shots (such as a double vodka and Coke), but you can’t with the Classic package as this would count as two drinks. You can also get large glasses of wine (250ml) on the Deluxe package only.

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