Drinks Package - Holland America 10 day Caribbean cruise

[paulwacca]

We have booked a 10 day Caribbean Cruise with Holland America for the end of February 2019. The drinks package is and option but not sure if its worth it. Adds about £850 onto the trip and only covers drinks unto $8 each. We would normally enjoy a bottle of wine and a couple of G & T's each per night, is it worth it? 

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

[dfish]

It covers drinks $9 and under.   It won't cover the purchase of a bottle of wine, but would cover wine by glass that is under the $9 limit.  It also covers specialty coffees and bottled water.   

 

Personally, I drink about the same as you  and I don't find it worth it.  I would never purchase it outright.  On my last cruise I kept track and I didn't spend anywhere near the cost of the drink package and I didn't limit myself.  

[VMax1700]

We reckon it is financially not worth it.

It won't cover bottles of wine, only glasses up to USD9, and the selection within that price point is pretty poor.

The alternative is to take wine onboard with you.  Each adult is permitted 1 bottle (750ml) of wine per room. (ie 2 adults equals 2 bottles) for drinking in your stateroom.  One of these could be Prosecco for a pre-dinnner drink! .  Currently you can also take onboard as many additional bottles as you wish and pay corkage of USD 18 per bottle.  This means that you can take them anywhere on the ship to drink, including the MDR.

We do it each cruise.  There are some good wine shops in Fort Lauderdale, close to hotels and the port.

 

There are also 'Happy Hours' onboard, one in the late afternoon and one in the evening when the second drink (of same type) is USD 2. 

 

The value of the drinks package is often discussed on the HAL board here

[DAHBBOTT]

You might also consider the wine packages offered online by HAL.  We travelled with another couple on the Koningsdam last November and each couple purchased a 5 day wine package which worked out to one bottle of wine each night for 10 nights (we only drank wine at dinner meal).  As it worked out, one night we all drank lightly so finished the bottle the next night - thus had wine all eleven nights from the package.  It was a pretty comprehensive selection - there were a good number of wines to select from and the wine steward at our table got to know our tastes fairly quickly and was able to give helpful guidance as to our selection each evening.  I believe there are several levels of quality (we chose #2 and were very happy) and a number of options as to the number of bottles in the package.  Then, if you're only having 2-3 G&Ts a day, you purchase them as you go.  Unless you are lucky enough to get a discount on the drink package, we worked out that you would have to consume 6-7 drinks each day to make it worthwhile.  (We do enjoy a cocktail before dinner, and perhaps at the theater on board and in the casino later in the evening, but 3-4 is pushing the limits for us.)