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For almost two years, Carnival’s drink package had one of the simplest prices at sea. Carnival’s own drinks page still says CHEERS! costs “$69.95 USD per person, per day for all sailings” when you buy it online. It was the same on a three-night Bahamas party cruise and a two-week voyage.
That ends on December 1, 2026. Carnival says its drink packages and Wi-Fi plans are moving to dynamic pricing, and “pricing will vary based on sailing length, itinerary and season.”
On the same day, it launched a set of bundles called FunPacks. They have fixed prices, a booking window of just over two weeks, and, as our maths shows, they work out cheaper than buying the drinks and Wi-Fi separately.
So here’s the strange part. The company is about to make its drink price harder to predict, and at the same time it’s offering a fixed-price bundle that beats today’s rates. Here’s what changed, why cruise lines do this, and what to do before October 30.
What Carnival Announced
There were two announcements on October 14, and they’re easy to mix up.
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Send me the free kit →1. Dynamic pricing from December 1. Beverage packages and Wi-Fi plans will no longer have one flat daily rate across the fleet. Cruise Industry News, Cruise Hive, Cruise Radio and Cruise Fever all report the same three factors: sailing length, itinerary and season. Caribbean Journal specifies that the change covers standalone beverage packages and Wi-Fi plans. Carnival hasn’t published a single new price yet.
2. FunPacks, on sale now. These are four bundles with fixed per-person, per-day prices, sold through My Cruise Manager on Carnival’s website. Carnival’s president, Christine Duffy, called them “our largest collection of packages to date,” according to Cruise Fever, and Cruise Industry News reports that Carnival describes them as an evolution of its older Value packages. Carnival’s FunPacks page sets out the rules:
- You have to buy by October 30, 2026, online only. They can’t be bought on board, and the deadline is at least three days before you sail.
- They cover sailings from October 31, 2026, to December 31, 2027. Cruise Radio’s write-up says the end date is December 31, 2026, but Carnival’s own page, Cruise Industry News, Caribbean Journal and Cruise Fever all say the end of 2027.
- The service charge is included for the drinks and dining parts. On their own, Carnival’s drink packages carry a 20% service charge.
- Adults in a cabin must all buy the same one. If anyone 21 or over buys Social or Epic, every guest 21 or over in that stateroom must buy the same pack.
The FunPacks vs. Buying It All Separately
Carnival says the packs save “up to” 35% to 55%. Its fine print says that’s based on a six-day cruise and includes every perk at full value. We wanted a simpler test: do the drinks and Wi-Fi alone cost more or less than the pack? We used only the prices on Carnival’s own drink packages page and internet plans page, as listed on October 14, 2026, and added the 20% service charge to the drinks.
| FunPack (per person, per day) | Drinks + Wi-Fi bought separately today | Difference per day | Extras on top |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kidstarter, $25 (ages 3 to 17) | Bottomless Bubbles child $6.95 + 20% = $8.34, plus Social Wi-Fi $20.40 = $28.74 | Pack is $3.74 cheaper | 1,000 arcade tokens, 50% off bulk candy, lanyard, souvenir cup |
| Zero Proof, $50 (ages 3+) | CHEERS! Zero Proof $29.99 + 20% = $35.99, plus Value Wi-Fi $23.80 = $59.79 | Pack is $9.79 cheaper | $50 off a shore excursion, $25 off specialty dining (once per cruise) |
| Social, $60 (21+) | Not directly comparable: CHEERS! Social, with 3 alcoholic drinks a day, is only sold inside this pack. Adult Bottomless Bubbles ($11.99 + 20% = $14.39) plus Premium Wi-Fi ($25.50) costs $39.89 | Leaves $20.11 a day for the three drinks (each worth up to $20) | One excursion up to $100, one specialty meal up to $55, 50% off spa and Dreams Studio packages |
| Epic, $99 (21+) | CHEERS! $69.95 + 20% = $83.94, plus Premium Wi-Fi $25.50 = $109.44 | Pack is $10.44 cheaper | Two excursions up to $100 each, two specialty meals up to $55 each, a bottle of sparkling wine, a bag of laundry, 50% off spa and Dreams Studio |
The Epic row is the eye-catcher. If you were going to buy CHEERS! and Premium Wi-Fi anyway, the Epic pack costs $10.44 a day less, which works out to $73.08 per person over seven days. The excursions, dinners, wine and laundry come on top. As we found in our drink package break-even guide, though, CHEERS! only pays off if you actually drink a lot, so buying a bigger package isn’t automatically a saving.
The catches are in the fine print. The dining and excursion perks have to be reserved before you sail. If your dinner costs less than $55, “the unused value is forfeited,” and if your excursion costs more than $100, you pay the difference. Unused perks aren’t refunded.
Carnival Has Been Here Before: A CHEERS! Price Timeline
“Dynamic” sounds new, but Carnival’s drink package price has already changed shape twice in three years, and once it changed with no warning at all.
| When | What changed | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| October 3, 2023 (announced) | For sailings of 3 to 5 nights departing from December 1, 2023, CHEERS! rises $10 to $69.95 a day pre-cruise ($74.95 on board), plus an 18% service charge. Sailings of 6 nights or more stay at $59.95 ($64.95 on board). Booked guests get a few days to lock in the old rate. | Cruise Hive; Cruise Fever |
| December 5, 2024 | Longer cruises lose their discount. Every sailing now costs $82.54 a day pre-cruise, including the 18% charge, which is $69.95 before the charge. There’s no notice, so guests can’t lock in the old price. | Cruise Hive; Travel Market Report |
| December 2025 | The service charge on drink packages, bar drinks and specialty dining goes from 18% to 20%, without an official announcement. | Cruise Hive; Cruise Mummy |
| April 2, 2026 | Adult Bottomless Bubbles goes from $9.50 to $11.99 a day. Daily gratuities rise $1. | Cruise Hive; carnival.com now lists $11.99 |
| October 13 to 14, 2026 | FunPacks go on sale, and Carnival announces dynamic pricing for drink packages and Wi-Fi. | Carnival’s FunPacks page; Cruise Industry News; Cruise Hive |
| December 1, 2026 | Dynamic pricing begins. | Cruise Industry News; Cruise Fever |
So the package has gone from priced by length (2023), to one price everywhere (2024), to priced by length, itinerary and season (December 2026). Carnival’s drinks page will need updating. It still promises one rate “for all sailings.”
There’s also a small mystery on that page. Its FAQ still says adult Bottomless Bubbles costs $9.50 a day, while the buy button on the same page says “Starting at $11.99.” The button matches Cruise Hive’s report of the April increase.
Why Cruise Lines Price Drinks Like Hotel Rooms
A rum punch costs the ship about the same to pour in March as in July, so why would its price move? Because the price was never really about the rum.
Drinks and Wi-Fi are big money. In its 2025 annual report, Carnival Corporation says 35% of its total revenue came from “onboard and other” sales. In its North America segment, which includes Carnival Cruise Line, the figure was 38%. When the report lists what that covers, the first two items are “Beverage sales” and “Internet and communication services.” Those are exactly the two products going dynamic.
Cruise lines already price their cabins this way. The same filing says the long lead time between booking and sailing lets the company “actively manage our prices in relation to guest demand and the number of available cabins through our revenue management capabilities.” Dynamic package pricing applies that idea to things you buy after booking. When demand is high, the price can go up. When it’s low, the price can come down to tempt you.
Who drinks what varies by trip. Carnival hasn’t said how it will set the new prices. But its own history points one way: in 2023 it charged $10 a day more on cruises of five nights or fewer. Cruise Fever says Carnival cruisers “can likely expect to pay more for WiFi and beverage packages during short cruises and during the peak cruise periods.” That’s a prediction, not a published price, and we’ll treat it as one.
Royal Caribbean Shows What It Looks Like
Royal Caribbean has priced its drink packages this way for years. “Royal Caribbean doesn’t even post price ranges for the packages anymore,” Cruzely notes, and the price “can vary even for your specific trip. So one day the package may be $80 and the next week it’s $70 per day.”
The gaps can be big. In September 2024, Australia’s Cruise Passenger reported that cruisers in a Royal Caribbean Facebook group had seen the Deluxe drinks package drop to $92 per guest per day, while another cruiser was quoted $191 per day for the same package. Over a 10-day cruise, it worked out, that gap “would amount to an extra $990” (the article doesn’t name the currency). It also says the packages “are more expensive on shorter cruises and a bit cheaper on longer cruises.” Royal Caribbean “has been contacted for an explanation on how its pricing model functions,” the article says, and it includes no reply.
That’s the future Carnival fans are being prepared for: you won’t know the price until you open the planner for your sailing.
What Carnival Hasn’t Said Yet
- Whether a package you buy before December 1 keeps today’s price. Cruise Hive says Carnival hasn’t clarified this, and none of the reports we read has an answer.
- Whether it’s permanent or a test. This is also unknown, per Cruise Hive.
- Whether FunPack prices will go dynamic later. The FunPacks page doesn’t mention dynamic pricing at all. It quotes fixed prices for sailings through 2027.
- A small inconsistency in the FunPack rules. The FAQ says guests under 21 in the same cabin can choose different packs, while the terms on the same page say packages “cannot be mixed within a stateroom.” If you’re buying for a family, ask Carnival before you pay.
We also couldn’t find the announcement on Carnival’s newsroom when we published. Cruise Industry News cites a company press release, and Carnival’s FunPacks page is live, but the dynamic-pricing wording comes to us through the trade press. Five outlets report it in matching terms.
What to Do Before October 30
- Booked on Carnival between now and the end of 2027? Check the FunPacks before October 30. If you’d buy CHEERS! or Zero Proof plus Wi-Fi anyway, the matching pack costs less per day at today’s prices, before you count the extras.
- Plan the perks before you buy. The dining and excursion credits must be reserved before you sail, and leftover value is lost. Pick an excursion close to $100 and a restaurant close to $55, or that part of the “saving” disappears. Bonsai Teppanyaki, The Chef’s Table and Faster to the Fun are excluded.
- Remember the whole-cabin rule. For Social or Epic, every adult 21 or over in the cabin must buy the same pack, and so must every adult for standalone CHEERS!, according to Carnival’s drinks page. Multiply by the number of adults before you decide.
- Thinking of buying standalone CHEERS! or Wi-Fi for a 2027 cruise? Nobody knows yet whether buying before December 1 keeps today’s rate. But Carnival’s drinks page says packages are non-refundable only after “10:00pm ET the evening before departure,” so if you buy now, you can still cancel later. After December 1, compare the new price for your sailing and cancel and rebuy if it’s lower. That’s the trick Royal Caribbean cruisers already use. Check the refund terms at checkout first, because they can change.
- Light drinker? Don’t let a “saving” talk you into a package. Our break-even guide shows how many drinks a day you need for CHEERS! to pay off. Our spending money budgets show what a week costs without one.
The Bottom Line
Carnival is ending the one cruise price you could quote from memory. From December 1, what you pay for a drink package or Wi-Fi will depend on how long you sail, where you go and when. Carnival hasn’t published a single new number yet.
Meanwhile, for the next two weeks it’s selling fixed-price bundles that undercut its own current rates. If you’re booked on Carnival and you’d buy drinks and Wi-Fi anyway, do the sums before October 30. If you wouldn’t, the cheapest drink package is still the one you don’t buy.
Cruise Chaos earns nothing from cruise lines and doesn’t run booking affiliate links. FunPack prices, inclusions and terms, CHEERS! and Bottomless Bubbles prices and Wi-Fi prices come from Carnival’s own website, checked on October 14, 2026. The dynamic-pricing change is reported by Cruise Industry News, Cruise Hive, Cruise Radio, Cruise Fever and Caribbean Journal. We couldn’t find a Carnival newsroom release. The comparison table is our own arithmetic from Carnival’s prices. The revenue figures and the quote about revenue management come from Carnival Corporation’s 2025 annual report filed with the SEC. If we’ve got something wrong, tell us and we’ll correct it in the open.
Coming up on Cruise Chaos: more chaos from the high seas, with every fact checked.
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Sources
- Carnival Cruise Line: FunPacks (prices, inclusions, FAQ and terms; checked October 14, 2026)
- Carnival Cruise Line: Drink Packages (CHEERS!, Zero Proof and Bottomless Bubbles prices, service charge, refund rule; checked October 14, 2026)
- Carnival Cruise Line: Internet Plans (Wi-Fi prices; checked October 14, 2026)
- Carnival Corporation & plc: Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (SEC)
- Cruise Industry News: Carnival Launches FunPacks, Combo Packages for Perks and Experiences (October 14, 2026)
- Cruise Hive: Carnival Drink Package and WiFi Prices Will Change by Sailing From December 1 (October 14, 2026)
- Cruise Radio: Carnival Fun Packs: What They Are and How Much They Cost (October 14, 2026)
- Cruise Fever: Carnival Cruise Line Switching to Dynamic Pricing for WiFi and Beverage Packages (October 14, 2026)
- Caribbean Journal: Carnival’s New Cruise Bundling Option Combines Drinks, Wi-Fi and Shore Excursions (October 14, 2026)
- Cruise Hive: Carnival Cruise Line Increasing Drink Package Pricing (October 3, 2023)
- Cruise Fever: Carnival Cruise Line Raising Price of CHEERS! Beverage Package on Short Cruises (October 3, 2023)
- Cruise Hive: Carnival Increases Drink Package Price Without Warning (December 5, 2024)
- Travel Market Report: Carnival Cruise Line Raises Cost of Cheers! Beverage Package by 16% (December 9, 2024)
- Cruise Hive: Carnival Cruise Line Service Fees Quietly Climb Higher (December 2, 2025)
- Cruise Mummy: Carnival Quietly Raises Service Charge Across Drinks and Dining (December 3, 2025)
- Cruise Hive: Carnival Gratuity and Drink Package Price Increases Now in Effect (April 3, 2026)
- Cruzely: Complete Guide to Royal Caribbean’s Drink Package (October 9, 2026)
- Cruise Passenger: “Make mine a dynamic!” Royal Caribbean uses drinks pricing that can cost or save hundreds (September 6, 2024)
