Going no drink package - dangerous?

[descotes]

As I mentioned in a previous post:

I'm not a big drinker -- of anything really -- during a normal day I'll have a cup of coffee in the morning, one soda for lunch and a soda at dinner time. That's about all I'll drink for the day. I know when I go on my upcoming cruise I'll have maybe 1 pina colada and a soda during lunch, dinner, maybe the show at night or maybe another drink and possibly another time during the day.

 

My DH drinks and last time when we went with friends he bought the drink package. This time we're going with the kids and while he may have a few drinks I don't think he'll drink as much as he did when we were with friends and I think he's going to try to mostly stick to water.

My kids will each have the soda package because they won't be with us most of the time (14 & 12) so I think it will be beneficial for them.

I'm just wondering if it's dangerous for both myself and DH to go a la carte....

[lady_cruiser]

No its not.

[jticarruthers]

Dangerous? Not in anyway.

 

Unless you are going to consistently drink 5+ drinks a day you will not be in any danger of spending more than the package.

 

If you find yourself somehow drinking at that level, sign up for the package on board :)

[dplusd]

As I mentioned in a previous post:

I'm not a big drinker -- of anything really -- during a normal day I'll have a cup of coffee in the morning, one soda for lunch and a soda at dinner time. That's about all I'll drink for the day. I know when I go on my upcoming cruise I'll have maybe 1 pina colada and a soda during lunch, dinner, maybe the show at night or maybe another drink and possibly another time during the day.

 

My DH drinks and last time when we went with friends he bought the drink package. This time we're going with the kids and while he may have a few drinks I don't think he'll drink as much as he did when we were with friends and I think he's going to try to mostly stick to water.

My kids will each have the soda package because they won't be with us most of the time (14 & 12) so I think it will be beneficial for them.

I'm just wondering if it's dangerous for both myself and DH to go a la carte....

 

Not dangerous at all!. IMHO you have to drink quite a bit to make the alcohol package worth while. The level of drinking you describe, would not benefit from the package. Go a la carte...

[poncho1973]

If you find yourself somehow drinking at that level, sign up for the package on board :)

 

Don't do it late, though. They don't pro-rate the package.

[PuterMonkey]

Just do the math and see if what you anticipate drinking a la carte is reasonably under the limit. On my upcoming cruise the cheapest booze package is around $40/day. That's a significant amount of booze. Four of the mixed drinks or glasses of wine, or maybe 5-6 beers. There's no way I'd drink that on a daily basis. Maybe one or two sea days I can see it, but not normally.

 

As an adult with any drinking experience, just keep a mental tab like you would at any bar and cut yourself off. Easy.

[mulan1123]

I would agree with Rose Marie.

 

But if you plan on getting more than three soda drinks, than maybe think about getting the Soda package (it's like $6.95 a day per person) and you can definitely get your money's worth. And than have your alcoholic drinks a la carte if you plan on getting once a day.

[descotes]

Thanks everyone!

[BAV2005]

Don't do it late, though. They don't pro-rate the package.

 

Everything that I have read says that they do prorate the package. You only have to purchase for a min of 4 consecutive days and those days have to finish out your cruise. So on a 7 night you could pay for day 4-7 but not day 1-4. If i am mistaken i'm sure someone will correct me but i've been doing a lot of research and this is how i've read it

[Clarea]

Everything that I have read says that they do prorate the package. You only have to purchase for a min of 4 consecutive days and those days have to finish out your cruise. So on a 7 night you could pay for day 4-7 but not day 1-4. If i am mistaken i'm sure someone will correct me but i've been doing a lot of research and this is how i've read it

You are correct, the unlimited drink packages are pro-rated based on how many days they cover.

[gerif]

Everything that I have read says that they do prorate the package. You only have to purchase for a min of 4 consecutive days and those days have to finish out your cruise. So on a 7 night you could pay for day 4-7 but not day 1-4. If i am mistaken i'm sure someone will correct me but i've been doing a lot of research and this is how i've read it

 

You are correct.

[jticarruthers]

Everything that I have read says that they do prorate the package. You only have to purchase for a min of 4 consecutive days and those days have to finish out your cruise. So on a 7 night you could pay for day 4-7 but not day 1-4. If i am mistaken i'm sure someone will correct me but i've been doing a lot of research and this is how i've read it

 

Did it on the Allure in March, once you sign up you have to pay for the rest of the cruise but you can wait to sign up.

 

Not sure how it works on the 3 night cruises now that they are eligible for the package but already less than the 4 night minimum ...

[Harooni]

when you do the math a casual drinker will not benefit from the packages. what if one day you just dont feel well or like drinking, i saw guys drinking at 8:30am trying to get their moneys worth. , imagine being drunk the whole trip .lol you will be fine without it.

[George C]

You need to be a big drinker and or like 12 year old scotch and cognac for it to pay, it was good for us, if you will have less than 5 drinks a day it is a waste of money. Another benifit was you never need to sign reciepts

[bigque]

We could never drink that much a piece in one day to justify a drink package. I have always wondered if the people that buy the drink packages drink that much at home or on weekends or do you just drink that much when you are on a cruise?

Edited May 6, 2014 by bigque

[srlafleur]

Both DH and myself are what I would call moderate drinkers, and I think we could benefit from the package if we were on a cruise with mostly sea days (transatlantic, anyone?). Not too hard to have beer/wine with lunch, a couple of cocktails in the afternoon, wine with dinner, and an after-dinner drink...that would about cover it, right there. No need to sit at a bar and get plastered at all.

HOWEVER, since we prefer port-intensive itineraries, we'll stick to a la carte and our allowed 2 bottles of wine in our room.

Edited May 6, 2014 by srlafleur

[jticarruthers]

Both DH and myself are what I would call moderate drinkers, and I think we could benefit from the package if we were on a cruise with mostly sea days (transatlantic, anyone?). Not too hard to have beer/wine with lunch, a couple of cocktails in the afternoon, wine with dinner, and an after-dinner drink...that would about cover it, right there. No need to sit at a bar and get plastered at all.

HOWEVER, since we prefer port-intensive itineraries, we'll stick to a la carte and our allowed 2 bottles of wine in our room.

 

Think you nailed it there, for a casual/moderate drinker a port intensive cruise is definitely not going to pay off, an "at sea" intensive cruise on the other hand is not hard to find 5-7 drinks a day on between a couple of beers at the pool, wine with dinner, etc.

 

We typically will not buy the package because we don't drink enough, we did on our Allure cruise because we had 3 days at Sea, 1 day at Labadee and were planning to stay onboard in Jamaica (so basically 5 out of 6 days "counted"). We bought morning of day 2 so embarkation day didn't count either.

 

I don't think we saved anything significant by having the package but it was convenient and fun to be able to try any drink and not worry about it.

[krisko]

I didn't get the package for two reasons...we were in cozumel one full day with a booze/snorkel cruise booked. And when I get drunk the night before, I won't drink much at all the next day. If I had the pkg, I'd feel compelled to drink hard every day. Just can't do that anymore.

[Sitzmark]

You need to be a big drinker and or like 12 year old scotch and cognac for it to pay, it was good for us, if you will have less than 5 drinks a day it is a waste of money. Another benifit was you never need to sign reciepts

 

 

I disagree that you have to be a big drinker for it to pay. For instance it also includes the soda which is 6.50 a day, that brings the $55 down to 48.50. Drink a few of the included bottles of water that I understand go for around 3 or 4 bucks a piece and your down to close to 40 bucks or less. average mixed drinks run around 8.50 plus tip that will get em close to 10 each, have one around lunch, one mid afternoon, a glass of wine with dinner and a couple more drinks in the evening and you've passed your 55 dollar daily fee.

[dacsmom]

I love the people who say you have to be drunk every day to make the drink package worth it. It is up to each individual whether it is worth it. Between coffee, soda, OJ, dinner drinks and drinks at the shows, it is worth it for me to buy the package. But for others it is not. See what you drink the first day or two and see if it is worth buying a package.

[bigque]

I disagree that you have to be a big drinker for it to pay. For instance it also includes the soda which is 6.50 a day, that brings the $55 down to 48.50. Drink a few of the included bottles of water that I understand go for around 3 or 4 bucks a piece and your down to close to 40 bucks or less. average mixed drinks run around 8.50 plus tip that will get em close to 10 each, have one around lunch, one mid afternoon, a glass of wine with dinner and a couple more drinks in the evening and you've passed your 55 dollar daily fee.

 

Is that $55 a day per person for a total of $110 per day???

[Big_G]

I love the people who say you have to be drunk every day to make the drink package worth it. It is up to each individual whether it is worth it. Between coffee, soda, OJ, dinner drinks and drinks at the shows, it is worth it for me to buy the package. But for others it is not. See what you drink the first day or two and see if it is worth buying a package.

 

Agree. If I think I'm even close to breaking even, I'm signing up just so I don't have to sign those stupid slips.

[poncho1973]

Everything that I have read says that they do prorate the package. You only have to purchase for a min of 4 consecutive days and those days have to finish out your cruise. So on a 7 night you could pay for day 4-7 but not day 1-4. If i am mistaken i'm sure someone will correct me but i've been doing a lot of research and this is how i've read it

 

I suppose because the last several cruises have been 4 nights that my info is only good on short cruises.

 

I went late on Day 2, same price as Day 1. I said "What? There are only less than 2.5 days left." They said "No pro-rate."

[poncho1973]

I love the people who say you have to be drunk every day to make the drink package worth it. It is up to each individual whether it is worth it. Between coffee, soda, OJ, dinner drinks and drinks at the shows, it is worth it for me to buy the package. But for others it is not. See what you drink the first day or two and see if it is worth buying a package.

 

You can feel however you want about it. That doesn't change facts.

 

You are 100% allowed to just ignore the facts because of your feelings OR just ignore them because you don't want to sign slips of paper like the other poster, but you can't change the facts.

 

In order for the cost of the package to be lower than the cost of individual drinks (no matter which type, alcoholic or non) you have to drink a set amount of them.

 

This doesn't mean you have to get drunk, but it does mean that for the sum total of your individual drinks to outweigh the price you paid for the premium drinks package you have to drink a certain amount.

 

If gasoline is $4.00 a gallon, but someone tells you that you can get unlimited gas for a week for $400, you would have to use more than 100 gallons of gas in that week for it to be a dollar savings. You can certainly use 50 gallons of gas and justify this as "worth it" to yourself for any reason at all on the planet that you choose to use, but the facts are that you overpaid. You can also justify this as "worth it" because you didn't have to pay each time you stopped to fill the 10 gallon tank, but the facts are still that you overpaid.

Edited May 6, 2014 by poncho1973

[Big_G]

You can feel however you want about it. That doesn't change facts.

 

You are 100% allowed to just ignore the facts because of your feelings OR just ignore them because you don't want to sign slips of paper like the other poster, but you can't change the facts.

 

In order for the cost of the package to be lower than the cost of individual drinks (no matter which type, alcoholic or non) you have to drink a set amount of them.

 

This doesn't mean you have to get drunk, but it does mean that for the sum total of your individual drinks to outweigh the price you paid for the premium drinks package you have to drink a certain amount.

 

If gasoline is $4.00 a gallon, but someone tells you that you can get unlimited gas for a week for $400, you would have to use more than 100 gallons of gas in that week for it to be a dollar savings. You can certainly use 50 gallons of gas and justify this as "worth it" to yourself for any reason at all on the planet that you choose to use, but the facts are that you overpaid. You can also justify this as "worth it" because you didn't have to pay each time you stopped to fill the 10 gallon tank, but the facts are still that you overpaid.

 

So you pretty much agree with dacsmom. :confused: