*twinkle*

We couldn't decide prior to sailing about buying drinks packages, but our two grown up sons got a bit of a shock buying individual drinks. It cost $7.67 for a bottle of Budweiser and an eye-watering $12 for a cocktail, which increased to $14 when we were in Spanish waters (they added a extra Spanish tax just for good measure).

Drinks prices seem to have increased steadily, so I definitely think Royal are steering everyone over to buying packages these days. I agree the weak £ will certainly have quite a negative effect on British cruisers spending power whilst onboard. Time to tighten our belts I think!

We just disembarked Indy yesterday, and our 14 year old was not allowed in the Diamond Lounge (he is Diamond too BTW). However, they had an "overflow area" for Diamond members cordoned off in the Olive or Twist next door. He was allowed in that area, so we were happy to sit there with him. The views were lovely, and we preferred that to the absolutely jam-packed DL anyway. There were other children in the main area of the Olive or Twist, so this workaround seemed to be acceptable to all.

However, we did notice a little girl who was much younger (maybe 8 years old?) inside the Diamond Lounge most evenings.... She seemed well behaved, so no problem really. Not sure why she was allowed, and our son was not, but I felt no need to find out. We were happy, and she and her family were happy too.

This price INCLUDES the 18% already, the final credit card screen doesn't add anything else on.

Thanks for confirming Caroline135. This agrees with my recollection of the UK website prior to sailing.

When you put the package into your online cart - at check out it adds on 18% Ive read - so more than initially indicated.

 

Thanks for feedback - we sail in 3 weeks time ( Navigator ) :)

Hi Densol, I'm not sure if the UK website does that TBH. I suppose you could do a "dummy run" if you were considering buying a drinks package. Unfortunately, I can't test this out, as I have already sailed.

Yes, it was spirits, beers and wines.

Just a wee update on drinks package pricing ONBOARD Independence of the Seas. We have just come home, and can confirm that there were NO offers onboard. In fact, the pricing was eyewatering. If memory serves, it was $955 for 14 nights of the middle of the range drinks package (think that is premium?).

I forgot to take into consideration the 18% service charge onboard when comparing pre-purchase online in GBP.

So, the price onboard was $57.82 per day x 14 = $809.48 + 18% $145.71 = $955.19

(this equates to approx £723.48 at an exchange rate of $1.32 to £1)

If we had bought at £35.82 per day x 14 = £501.48, so would have been over £200 cheaper.

I'm not sure what the current pricing online is for pre-purchasing drinks packages, as we have obviously already sailed, but thought I'd provide details for the current onboard pricing.

Happy Sailing!

I priced up the packages on Friday immediately after Brexit, and here they are:

Select: £26.87 per day

Premium: £35.82 per day

Ultimate: £39.90 per day

So they have all gone up by approx £2.50 per day.

What I was wondering though, was on our last cruise, there was a Buy One Get One Half Price offer on embarkation day. I'm undecided on whether to buy now in GBP, or wait to see if there are any offers onboard (we embark Indy on Saturday). If we did decide to buy now, can we cancel if there is a better deal onboard?

Hi there.

Has anyone recently come off Indy? If so, were there any drinks package offers onboard? Our last cruise was October 2015, and there was a Buy One Get One Half Price offer on the day of embarkation.

We are sailing on Saturday, and just deciding whether to buy now in GBP, or wait til we are onboard.

The poor GBP to USD exchange rate is really throwing a spanner into our planning! :)

Yes, that what I thought clarea, which means he should be Emerald.

Hi all.

I was a bit surprised to discover that our oldest child (age 21) has Diamond status with the same number of cruisepoints as ourselves. He hasn't been on a RCCL cruise with us for a few years. I thought his status became independent from ours on his 18th birthday? Obviously I'm not complaining :)

Do you think this is a mistake, and they will revert him to Emerald (or whatever) when he takes his next cruise?

He is more than happy with Diamond, and is looking forward to using the Diamond Lounge.

Hello all.

Have a few issues with My Celebrity, and not sure if these things need to be set up by our TA:

I've been trying to add our Captains Club numbers onto My Celebrity, but the area is greyed out.

We should be waitlisted for the later dining time, but this is also greyed out.

It is our 25th wedding anniversary trip, and wondered if this "celebration" can be added by me somewhere.

Also, I can't see the OBC that was negotiated when we booked. I think our TA had to fight pretty hard for it, so want to make sure it is actually there! Is there an area on My Celebrity that will show this?

Thanks for your help!

You get double points in a JS and above, so a three nighter would get you the six points ;).

 

Check out point 14 on the link below for clarification :).

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cas/benefitsLoggedout.do

Thank you very much - I never knew that!

Thank you all!

Three or four nighter in October on Indy in a JS would give you enough points - during half term too?

Villauk - can I just confirm what you have said - do we get extra points for booking a JS? We need an extra 6 nights, so what is the minimum number of nights we would need to book?

Many thanks, that worked perfectly. I can now see my history and the conversion rate.

Regarding taking a short cruise *believe me* I am trying my best to find something suitable!! :D

Nothing "floating my boat" at the moment though! Everything from UK or Europe seems to be for a week or more, and we just don't have the time at the moment.

I will keep looking, it would have been good to get Diamond/Elite sorted out before our Christmas Extravaganza on Millennium!

We are 6 nights off reaching Diamond on RCCL, but I don't think we are ever gonna make it... :( We seem to be leaning more and more towards Celebrity, but we are still miles away from reaching Elite status with them. I suppose we are not alone in wishing they had some sort of reciprocal agreement in the accumulation of points.

We have jumped between RCCL, Celebrity and NCL over the years. Our last cruise was a 14 nighter on Celebrity, and our next one is also on Celebrity.

When I log into My Celebrity, I see that we have 120 points. I have no idea how that is calculated, as our first cruise would have been on the old points system. Is there anywhere I can see a "statement" of our past cruises? I know I can do this for Crown and Anchor on RCCL.

Also, our kids are all C&A, but am I right in saying there is no equivalent on Celebrity?

Many thanks for your replies!

We have just booked the Millennium for Christmas and New Year, Hong Kong to Singapore.

We seem to be in the minority of people, as we didn't get any free drinks or gratuities, but we did get the princely sum of $200 per cabin OBC. We have booked two balcony cabins.

Does this seem right? We used a UK TA, and they inform me that they had to basically beg for the OBC!! I asked them to use the discount code for Captains Club members taken from Celebrity's website ($125 pp discount), but they said it was not redeemable on the type of fare they have booked.

I am just waiting for our confirmation to see what they have charged pp for the cruise, as they have packaged everything up with flights, transfers and hotels.

Everything is booked now, so it's too late to actually do anything about it. Any thoughts anyone?