Beverage Card?

[stevecmo]

So, is there an advantage to pre-buying a beverage card?  It doesn't appear to offer a price break.  Is there a convenience to using one?.......or???

[slimknyzer]

We have bought beverage cards on previous cruises.  The only advantage (so to speak) we have found is once our preset limit (usually $100 per card) is met, we know we met our budget.  Any unused portion on the card will be refunded to your account at the end of the cruise.  It's just a matter of personal preference  I don't like handing someone my room card to charge drinks.  

[0bnxshs]

No advantage to buying one pre-cruise.  The convenience is that your bill will not be cluttered with several pages (at least for me! ) of drink charges.  I've heard that some of the ships no longer have them available on board and, in fact, on our last cruise on the NS, we were given our cards during check-in before boarding as we had bought them ahead of time.  slimknyzer also has a good point about not having to provide your room key to a "stranger", although we've never had a problem.

 

Years ago, you used to get something like a 10% or 20% discount on pre-purchasing them, but I think the drink packages have replaced the discounted beverage cards.

Edited May 4, 2019 by 0bnxshs

[stevecmo]

2 minutes ago, slimknyzer said:

We have bought beverage cards on previous cruises.  The only advantage (so to speak) we have found is once our preset limit (usually $100 per card) is met, we know we met our budget.  Any unused portion on the card will be refunded to your account at the end of the cruise.  It's just a matter of personal preference  I don't like handing someone my room card to charge drinks.  

Thanks for the quick reply!  🙂

 

That makes sense about passing your key around.  Last time on HAL (ten years ago!) we bought wine cards that I think were good for ten glasses, but I don't see anything like that.

[stevecmo]

3 minutes ago, 0bnxshs said:

No advantage to buying one pre-cruise.  The convenience is that your bill will not be cluttered with several pages (at least for me! ) of drink charges.  I've heard that some of the ships no longer have them available on board and, in fact, on our last cruise on the NS, we were given our cards during check-in before boarding.

Thanks!

 

I did a search and read a couple similar responses about all of the tickets and keeping track of them.  It does seem to make sense.

 

I guess I'll get one......or two since they refund what's not used.

[LF23]

We pre-purchased bev cards for Nieuw Amsterdam, to avoid the final invoice ‘clutter’ issue mentioned here; simpler to keep track of the charges to the cards as you go. 

 

But now I’m reading that a receipt with the current balance is no longer given when the card is charged. Is that folks’ recent experience?  If so, how do you track the charges?  Thanks!  

[barb-ottawa]

We always prepurchase beverage cards - much easer, less clutter on the final bill. On the Koningsdam last month, we were not given a receipt with the balance, just told by the staff what our balance was when handed back the card.

[Krazy Kruizers]

If we have a lot of shipboard credit, we wait until we are on the ship to purchase the Beverage Cards.  Otherwise I pre order them  If you purchase them before the cruise, the cards will be in your cabin with your name on them.  You still have to go to a bar and have them activated.

 

I like them as I don't have to keep checking the shipboard account every few days.

[oaktreerb]

Can you use the beverage card during happy hour to get a bonus drink at $2.00?   

[jennaja]

Can you get bottled water with the soda fountain card?  Anyone know what brand of bottled water the Amsterdam carries, and the cost per bottle?

 

[Cruise Suzy]

7 hours ago, jennaja said:

Can you get bottled water with the soda fountain card?  Anyone know what brand of bottled water the Amsterdam carries, and the cost per bottle?

 

 

The soda card is for soda only - not bottled water.