Everything You Need To Know About NCL’s More At Sea – Is It Good Value?

Whenever you book an NCL cruise, you’ll be asked whether you want to upgrade to More at Sea – and honestly, it can be a little tricky working out whether it’s worth it.

Booking a cruise can sometimes be a little complicated, especially if you’re new to cruising. There’s a lot to consider and work out, including what type of room to book, when to sail, and more.

You’ll also need to check what’s included, and see whether your cruise line offers additional packages to cover things the basic fare normally wouldn’t.

The good news is that NCL has simplified things a little – you used to have to choose between Free at Sea and Free at Sea Plus. Now, though, it’s all just about More at Sea and whether you want to upgrade or not…

More at Sea explained

More at Sea is a package that guests can book alongside their NCL cruise to give them a more included fare. It gives guests a free drinks package, a set number of speciality dining meals to enjoy, free WiFi minutes and shore excursion credit too!

NCL has changed how these perks work over the years, back when it was known as Free at Sea. It used to be that you could book and choose one of the benefits for your cruise without paying extra, or pay more to get all the packages included.

But in more recent years, the offer has changed so that you don’t get any of the extra benefits with a standard cruise fare, but you can often pay a reduced-price upgrade fee to get More at Sea with all of the perks included.

It can be a little confusing, but the option is always there to just choose a cruise-only fare if you like, and then pay for the different parts of your cruise individually. However, you may find that More at Sea offers much better value, depending on how much you’ll use the perks.

What you actually get with More at Sea

Here’s a quick guide to what you get with More at Sea:

Package	More at Sea	Who gets the perk?
Beverages	Unlimited Open Bar Package including a range of drinks options, including premium brands	Guests 1-8 on the booking
Speciality Dining	Up to 5 included meals depending on cruise length and cabin category	Guests 1 & 2 on the booking
Shore Excursion Credit	$50 per tour	Guest 1
WiFi	Up to 150 minutes free depending on cruise length	All guests on the booking

To really understand the range of benefits, you need to delve a little deeper, so let’s look at what each package gives you in more detail.

A little more detail on what’s included with More at Sea

1. Drinks

The More at Sea cruise package includes NCL’s Unlimited Open Bar Package. Despite the name, this isn’t completely unlimited, because there are restrictions on which drinks you’re allowed.

What you get is:

• A wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks options, including some premium brands
• 20% off all bottles of Champagne and wine
• Unlimited soft drinks and juices

2. Speciality Dining

NCL ships have a range of speciality dining restaurants onboard which come with an additional fee. But with More at Sea, you’ll be able to enjoy at least one free meal in one of these restaurants.

The amount of free speciality dining meals you get will depend on which cabin type you book, and how long your cruise is:

• Cruises of 3-7 nights in a Studio, Inside or Oceanview – 1 meal
• Cruises of 3 nights in a Balcony or above – 1 meal
• Cruises of 4-6 nights in a Balcony or above – 2 meals
• Cruises of 7 nights in a Balcony or above – 3 meals
• Cruises of 8-11 nights in a Studio, Inside or Oceanview – 2 meals
• Cruises of 8-11 nights in a Balcony or above – 4 meals
• Cruises of 12+ nights in a Studio, Inside or Oceanview – 3 meals
• Cruises of 12+ nights in a Balcony or above – 5 meals

However, it’s important to know that these free speciality meals are for first and second guests only – anyone else dining with you will need to pay the regular cover charge.

Read more: NCL More At Sea Specialty Dining Explained

3. Shore Excursions

With the More at Sea package, you get a $50 credit to use against shore excursions, but it’s $50 against each tour. Essentially, this means you’re getting a $50 discount at each port of call you visit.

It only applies to the first guest though, so if you have a shore excursion costing less than $50 per person, one guest will get it free but the other guests will have to pay full price.

4. WiFi

You get a limited amount of free WiFi with the More at Sea package, but all guests in your stateroom can take advantage. The number of minutes you get depends on your cruise length:

• 3-6 nights – 75 minutes of WiFi per guests
• 7+ nights – 150 minutes of WiFi

It’s not a huge amount – around 15-20 minutes per day on average, enough time to check a few emails and send a few messages, but it’s better than having to pay for a WiFi package if you don’t plan on using the internet much.

More at Sea costs

One of the biggest deciding factors for whether or not you should upgrade your cruise is the cost of the package. 

In the UK, the cost of upgrading to More at Sea is very clearly explained. You’ll pay between £149 and £599 per person, depending on the length of your cruise.

• 3-4 day cruises – £149 per person
• 5-6 day cruises – £199 per person
• 7-8 day cruises – £249 per person
• 9-10 day cruises – £299 per person
• 11-12 day cruises – £349 per person
• 13-14 day cruises – £399 per person
• 15-16 day cruises – £449 per person
• 17-18 day cruises – £499 per person
• 19-20 day cruises – £549 per person
• 21+ day cruises – £599 per person

In the US, it’s not as straightforward, and depending on the promotion at the time the price can vary. As a guide, expect to pay around $40 per person, per day.

The UK does often get special half-price offers though, so you may be able to get a 7-night cruise and only have to pay around £120 to upgrade to More at Sea. Look out for those deals!

Deciding whether to book More at Sea or choose a standard cruise fare

Whether you should book a More at Sea fare for your NCL cruise will depend on your budget for your cruise, and how much you’ll use each element.

Let’s use the working example of a 7-day cruise to demonstrate the value of each package, and let’s assume you’re booking a balcony cabin. 

In the UK you’ll pay £249 per person for More at Sea.

Here’s the value of each element, broken down:

Drinks

With More at Sea, your Unlimited Open Bar would normally cost you $109 per person, per day – so that’s $763 per person, which is around £600.

Immediately, it’s worth buying More at Sea if you want the drinks package. That’s easy.

But if you’re only drinking a few drinks each day? Maybe you could save without the upgrade.

Speciality Dining

For this example of a 7-night Balcony cabin cruise, you’d get 3 meals with More at Sea. You could expect to pay around $50 per meal on average, so that’s $150 or around £120.

Shore Excursions

Remember you get either $50 credit depending with More at Sea, but that’s against every tour.

For the sake of this example, let’s say you book 3 tours on your 7-night cruise. That means a total value of $150 for the More at Sea package (approximately £120).

WiFi

It gets a little trickier to place a value against WiFi on the More at Sea package, because you can’t normally pay for WiFi by the minute. So for More at Sea, we have to value it at £0, and just give the minutes as bonus time.

This means that booking More at Sea gets you £840 of value per person for a cost of £249, meaning a saving of almost £600.

So, should you book it?

There’s no easy answer sorry and this one rests with you. You’ll need to work out whether you’d want the drinks package, and how often you’d want to enjoy speciality dining meals and shore excursions, and then see if the cost justifies the savings.

I can confidently say that, for most people, it’s worth the upgrade. You’ll feel much better knowing that your drinks are paid for, and you might be nudged towards trying more excursions or different dining options.

However if you like to keep your cruises on a tight budget, don’t be afraid to book a cruise-only fare.

Final word

I wish there was an easy answer to tell you whether More at Sea was right for you, but it entirely depends on how much you like to drink (and what you drink), how many excursions you take, how valuable WiFi is to you and whether you prefer to dine in speciality restaurants or the complimentary ones.

For a lot of people, it might make sense to book a cruise-only fare and then pay just for a soda package or even buy drinks individually.

But for anyone who likes to drink premium spirits and Starbucks coffees, dine in the speciality restaurants, or get online during their cruise, choosing More at Sea could be a better choice.

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