Average Alcohol Consumption on a Cruise

[BostonGal35]

let's just say that when the UBP first came out and you had to buy it (what was it then, $59 or $69 per person per day?) we broke even by Day 5 (but individual drink prices were lower then).

 

now just paying the 18% gratuity on the free package, we probably break even by day 2.

[triptolemus]

(what was it then, $59 or $69 per person per day?)

 

$49 pp/pd

[edenrayne]

I thought the numbers were per hour:D:eek:

 

ME TOO ;p

[BostonGal35]

when looking at prices of other cruise lines packages, also bear in mind that some limit the number of drinks. so yes, its a drink package, but its not unlimited. RCCL, i believe, limits you to either 12 or 15 per day. yes, that's alot, but who wants to keep count of their drinks? also, i like the ability to try new drinks. if you dont like it, you arent out anything. for example, i wanted to try a bloody mary. i had my fave bartender a few sailings ago make me one. i tried a sip...then two sips. and i was like yea, not my thing. if i had to pay for that drink, whether land or sea, i never would have tried it. and if i had a drink limit, i probably wouldnt have either.

[SNJCruisers]

when looking at prices of other cruise lines packages, also bear in mind that some limit the number of drinks. so yes, its a drink package, but its not unlimited. RCCL, i believe, limits you to either 12 or 15 per day. yes, that's alot, but who wants to keep count of their drinks?

It's Carnival, not RCI that has a limit on their drinks package. It's 15 alcoholic drinks per day with a top end limit of 50.00 per drink and it also includes all non-alcoholic drinks (unlimited) such as espresso based coffees, bottled water, vitamin water, bottled iced tea, milkshakes, energy drinks. The bartender will let you know if you're close to your limit and the vast majority of people don't hit double digits let alone 15 alcoholic drinks per day. It's also only 50.00 per day, plus 15% grat, which makes it the cheapest of all the mainstream cruise lines.

 

The packages that Carnival, RCI and Celebrity offer are all inclusive with regards to including non alcoholic options and Carnival even includes milkshakes. Whereas, NCL's is nice in the fact that's it a perk, and all you need to do is pay the 100 per day in grats, but it's not all inclusive and there is a dollar limit of 15.00, which eliminates many drinks. NCL charges twice what Carnival does for a Dark n Stormy, that's ridiculous.

[jancl57]

We paid $49 pp/pd for the beverage package on RCI last June. With the 18% gratuity charged to it it came out to $57.82 pd. It was a 9 night cruise. Came out to $520 pp for 9 days, vs $652 pp for 7 days on NCL. This package included beer, wine, mixed drinks (including frozen drinks) and bottled water. We took full advantage of the bev plan.

 

I'm glad it is one of the perks on NCL. Is the cost of the UBP rolled into the price of the cruise? Of course it is. But it's nice to not have to mull over "is it worth it or not" when deciding if we should purchase a package on board. I don't think we would buy it if it were not a perk. We are sailing with friends who chose the 3rd passenger free perk. They have an inside cabin. They probably aren't going to purchase the UBP on board because the cost is prohibitive. But now they will be watching their on board account on a daily basis. (their son is 19 and will be able to drink on board).

[beerman2]

Average consumption :

2 Bailey's and coffee for breakfast

3-4 drinks during the day

2 Martini's pre-dinner

1 Mixed drink with dinner

2-3 Walking around after dinner.

[fshagan]

Whereas, NCL's is nice in the fact that's it a perk, and all you need to do is pay the 100 per day in grats, but it's not all inclusive and there is a dollar limit of 15.00, which eliminates many drinks. NCL charges twice what Carnival does for a Dark n Stormy, that's ridiculous.

 

On NCL, I think you can still order a more expensive drink than the $15 limit and just pay the difference plus 18%. So an $18 drink would cost you $3.54, and not the full price. Not all lines do this.

 

I'm not sure about NCL's new class of "ultra premium" drinks that were priced way up there ... over $20 if I recall. When they first introduced them I thought the wording exempted them completely from the UBP but at that time you could still applyl the $15 UBP limit to the drink.

[4774Papa]

Hmm...so when you are at dinner and want a glass of wine and have the free drink package...do they have separate menus for only the drinks you are allowed to have? I mean how limited are you? I don't expect to get a glass of $20 per glass wine....but I also don't want to drink sub par crappy wine either.

The beverage package has a list of wines to choose from, that amounts to very few. There are no robust reds (Cab). When the beverage packages were first released the available wines had more choices. NCL has since reduced the number. The Chardonnay is not bad, but I didn't care much for the Merlot or Cab. I think the choices for wines by glass are something like eight were they used to offer 20.

[rhentze]

Your average wine drinker can usually find something that will fit under the 15.00 limit. It's the wine snobs that are used to the fancier wines that they consume at home and they have a fit when they can't get something that is palatable to their taste buds that is under 15.00. They usually find something that only costs a few dollars over the limit and it appeases them.

 

 

Just cruised last week and normally drink $10-20 bottles at home. All red wines were priced under $15. per glass and all were mediocre or poor. Probably $5-10 per bottle at local retailer. Merlot was Blackstone. Malbec was Trapiche. Only Chianti was Bolla and both bottles they opened were spoiled. On the other hand plenty of top shelf liquor and great craft beers.

 

 

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[uneamie]

Average consumption :

2 Bailey's and coffee for breakfast

3-4 drinks during the day

2 Martini's pre-dinner

1 Mixed drink with dinner

2-3 Walking around after dinner.

 

Wow...17 drinks a day. That's a lot of booze! I'd be floating around the ship all day and needing assistance to get back to my room. LOL

[SNJCruisers]

Just cruised last week and normally drink $10-20 bottles at home. All red wines were priced under $15. per glass and all were mediocre or poor. Probably $5-10 per bottle at local retailer. Merlot was Blackstone. Malbec was Trapiche. Only Chianti was Bolla and both bottles they opened were spoiled. On the other hand plenty of top shelf liquor and great craft beers.

 

 

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So, what conclusion can you take away from this.....NCL is not suitable for your higher end wine palate and you'll end up suffering with the poor choices that are in the included drinks package, buy more expensive bottles for your educated palate or change cruise lines to an upgraded one that has better wines available in their drinks package like Celebrity.

[SNJCruisers]

Average consumption :

2 Bailey's and coffee for breakfast

3-4 drinks during the day

2 Martini's pre-dinner

1 Mixed drink with dinner

2-3 Walking around after dinner.

 

Wow...17 drinks a day. That's a lot of booze! I'd be floating around the ship all day and needing assistance to get back to my room. LOL

Have you been knocking back a few today yourself, because when I add up those numbers, I get 12 drinks at the maximum, assuming 4 during the day and 3 after dinner. 12 drinks over the course of 12 hours is doable.

[newmexicoNita]

This article says that the average drinks cruise passengers consume equals:

 

0.3 glasses of champagne

0.7 beers

1.2 glasses of wine

2.4 mixed drinks

 

Averages don't really help us much, do they? Most beer drinkers are going to have several beers, and maybe none of that other fancy stuff. But I was surprised at the number of mixed drinks per passenger. I would have thought beer and wine drinkers would outnumber the mixed drinks.

 

The article says that consumption level costs about $34 per day per cruiser. So we know at least two things, either the drink packages are total ripoffs at from $50 per day to NCL's $79 per day, or the people who buy them know they drink 8 to 10 drinks per day.

 

The booze consumption on a cruise ship is about 8x's the average consumption, but let's be fair ... people have a designated driver in the captain, and they are on vacation.

 

Still, we might think about enforcing limits on how many cruises a person can take in the interest of public health! ;)

 

average is such a misleading average word. I don't know about others, but I think we usually have about 6 or 7 drinks a day now with the UBP. At around $9 per drink, I am counting wine, the package is a good deal or fair deal. I will say, before they offered the package as a perk we drank a little less.

[4774Papa]

So, what conclusion can you take away from this.....NCL is not suitable for your higher end wine palate and you'll end up suffering with the poor choices that are in the included drinks package, buy more expensive bottles for your educated palate or change cruise lines to an upgraded one that has better wines available in their drinks package like Celebrity.

SNJ you make it sound like we are wine snobs or something. At home, I am perfectly happy with wines that run $12 a bottle. When we purchase a bottle of wine onboard ship, either NCL or Celebrity, I can usually find one that I like for something in the $30-$40 price range. The wines that NCL provides in the drink packages amazingly are a cut below what we normally drink. On the other hand, Celebrity always seems to have the right choices. We still like cruising NCL, since we are Platinum, we get a good bottle of wine with our free specialty meal. Also, we don't choose our cruise on one detail.

[beerman2]

Wow...17 drinks a day. That's a lot of booze! I'd be floating around the ship all day and needing assistance to get back to my room.

 

LOL not sure where you get 17 from . That's 12 if you do the math correctly.

 

Plus you are talking a 12 hour day or more, so average of 1 drink an hour isn't bad.

 

Yes everyone's tolerance to alcohol is different, and things we do on vacation once or twice a year is different than everyday life.

[beerman2]

Have you been knocking back a few today yourself, because when I add up those numbers, I get 12 drinks at the maximum, assuming 4 during the day and 3 after dinner. 12 drinks over the course of 12 hours is doable.

Z

 

Thanks SNJ exactly! You get It and if people would look at the BIG picture . Just sayin'

[4774Papa]

Most of our cruises have a lot of port days and not getting back to the ship until 4PM makes it hard to cram in a dozen alcoholic drinks. The most alcohol that I ever drank in my life was my first year in college. A dozen drinks a day starting at 4 PM would remind me of that time.

 

I am reminded of what I read once when trying to lose weight. Do you live to eat or eat to live. Seems like a spin of for that would be do you live to drink or drink to live.

[Barb Nahoumi]

You can't really go by me, because I may only consume 2-3 drinks per cruise.:cool:

[floppyMARCO]

I usually consume so many drinks I pass out by about 3 next to the pool in a lounger and sleep til 7-8, wake up, and do it all over again til about 2 am and pass out again usually in my stateroom. It is hard to keep a tally of how many I consume because there is such a combination of beers, shots, and mixed drinks it's impossible not to lose count.

[coloradocruiselover88]

Even without the UBP, I would easily beat those numbers. :D

 

Hell, my mom easily beats those numbers.

 

Wait is this my daughter undercover as a cruise critic member?

 

;p

[SNJCruisers]

Most of our cruises have a lot of port days and not getting back to the ship until 4PM makes it hard to cram in a dozen alcoholic drinks.

If you only did half that number (6) you would be ahead of the game. And if you crashed by 1100 because you were up early and exploring the port, that still gives you 7 hours to consume those 6 drinks. Too many people concentrate on the 15 instead of looking at the big picture which is 5 mixed drinks or 6 glasses of wine or 8 beers and you're ahead of the game and all the non alcoholic stuff is gravy.

[SNJCruisers]

You can't really go by me, because I may only consume 2-3 drinks per cruise.:cool:

Somebody has to be near the shallow end of the bell curve. ;)

[SNJCruisers]

I usually consume so many drinks I pass out by about 3 next to the pool in a lounger and sleep til 7-8, wake up, and do it all over again til about 2 am and pass out again usually in my stateroom. It is hard to keep a tally of how many I consume because there is such a combination of beers, shots, and mixed drinks it's impossible not to lose count.

Assuming you have Cheers....you'll max out at 15, and all you really need to do is keep your drink slips to keep track of your consumption.

[floppyMARCO]

I was not aware that NCL offered the cheers program, this is the NCL board is it not? Yes keeping all the drink receipts would be a good way to keep track, but lets be honest this is supposed to be a vacation not a bean counters convention.