Sales for drink package ?

[Thechamp555]

Due the recent price increase, drink packages are becoming really expensive for a lot of people.

 

I'll sale on the Allure and it is right now at $56 a day.  Fyi I've paid $42 a day last year on the Navigator.

 

Should we expect sales for Thanksgiving ?

 

Thanks !

Thechamp555

[EeyoreRN]

Nobody knows, but we can speculate.  The price for DBP on my May 2019 Freedom cruise is now $50. The lowest I have seen it in the cruise planner is $48. I have heard of $39, but that seems like a lot to ask considering the latest increases. I was hoping to find $42 on Black Friday. Fingers crossed!

[suesnake2002]

Just keep checking daily. Some sales are short(only a day or two)  

I have grandeur booked for april 2019. I've heard rumors drink prices are going up next year. 

At first package was $48, then it jumped to $50. And i kept checking and beating myself up for not buying it at $48. And suddenly one day it was $47. I jumped on it. 

I'm thinking that if the packages are going up so are the individual prices. 

[3monkeys4me]

It was $71 a day for our Ovation sailing next April. Early September it started dropping a bit and then went on sale for $49 a day. The sale ended and it is now $53 a day. Still a bit high, but significantly cheaper than when it first became available. 

[sh2738]

Has anyone found that getting the drink package actually saves any money? Assuming the current price of 52/person/day, that would come to almost $730 for one cabin for drinks only. If using the lower sale of 49, that would still amount to nearly $690 for two people, since all adults in one cabin are forced to get it. And that seems like a lot for just drinks. 

 

Im curious if people who buy this package believe that they have actually saved money compared to just buying the drinks without the package. I’ve never bought the package because it’s hard for me to imagine that it saves you money when it’s that expensive. 

 

It it seems that in order to break even, one would have to drink at minimum 4 or 5 drink per day including port days and drink more then that  to be getting use of the package. 

 

But im curious to see what others have experienced. I am guessing that one would need to be a pretty heavy drinker in order to make good use out of it. But I’ve never done it so I’m unsure. Thanks. 

[EeyoreRN]

1 minute ago, sh2738 said:

Has anyone found that getting the drink package actually saves any money? Assuming the current price of 52/person/day, that would come to almost $730 for one cabin for drinks only. If using the lower sale of 49, that would still amount to nearly $690 for two people, since all adults in one cabin are forced to get it. And that seems like a lot for just drinks. 

 

Im curious if people who buy this package believe that they have actually saved money compared to just buying the drinks without the package. I’ve never bought the package because it’s hard for me to imagine that it saves you money when it’s that expensive. 

 

It it seems that in order to break even, one would have to drink at minimum 4 or 5 drink per day including port days and drink more then that  to be getting use of the package. 

 

But im curious to see what others have experienced. I am guessing that one would need to be a pretty heavy drinker in order to make good use out of it. But I’ve never done it so I’m unsure. Thanks. 

At around $50 pp/ per day we find it "worth it" to not have to think about what we're ordering. My family likes specialty coffees, fresh squeezed orange juice, unlimited soda and bottled water, so this adds up on top of cocktails. Really, when you consider the other drinks, it's really only 2-3 alcoholic beverages. But mostly, we enjoy the convenience and the feeling of an all-inclusive vacation. At the $70 pp price point, we'd skip it!

[Thechamp555]

Hello,

 

Base on my actual consumption I feel that a package at around $50 is satisfactory for me.

 

Here's my usual breakdown of a typical day: 2 glass of wine at lunch, 4 drinks by the pool in the afternoon, 2 glass of wine for supper and two grand marnier type of drink during or after the show.

 

That makes a total of 8 drinks at an average of 9-10 dollars.

 

At the moment I'm just waiting for a sale.

 

Thechamp555

[sh2738]

Just now, EeyoreRN said:

At around $50 pp/ per day we find it "worth it" to not have to think about what we're ordering. My family likes specialty coffees, fresh squeezed orange juice, unlimited soda and bottled water, so this adds up on top of cocktails. Really, when you consider the other drinks, it's really only 2-3 alcoholic beverages. But mostly, we enjoy the convenience and the feeling of an all-inclusive vacation. At the $70 pp price point, we'd skip it!

 

Thanks for your viewpoint. However, the specialty coffee doesn’t include Starbucks right? Just Cafe Promanade coffee right? So that would be an additional cost as well since we would be getting Starbucks. I wish they would include it though. Then I might consider it. We are already have a soda package so that would only save about $80 Bringing it down to like 650 plus morning coffee at Starbucks. We aren’t huge drinkers but do like the tropical frozen drinks mostly. If we had more sea days we would probably consider it. Or if it has a big sale sometime.

 

Thanks for your view on it. 

[3monkeys4me]

At $70 it wasn't worth it for us. At $50ish, we are still thinking about it. If we had a lot of long ports we would skip it and not even think twice. However we only have 2 ports and they both are fairly short. Then when you add in 5 sea days to the first half day I think the package may come up slightly cheaper but it is hard to say. We purchased it when it went on sale for $49 but we may cancel it. 

 

The refreshment package was on sale for $24.50 at the same time. i was originally considering doing that one but I didn't think it would be too hard to drink an extra $25 in alcoholic drinks. We aren't planning on carrying on any drinks for this cruise though, not even wine because we have 10 very busy days prior to boarding the cruise and we will already have enough luggage to deal with. If we were just doing the cruise I think we would skip the package, carry on the allowed wine and soda and then just purchase as we go for the rest of it. 

[sh2738]

1 minute ago, Thechamp555 said:

Hello,

 

Base on my actual consumption I feel that a package at around $50 is satisfactory for me.

 

Here's my usual breakdown of a typical day: 2 glass of wine at lunch, 4 drinks by the pool in the afternoon, 2 glass of wine for supper and two grand marnier type of drink during or after the show.

 

That makes a total of 8 drinks at an average of 9-10 dollars.

 

At the moment I'm just waiting for a sale.

 

Thechamp555

 

That sounds like some of my family. Our drinking would be more like Starbucks in the morning (which I believe isn’t included anyways), soda for lunch and in the afternoon, 1-2 cocktails in the afternoon on sea days and on port days maybe one drink in the PM when we get back on the boat. One cocktail/wine for dinner and 1 cocktail during the evening entertainment.  

 

So I don’t think that it currently adds up for us since I would have to get it for both, but thanks for your breakdown. That is helpful for a comparison of when it would be beneficial to have one. 

 

Thanks

[sh2738]

5 minutes ago, 3monkeys4me said:

At $70 it wasn't worth it for us. At $50ish, we are still thinking about it. If we had a lot of long ports we would skip it and not even think twice. However we only have 2 ports and they both are fairly short. Then when you add in 5 sea days to the first half day I think the package may come up slightly cheaper but it is hard to say. We purchased it when it went on sale for $49 but we may cancel it. 

 

The refreshment package was on sale for $24.50 at the same time. i was originally considering doing that one but I didn't think it would be too hard to drink an extra $25 in alcoholic drinks. We aren't planning on carrying on any drinks for this cruise though, not even wine because we have 10 very busy days prior to boarding the cruise and we will already have enough luggage to deal with. If we were just doing the cruise I think we would skip the package, carry on the allowed wine and soda and then just purchase as we go for the rest of it. 

 

on our cruise we have 4 long port days and 3 sea days. So I think it would work but only for the sea days. Think it would be wasted in the others lol.

 

But who knows, maybe the price will drop a good amount. 

Edited November 5, 2018 by sh2738

[EeyoreRN]

17 minutes ago, sh2738 said:

 

Thanks for your viewpoint. However, the specialty coffee doesn’t include Starbucks right? Just Cafe Promanade coffee right? So that would be an additional cost as well since we would be getting Starbucks. I wish they would include it though. Then I might consider it. We are already have a soda package so that would only save about $80 Bringing it down to like 650 plus morning coffee at Starbucks. We aren’t huge drinkers but do like the tropical frozen drinks mostly. If we had more sea days we would probably consider it. Or if it has a big sale sometime.

 

Thanks for your view on it. 

Correct, no Starbucks. We aren't Starbucks fans and actually prefer the coffees at Cafe Promenade. And RCI offers absolutely delicious alcoholic coffee concoctions...and now I hear Johnny Rockets milkshakes are included as well.

[sh2738]

3 minutes ago, EeyoreRN said:

Correct, no Starbucks. We aren't Starbucks fans and actually prefer the coffees at Cafe Promenade. And RCI offers absolutely delicious alcoholic coffee concoctions...and now I hear Johnny Rockets milkshakes are included as well.

Yea that’s a bummer of no Starbucks being included, we are big fans of it of course and are looking forward to having on board. 

 

Also does anyone know, in the event that the price gets lower to where it might be beneficial to get one, if we can pay for it over time, like with paying for the cruise? Or if we have to pay for the entire $650 + balance when we book it? Thanks 

[3monkeys4me]

You have to pay in full when you book it.

[EeyoreRN]

1 minute ago, sh2738 said:

Yea that’s a bummer of no Starbucks being included, we are big fans of it of course and are looking forward to having on board. 

 

Also does anyone know, in the event that the price gets lower to where it might be beneficial to get one, if we can pay for it over time, like with paying for the cruise? Or if we have to pay for the entire $650 + balance when we book it? Thanks 

Full payment is due at time of booking.  

[sh2738]

Oh that’s a big disappointment. I’ll completely scratch that off my list then. 

 

Thanks all 🙂

[starrcards]

My use of the deluxe package is a little different.  I'm usually up early and get at least 1 specialty coffee at Café Promenade (I don't need to pay extra for Starbucks), a fresh squeezed OJ at breakfast, couple of beers with lunch and a couple of glasses of wine at dinner.  On port days I usually take a couple of bottles of water off the ship. I consider any additional drinks a bonus.

 

I recently paid $48 per day for the deluxe package on our Freedom Christmas cruise.  After having been $54 a day for the longest time, it snuck down tp $48 for 2 whole days.  I can live with $48 but hope it goes lower on black Friday.  I agree with others that in the future when the package stays at $55 or more, I'll to recalculate my acceptable price point

[Robo1098]

From what I have seen the prices for the dink packages are going up for the 2019 cruises and I'll bet that there will be sales but the price will still be higher than previous sale prices. It makes me think a great deal more about getting the package or not.

[vacationlover_mn]

4 hours ago, Thechamp555 said:

Due the recent price increase, drink packages are becoming really expensive for a lot of people.

 

I'll sale on the Allure and it is right now at $56 a day.  Fyi I've paid $42 a day last year on the Navigator.

 

Should we expect sales for Thanksgiving ?

 

Thanks !

Thechamp555

Last year, we caught a great deal for Radiance, on either Black Friday or cyber Monday.  Make sure to check on both of those days!  Right now we got $48 for Symphony, but it’s $52 right now.  I think we got $42 for Radiance?

[vacationlover_mn]

1 hour ago, 3monkeys4me said:

You have to pay in full when you book it.

And, if you do what I do, cancel and rebook at the new price, it seems my credit card is debited right away, but I don’t get the credit for at least a month.

[sh2738]

2 minutes ago, vacationlover_mn said:

And, if you do what I do, cancel and rebook at the new price, it seems my credit card is debited right away, but I don’t get the credit for at least a month.

 

Yea I’m thinking that that is a deal breaker for me not being able to pay for it over time when the price is so expensive per person and adults in the same cabin can’t opt out. Thanks for all the great info everyone 

Edited November 5, 2018 by sh2738

[vacationlover_mn]

11 minutes ago, sh2738 said:

 

Yea I’m thinking that that is a deal breaker for me not being able to pay for it over time when the price is so expensive per person and adults in the same cabin can’t opt out. Thanks for all the great info everyone 

It was so great during the brief period when they allowed one person to get it, and the other person could opt out.  But, then again, I think a lot of people cheated (2/2 of my cruising friends cheated, so I think cheating was common...)

[happymanitee]

Last year, I got great deals on “Green Monday”, which is apparently the 2nd Monday of December.  I had never even heard of Green Monday, but Royal had a sale that day.  I paid $9/day for the surf& stream internet package.  And, I got the drink package for $42.  Then, recently, the drink package dropped to $39/day so I cancelled and rebooked.  But, I still haven’t seen the internet package that low again. 

[sh2738]

Hopefully it drops that low again. Then it makes sense to buy it for light drinkers. Fingers crossed. 🙂

[1cruise2U]

If you call customer service line rccl will allow on person to buy deluge drink package as look as the other person buys refreshment package