New Drinks Package - Premium +

[CanuckCruizer]

10 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

I have used both non-refundable and refundable OBC in the casino.  On my cruise last week it was non-refundable.  It used to be that if you had refundable OBC you could use it in the casino and get cash for any amount remaining.  Now, whether or not the OBC is refundable or not (they don't differentiate and treat all OBC the same), if you use it in the casino they give you promo chips or put it directly on your card for the machine and you have to play it all in the casino and you can only cash out winnings.  For example, if you get $100 in OBC onto your card to use in the slot machines, and you play $10 and you win $100, so that you now have $190 showing in the machine, if you cash out you will get a $100 ticket for the amount you won winnings and the $90 you did not yet play from you OBC goes back on your card as promo and you have to play it in that machine or another machine. 

AlbertaCruisers - thanks for explaining that.😊

Canuck

[drakes2]

2 hours ago, Work2cruz! said:

I have some friends cruising right now and asked them to take a pic of the mini bar paperwork - I'll post if I get it.  

With so many now with the Bev package, I find the mini bar is not getting the use it once had thus a few small bottles stocked along with a half bottle of wine. I for one dont see the need to order mixers just to have a drink in my cabin. Just too much work for me.  Would anyone know if we can drink the Evian they supply in the stateroom or do we have to order from bar?

 

[AlbertaCruisers]

2 hours ago, drakes2 said:

With so many now with the Bev package, I find the mini bar is not getting the use it once had thus a few small bottles stocked along with a half bottle of wine. I for one dont see the need to order mixers just to have a drink in my cabin. Just too much work for me.  Would anyone know if we can drink the Evian they supply in the stateroom or do we have to order from bar?

 

 

You can only use the Evian in the room if you have the premium plus or the drinks or more upgrade.  If you have the classic or premium packages anything you use from the mini bar is charged to you.

[snichols23]

Inventory from mini bar on Celebrity Eclipse November 20, 2019 LA to Santiago

 

[drakes2]

24 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

You can only use the Evian in the room if you have the premium plus or the drinks or more upgrade.  If you have the classic or premium packages anything you use from the mini bar is charged to you.

That's ok. Was just thinking when we first board may want some water but I can always go to the pool deck for water. I wish they would just remove everything from the mini bar but doubt it will happen. On 2 occasions was charged for something not used but guest relations corrected. 

[MamaFej]

15 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

That's ok. Was just thinking when we first board may want some water but I can always go to the pool deck for water. I wish they would just remove everything from the mini bar but doubt it will happen. On 2 occasions was charged for something not used but guest relations corrected. 

Just ask your steward to empty it. In our experience, they put everything under the bed in a bag. 

[Work2cruz!]

3 hours ago, drakes2 said:

With so many now with the Bev package, I find the mini bar is not getting the use it once had thus a few small bottles stocked along with a half bottle of wine. I for one dont see the need to order mixers just to have a drink in my cabin. Just too much work for me.  Would anyone know if we can drink the Evian they supply in the stateroom or do we have to order from bar?

 

We always ask the cabin steward to empty our bar fridge so we can stock with items we want from the bar. Never been a problem 

[drakes2]

6 minutes ago, Work2cruz! said:

We always ask the cabin steward to empty our bar fridge so we can stock with items we want from the bar. Never been a problem 

I did ask once but found them in a corner by the sofa bed. Dont think they want them removed from room which is understandable. I'm sure they would rather not restock but I assume some still enjoy the mini bar but for the life of me I dont know why. 

[drakes2]

44 minutes ago, snichols23 said:

Inventory from mini bar on Celebrity Eclipse November 20, 2019 LA to Santiago

 

Kendall Jackson is one of the worst wines. Why still on their wine list.  Anyone know if the have Belle Glos Pinot noir? Sells for 60 bucks outside most likely $120 plus onboard.

[snichols23]

Room steward removed everything from mini bar and room and we are restocking ourselves. Just ask bar keep not to open bottles. Doing B2B and don’t disembark until 12/21. 

[killsport]

I'm going to ask the "stupid" question. Is *whatever* is in the minibar part of the "& more" package? The Tito's, the Coke, the Pringles and Kind bar? Ideally someone who has been on board and seen their bill (or lack thereof) would respond.

I'm "asking for a friend" 😋

[AlbertaCruisers]

7 minutes ago, killsport said:

I'm going to ask the "stupid" question. Is *whatever* is in the minibar part of the "& more" package? The Tito's, the Coke, the Pringles and Kind bar? Ideally someone who has been on board and seen their bill (or lack thereof) would respond.

I'm "asking for a friend" 😋

 

I've had the drinks and more package and was on board last week.  As long as 2 adults in the room do the drinks and more upgrade, yes, everything in the mini bar (that you see on that list someone posted above) is included and we were not charged for any of it.

[killsport]

16 minutes ago, AlbertaCruisers said:

 

I've had the drinks and more package and was on board last week.  As long as 2 adults in the room do the drinks and more upgrade, yes, everything in the mini bar (that you see on that list someone posted above) is included and we were not charged for any of it.

Thanks...so, did you find it worth it? Did you attend the tasting? I’m assuming the wines bottles were not worth drinking and that the premium wines were at least slightly better. 

[drakes2]

10 hours ago, killsport said:

Thanks...so, did you find it worth it? Did you attend the tasting? I’m assuming the wines bottles were not worth drinking and that the premium wines were at least slightly better. 

Personally I find the wines served at the tastings to be not the best quality. On the last one I attended two of them were on the captains club drinks menu and free during HH for Elite members. You have 1 hour to try all 12 tastings and its rushed in that one of the pourers was too busy socializing with other guests I had to wait to be served.  Years ago they used to serve better quality wines but no longer, just not enough money made I guess. At one time you could linger as long as you wanted but that's been done away with.  

[AlbertaCruisers]

13 hours ago, killsport said:

Thanks...so, did you find it worth it? Did you attend the tasting? I’m assuming the wines bottles were not worth drinking and that the premium wines were at least slightly better. 

 

We would have spent the $50 at the casino anyway, so really it was $13 each for the week, but the only real benefit we received was the easy of using the mini-bar (and not either worrying about wrong charges or bugging them to remove the mini-bar - which I always feel bad about).  I liked the big Evians from the mini-bar and grabbing a diet coke now and then.  My husband had pringles now and then.  The bottles of wine we got were terrible (the girl in the dress - I think it is otherwise on the classic package, and reservado (spelling?)), we know we don't like them so we didn't open the bottles.  We actually hadn't had the reservado stuff before, so we asked for some at a bar instead of opening the bottle, and we didn't like it.  They gave us white at first and we were able to change to red, but we didn't like the red.  We were on for 3 weeks, so had 6 bottles, so I was going to try and see if they would change 6 bottles for 1 decent bottle, but I never got around it it.  

 

For the wine experience, they didn't actually give us any paperwork about it, and I forgot.  By the time I remembered to ask about it, it was already over, so we missed it.  I do think it was the world wine tour thing where you walk around and try a number of different wines.  I have done that before, and it is ok, but I'm not upset I missed it.

 

Also, the way I read the description, if one person does the upgrade they should get the 2 bottles of wine, but no mini-bar, so with 2 people, we should have gotten 4 bottles of wine per week.  They disagreed and said it was only per cabin for the wine, so we only got 2.  Since we didn't like the wine anyway, I didn't fight them on this.

 

I think I would do it again on a 7 day cruise, but not on a longer cruises, since the casino credit stays the same and the price increases (as it is per day).  I am willing to pay the $26 to have the convenience of the mini-bar, but it isn't worth any more than that to me.

[Work2cruz!]

Mystery Solved

Let me start out by saying I love Celebrity  but they have by far the worst website and the most uninformed customer service representatives I've every experienced.

 

I was surprised at all the conflicting information about the upgrade that I was able to get on the Drinks and More Package on my 2020 sailing so I called (waited 25 minutes to talk to a rep) to get the story.   

 

My question was: Can you fill me in the upgrade option for this package.  Her first reply was it's only available as an upgrade on 2019 sailings - I said so how was I able to get it on my 2020 sailing.  I was put on hold for another 5 minutes until she checked again

Here is her response.

She said there was an error on the website where for a short period of time it was an upgrade option on some 2020 sailings. This was an error that has since been fixed so no longer available.

But they will honor anyone who was able to get the upgrade online.

 

 

[Jetsetter42]

I just spoke to a Celebrity Cruises rep and was able to successfully upgrade our January 2020 7-night Caribbean Cruise on Edge from free (perk) Classic Beverage to Drinks and More at a cost of $147pp using promotional OBC.   

 

Since we were definitely going to upgrade to Premium Package anyway, it seemed worth the extra $126 to get Drinks & More since we would have gambled in the casino anyway (that's $100 right there).   Having a wine tasting for 2 and unfettered access to the minibar for a week for $26 is totally worth it. 

 

By the way, at first she said, "No, you can't upgrade from perk Classic to Drinks and More." and so I  challenged that saying my Cruise Planner showed "Package can be upgraded into" right in the description and she put me on hold for a minute, came back and said she could do it. 

 

I also asked about the old "Premium Beverage +" that appeared in my Cruise Planner back in September at the same price as Premium Beverage and she said that was a short month-long promo and you definitely couldn't upgrade into it.  Which is also what my TA said she was told by Celebrity back in September when I inquired.  

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by Jetsetter42

[stah1mr]

I just checked my planner and the Drinks and more option appeared for the first time.  I tried to select it, which I could do, but it wanted to charge me full price $1,400+.  I had the classic package as a perk and had upgraded to premium.  I called Celebrity and she had to cancel my premium package but was then able to add the Drinks and more.  Sweet!!!  Our cruise is May 21st to Alaska.

[TheFun1]

That’s exactly what I did as well.  Same issue I encountered with the Cruise planner. Showed full price, one call fixed it. They cancelled my premium and booked drinks & more. 

[Weenah]

A little context before I share with you what I did.

 

The better half and I are on the 10 night May 2020 ABC itinerary on the Equinox We booked with all 4 perks.

Like many of you, my Cruise Planner finally had an option to select the Drinks + More package. However, it was priced at $76.50 pp/pd. Clearly not a bargain by any measure of the word.

 

I called the Captain's Club and spoke with Melinda. Apparently something in their system wasn't loading my Cruise Planner properly to reflect the correct price which has widely been reported at $9.00 pp/pd if you have the premium package. After a few clicks Melinda was able to update my cruise planner and I was able to purchase the Drinks + More package for both of us in the cabin at a total cost of $180.00.

 

While we here on Cruise Critic acknowledge we can get 12 different answers from 10 different Captain's Club reps, Melinda did confirm that as both of us are getting the package we'll have 4 bottles of wine and $100 of casino credit.

 

As a side note, the Drink + More package shows up in my order history but it's not reflected in the Cruise Planner calendar. Not sure if this is the case with others that have it but wanted to call it out just in case. I suppose it would be weird if it did show up on the Cruise Planner calendar but it's the Celebrity website and you truly never know what will happen with it.

[Work2cruz!]

Edited November 22, 2019 by Work2cruz!

[killsport]

@Work2cruz! is this USD or CAD?

[Work2cruz!]

5 minutes ago, killsport said:

@Work2cruz! is this USD or CAD

I’m pretty sure it’s USD.  Note the date of the pricing   

Edited November 23, 2019 by Work2cruz!

[Work2cruz!]

8 minutes ago, Work2cruz! said:

I’m pretty sure it’s USD.  Note the date of the pricing   

I found it on a site but it’s not Celebrities site so may not be accurate but the website is US.   

[vtcruising]

1 hour ago, Work2cruz! said:

I found it on a site but it’s not Celebrities site so may not be accurate but the website is US.

It is accurate if you add the gratuities. I found an ad showing the Drinks and More package as $85/day (likely what it will end up some day), which would be $102/day ($85 + $17 grats), as the Classic is $59 + 11.80 grats = 70.80/day and Premium is $69 + 13.80 = 82.80/day.