Believe it or not, National Margarita Day is a thing and it might be how you get a good price on a Royal Caribbean drink package.
One of the most popular add-on costs for a cruise vacation is a Royal Caribbean drink package because of how convenient it is to have unlimited drinks without concern of running up a high bar bill.
While Royal Caribbean runs sales throughout the year for major holidays like Black Friday, July 4th, and New Years, it also offers discounts for what might seem like silly holidays, including National Margarita Day. Seriously.
The actual "holiday" is on February 22, but Royal Caribbean has added discounts in on Friday, and off the bat cruise fans noticed significant discounts.
Whereas the onboard price for the Deluxe Beverage Package costs typically around $115 per person, per day, some people are seeing discounts as low as $59.99 per person, per day.
"I’m seeing 59.99 for nine night liberty in September," posted Leroyr55 on the Royal Caribbean message boards.
In doing spot checks for some my upcoming cruises, I saw prices ran between $62.99 - $68.99, depending on the ship and sail date.
Royal Caribbean's drink packages use variable pricing, which means the price you pay will vary from ship to ship and sailing to sailing.
The sale applies to purchases made February 21, 2025 - February 24, 2025 and applies to select sailings departing February 25, 2025 - December 31, 2025.
You can check drink package prices by going into the Royal Caribbean app or logging onto the Royal Caribbean website and heading to the Cruise Planner section.
Located under Beverage Packages, you'll see the options and prices available.
While the Deluxe Beverage Package is quite popular, you can find discounts on other drink packages too.
In my spot checks, the average discount for the Royal Refreshment Package is 20% off, while the Classic Soda Package is running at 30% off.
Given National Margarita Day celebrates an alcoholic beverage, it makes sense why the Deluxe Beverage Package is enjoying the best discount.
The catch: the best discounts are for loyal guests
While there are indeed steep discounts offered, the lowest prices are being offered to top tier members of the Crown and Anchor Society.
Discounts of 40% off are available for guests that are at least Diamond level, which requires 80 points in Royal Caribbean's customer loyalty program.
If that's you, then you can expect to save quite a lot on a drink package purchase.
Those that haven't reached Diamond level are still seeing discounts, just not as steep.
JasonOasis posted, "The [Deluxe Beverage Package] for our 4 nighter dropped from $79 per day to $68 per day."
"The 4 nighter was always priced between $79 - $93 per day and I was checking it every week the price never dropped below $79."
dovecruiser says they don't have any status with Royal Caribbean, but are seeing prices "reduced from $100 to $75" for their sailing.
How much you have to drink to break even
If you bought the Deluxe Beverage Package at $65.99 per person, per day, you might want to know about how much you have to drink to make it worth it.
The Deluxe Beverage Package includes a lot of different beverages, such as beer, wine by the glass, liquors, premium coffees, juices, and sodas. There are so many possible combinations of drinks you could order during your sailing.
Thanks to message board user Grenadyr, there's a drink calculator that makes the "drink math" a lot simpler to figure out.
If you had 3 cocktails, 1 premium coffee, 1 beer, and 1 bottled water per day, you'd pretty much break even.
That's fairly easy to accomplish on a sea day, but port days make it more difficult because you're usually off the ship on a shore excursion. That reduces the amount of hours to take advantage of your drink package benefit.
No matter what discount you see, it's cheaper than booking on the ship
Whether you're a Pinnacle Club member like me, or a Gold status member like my friend Michael Poole, you should buy the drink package before your cruise begins to save money.
Royal Caribbean offers the best price when you pre-purchase, and yet, a lot of people make the mistake of waiting to book it on their ship.
Even if you're on the fence about whether you want it or not, you can always cancel it later. All pre-cruise purchases are fully refundable if you cancel before the cruise begins.
If the price is lower, you can cancel and rebook the add-on with no penalty up to 48 hours before your cruise date.
To check if your sailing has this new offer available, log into the Cruise Planner on Royal Caribbean's web site look for any available offers. Keep in mind that not all sailings may see the sale applicable, nor are all offers significantly cheaper than previously posted.
If you spot a better discount on something you already pre-purchased, you should be able to cancel the purchase and then re-purchase the same item under this promotion.
