FWIW, Why I didn't get a beverage package as planned

[Tinious]

Just off the Sep 13th sailing of the Navigator of the seas, my first cruise on RCCL (after having done two on Princess a while back). I had been following the drink package info closely as I'm a pretty active drinker when on vacation and we tend to do all-inclusives. My last couple cruises were in the $5+$1tip price era, so I was worried about this new $12+ price point world I'd been reading about. Plus I'm definitely a "min-max" type where I'm happy to play the games that vendors play with us consumers.

 

My plan was pretty simple -- I knew I didn't want the package on the first night, and I knew I wouldn't want it the third night (Cozumel where we were doing an all-inclusive at Nachi during the day). So I was going to buy it for the last four nights, which for this sailing is the latest you can buy it.

 

The math and logic was simple -- everyone talks about the $67 ultimate price, and how with a few $12+18% cocktails, a couple beers and coffee/water/soda and you easily make it worth it... So it seemed like a no brainer.

 

Well, except over the first couple days I learned a few things:

- Not all cocktails are $12+18%. In fact, there are many specials through the day, especially as we came to find out during the last few days. It was easy to find $5-9 drink specials, two-for-one drink specials and on the last three days they had $5 drink specials that included a souvenir cup. If you want to drink Grey Goose Martini's -- then yes, absolutely it's $12+18%. But if you are looking for random variety then it's much cheaper.

- Beer is actually not that expensive -- Corona's were $5.50+18%, so $6.49 all in. Domestics were $6.50+18%, but were the 16oz bottles, so one-third-more. They had specials on those too, where you could get 4 for $20+18%.

- The wine was relatively expensive, a bit below restaurant prices -- but they often had great sales going on those too. My wife and I had a bottle of Caymus 2013 which was $98 on the menu, but it was 20% off the last three nights, so we paid $80. That's not too far from retail which is about $60. We had a Charles Krug which was $40 after discounts, it retails about $25 or so for the same bottle on land. What's interesting about that wine is it's above the $12 threshold per glass, ($13 to be precise) which gives you a sense of what's covered by the packages wine-wise. Since you could easily store a bottle and have it recalled anywhere -- and if you figure 5 glasses in a bottle -- we were effectively drinking the $13/glass wine for $8/glass.

- Beer at ports was cheap. In the last four days of our cruise, we had Belize and Roatan. Beer in Belize was $2/bottle and Roatan $4. This was for perfectly drinkable local beers, and that was the on-pier pricing before buckets or other deals.

- We found the freely available ship water to be very drinkable. In fact, we brought a bunch of bottles on board and found ourselves drinking the ship water primarily, getting a glass with our booze, meals, or while walking by the cafe promenade. We ended up brining half our bottles back off the ship.

- We found the freely available coffee to be quite drinkable and on the first morning ordered a latte and americano and found them to be quite bad. I'm not sure why, and I understand this is highly subjective and many will disagree -- but for us it became apparent that the specialty coffees had no added value to what was free.

- I had an extra backpack with us, and since our hotel in Houston was next to a supermarket, before we embarked we bought three 10-packs of Perrier slim-cans, a twelve pack of evian half-liters, and an eight pack of soda. I stuck it in the backpack and checked it with our luggage (but on it's own, in case they confiscated or held it up). We had no-problems, it arrived right with our luggage, and before dinner even (it had been clearly searched though, they clearly opened the perrier boxes for inspection). But since we had very easily brought a bunch of sparkling, still water and sodas on board, that part of the packages had no added value for us either -- not to mention as I noted the ship water for us was actually fine.

 

So -- while I have no doubt the drink packages make a lot of sense for many folks, for many reasons -- and I'm not trying to say "don't get the drink packages" -- I can tell you as someone who *way* over analyzes these types of things for the entertainment and curiosity of it all I would humble suggest:

* Don't presume a $12+ price point on drinks, it's not for beer, wine or even mixed spirits.

* Don't presume you won't like the ship water/coffee.

* I realize we may have been lucky and things change from port to port, date to date and ship to ship - but we easily brought lots of non-alcoholic drinks on board (too many, actually!)

* Don't forget about how easy it is to get your drink-on while enjoying a beautiful port/pier before/after/during your excursions.

[xpcdoojk]

Nice real world post.

 

Thank you for taking the time.

 

jc

[geogran]

Some great all around tips and observations, thanks for sharing! We will be on NAV in a couple of weeks, so very timely.

[rudeney]

Thanks for that great information! I had been assuming that I'd get the Premium drink package, but after reading this, I may just pay as I go. My drink of choice is Scotch. I prefer Johnnie Walker Red Label, but I'm happy with most anything comparable. My understanding is I should expect to pay around $9 a drink. I might enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinner, but that's it. I don't do "fru-fru" drinks, and I rarely drink beer. Really, I don't drink during the day, either. We will have access to the concierge lounge, so I am just think a drink package isn't necessary, plus I might end up drinking more that I should just trying to get my money's worth.

[Sascol]

Thanks for that great information! I had been assuming that I'd get the Premium drink package, but after reading this, I may just pay as I go. My drink of choice is Scotch. I prefer Johnnie Walker Red Label, but I'm happy with most anything comparable. My understanding is I should expect to pay around $9 a drink. I might enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinner, but that's it. I don't do "fru-fru" drinks, and I rarely drink beer. Really, I don't drink during the day, either. We will have access to the concierge lounge, so I am just think a drink package isn't necessary, plus I might end up drinking more that I should just trying to get my money's worth.

 

Similar thoughts here.

 

- We are Diamond members and get three freebies each daily. These are only during certain hours BUT these happen to be the hours during which we do the most drinking.

 

- We enjoy one martini each evening and tend to go high end on those so while those may cost $12+, the bulk of what we drink during the day will NOT be that expensive.

 

- We do drink wine with dinner but we can get one free wine each as part of the Diamond benefits and simply carry them from the bar into the dining room. If we each want another glass w/ dinner, we pay for it. Even at $12+, we are still ahead.

 

We've calculated it every possible way and over the course of any day, based on the Diamond drink benefits it just makes no sense to buy the ultimate package based on our drinking patterns. Even if we do not hold back on what we order, we still come out ahead by NOT purchasing a package.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Sascol

[Ren1216]

Excellent post! Thank you for taking the time. Count me in the group of those trying to decide whether or not the Premium Pkg will be worth it for my upcoming sailing (on Indy). You have definitely given me food for thought, though I know the details may vary on a different ship.

 

I'll definitely wait until I board to decide, once I visit the bar and see what prices look like for my drinks-of-choice.

 

Cheers! :D

[Lionesss]

Having done the Oasis this past August and I had the drink package, but between the suite lounge and all the free glasses of champagne floating around on different nights, and 3 port days, I know for me it was not worth it. I did not drink before 5pm. and then a couple was enough.

 

Next year on the Allure we are Diamond and in a suite.

 

So, I will enjoy the evening cocktails.

Save the money for me.

 

DH on the other hand enjoys $$$$drinks, he gets his moneys worth.

 

By the way, thanks OP for great analysis.

 

Sea Ya

[mollyeilis]

- We found the freely available coffee to be quite drinkable and on the first morning ordered a latte and americano and found them to be quite bad. I'm not sure why, and I understand this is highly subjective and many will disagree -- but for us it became apparent that the specialty coffees had no added value to what was free.

 

Interesting. Definitely never heard that about the free coffee! Maybe I should try it next time we're onboard. I don't plan to buy even Replenish for myself in the future, but if I like the free coffee it could save me the cost of 7 iced lattes!

[tropiclvrs]

I agree with all of the OP points and observations (thanks for taking the time!). For me the drink packages just were not worth it. DH bought the select package on day 2 as he's mainly a beer drinker with an occasional wine and I know he didn't gt the full value out of it. I decided not to buy a package becuase I would have drank way more than I would have otherwise. I don't need the excess calories nor the alcohol so I decided against it. Plus, we are Diamond and I was happy with my cocktail hour freebies from any lounge or bar I chose.

 

I am also in the camp that the freebie coffee and water are very drinkable. I do love my cappucino's...but again I can get those anytime in the Diamond lounge.

[hollykimalan]

Excellent, thanks for posting this.

[cb at sea]

I don't tend to mix my drinks....if I start with vodka tonics...that's what I drink. If I start with beer....that's it for the day.... I do NOT need "top shelf" in a mixed drink...you can't taste the booze, if it's made right!

 

Glad you came out ahead!!!!

[George C]

You listed many valid points, we love the premium package and will continue to get it, bottom line is if you drink 5 upper tier drinks or maybe 7 regular drinks on the ship you should get it. We do, I will skip package when we are in Europe since we will be on shore most of the days ( also we can get free drinks in diamond and concierge club for those qualified)

[DrewFoundLander]

Many thanks to the OP for the detail and dialogue, makes perfect sense. I appreciate the comprehensive analysis and your time in doing so.

[DonnaK]

This is one of the most informative and practical posts I have ever read on CC.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to provide such specific details which will help many people make informed decisions about whether or not it pays for them to buy the drink package

[muffin]

Thx, OP for the insider report. I am wondering just how easy it was to find out about the daily specials,the 2 for1 drinks, the wine price reductions in the MDR etc etc. Were they listed in the daily schedule, ordid you have to ask a server or bartender in the various bars? Were the glasses of champagne for all,or just for select cruisers of a certain standing? Just curious if you had to really seek these items out or were they there for the taking? Thx for the keen observations.

[Big_G]

Nicely done.

[lauhines]

Where do you find out what drinks are on special?

I did get the drink package last time - not the ultimate but the next tier down - and did not come close to getting my monies worth. I am not a big drinker and found they had hardly anything in that category that I liked. I had maybe 2 drinks a day and would have been way ahead to just pay by the drink.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write your post!

[dcgrumpy]

Thx, OP for the insider report. I am wondering just how easy it was to find out about the daily specials,the 2 for1 drinks, the wine price reductions in the MDR etc etc. Were they listed in the daily schedule, ordid you have to ask a server or bartender in the various bars? Were the glasses of champagne for all,or just for select cruisers of a certain standing? Just curious if you had to really seek these items out or were they there for the taking? Thx for the keen observations.

 

There were drink specials listed in the Compass on Indy a few weeks ago.

[Merion_Mom]

Just off the Sep 13th sailing of the Navigator of the seas, my first cruise on RCCL (after having done two on Princess a while back). I had been following the drink package info closely as I'm a pretty active drinker when on vacation and we tend to do all-inclusives. My last couple cruises were in the $5+$1tip price era, so I was worried about this new $12+ price point world I'd been reading about. Plus I'm definitely a "min-max" type where I'm happy to play the games that vendors play with us consumers.

 

My plan was pretty simple -- I knew I didn't want the package on the first night, and I knew I wouldn't want it the third night (Cozumel where we were doing an all-inclusive at Nachi during the day). So I was going to buy it for the last four nights, which for this sailing is the latest you can buy it.

 

The math and logic was simple -- everyone talks about the $67 ultimate price, and how with a few $12+18% cocktails, a couple beers and coffee/water/soda and you easily make it worth it... So it seemed like a no brainer.

 

Well, except over the first couple days I learned a few things:

- Not all cocktails are $12+18%. In fact, there are many specials through the day, especially as we came to find out during the last few days. It was easy to find $5-9 drink specials, two-for-one drink specials and on the last three days they had $5 drink specials that included a souvenir cup. If you want to drink Grey Goose Martini's -- then yes, absolutely it's $12+18%. But if you are looking for random variety then it's much cheaper.

- Beer is actually not that expensive -- Corona's were $5.50+18%, so $6.49 all in. Domestics were $6.50+18%, but were the 16oz bottles, so one-third-more. They had specials on those too, where you could get 4 for $20+18%.

- The wine was relatively expensive, a bit below restaurant prices -- but they often had great sales going on those too. My wife and I had a bottle of Caymus 2013 which was $98 on the menu, but it was 20% off the last three nights, so we paid $80. That's not too far from retail which is about $60. We had a Charles Krug which was $40 after discounts, it retails about $25 or so for the same bottle on land. What's interesting about that wine is it's above the $12 threshold per glass, ($13 to be precise) which gives you a sense of what's covered by the packages wine-wise. Since you could easily store a bottle and have it recalled anywhere -- and if you figure 5 glasses in a bottle -- we were effectively drinking the $13/glass wine for $8/glass.

- Beer at ports was cheap. In the last four days of our cruise, we had Belize and Roatan. Beer in Belize was $2/bottle and Roatan $4. This was for perfectly drinkable local beers, and that was the on-pier pricing before buckets or other deals.

- We found the freely available ship water to be very drinkable. In fact, we brought a bunch of bottles on board and found ourselves drinking the ship water primarily, getting a glass with our booze, meals, or while walking by the cafe promenade. We ended up brining half our bottles back off the ship.

- We found the freely available coffee to be quite drinkable and on the first morning ordered a latte and americano and found them to be quite bad. I'm not sure why, and I understand this is highly subjective and many will disagree -- but for us it became apparent that the specialty coffees had no added value to what was free.

- I had an extra backpack with us, and since our hotel in Houston was next to a supermarket, before we embarked we bought three 10-packs of Perrier slim-cans, a twelve pack of evian half-liters, and an eight pack of soda. I stuck it in the backpack and checked it with our luggage (but on it's own, in case they confiscated or held it up). We had no-problems, it arrived right with our luggage, and before dinner even (it had been clearly searched though, they clearly opened the perrier boxes for inspection). But since we had very easily brought a bunch of sparkling, still water and sodas on board, that part of the packages had no added value for us either -- not to mention as I noted the ship water for us was actually fine.

 

So -- while I have no doubt the drink packages make a lot of sense for many folks, for many reasons -- and I'm not trying to say "don't get the drink packages" -- I can tell you as someone who *way* over analyzes these types of things for the entertainment and curiosity of it all I would humble suggest:

* Don't presume a $12+ price point on drinks, it's not for beer, wine or even mixed spirits.

* Don't presume you won't like the ship water/coffee.

* I realize we may have been lucky and things change from port to port, date to date and ship to ship - but we easily brought lots of non-alcoholic drinks on board (too many, actually!)

* Don't forget about how easy it is to get your drink-on while enjoying a beautiful port/pier before/after/during your excursions.

 

This is one of the most informative and practical posts I have ever read on CC.

Thanks so much for taking the time to provide such specific details which will help many people make informed decisions about whether or not it pays for them to buy the drink package

 

Hands down!

 

Fabulous and helpful information, broken down in a way that allows anyone to see how s/he would fit within your analysis.

 

[AustinCruise]

This is a great thread. Yes, the drink package can easily go either way as far as value.

 

On navigator, drink specials were sometimes listed on the compass and sometimes found poolside.

[preschool teacher]

I also applaud you.....the reason I might get it is to able to try different drinks and not care if I don't like them....would be fun to experiment .....

[Tinious]

Thanks for the kudos, I was actually a bit worried about the thread being perceived as some anti-drink package rant, so am glad it didn't come out that way. I saw lots of people on drink packages and have absolutely no doubt it's great value for a great many people. I was just surprised to not be one of them this particular time around. If I was to go with a group of couples where I knew I would would split of "with the boys" a few times during the week, I'd definitely reconsider. Or if I wasn't in such a suggestive mood lately on what specifically to drink so that I could roll with the price points...

 

There is a daily drink special, it's listed in the cruise compass. It's usually $8.95+18%, but IIRC there was a day or two it was a buck more or cheaper either way.

 

The two-for-one drink specials appeared in the cruise compass and were not surprisingly at venues hosting $$$ events (eg, Bingo) -- but you didn't need to play, just walk in to the bar area in the venue and your set. They were usually brightly colored blended drinks -- but they had the full pour of booze in them.

 

The $5+18% & souvenir glass specials appeared on day 5, IIRC. They were in the main promenade, outside the ice rink during shows, and I think I saw them pool side as well. You could get them "virgin" for same price, or they'd do a pour of vodka/rum depending on the drink. These were very sweet, but I happened to be in the mood for simple sweet (having had an embarassing amount of beer at Nachi earlier in the week :rolleyes:). They did also have other drinks with glasses that were a bit "higher end", like bloody mary's, but they were $10+18%, so I don't think they were on special per se, just that you got a souvenir glass with it. It really did vary quite a bit - but in a good way if you weren't set on something specific.

 

As for the wine, on day 5 (Roatan) they had a "limited time" 20% discount on wine and bottle specials on a table at vintages. It was advertised in cruise compass as being from 7pm-9pm. But -- we were offered the discount (without even asking) from up at Giovani's at 6pm that night (and why we got the Caymus), and at 10pm we went down and they had the table still up with some $20, $30 and $50 bottles (a half dozen or so each). There was a nice Chateau Lafite that I've seen retail for $80 that was on for $50, but I couldn't really place any of the other bottles. It seemed like they were odd-lots that they were just trying to get off the ship. They weren't on any menu or wine list any more -- just wasting space AFAICT.

 

But here's the thing -- the next night we walk by and the wine is there, and we asked if we could get another Krug at the discount and they said absolutely. And on Day 7? Same thing, we just asked if the 20% deal was still going and they were all too happy it seemed. (disclaimer is that vintages isn't that popular out of Galveston from what I've seen/heard, so maybe it's a limited thing or we just got lucky).

 

One more comment on the coffee -- on my sailings with Princess the free coffee is absolutely undrinkable, and the water was horribly undrinkable. So we were expecting same without question on the Navigator and found it surprisingly OK. It's not great, I wouldn't cross the street for it on mainland, but it was actually drinkable and the premiums just didn't seem any better.

[kimala]

going on the Indy next month and I've been reading the compasses that I could find. One poster included a sheet for each day that was titled "Offers of the day" It showed all the drink specials and what venue and time for each day. Like the OP mentioned there was a 2 for 1 drink special every afternoon and many wonderful sounding $7 drink specials between 9:30 and midnight different drinks in different Venus. I too am lucky to be diamond and so between these specials and my voucher drinks I don't feel I would get any value out of a package. If I want a frozen drink by the pool I will buy a virgin piña colada as I am not a big drinker.

Edited September 22, 2015 by kimala
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[denatravels]

Two weeks of compasses:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2256076

[RocketMan275]

Thanks for the kudos, I was actually a bit worried about the thread being perceived as some anti-drink package rant, so am glad it didn't come out that way. I saw lots of people on drink packages and have absolutely no doubt it's great value for a great many people. I was just surprised to not be one of them this particular time around. If I was to go with a group of couples where I knew I would would split of "with the boys" a few times during the week, I'd definitely reconsider. Or if I wasn't in such a suggestive mood lately on what specifically to drink so that I could roll with the price points...

 

 

 

One more comment on the coffee -- on my sailings with Princess the free coffee is absolutely undrinkable, and the water was horribly undrinkable. So we were expecting same without question on the Navigator and found it surprisingly OK. It's not great, I wouldn't cross the street for it on mainland, but it was actually drinkable and the premiums just didn't seem any better.

 

Excellent post and very useful. We bought the premium package on our first cruise. Since then we've never regretted not buying a package.