Why is the Alcohol Beverage Package so expnsive?

[MissP22]

10 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

What does this have to do with anything? Princess doesn't make both people buy the package.

An that's the best part of their beverage program. 

[kywildcatfanone]

Because that is their biggest revenue stream.

[calmpets]

Just for frame of reference, Norwegian charges $99 per person per day, PLUS 20% gratuity for their beverage package. It's unlimited drinks (no coffee or bottled water though), but still, Princess is cheap by comparison.

[doverboy]

Go online to their gift selection and order a few bottles of booze for your cabin. A bottle of Scotch (375 ml) is less than $30 so buy a few or a set. Then mix your own and carry a travel mug

[JimmyVWine]

It does seem expensive to me, but I have never questioned how they arrived at the price point.  It is a pretty easy metric for Princess to run to see how much each guest spends on drinks and what Princess's break-even point is. (And remember that their goal is not to break even.)  What bothers me is how they are using the package as the most frequent carrot in their sales, and if you aren't  interested in a"free" beverage package, then it is difficult to tease out any sort of discount.  The cruises with "free" beverage packages tend to be priced at or close to msrp so if  you don't derive any benefit from the beverage package, you are left with nothing.   Granted, throwing in the beverage package is not "nothing", but only if you use it.  But rest assured that the people who go to the "Friends of Bill W" meetings aren't really getting any benefit from that sort of sale.

Edited November 27, 2019 by JimmyVWine

[grouchomarx]

2 hours ago, calmpets said:

Just for frame of reference, Norwegian charges $99 per person per day, PLUS 20% gratuity for their beverage package. It's unlimited drinks (no coffee or bottled water though), but still, Princess is cheap by comparison.

NCL gives it for free you only pay gratuities. That's why it's priced so high, so they can get more gratuities from people.  Nobody is paying the list price for that package.  

[geoherb]

It's not worth it to me, and I'd probably drink too much if we ever booked a cruise with it as a promo. Right now, I seldom have more than two or three alcoholic drinks a day. I don't drink sodas. I don't drink coffee. 

 

But on a couple of cruises, I've met people who have reached the 15-drink limit for alcoholic beverages. I'd be flat on the floor if I had that many in a day.

[nukesubsailor]

The current Premium Beverage Package is, probably more expensive and more restrictive than its predecessor the All Inclusive Beverage Package for two reasons.  Many passengers abused the package by sharing drinks.  Some of the abusers were so proud of their low ethics that they bragged about it on Cruise Critic which Princess monitors.

[donaldsc]

It is expensive because enough people are willing to pay the price.  When they smarten up and stop paying the price, the price will drop.  

 

DON

[franktown]

Personally we find the drink package to be a excellent deal.  The only time we didn't save money was on a very port intensive cruise.

[Ginnyfyr]

7 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

It is expensive because enough people are willing to pay the price.  When they smarten up and stop paying the price, the price will drop.  

 

DON

Exactly this! My husband and I have purchased the drink package before but at the current price $92.03 Canadian per person per day, the cost is prohibitive for our upcoming 10 day cruise. We get 2 bar setups in our suite and we're just going to bring on several bottles of wine; even with having to pay corkage it's still a significant savings. 

[c-boy]

2 hours ago, donaldsc said:

It is expensive because enough people are willing to pay the price.  When they smarten up and stop paying the price, the price will drop.  

 

DON

I used to have the same philosophy with real estate. 

[pms4104]

On 11/26/2019 at 11:21 AM, dag144 said:

Princess charges $70.79 per day which includes an 18% tip for their beverage package.  I recently returned from a Holland America cruise.  HAL's price for their package is $51.69 which includes a 15% tip.  Both packages limited the number of drinks to 15 per day.  This includes specialty coffees and sodas.  HAL does not charge extra for canned soda with an alcohol pour such as a gin and tonic. 

 

The pours are basically the same.  Princess does not offer more expensive liquors than HAL and HAL does not not offer a 25% discount on bottled wine in the dining room.

 

The price difference can be substantial for a couple and is the reason I cut down on my Princess sailings.

 

Any thoughts?

I think you answered your own question in paragraph #1 ... the 15 drink limit imposed by Princess js for alcoholic bevs, while other bevs are unlimited ... you indicate HAL's limit is 15 total bevs per person per day ... apples to oranges  

[caribill]

14 hours ago, donaldsc said:

It is expensive because enough people are willing to pay the price.  When they smarten up and stop paying the price, the price will drop.  

 

 

 

 

Same as two other things:

a) Food quality declined on the dining rooms because Princess discovered people were anxious to pay extra to eat in a specialty restaurant.

b) The number of free cabin upgrades was greatly reduced when Princess discovered that passengers were willing to pay for an upsell instead of getting a free upgrade.

[MissP22]

24 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

 

Same as two other things:

a) Food quality declined on the dining rooms because Princess discovered people were anxious to pay extra to eat in a specialty restaurant.

b) The number of free cabin upgrades was greatly reduced when Princess discovered that passengers were willing to pay for an upsell instead of getting a free upgrade.

I'm not sure about point (a).

Lowering the quality of the food in the DR would possibly drive people into the specialty restaurants, increasing lagging sales. 

So far it hasn't dropped to the point of being a necessity- yet. We still go but only if we have a coupon for a BOGO dinner.

[bobgep]

Because of my wife.........

[Pam in CA]

The beverage package is offered to make money, not save passengers money. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. 
 

For some, it’s worth it. For many, it isn’t. Yes, it includes bottled water and coffee but there are less expensive ways to get those plus the water on the ship is as pure or purer than most bottled water. 

[MissP22]

30 minutes ago, Pam in CA said:

The beverage package is offered to make money, not save passengers money. They’re laughing all the way to the bank. 
 

For some, it’s worth it. For many, it isn’t. Yes, it includes bottled water and coffee but there are less expensive ways to get those plus the water on the ship is as pure or purer than most bottled water. 

They're making big bucks even if people do get their 15 drinks plus all the coffee & water their family can consume. 

[caribill]

12 hours ago, MissP22 said:

They're making big bucks even if people do get their 15 drinks plus all the coffee & water their family can consume. 

 

Right. Remember that Princess gets all of their alcohol tax free but sells it to passengers at prices similar to many land establishments that have purchased their alcohol at prices that include those taxes.

[kchobbs]

On 11/29/2019 at 2:23 AM, caribill said:

 

Right. Remember that Princess gets all of their alcohol tax free but sells it to passengers at prices similar to many land establishments that have purchased their alcohol at prices that include those taxes.

 I can attest to that, on our first Princess Cruise, back in about 2006, while docked in Barbados, I walked into a port duty free liquor store to see Mount Gay Rum ( locally made in Barbados), being sold for about $7 US for a 1 litre bottle ( approx. 33 ounces). Obviously I could not purchase any to enjoy back on the ship, but while walking towards the Sun Princess, what do I see? The ship is being loaded with supplies and amongst these supplies I see literally pallets of Mount Gay rum being loaded on to the Sun Princess! 

I do believe at the time a drink on the ship was about $5 US. Not taking into account the labor cost or cost of mix, which are both minimal, that one bottle of rum is paid back in probably two drinks, even at a generous 1.5 ounces per drink,  the remaining 30 ounces of that 33 ounce bottle is pure profit. Nice margins. Reminds me of popcorn at a movie theatre. 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, kchobbs said:

Obviously I could not purchase any to enjoy back on the ship

Why not? Most of the others do.   

[K.T.B.]

3 hours ago, kchobbs said:

 I can attest to that, on our first Princess Cruise, back in about 2006, while docked in Barbados, I walked into a port duty free liquor store to see Mount Gay Rum ( locally made in Barbados), being sold for about $7 US for a 1 litre bottle ( approx. 33 ounces). Obviously I could not purchase any to enjoy back on the ship, but while walking towards the Sun Princess, what do I see? The ship is being loaded with supplies and amongst these supplies I see literally pallets of Mount Gay rum being loaded on to the Sun Princess! 

I do believe at the time a drink on the ship was about $5 US. Not taking into account the labor cost or cost of mix, which are both minimal, that one bottle of rum is paid back in probably two drinks, even at a generous 1.5 ounces per drink,  the remaining 30 ounces of that 33 ounce bottle is pure profit. Nice margins. Reminds me of popcorn at a movie theatre. 

 

As someone who has worked at a movie theater (albeit 35-ish years ago), I can tell you right now you're not buying popcorn but rather the container.  Theaters won't confirm that, but I can.  I only know this is because I got free popcorn, and drinks, all the time when I worked there.  Their cost for popcorn is extremely cheap because they literally buy it by the ton.

[kywildcatfanone]

They make most of their profit on alcohol sales. 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

On 11/27/2019 at 3:44 AM, caribill said:

 

"Why is the Alcohol Beverage Package so expensive?"

It is only offered because the average person who purchases it will not drink enough to justify the cost. This is a big money maker for all the cruise lines that offer it.

 

I have seen some posts by people saying they buy the package so they do not have to deal with receipts and checking their onboard account to see how much the beverages are costing them and if all the charges are correct.

 

I am not sure the benefits of not dealing with receipts is worth paying significantly extra for drinks for those who get beverages when the cost per day is much less than the cost of the package.

 

 

Not for everyone.  My on board account went down by at least 40% per cruise. You might think it’s stupid to do so. I think it’s a no brainer to get the package. It’s not forced on us. Each person should decide if it works for them. It totally works for us. 

[franktown]

6 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

Not for everyone.  My on board account went down by at least 40% per cruise. You might think it’s stupid to do so. I think it’s a no brainer to get the package. It’s not forced on us. Each person should decide if it works for them. It totally works for us. 

Great money saver for us also.  As you said it's not for everyone but for us it works out great.