How soon - Purchasing Beverage Pkg.??

[LadyBerard]

I thought I have read on these boards that you can pre-purchase the Beverage Pkg. a year out. We're cruising on 11/6/11. I just got off the phone with Celebrity, and they said that the packages are not loaded into the system for purchase until approximately 2 months before sailing. Can anyone confirm otherwise?

[dragline]

I booked Constellation Feb 26 2011 back in March 2010. Bought the premium beverage package July 30 2010. It showed up on my credit card in the next billing cycle and shows up as paid in full in My Celebrity. I've been dreaming of shipboard cocktails ever since.

Maybe they changed the rules?...I don't know.

 

- Dragline

[welly world]

We are going on the Millennium in July.... packages came out this past week. Just keep checking! :p

[Lsimon]

Just curious: Why the rush? These won't sell out so why do you want to buy them before you get on the ship let alone a year in advance?

[Bob & Sandy]

Just curious: Why the rush? These won't sell out so why do you want to buy them before you get on the ship let alone a year in advance?

 

Good point. Unless you are concerned about a price hike, why prepay?:confused:

[dragline]

Just curious: Why the rush? These won't sell out so why do you want to buy them before you get on the ship let alone a year in advance?

 

 

It's bought and paid for before I go. No rush, no big credit card bill at the end of the cruise, and no worries.

 

- Dragline

[swigso]

It's bought and paid for before I go. No rush, no big credit card bill at the end of the cruise, and no worries.

 

- Dragline

Hi Dragline,

My view as well I'm with you.

See you at the Martini bar,

I love the prepay everything (gratuities etc)

so that all my better half has to worry about is how

to spend our OBC and I don't have to worry about

a bill at the end

[dragline]

Hi Dragline,

My view as well I'm with you.

See you at the Martini bar,

I love the prepay everything (gratuities etc)

so that all my better half has to worry about is how

to spend our OBC and I don't have to worry about

a bill at the end

 

It's a date, Swigso! Bombay Sapphire with two olives please.

 

- Dragline

[GatorMomInNC]

I was going to prepay also, and give this to my husband as a gift for Christmas. But then I thought of 2 things tha gave me pause:

 

1) If the package is pro-rated, maybe I should wait and purchase the first full day of our cruise. I don't think I will be drinking very much on the day we board, with all the settling in that I need to do, etc.

 

2) Do I have to pay sales tax on the package if I prepay or buy while docked, vs. no sales tax if I buy at sea? Not sure about this.

 

I also have a question for anyone who has bought the package-- I found out we can't use for room service, and I was really looking forward to doing that. How much of a pain is it to get the drinks at a bar and shlep them back to you room?

[Lsimon]

...we can't use for room service, and I was really looking forward to doing that. How much of a pain is it to get the drinks at a bar and shlep them back to you room?

 

You know - the only real problem with having to go to a bar to get drinks to schlep back to your room is that you have to go all the way to the bar to get the drinks and then you have to schlep them all the way back to your room!

 

On top of that if both of you want another drink then both of you have to go (I've heard differing things as to whether you can get two drinks if you take both cards to prove you have two packages purchased - may or may not work) and then go back. Even if both of you don't have to go I always find it a big pain carrying two drinks back to our room - even with coffee in cups with lids it is hard to get my seapass out and open the door with two drinks let alone drinks in open glasses. Overall would be a big disturbance if you're relaxing on the veranda enjoying sail away. It is a lot easier pull a bottle of wine out of an ice bucket and poor another glass or grab another beer out of the fridge or cooler.

 

For us, economics aside, the biggest draw backs are no room service and wine being limited to a small by the glass selection rather than the huge wine by the bottle selection.

[GatorMomInNC]

You know - the only real problem with having to go to a bar to get drinks to schlep back to your room is that you have to go all the way to the bar to get the drinks and then you have to schlep them all the way back to your room!

 

On top of that if both of you want another drink then both of you have to go (I've heard differing things as to whether you can get two drinks if you take both cards to prove you have two packages purchased - may or may not work) and then go back. Even if both of you don't have to go I always find it a big pain carrying two drinks back to our room - even with coffee in cups with lids it is hard to get my seapass out and open the door with two drinks let alone drinks in open glasses. Overall would be a big disturbance if you're relaxing on the veranda enjoying sail away. It is a lot easier pull a bottle of wine out of an ice bucket and poor another glass or grab another beer out of the fridge or cooler.

 

For us, economics aside, the biggest draw backs are no room service and wine being limited to a small by the glass selection rather than the huge wine by the bottle selection.

 

LOL!! I guess my question did seem a little obvious! I've only been on Celebrity once before and it was about 11 years ago. I was trying to remember how crowded and slow the elevators are, etc. I looked on the map, and the nearest bar is about 3 or 4 flights up, so I just didn't know if it would take like 15 minutes to get the drink (btw, we don't drink beer or wine really, just mixed drinks) back to the room.

 

I never even thought about the both of us having to go - that's not too cool, especially since the reason we'll be doing room service so much is that we are traveling with 2 small kids...