On board Harmony now. $82 drink package and useless Voom

[Tricia28]

We are in San Juan today and wanted to give a heads up that even though we are Diamond Plus and get a 30% discount,, the drink package is $82 a day and all adults in cabin still have to buy it. Some cruisers reported that once on board only 1 had to buy. We were prepared for $65 a day but not $82. We opted out and were glad we brought 6 bottles of wine. We have 3 cabins and one of us is a solo traveler so we have bought some drinks but will still come out with a much smaller booze bill by not buying. Also voom is a joke. You can't stream. Have had problems everyday and the app is useless. None of my dining times ever showed up in it. Glad we are in a suite and did not pay extra for it. 

[Milwaukee Eight]

7 minutes ago, Tricia28 said:

We are in San Juan today and wanted to give a heads up that even though we are Diamond Plus and get a 30% discount,, the drink package is $82 a day and all adults in cabin still have to buy it. Some cruisers reported that once on board only 1 had to buy. We were prepared for $65 a day but not $82. We opted out and were glad we brought 6 bottles of wine. We have 3 cabins and one of us is a solo traveler so we have bought some drinks but will still come out with a much smaller booze bill by not buying. Also voom is a joke. You can't stream. Have had problems everyday and the app is useless. None of my dining times ever showed up in it. Glad we are in a suite and did not pay extra for it. 

I think the complimentary Wi-Fi that comes with a Suite is throttled and not the full VOOM streaming. 

 

Wouldn’t the $82 less 30% be around $58???

 

Does sound like the onboard price has increased. It’s the last of summer, the busy season. 

Edited August 14, 2019 by Milwaukee Eight

[Merion_Mom]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

I think the complimentary Wi-Fi that comes with a Suite is throttled and not the full VOOM streaming. 

 

Wouldn’t the $82 less 30% be around $58???

 

Does sound like the onboard price has increased. It’s the last of summer, the busy season. 

 

It sounds like they were planning on a price of 30% off $65.

[vacationlover_mn]

Wow, $82 a Day is insane?  I would just purchase per drink!

Edited August 14, 2019 by vacationlover_mn

[dswallow]

1 hour ago, Tricia28 said:

We are in San Juan today and wanted to give a heads up that even though we are Diamond Plus and get a 30% discount,, the drink package is $82 a day and all adults in cabin still have to buy it. Some cruisers reported that once on board only 1 had to buy. We were prepared for $65 a day but not $82. We opted out and were glad we brought 6 bottles of wine. We have 3 cabins and one of us is a solo traveler so we have bought some drinks but will still come out with a much smaller booze bill by not buying. Also voom is a joke. You can't stream. Have had problems everyday and the app is useless. None of my dining times ever showed up in it. Glad we are in a suite and did not pay extra for it. 

 

Can you show a picture of the bartop sign advertising the price on a bar someplace?

 

$82 would be a $70 onboard price plus the 18% gratuity.  $70/day would be the normal high-end price per day RCCL has previously given as the range for the Deluxe Beverage Package pricing onboard (specifically for 2019 it's $63.00 to $70.00/day).

 

Thus if it's $70.00, your Diamond Plus discount would get it for you at $49/day + 18% gratuity, or $57.82/day which would have been the same buying it in advance in the Cruise Planner if there were a 30%-off sale (all the prices they show are always pre-gratuity).

 

(If you are looking at pricing in a non-US RCCL web site you may have the gratuity amount presented differently, so I'm mostly speaking about how it'd be seen by someone in the US.)

 

Edited August 14, 2019 by dswallow

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, Tricia28 said:

We are in San Juan today and wanted to give a heads up that even though we are Diamond Plus and get a 30% discount,, the drink package is $82 a day and all adults in cabin still have to buy it. Some cruisers reported that once on board only 1 had to buy. We were prepared for $65 a day but not $82. We opted out and were glad we brought 6 bottles of wine. We have 3 cabins and one of us is a solo traveler so we have bought some drinks but will still come out with a much smaller booze bill by not buying. Also voom is a joke. You can't stream. Have had problems everyday and the app is useless. None of my dining times ever showed up in it. Glad we are in a suite and did not pay extra for it. 

 

Thanks for the update.  I'll bet they still get a bunch of people buying the package at $82.

[Cruisegirl6]

Odd, we been on the Allure, Harmony, 4 times Oasis and never had any problems with the Voom.

[seabeew]

The drink package on Mariner was $82 pp (saw a sign in the Bamboo Room). I overheard a bartender talking to a couple and he said gratuities were extra! He also said the second person would be half off. That’s not the way the bogo half off usually works on Royal Caribbean so I don’t know what the total price for two actually would be. The couple didn’t buy the package.

 

Fortunately we had already purchased the package for $46 pp plus gratuitiEs. It was a shock to see that sign.

 

 

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

It sounds like they were planning on a price of 30% off $65.

And required all over 21 in cabin to buy as well. 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Milwaukee Eight

[cruisegus]

1 hour ago, vacationlover_mn said:

Wow, $82 a Day is insane?  I would just purchase per drink!

that's what i thought, but look elsewhere.  NCL price is over $100 per day plus a 20%, you say but at NCL the give it for free, sure the do but you still have to pay their 20% gratuity ( a lot of their drinks are priced at $18-20 also) and they even throw in 3 free specialty restaurants for free, but you pay that gratuity also.  Basically for a $2200-2500 balcony cabin 2 on Royal comparably priced on NCL is around $3300-3600 with their free stuff.  It is all relative.  Especially when you look at the RCCL fake sales 25% off $82 is $62 and that is the new number I think Royal is shooting for.  And you have to look at the per drink price also, are they on the rise?

[Cruisegirl6]

Thats not true, I was going to book the Breakaway for October and that came to $2360.00 for a balcony cabin and it included the drink package as well as internet and 3 days specialty dining.  Tips, well, you have to tip anyways per drink...honestly, I always tip a dollar more per drink, those bartenders work long hours and hard.  My sister/brother in law booked the Equinox for September 7 and that was cheaper and they booked the Edge which included all the perks for $2650.

 

 

[sunsetme]

thanks for the update

[ptf2009]

Thanks for the update....WOW! Drinking sure is expensive. I guess I'm fortunate that I don't (can't) drink and don't even like soda (nothing with carbonation). Lucky that the water and tea are still free:)

[ticketsunlimited]

1 hour ago, ptf2009 said:

Thanks for the update....WOW! Drinking sure is expensive. I guess I'm fortunate that I don't (can't) drink and don't even like soda (nothing with carbonation). Lucky that the water and tea are still free:)

 

Give it some time.  They will be charging by the ounce soon.

[Tricia28]

Yes the $82 was before gratuity. We are enjoying the wine we brought on board. I also brought a bottle of mint simple syrup and I get rum and sprite with a lime during diamond happy hour and add my mint simple syrup for a mojito 😁 I also brought a six pack of pineapple juice and a few coconut rum minis because they will not include coconut rum in happy hour. I have done most of my drinking on the beach in San Juan and St. Marteen. My husband has bought a couple of drinks on board but nothing to justify a package.

[Tricia28]

On 8/14/2019 at 5:42 PM, Milwaukee Eight said:

I think the complimentary Wi-Fi that comes with a Suite is throttled and not the full VOOM streaming. 

 

Wouldn’t the $82 less 30% be around $58???

 

Does sound like the onboard price has increased. It’s the last of summer, the busy season. 

I think they do throttle suites. My daughter paid for hers and it's faster. I can't even stream my Ring doorbell feed 😂

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, Tricia28 said:

I think they do throttle suites.  

That would be news I would think - all reports indicate that VOOM given as part of the Suite program is Stream. @John&LaLa may somehow confirm on his upcoming trip in a GS. 

[dswallow]

Sky & Star Class Suites include VOOM SURF+STREAM, one device for each person in the suite. If you think you have just VOOM SURF, get in touch with the internet services manager onboard and ask them to check it out.

 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Suites/16049786_Sky_Class_Flyer.pdf

 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Suites/17056423_STAR_Royal_Suite_Class_Consumer_Flyer.pdf

 

 

 

[Casino Comp Chick]

2 hours ago, dswallow said:

Sky & Star Class Suites include VOOM SURF+STREAM, one device for each person in the suite. If you think you have just VOOM SURF, get in touch with the internet services manager onboard and ask them to check it out.

 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Suites/16049786_Sky_Class_Flyer.pdf

 

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Suites/17056423_STAR_Royal_Suite_Class_Consumer_Flyer.pdf

 

 

 

 

The Anthems voom with stream was horrible this March, I went down to the internet desk a few times that week, in fact at one point all the internet had shut down and they had to reboot the entire system. I can understand that happening but the fact I could not stream all week was annoying. I also would try at odd hours of the day and night figuring the bandwidth would be better....it wasn’t. 

[beachnative]

We were on the Anthem last week....we agree, the internet was terrible our cabin.

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That would be news I would think - all reports indicate that VOOM given as part of the Suite program is Stream. @John&LaLa may somehow confirm on his upcoming trip in a GS. 

 

Last week as a Pinnacle in an OB Balcony

We were still at Pt Canaveral.  I never checked again till St Thomas cell coverage.

 

 

I'll check again next week 

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, beachnative said:

We were on the Anthem last week....we agree, the internet was terrible our cabin.

 

Interesting, I wonder if your stateroom was in a weak WiFi coverage area.

[Milwaukee Eight]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That would be news I would think - all reports indicate that VOOM given as part of the Suite program is Stream. @John&LaLa may somehow confirm on his upcoming trip in a GS. 

Maybe he can run some Speedtests but I still don’t believe it’s the full speed that can be purchased. I know others on our Suite cruises on Harmony/Allure/Oasis, that bought the VOOM package, and could Periscope in areas we could not. 

 

Interested to see @John&LaLa results. We were on Deck 8 Mid Ship GS and seldom worked in our Cabin. 

[papaflamingo]

Just checked our Cruise Planner for our Sep. 22 Harmony cruise.   The Drink Package is being offered "buy one get one 50% off."  The price per person AFTER discount is $55.  So that would make the Drink Package around $74.  I think it's time that Royal Caribbean pick a permanent number for the Drink Package, and have it as standard fleet wide.  This "all over the map" pricing is ridiculous! 

We are both D+ and in a Suite, so I don't buy Drink Packages. But at the inconsistent pricing, I doubt I'd buy it anyway.   

Edited August 16, 2019 by papaflamingo

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

 ...   I think it's time that Royal Caribbean pick a permanent number for the Drink Package, and have it as standard fleet wide.  This "all over the map" pricing is ridiculous!  ... 

 

Wait until they start presenting different prices to different guests on the same exact cruise!