Westerdam Drink Cards??

[cruisin475]

Can anyone explain the "drink cards" I keep hearing (reading) about? Is it cheaper to purchase these cards for bulk alcohol and soft drink. If not isn't it easier to just use your sail and sign card, I don't want to keep up with two cards LOL.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated......

 

I.E.

price, what the are good for,and where can they be used....

[cruisin475]

Oh yeah, I have another question. As far as the first day of the cruise when we check-in what if any alcohol can we bring on board for personal consumption? We would like to bring some bottles of vodka, and maybe some champagne. Is it allowed and if not how would one go about sneaking some in hehe?

[jtl513]

IMO the wine cards are a decent bargain, but the coffee, soda, and cocktail cards aren't so great. The 10-glass house-wine card is $41.40, and the 20-glass is $77.63. Both of those prices include the 15% service charge. You can get prices for the other cards on the HAL site For Booked Guests > On Board Gifts > Beverages.

 

You're allowed to bring on as much wine or champagne as you like, but the Vokda you'll have to smuggle in your luggage. If you take a bottle of wine to the MDR or any bar/lounge there will be an $18 corkage fee.

[cruisin475]

JTL513, thank you for the info! If we sneak in some vodka how well do they search the carry on luggage?

[RuthC]

The soda card is $20.xx (I think $20.73), including service charge, for 20 sodas. Each soda is about 1/2 of a can. If purchased individually, the cans are $1.95, plus service charge, for a total of $2.24. Therefore, 10 cans will cost $22.40, compared to the equivalent 20 sodas for $20.73. Not much savings.

The real benefit, as far as I'm concerned, is that you don't have to keep signing, and keeping track of, all those individual purchase slips.

I hate to reconcile all my purchases at the end of the cruise.

[Krazy Kruizers]

JTL513, thank you for the info! If we sneak in some vodka how well do they search the carry on luggage?

 

Your carry-on luggage is scanned just like it is at the airports. They will see the bottle of vodka. And we have seen them confiscate alcohol bottles.

We prefer to just order our Vodka through ship serives before we cruise. You can slo order a bottle for your cabin by calling room service once you are on the ship.

[m steve]

and we bring several with us so I would suggest you just pack it in checked bags. As for drink cards, we received one each from our TA for 10 drinks and that covered our morning and afternoon drinks on a 7 day cruise. After dinner drinks were charged to cabin as they are more than a standard cocktail. We did tip $1 for each drink ordered.

[Jade13]

IMO the wine cards are a decent bargain, but the coffee, soda, and cocktail cards aren't so great. The 10-glass house-wine card is $41.40, and the 20-glass is $77.63. Both of those prices include the 15% service charge. You can get prices for the other cards on the HAL site For Booked Guests > On Board Gifts > Beverages.

 

You're allowed to bring on as much wine or champagne as you like, but the Vokda you'll have to smuggle in your luggage. If you take a bottle of wine to the MDR or any bar/lounge there will be an $18 corkage fee.

 

We think the Soda Cards are a good deal for $20.70 for 20 drinks (last time we paid). We only want them for dinner since on port intensive Med cruises in Europe we were never on the ship for lunch. First, they always have given us the entire can (in the dining room) and they didn't always punch the card. Even if it was for one glass, the max we would pay on a 10 day cruise would be $43.00 for 2 cards. Now compare that to Celebrity's unlimited Cola Card....It's unlimited but we really don't need that many Colas. You start drinking them to get your monies worth...

[kickin904]

IMHO--The less discussion on these and other boards relative to bringing liquor aboard is a benefit to everyone cruising on any of the cruise lines!!!