Norwegian’s Free at Sea changed fundamentally for reservations created on or after 5 November 2025: it is no longer a choose-your-perks promotion where you select one or two benefits, and all four components are now included together. Those are the Unlimited Open Bar, specialty dining credits scaling from one meal on short sailings to four on nine nights or longer, 150 minutes of Wi-Fi per guest, and a $50 shore excursion credit per port for the first guest only, as of August 2026. There is no per-drink dollar cap; excluded premium items sit in a Connoisseur Collection where, as of August 2026, package holders receive $15 off the retail price. Bookings made before 5 November 2025 keep the previous More at Sea terms.
If you have read about Free at Sea before, most of what you know is out of date. It used to be a pick-your-perks promotion — choose the drinks package or the dining credit or the Wi-Fi. For reservations created on or after 5 November 2025, that is gone. All four components now come together.
What changed, and why it matters to your booking
Free at Sea is no longer a choice. The four components are included as a set, and the “More at Sea” branding NCL used in between has been retired along with the old structure.
The cutoff is the reservation date, not the sailing date. A booking made before 5 November 2025 keeps the previous terms even if it sails next year. Two people on the same ship can be on genuinely different structures, which is exactly the kind of thing that produces an argument at the bar.
So if you booked a while ago, check what your own confirmation says rather than what any article — this one included — describes.
The four components
Unlimited Open Bar. Premium spirits, a broad cocktail list, wines and draft beer, plus juice and soda. It applies to all guests 21 and over in the stateroom; guests aged 3 to 20 in the first two slots get complimentary soda and juice.
Specialty dining, scaling with voyage length — one meal on a short sailing up to four on nine nights or longer.
Wi-Fi, 150 minutes per guest.
A $50 shore excursion credit per port, as of August 2026 — and read this one carefully, because it is first guest only, not per person. It is the component most likely to be over-counted when people tot up what the promotion is worth, and it only pays off if you were booking shore excursions through the line anyway.
No cap, which is genuinely unusual
Norwegian does not apply a per-drink dollar limit. As of August 2026 Royal Caribbean caps at $14, Celebrity at $12 or $19, Princess at $15 or $20, MSC limits you to 15 alcoholic drinks a day. NCL does none of that.
Instead, as of August 2026 the drinks it excludes are gathered into a Connoisseur Collection, and package holders get $15 off the retail price of anything in it. So the expensive bottles are discounted rather than capped — a different model, and a more generous one if you drink at the top of the list.
There is also no daily quantity limit on the standard package.
Gratuities, and the upgrade
Free at Sea requires you to pre-pay gratuities. That is a condition of the promotion rather than a hidden charge, but it belongs in your arithmetic. If you skip the promotion and buy the Unlimited Open Bar onboard instead, it runs about $45 per person per day as of August 2026, plus a 20% gratuity and taxes.
Free at Sea Plus is around $50 per person per day as of August 2026. It adds top-shelf spirits, premium wines and champagne by the glass with 40% off bottles, unlimited Starbucks, energy drinks and bottled water, half-price extra specialty dining, streaming-grade Wi-Fi, and prepaid service charges.
One catch worth knowing: those prepaid service charges do not cover bar or specialty-dining gratuities. The upgrade is also limited to the first two guests, 21 and over, and must be added at least 72 hours before sailing.
Common questions
Do you still choose your Free at Sea perks?
Not for reservations created on or after 5 November 2025. All four components are included together now. Bookings made before that date keep the older More at Sea terms, so two guests on the same ship can be on different structures.
Is there a drink limit on NCL's Unlimited Open Bar?
There is no per-drink dollar cap and no daily quantity limit, which is unusual among the mainstream lines. Excluded premium items sit in the Connoisseur Collection, where as of August 2026 package holders get $15 off the retail price.
Are gratuities included in Free at Sea?
No. Free at Sea requires you to pre-pay gratuities. If you instead buy the Unlimited Open Bar onboard it runs about $45 per person per day as of August 2026, plus a 20% gratuity and taxes on top.
What is Free at Sea Plus?
An upgrade at around $50 per person per day as of August 2026, adding top-shelf spirits, premium wines by the glass, unlimited Starbucks, bottled water, streaming Wi-Fi and prepaid service charges. Note those prepaid charges do not cover bar or specialty-dining gratuities.
Does Free at Sea cover everyone in the cabin?
The Open Bar applies to all guests 21 and over in the stateroom, and guests aged 3 to 20 in the first two slots get complimentary soda and juice. The $50 excursion credit, as of August 2026, is first-guest only.
Free at Sea is now the most straightforward offer among the mainstream lines — no per-drink cap, no daily limit, everything bundled rather than chosen. The two things to watch are the pre-paid gratuity requirement and the excursion credit being first-guest only.
If you booked before November 2025, talk to us before assuming any of this applies to you. The fleet is on our Norwegian Cruise Line page, including Norwegian Prima and Norwegian Encore.