Cunard Drinks Packages: Signature, Premium and What They Cost

Cunard changed its drinks pricing for 2026, and the change is bigger than a price rise. Alongside the familiar drinks collections there are now Signature Packages, which bundle drinks with wifi and a dining credit into a single daily price aimed squarely at UK guests.

This guide sets out what each option costs, what the per-drink ceilings mean in practice, and the arithmetic that decides whether any of it is worth buying. Prices move and vary by voyage length, so treat these as the current shape rather than a quote, and check your own booking before you commit.

The Signature Packages

For UK guests sailing from March 2026, the Signature Packages are the headline option. They are not drinks packages in the old sense; they roll three separate onboard costs into one daily figure.

1. Signature Package, around £60 per person per day. Covers house wines, beers, spirits, cocktails, soft drinks, juices and hot drinks across the bars and restaurants, plus Essential wifi for browsing and messaging, plus a dining credit towards alternative dining or premium dishes. On a fourteen-night voyage that credit is around $50 per person.
2. Premium Signature Package, around £70 per person per day. The same bundle with the Premium Beverage Collection behind it, lifting the per-drink ceiling, and Premium wifi that will carry video calls and streaming rather than just messages.
3. Booking early is where the saving sits. Cunard advertises savings of up to 30% when the package is added at the time of booking rather than later, subject to availability. The onboard price is always the highest.

The dining credit is the part that varies most, and it scales with the length of the voyage rather than sitting at one figure. It covers alternative dining and the supplements on premium dishes in any venue.

• 1 to 6 nights. US$15 on Signature, US$25 on Premium Signature.
• 7 to 9 nights. US$25 on Signature, US$40 on Premium Signature.
• 10 to 14 nights. US$50 on Signature, US$80 on Premium Signature.
• 15 to 74 nights. US$70 on Signature, US$100 on Premium Signature.
• 75 nights or more. US$100 on Signature, US$150 on Premium Signature.

The Wi-Fi is the other real difference between the two tiers. Signature carries Essential Wi-Fi on a single device, which covers web browsing, email and social media with text and images. Premium Signature carries Premium Wi-Fi, also single device, which adds music streaming, video streaming and video calling. If keeping in touch by video matters, that difference is worth more than the wider drinks ceiling.

Both tiers also carry the Cunard Collection, which is a set of own-label drinks included whichever Signature package you hold: Cunard craft beers, Cunard Cellar Reserve Prosecco, Cunard Private Label red, white and rosé, the Cunard 4 Queens gin and tonic, and Cunard sake by the glass.

And both include unlimited beverages and gelato from the Premium Alcohol-Free Collection. That is worth knowing when comparing a Signature Package against a standalone collection, since the Signature bundles carry the unlimited allowance rather than the entry-level one.

The Drinks Collections

If you would rather buy drinks alone, without the wifi and dining credit, the collections remain. These are priced in US dollars per person per day and slide with the length of the voyage: shorter cruises cost more per day, long voyages considerably less.

1. Beverage Collection. Roughly $49.50 to $94.50 per person per day depending on voyage length. Covers beers, spirits, wines by the glass, soft drinks and a broad run of cocktails up to the standard ceiling.
2. Premium Beverage Collection. Roughly $63 to $108 per person per day. The same breadth with a higher ceiling, which brings the better spirits, champagne by the glass and the more elaborate cocktails into range.
3. Alcohol-Free Collection. Around $18 per person per day for soft drinks, juices and standard hot drinks. The premium alcohol-free version, roughly $31.50 to $45, adds speciality coffees, bottled water and alcohol-free cocktails.

Per-Drink Ceilings and What They Mean

Every Cunard package works to a ceiling rather than an all-you-can-drink promise, and understanding it is the difference between a package that feels generous and one that keeps generating small charges.

The standard collections cover drinks priced up to about $13.50. The premium tiers lift that to about $20. Order above your ceiling and you are not refused, you simply pay the difference, which appears on your onboard account.

In practice the standard ceiling covers the overwhelming majority of the bar list: house wines, beers, most spirits and mixers, and the everyday cocktails. What sits above it tends to be the aged spirits, the champagnes by the glass and the signature cocktails in the smarter bars.

The alcohol-free tiers have their own ceilings. The basic Alcohol-Free Collection works to about US$4.50 a drink, covering fountain sodas, ordinary soft drinks, juices and standard hot drinks. The Premium Alcohol-Free Collection lifts that to US$12 and opens up speciality coffees, handcrafted mocktails, freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, milkshakes and gelato.

Gelato runs through the range rather than sitting only at the top. The Alcohol-Free Collection is limited to 15 alcohol-free drinks and gelato servings per 24 hours, and the Premium Alcohol-Free Collection makes them unlimited. The alcohol collections carry it too, since each tier includes the benefits of the one below. Cunard does set out an allowance per collection, so if it matters to you the package detail on your own booking is the place to confirm exactly what yours covers.

The Rules Worth Knowing

Three conditions surprise first-time Cunard passengers more than the prices do.

1. Everyone in the cabin has to match. If one adult aged 18 or over takes an alcoholic package, every adult sharing that cabin must take the same one. A couple where only one drinks cannot buy a single package, which changes the arithmetic completely.
2. The service charge is already in there. Individual drinks carry an 18% service charge on top of the menu price. Package prices include it. When you compare a package against paying as you go, add that 18% to the pay-as-you-go side or the comparison flatters the bar bill.
3. There is a daily limit on alcohol. Alcoholic packages cover up to 15 drinks per person in each 24-hour period, and that period runs from 6am to 6am rather than midnight to midnight. Go beyond it and you pay full price plus the service charge. Soft drinks, juices, water and hot drinks are not counted, so the cap only bites on a genuinely heavy day.
4. There is a purchase window. Packages are cheapest booked in advance, up to roughly four days before you sail, and are intended to run for the whole voyage rather than selected days. Shorter sailings may not qualify at all.

When a Package Pays

The honest arithmetic is simpler than it looks. Take the daily package price, add the 18% you would otherwise pay on individual drinks, and divide by what a typical drink costs you.

For the standalone collections that break-even usually lands somewhere around five or six drinks a day, counted properly: the coffee after breakfast, the glass of wine at lunch, the pre-dinner cocktail, the wine with dinner, the nightcap. Cunard days are long and sociable, and passengers routinely reach that without feeling they have had a heavy day.

The Signature Packages change the sum, because you are also buying wifi and a dining credit you might have bought anyway. If you would pay for a wifi package regardless, and you expect to eat in an alternative venue at least once, the effective cost of the drinks element drops sharply and the package becomes easy to justify. If you never go online at sea and never book alternative dining, the standalone collection is the fairer comparison.

Our wider guide to whether cruise drinks packages are worth it runs the same numbers across every major line if you are still weighing Cunard against the alternatives.

Sailing Without a Package

Plenty of Cunard passengers never buy one, and the ship is perfectly comfortable that way.

Tea, coffee and water are available at no cost, jugs of iced water appear in the restaurants, and the daily programme is full of things that cost nothing at all. Buying as you go with a mental note of the 18% keeps the account honest, and the onboard app shows a running total so nothing arrives as a surprise on the last night.

The one thing worth deciding before you sail rather than on board is the wifi, since that is where the pay-as-you-go route gets expensive fastest, and it is the element the Signature Packages bundle most usefully.

Frequently Asked Questions