MSC currently sells three drink packages: Premium Extra, Alcohol-Free and Minors. The Easy and Easy Plus packages that most published guides still describe were discontinued and are valid only for guests who added them before 18 December 2024. Premium Extra carries a maximum of 15 alcoholic beverages per day, a limit introduced on that same date, while non-alcoholic drinks remain unlimited. On gratuities MSC is widely misreported because two separate charges are conflated: the drink packages do include gratuities, but the cruise fare does not — a daily Hotel Service Charge is added to the shipboard account instead, and underage guests must buy the Minors Package alongside an adult package.
Two things about MSC are wrong almost everywhere you read them. The first is the list of packages — most guides still describe Easy and Easy Plus, which MSC stopped selling. The second is gratuities, where you will find two flatly contradictory answers and both are half right.
The packages MSC actually sells
There are three: Premium Extra, Alcohol-Free and Minors.
Easy and Easy Plus are gone. They remain valid only for guests who added them before 18 December 2024. If you are reading a comparison that presents them as current options, it has not been updated in over a year — which is a reasonable signal about the rest of its figures too.
Premium Extra is the comprehensive one: filtered water, juices and soft drinks, hot drinks, energy drinks, alcohol-free wines and beers, draft and bottled beer, cocktails and spritz, premium spirits, and champagne and prosecco by the glass. It also works on MSC’s private islands, Ocean Cay and Sir Bani Yas, which is not true of every line’s package.
The 15-drink limit
Premium Extra caps you at 15 alcoholic beverages per day, a limit introduced on 18 December 2024 alongside the package restructure. Past 15 you pay full price.
Non-alcoholic drinks are unlimited, so the cap is specifically on alcohol rather than on consumption generally.
In practice fifteen drinks a day is well beyond what almost anyone reaches, so this is unlikely to affect you. It is worth knowing mainly because MSC is structurally different here — the American lines cap the price of each drink, while MSC caps the number.
Gratuities: both answers you have read are half right
This is the question MSC gets asked most and answered worst online, because two separate charges get conflated.
The drink packages do include gratuities. There is no additional tip added to a drink taken on a package.
The cruise fare does not. A daily Hotel Service Charge is added to your shipboard account instead. For Caribbean, Alaska and USA sailings it applies per person per night to guests aged two and over. As of August 2026, bookings made from 11 May 2026 are charged $17 a night, or $23 in the Yacht Club; bookings made before that date are charged $16, or $20 in the Yacht Club. Rates vary by region.
So “gratuities are included with MSC” and “MSC adds a service charge onboard” are both true statements about different things. Anyone stating one without the other is giving you half the picture.
Children, and one thing to check
Underage guests are required to buy the Minors Package alongside an adult beverage package. That is a different structure from the American lines, where the rule is that all adults sharing a cabin must match each other.
It also means a family’s cost is not simply two adult packages — work out the whole cabin before deciding, the same way our drink packages guide recommends for every line.
Package prices are shown only after you sign in to MyMSC, so we cannot publish a rate that would be honest for your sailing. Check your own booking, and treat any per-day figure you find elsewhere with suspicion given how much else about MSC is published out of date.
Common questions
Which drink packages does MSC sell now?
Three: Premium Extra, Alcohol-Free and Minors. Easy and Easy Plus were discontinued and remain valid only for guests who added them before 18 December 2024, which is why so many published guides are wrong on this.
Is there a drink limit on MSC's Premium Extra package?
Yes. Since 18 December 2024 it carries a maximum of 15 alcoholic beverages per day; beyond that you pay full price. Non-alcoholic drinks are unlimited.
Are gratuities included with MSC?
Both answers you will read are half right. MSC’s drink packages do include gratuities, so there is no extra tip on package drinks. But the cruise fare does not include them: a daily Hotel Service Charge is added to your shipboard account separately.
How much is MSC's service charge?
For Caribbean, Alaska and USA sailings it is charged per person per night for guests aged two and over. As of August 2026, bookings made from 11 May 2026 are charged $17 a night, or $23 in the Yacht Club; bookings made before that date are charged $16, or $20 in the Yacht Club. Rates vary by region.
Do children need a drink package on MSC?
Underage guests are required to purchase the Minors Package in conjunction with an adult beverage package. This is a minors rule rather than the all-adults-must-match rule the American lines use.
MSC is a good-value line whose terms are described badly across most of the internet. Three packages, not five; a limit on the number of drinks rather than their price; and gratuities that are included in the package but not in the fare.
We book MSC often and can tell you what your specific sailing includes rather than what a two-year-old article says. The fleet is on our MSC Cruises page, including MSC Seascape and MSC World Europa.