Free at Sea vs Free at Sea Plus: What are they, and Should you Add Them to Your Future NCL Cruise Booking?

If you’re considering cruising with Norwegian Cruise Line onboard any of their ships, you might be wondering if you should add the ‘Free at Sea’ or ‘Free at Sea Plus’ packages to your cruise booking, or if you should cruise without either of them.

I’ve taken three NCL cruises over the last few months, and have applied the ‘Free at Sea’ package to all of these, so I’m going to use my experience with this package to bring you up to speed on everything that you need to know. If you enjoy this post today, then please consider supporting my content by coming over to my YouTube channel, which is where I share the majority of my cruise tips and advice. You can find me by searching ‘Fraser at Sea’, or by clicking here.

If you’d rather watch a video explaining these packages rather than read in written form, then here’s a video that I’ve created on this topic over on YouTube!

So, what is ‘Free at Sea’, and ‘Free at Sea Plus’?

In short, these are the names given to two packages that you can ‘bolt on’ to your cruise booking. There are 4 key parts to both of these packages, with the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ then having an additional aspect to consider. Don’t worry - we’ll cover each of these areas in detail throughout this post.

1. Drinks

2. Speciality Dining

3. WiFi

4. Shore Excursion Credits

5. Service Charges (Free at Sea Plus only)

The ‘Free at Sea’ package from NCL has 4 key pillars, with a 5th being covered under the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package.

Pillar 1: Drinks Package

The first pillar of these packages is the drinks aspect. With both packages, you’ll unlock an ‘open bar’, which really is an open bar - there’s no joking around here. I’ve taken lots of cruises with competing lines who claim to offer unlimited drinks, but the reality is that passengers are often capped at a limit of drinks per day under their package. 

An example of this would be when cruising with Holland America Line who, on my most recent cruise, applied a cap of 15 drinks per day to their beverage packages. This might sound like a lot, but drinks like waters and coffees are also included, so you can sometimes be 3 or 4 drinks into your allocation before you’ve even disembarked the ship in port in the morning! 

With NCL, the open bar really is unlimited, so you don’t need to worry about hitting any limits and then being billed for each drink.

When NCL claim to offer an ‘open bar’ as a result of booking with their ‘Free at Sea’ package, they mean it!

So, what’s included with ‘Free at Sea’ from a drinks perspective? The short answer is that there’s LOTS included. If you enjoy drinking wine, then you’ll find at least 4 or 5 of each colour of wine at most of the bars around the ship, and there are over 100 cocktails to choose from, too. If beer is more your thing, then you can enjoy from a selection of around 10 different beers at many of the bars. In other words, you’re not going to struggle to find something to drink under this package. 

If you enjoy buying bottles of your favourite drinks rather than ordering by the glass, then you’ll get a 20% discount on all champagne and wine bottles with the ‘Free at Sea’ package, with the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package increasing this discount to 40%.

The ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package also allows you to switch to more premium brands of drinks across the range. Personally, this isn’t a huge factor for me as I’m perfectly happy with what’s offered under the ‘basic’ package, but it’s one to consider if you enjoy drinking from the top shelf! You’ll also be able to order unlimited Starbucks drinks with the ‘Plus’ package (one drink per visit), in addition to having fresh juices and energy drinks included. 

Want to have Starbucks drinks included when you’re cruising? You’ll want to think about adding the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package to your booking!

What about Great Stirrup Cay - are drinks included on the island?

If you’re cruising to Great Stirrup Cay, the private island in the Bahamas operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, you’ll also be able to benefit from included drinks there under both the ‘Free at Sea’ and ‘Free at Sea Plus’ packages, but you’ll likely have to pay taxes on them - this was the case when I visited in April of 2026.

Don’t worry - it’s not a huge amount - the base drinks is included in your package cost, and the tax is simply billed to your onboard account. 

Cruising with Minors? Here’s what you need to know about drinks!

If you’re cruising with anyone under the age of 21, they won’t be able to take advantage of the ‘open bar’ part of the drinks pillar of these packages for obvious reasons. Instead, for a price of $12.50 per person per day, they’ll be able to enjoy unlimited juices and fountain sodas.

Guests under the age of 3 are free of charge, so you don’t need to worry if you have a youngster in your cabin or stateroom.

Cruising with minors? Don’t worry - the packages for them are clear and simple!

Pillar 2: Speciality Dining 

With both the ‘Free at Sea’ and ‘Free at Sea Plus’ packages, you’ll receive a set number of meals at your ship’s speciality dining venues. The number of meals will depend on the length of your cruise, and is unaffected by other factors like the size of your cruise ship, for example. In short: the longer your cruise, the more meals you’ll receive. 

• If your cruise is 2-4 nights long, you’ll be entitled to 1 meal in a Speciality restaurant. 

• If your cruise is 5-6 nights long, you’ll be entitled to 2 meals in a Speciality restaurant.

• If your cruise is 7-8 nights long, you’ll be entitled to 3 meals in a Speciality restaurant.

• If your cruise is 9+ nights long, you’ll be entitled to 4 meals in a Speciality restaurant.

It’s important to note that these allocations are for guests one and two in a stateroom. Any additional passengers in the cabin won’t receive meals at the speciality restaurants, so keep this in mind if you’re travelling as a group!

If you have anyone under 13 years old in your travel party, they’re able to dine free of charge at any speciality restaurant when ordering from the kid’s menu, or for a $20 cover charge when dining from the full menu. 

One of my ‘top tips’ for anyone cruising with NCL is to do your homework about which dining venues your ship offers before you step onboard. You’ll want to aim to book your speciality dining early in order to secure your preferred dates and times, so it’s important that you understand what’s on offer so that you don’t miss out! You can book your dining in advance of the cruise, but don’t worry if your preferred times aren’t available - speak to the reservations team as soon as you board, and they’ll do their best to help!

The number of speciality meals that you’ll be entitled to on your cruise will depend on the length of the cruise!

Pillar 3: WiFi

Internet onboard all of the ships in the Norwegian Cruise Line fleet is now powered by Starlink, which is much better than what cruise ship wifi used to be only a few years ago.

With the ‘Free at Sea’ package, you’ll automatically receive 150 minutes of standard internet (every guest in the cabin gets their own allocation), and the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package offers each passenger one login to the unlimited streaming WiFi.

If you’re interested in internet speeds, then I ran a speed test during my recent cruise on Norwegian Pearl. I found that I was experiencing a download speed of 58.7 Mbps and an upload speed of 1.21 Mbps. I should add - I opted to upgrade to the streaming WiFi package, and this cost me about £150 ($199) for my 7-night cruise. 

Okay, this isn’t as fast as what you’d expect from your home internet connection, but you do need to remember that you’re on a cruise ship that’s out ‘at sea’, and you’re often sharing the connection with thousands of your fellow passengers. I found that my connection was good enough to allow me to work from the ship, and I was able to connect to video calls, stream on social media, and also watch streaming services (Netflix, for example).

Want more information on the internet packages available onboard? Click here to go to this section of the NCL website!

Internet onboard NCL’s ships is powered by Starlink, and there are multiple different packages available to purchase to suit your needs.

Pillar 4: Shore Excursion Credits

When you add either the ‘Free at Sea’ or the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package to your cruise booking, you’ll receive a benefit of a $50 shore excursion credit per tour. In other words, every single tour that you book will qualify for a $50 discount.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, there are a few things to think about with this one before you jump in.

First, this discount only applied to guest 1 in the stateroom, so all other passengers within that same stateroom will be required to pay the full price of the tour - no discounts will be applied. This is one of the biggest points to remember - I assumed that it would be a $50 discount per person (saving families a small fortune in some cases!), but that’s not the reality.

Second, the tours with Norwegian Cruise Line are notoriously expensive. I’ve found that I can save a lot of money by booking my tours independently, rather than going through the cruise line. Sure, I forfeit a little of the security of the ship waiting for me if I’m late back from a tour that I’ve booked independently, but most tours are only a few hours long and the ship’s docked in port all day, so it’s extremely rare that this would be a problem you’d be faced with.

If you’d like my recommendation for an alternative  tour provider, check out Viator. I’ve used Viator on so many cruises now to explore the port without using a cruise line excursion. You can use my affiliate link to check out their offering by clicking here, or by clicking the image below. They operate all around the world, so why not check them out for your upcoming cruise ports?! 

Viator are a third-party excursions provider that can save you money versus cruise line tours. Click the image above to go there now!

Before we move on to look at whether or not the ‘Free at Sea’ package has been worth it for my most recent cruises, there’s one more aspect to consider: Service Charges. When you apply the ‘Free at Sea’ package to your booking, service charges aren’t included and you’ll be billed for these each day of your cruise. 

These are subject to change, but at the point of writing this article (August 2026), daily services charges when cruising with Norwegian Cruise Line were set at $25 USD per person per day for The Haven and Suites, and $20 USD per person per day for all other stateroom types.

However, with the ‘Plus’ package, these will be included and so there won’t be any additional charges for service charges while you’re onboard. Well worth thinking about!

Want to have your Service Charges taken care of? Think about adding the ‘Free at Sea Plus’ package to your booking!

Has the Free at Sea Package been worth it for my cruises?

In order to answer this question, let’s talk about the numbers…

Pillar 1: Drinks

Okay, I’m not a huge drinker, but I do enjoy a couple of soft drinks during the day and a couple of glasses of wine in the evening. For that reason, I’ve budgeted for 2 soft drinks and 2 glasses of wine per day for this equation - that allows me to have a glass of wine with dinner, and another to take to the show in the theatre afterwards.

Each soft drink onboard an NCL cruise ship currently costs $3.50 at the point of writing this post, with an additional ‘Gratuity and beverage service charge’ of 20% being charged when you opt to ‘pay as you go’ without a package, which means that the true cost per drinks is really $4.20 each.

Thinking about wine, each glass has a menu price of $12.50 per glass, again with a 20% charge payable, bringing the true cost to $15 per glass.

These numbers mean that I would expect to be paying (on average), $38.40 per day or $268.80 per week if I’m onboard for a 7 night cruise.

When deciding if the packages are worth it for you, remember that you can use your ‘open bar’ at all of the dining venues across the fleet!

Before we move on to pillar 2, I should explain that I can often ‘make my money back’ on my package cost just from the drinks aspect. It’s often a ‘no brainer’ for me to apply the package to my account in order to benefit from the alcohol aspect, without even considering the other areas.

That said, the benefit will be nowhere near as great for you if you’re not an alcohol drinker, as non-alcoholic drinks are so much cheaper in comparison!

Pillar 2: Speciality Dining

I’ve said it often over on YouTube: the upcharge dining venues from Norwegian Cruise Line are worth trying, but I don’t necessarily agree that they’re all worth their cover charges. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this analysis, we do need to look at the cover charges and what it would cost me to dine at these venues without the packages.

On my most recent cruise, I chose to dine at Teppanyaki, La Cucina and Cagney’s Steakhouse, which have respective cover charges of $60, $40 and $60. If I opted to dine at these venues without a package on my account, I would also be required to pay an addition service charge of 20%, meaning that these three meals would come at a true cost of $192.

When I add this dining cost to my anticipated drinks cost from point 1, I’m now at a cost base of $460.80. You can probably see where this analysis is going, right?!

Remember: there’s a 20% additional charge payable on all speciality dining reservations when you cruise with NCL without a package!

Pillar 3: WiFi

This is an interesting one - I won’t really include the internet in my analysis here, due to the fact that I upgraded mine before the cruise had even started. The standard ‘150 minutes’ that you’d receive when booking the ‘Free at Sea’ package is probably enough for most people, but it wouldn’t allow me to stay fully connected while onboard, so it’s not worth it for me.

You can upgrade your internet either before the cruise (I tend to do this, as it’s usually the best value), or you can wait until you get onboard.

One last point from me on WiFi… If you do remain on the 150 minute plan, please remember to log out when you’re finished using it. Failing to do this could result in your device using your entire allowance on day 1, which wouldn’t be ideal…!

Pillar 4: Shore Tours

This part of the packages could add some real benefit to some, but personally I don’t tend to take the tours when I cruise with NCL due to their high cost, and so I don’t have anything to include here.

My challenge to you - if you’re looking at what tours are available to you for your upcoming cruises - give Viator a try. Just click here to get started!

When I’m in port, I tend to explore independently, or take a tour with a third-party provider to save money!

That’s it - that’s what both the ‘Free at Sea’ and ‘Free at Sea Plus’ packages are, and also my insights following my most recent cruises with Norwegian Cruise Line.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed this post! If you have, then please check out another on this website - every time you view a post, or share it with your network, it massively helps me to continue!

If you’d like to see exactly what it’s like to take a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line, come and join me in the below YouTube video. In this one, I take a cruise onboard Norwegian Epic, which is arguably the most controversial ship in the entire fleet. See you over there!