Alcohol use/abuse and celebrity drinks packages

[phoebecat]

Purely a question of observed behaviours ....

 

Have any celebrity cruisers noticed any change in behaviours onboard since the introduction of the 'free' drinks package incentives?

 

Lots of boozing? Or restrained drinking?

Bad behaviour or generally the usual refined and civilised ambience?

 

Interested to hear your comments!

[wallie5446]

Last sailing on the Reflection Nov 2013 and we noticed nothing different about thoes around us. We were all laid out on the floor just as on previous cruises.:eek: So no change!:D

[ECCruise]

Purely a question of observed behaviours ....

 

Have any celebrity cruisers noticed any change in behaviours onboard since the introduction of the 'free' drinks package incentives?

 

Lots of boozing? Or restrained drinking?

Bad behaviour or generally the usual refined and civilised ambience?

 

Interested to hear your comments!

 

Our observation on B2B cruises a couple of months ago. Cruise #1, 90+% did NOT have a liquor package. Cruise #2 90+% DID have a package.

 

With the package: Falling down drunks? No. People that had had one too many? Yes. Any sort of bar service quite degenerated on the second leg, although they tried hard to keep up. Not a huge problem, just took longer. Worst was Cafe al Bacio, since both booze and coffee available there.

[virginialucy]

On my last cruise, there was a guy that came up to me and my BF and started talking random, drunken nonsense at us. Nothing abusive or anything. It was a little annoying but kind of amusing. After his GF/wife recovered from her embarrassment, she led him away. Now, he probably had the drink package since there were several 123 Go/Pick Your Perk sales before that cruise, but maybe he didn't. People who get that drunk are going to get that drunk package or no package.

[gimletgal]

I have seen no difference in people's drinking behavior, with or without the package. Have also not noticed any difference in service at any of the bars.

And I have been on both long and short cruises - with the packages in play. I like to think that most adults drink responsibly and that has certainly been the case when cruising with Celebrity. :) I really think many folks like the convenience of the package as much as the "free" drinks.

[WpgCruise]

We've noticed an increase in people who were over served on our last two cruises.

 

Is it a result of a "Package" or were they just people who drank too much?

 

I have no way of knowing.

 

I do know after the last instance (that included a young lady who was falling down stumbling drunk with profanity laced nonsense spewing from her) I wrote to Celebrity with my concern that some people were being over served, and provided specific examples. Their response was that they were sorry, they were monitoring the programs, and hoped it didn't impact our decision to cruise with Celebrity again.

 

I am much more impacted by drunken behaviour than the removal of Q-tips, cotton balls, and no chocolates on my pillow. If it worsens regardless of how sorry Celebrity is these things happen, we're off to the next cruise line.

 

If we want Carnival we'll go Carnival, but if we're on Celebrity and get Carnival.......not cool Celebrity.

Edited September 4, 2014 by WpgCruise

[Fouremco]

Every cruise varies, but we definitely saw a higher rate of consumption on the Eclipse in February than we had previously. Also longer waits for service, although we didn't experience all bars. The exception was in the MDR, where we found our wine steward to be very attentive. All-in-all, no significant issues, although there will always be a few trying to get their money's worth from a free card.

[2theship]

On our only cruise to date with a drink package, my (adult) daughters, my husband and I were all comparing notes about seeing drunken guys in various venues. One day at breakfast, a man walked by and we realized that we had all seen the same guy a different times around the ship. So yes, there was a drinking issue but it was all by one person!

 

Yes, we probably drank more than we would have if we were paying by the drink but we each had our own personal awareness of when it was time to stop. We also loved the coffees, fresh squeezed juice and bottled water available.

[hcat]

Wow...this could become a hot button topic!

 

Have not recently observed alc related behavior issues ,.,, but definitely the passenger demographics have changed.. alc packages seem .quite a draw for pax from other lines , just like smoking policy attracts non and anti smokers.,,

 

.. more cc threads and roll calls focus on the drinking., what the packages include, service issues,....we take the package perk ourselves but dh has not increased consumption ,and I may have a few drinks per cruise as usual....but love the teas and juices.,,

 

we would not break even buying it if not a perk and would not miss it if it stops being a perk

 

if it did become a "booze cruise" culture we would not continue much as we enjoy X

Edited September 4, 2014 by hcat

[Pilot70D]

Purely a question of observed behaviours ....

 

Lots of boozing? Or restrained drinking?

Bad behaviour or generally the usual refined and civilised ambience?

QUOTE]

 

We were on the most recent New Year's cruise aboard the Eclipse. Both of us had the premium alcoholic beverage package. I can assure you with utter certainty that it was all civilized ambiance in the mornings. For some reason I cannot recall anything about the afternoons so your guess is as good as mine.

:p:D:p

[HappyTvlr]

I was on the Solstice in Oct 2013, and while there were no issues with people over indulging there were issues with Celebrity not having enough beer. They had to pull beers from the crew parties, and restock on horrible Fiji beer. It was also next to impossible to get seats at the Martini Bar or Molecular. I am on a similar itinerary (South Pacific) this October and I hope the beer problem has been fixed, but don't hold out much hope for space at Martini Bar since we are on Century and it is smaller and there isn't a Molecular option. I will say that I am a big fan of the package because it is value for money for us particularly when you add in all the non-alcoholic options it comes with.

[R&Scruisers]

Purely a question of observed behaviours ....

 

Lots of boozing? Or restrained drinking?

Bad behaviour or generally the usual refined and civilised ambience?

QUOTE]

 

We were on the most recent New Year's cruise aboard the Eclipse. Both of us had the premium alcoholic beverage package. I can assure you with utter certainty that it was all civilized ambiance in the mornings. For some reason I cannot recall anything about the afternoons so your guess is as good as mine.

:p:D:p

[R&Scruisers]

Your post made my day!! Too much fun. thank you!

[NCruiser2012]

I was on the Equinox recently. I was concerned about the number of people with the drink package, but I did not notice a great deal of drinking. Actually, there did not seem to be a lot of people in the bars. We had no sea days on our cruise, so I am sure that made a difference. We and everyone else were off the ship.

 

One thing I noticed was there were always a lot of people ordering drinks and sitting down at the buffet just with a drink, no food. It seems like there would be nicer venues on the ship to enjoy an alcoholic beverage.

 

When we did order a drink at a bar or at dinner, there were always people around to take our order.

[Big_G]

After 123Go came out we noticed an increase in bar patronage but not in over consumption. One of the things that we noticed on our last Reflection cruise was a large number of newbies to the package that may have slowed service for the first couple of days trying to figure out how the packages worked.

[Loracpin2]

On our Silhouette sailing this past March, IMO, the drinking was a lot out of control and included the fact in my on-line comment reply. A few weeks later I received a call from a Celebrity rep and gave my negative feedback once again.

[jelayne]

On our Silhouette sailing this past March, IMO, the drinking was a lot out of control and included the fact in my on-line comment reply. A few weeks later I received a call from a Celebrity rep and gave my negative feedback once again.

 

Was this a Caribbean cruise? Reason I ask is that our experience has been that cruises in March, on Celebrity, Royal, Princess & Carnival have more people on spring break & there is more drinking, package or no package. We now avoid cruising the Caribbean in March.

[miched]

Actually I had learned that you would only notice it if you weren't indulging. If you start out drinking with everyone else it just seems normal and every body is happy and having a good time. If you aren't drinking it appears to be a bunch of intoxicated over friendly people. This has happened to me many times when I have gotten to a party late, I was the only sober one and seemd not to fit in until I caught up to them.

 

Drink up 🍸🍺🍻

[pris993]

We don't buy drink packages... as we don't drink that much. When we are at home we only drink when we eat. That is the only concern we have when cruising... a on our last X cruise, we had a late dinner reservation, decided to have a martini, then a second... without any food other than olives, we were lite by the time we went to BLU, would not do that again.

 

On our next cruise, we will bring our own nuts to have with a drink. We don't like salty snack items.

 

On Princess they have some snacks in the elite lounge, so we never have a problem.

[sdnich]

Actually I had learned that you would only notice it if you weren't indulging. If you start out drinking with everyone else it just seems normal and every body is happy and having a good time. If you aren't drinking it appears to be a bunch of intoxicated over friendly people. This has happened to me many times when I have gotten to a party late, I was the only sober one and seemd not to fit in until I caught up to them.

 

Drink up 🍸🍺🍻

 

Love it!!!!! I hate when I have gotten to the party to late ! I did see a few that partied too much on our Caribbean cruise but did not know if they had the package or not !! But I love having the decision each day what I want to drink!!!!:)

[phoebecat]

All for your replies!

 

We are soon to be sailing on Eclipse, and we wondered what the situation would be. Doesn't appear it will be too boozy or riotous, and just general good natured bonhomie! Of course, if that isn't the case, you can be sure I'll let you know back on these boards!

 

Cheers!

Hic!

[omeinv]

Interesting question.

 

I will be first to admit I was concerned when Celebrity went to the current system where packages are readily available. I don't drink myself. I'm certainly not against it, just not my thing, but, because of that, I would think I'd know if there were problems.

 

I can say that I've seen no issues that I would correlate to the packages. In all my Celebrity cruises, I've seen only one instance where a person was making an ass of himself as a result of being drunk. That occurred BEFORE the advent of packages, but when they were in the offing, so I was worried that would be the future. It has not been in my experience.

 

I think the fact is people don't particularly drink to excess because of the packages. I feel most people enjoy the fact the package allows them to drink without running up a large - and perhaps surprising - bar bill.

 

Sure you see some people that have overindulged, but no more now than before the packages were around, and even those folks don't really cause an issue for others (themselves the next morning may be a different story) :)

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Jenna109]

We have never seen anyone who was worse for drink but the bars are certainly very busy and drinks take a long time - probably slows down the drinking! Certainly more waiters needed early evening in the bars.

MDR - excellent service on the Eclipse on our recent cruise. Our wine waiter always came to fill our glass. However on a previous cruise when we were Select dining the service was extremely poor. Our waiter had to find some drinks for us.

[Pushka]

How does anyone have any idea who has a drink package when simply ordering a drink from the bar?

[dwhe]

How does anyone have any idea who has a drink package when simply ordering a drink from the bar?

 

I know, they would have to watch you pretty carefully to see if you signed a slip or not.

 

The thought of being watched and judged by the moral minority because I like a drink is pathetic.

 

One thing I noticed was there were always a lot of people ordering drinks and sitting down at the buffet just with a drink, no food. It seems like there would be nicer venues on the ship to enjoy an alcoholic beverage.

 

This annoys me, I've spent loads of time sitting outside with a beer whilst my wife has a few nibbles.

 

It seems the few that don't know how to enjoy themselves always resent those that do.