kywildcatfanone

If you can and wanted to, you could carry on any soda/water you want at embarkation or ports and save buying them on the ship, but that is a personal decision if you wanted to do that.

Yeah. It's been a while, but I did the math once with Jim Beam, and a pour from a bottle was around $1, and that is if you bought it at a grocery store, and I'm sure the cruise lines are getting better discounts for their volume purchases. And a bottle had about 16 pours, so cost would be about $16 plus the bartender time, so if they are selling each one at $10 (maybe higher now, not sure), then even if you say it cost them $1 to the Bartender, which I'm sure it doesn't, that's $128 profit per bottle, and Jim Beam is relatively cheap. I'm sure other alcohol choice are higher, but the profits are likely also higher. It's why they push packages so hard. It's probably paying all their bills above the hotel and food charges you pay for your stateroom.

I've read many posts of people simply stating the drink portion after Wifi and Tips for the $60 plus would be $29. If you drank all 15, that makes each drink less than $2. It just goes to show you the massive profit packages bring in and why they are now pushed so hard. I also read that Celebrity has recently changed so that tips are not part of their AI, not sure if they still call it AI, but wouldn't surprise me if that shows up on Princess soon. If they are selling 75-80% packages as I have also read, wouldn't surprise me either a change like the above is coming, or simply another price increase soon. If the last price increases didn't impact sales, no reason not to do another and see how that sells.

Early bookers who are either in transit or elite/platinum since they board first. I don't personally care, but I would guess this is excluding a lot of people who might want to book there. They could do similar to airlines. Of course their IT is downright terrible, so that is probably a bad ideal 🙂

They really should update and allow booking online prior to the cruise. You can almost get trampled by people trying to rush the doors when they open up boarding trying to get up there.

If you don't drink a decent amount the math doesn't work. I wish they offered an AI for non alcohol drinks for $30, that might make it worth it. Till then, I will bring on my own soda and water. But, as I typically say in these threads a lot of people put a lot of emphasis on the simplicity of the package not .asking them think about how much they would spend without, so it seems peace of mind is worth a lot to some. I view it as a win/win/win. Passengers buying it seem happy, the cruise linebis happy, and I like to think with so many buying them, it's keep cruise fares reasonable, and that is a win for those of us without packages.

We were on this cruise as well. Overall had a good time, but the pool deck was overcrowded on sea days particularly and they had chairs on top of other chairs and people were moving them so they could step besides the chairs, and so there were obstacles to avoid getting around. The hours of OVC also made it impossible to navigate at lunch time, but I learned to go in there around 11:45 to find a table.

We were on last week. Was really good the first 2 days then trailed off a bit to us, but there were plenty of options. One night they only had pound cakes for dessert, like 8 of them. Seemed odd to me. The first 2 days they had chocolate brownies which were good, then never again. They provide a lot more for lunch than dinner, which would be fine if they had fewer but better options. Again, didn't go hungry but wasn't amazing either. They had brisket for lunch one day and it was the best thing I ate all week. Wish they had it more than once. Glad you are enjoying!

At least my experience last week in FLL was they didn't check anyone's arrival times. We actually did arrive about 15 minutes before our suggested time of 11:30, and no one looked at our times, and we just went to the back of the line and waited. go when you want, the only restriction you will likely see if just when they actually start the boarding process.

You call room service after you board and let them know what you would like to exchange from the available options.

I've never seen them ever confiscate anything, but I've never tried to take on alcohol. I do take on bottled water and soft drinks, and they have never checked to see if it's a coke can or a beer can.

You would have to drink quite a bit to make these packages worth it, but like I said, there is a convenience factor that a lot of people enjoy and that is certainly fine.

I did this last week. I took an extra bag and put my stuff in and put it on top of my carry on bag and attached it, and it wasn't bad. That will be my norm with these drink prices. I can bring everything I want for a week for about $30 instead of buying a package, but I get why people want the convenience of paying for packages.

I saw on Celebrity forums they were estimating 75-80% had packages, which to me would seem to be pretty close, so I imagine it's the same with Princess.

Agree. We just completed our second Celebrity cruise, so by no means an expert, but Celebrity is not a luxury cruise line. I suppose if you are paying suite prices you are getting a suite experience which might be considered Luxury, but overall, it's just a mainstream middle ground cruise line like Princess and Holland America, above Royal and Carnival.

They will charge what people will pay.

Every "sale" is not really a sale.

If you are that concerned, do not sail.

To expound on my comment on overcrowding on Equinox. Yes, sea days will be more crowded by default, but I would suggest they have too many loungers setup and they are literally butted tight to each other and you have people moving them out into the walking paths to get some space between them. Seems they could put out a few less chairs overall. To compound that problem the OVC not opening for lunch till noon ensures that it will get overwhelmed with traffic. Made the mistake of waiting till 12:15 to eat the first sea day and walked around for 20 minutes looking for a table. Learned you have to go on there about 11:45 to get a table or wait till after 1. The ship is nice overall, but it seems the grass lawn space is wasted. Wish the walking track was up there. Seems to be little used space. They have signs up asking people to stay off it. While unique, it seems to me like wasted space. Would be better to me to have an adults only outdoor pool in that space. Just my 2 cents worth.

They should be making immense profits from drink packages as well.

On Equinox now, and it's packed. The pool deck is way overcrowded

It's a bit spotty onboard now, but basic would be unusable

I'm interested as well. On my second celebrity cruise now, and find little difference in this experience as with Princess. Almost identical to me in ships, good and service.

Is boarding time enforced? We boarded Equinox on Saturday. We has 11:30, got to the terminal at 11:30, through security and were motioned back to the next available waiting section. No looking at our boarding times assigned. They did come get our group a few minutes later, but no one was checking assigned boarding times.

This isn't on Equinox yet either. Was looking for it. Must only be newer ships.