Drink Vouchers for Diamond

[davekathy]

8 hours ago, smokey01 said:

When ordering a drink do you need to say to the bar person it is a ‘diamond’ drink to ensure you do not get charged?

 

How much is the freshly squeezed orange juice in the windjammer and can you use a diamond voucher for it as my mother doesn’t drink much alcohol?

I did in the past when ordering our C&A drinks outside of the DL. I plan on doing the same when we cruise again. 

[smokeybandit]

8 hours ago, smokey01 said:

When ordering a drink do you need to say to the bar person it is a ‘diamond’ drink to ensure you do not get charged?

You shouldn't need to (my last cruise I never did, but the bartender always credited my voucher), but it can't hurt.

[Williamsburgcruiser]

I love having 4 drinks loaded to my card that I can use any time during the day.  I think it's definitely an improvement on the program.  I will still go to the Diamond lounge, I like to mingle and chat - but won't feel like I have to "quick drink".

[davekathy]

13 hours ago, De Colores said:

“These can be used at any bar, at any time, in the Diamond Lounge during Happy Hour or in our private destinations. Consider it happy hour all day long!”

What is your interpretation of this as it pertains to Diamond Lounge. Does it mean we only get 4 drinks in the lounge if we haven’t used our vouchers during the day or are drinks in the lounge unlimited as in the past?  Thanks

Four drinks (alcohol or non alcohol) for the day no matter where you order them. Like in the past the C&A drinks on your Seapass cards do not carryover. Use or loose. 

[De Colores]

33 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Four drinks (alcohol or non alcohol) for the day no matter where you order them. Like in the past the C&A drinks on your Seapass cards do not carryover. Use or loose. 

I enjoyed grabbing my voucher drinks and putting them in my room then going to Diamond Lounge. I guess that is over. 

[davekathy]

Just now, De Colores said:

I enjoyed grabbing my voucher drinks and putting them in my room then going to Diamond Lounge. I guess that is over. 

Currently. 

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

Currently. 

 

I really don't see them going back to unlimited. Pretty sure Michael Bayley confirmed that

[molly361]

3 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I really don't see them going back to unlimited. Pretty sure Michael Bayley confirmed that

I also  seem to remember someone from Royal confirming that the change to vouchers is permanent  Works for me

[FionaMG]

We are looking forward to experiencing this change next month on Harmony. For us, it's a huge enhancement to the programme because as non-drinkers we were previously limited to just water and soda. Now we will be able to use our vouchers for the fresh orange juice and mocktails. I'm hoping to be able to try some of the juice drinks from the Vitality Café too.

[tserface]

1 hour ago, De Colores said:

I enjoyed grabbing my voucher drinks and putting them in my room then going to Diamond Lounge. I guess that is over. 

 

We abused it a little as well.  Some of the servers would offer us bottles of water and we sometimes took them to the room (didn't use vouchers for water though).  Also, we were guilty of taking a glass of wine with us to dinner (did use vouchers for this) after going to the party.  I know, tacky, but we didn't need a lot and it was easy.  Now we can be less tacky and order wine at dinner like the fancy people 🙂

 

We never really went over 5 drinks including bottles of water so this won't affect our total experience.  One time I had 3 at the party and spent the rest of the night wishing I hadn't.  We'll just be able to use them any time of the day and that's a win.  So, if we want a sail-away drink we can have one then and another at some other time and still score a bottle of water for the evening in the room, etc.  It's a pretty good system.

 

I expect this will affect the massive tips the servers in the Diamond Club used to get and that's sad.  We'll still continue to tip whoever we get the drink from wherever we are on the ship.  The drinks are free so a tip seems reasonable (win-win).

[De Colores]

32 minutes ago, tserface said:

 

We abused it a little as well.  Some of the servers would offer us bottles of water and we sometimes took them to the room (didn't use vouchers for water though).  Also, we were guilty of taking a glass of wine with us to dinner (did use vouchers for this) after going to the party.  I know, tacky, but we didn't need a lot and it was easy.  Now we can be less tacky and order wine at dinner like the fancy people 🙂

 

We never really went over 5 drinks including bottles of water so this won't affect our total experience.  One time I had 3 at the party and spent the rest of the night wishing I hadn't.  We'll just be able to use them any time of the day and that's a win.  So, if we want a sail-away drink we can have one then and another at some other time and still score a bottle of water for the evening in the room, etc.  It's a pretty good system.

 

I expect this will affect the massive tips the servers in the Diamond Club used to get and that's sad.  We'll still continue to tip whoever we get the drink from wherever we are on the ship.  The drinks are free so a tip seems reasonable (win-win).

I agree it limits what we drink before dinner and ultimately feel less alert the rest of the evening. We always took a glass to dinner. We can still bring two bottles of wine onboard for our room. Regardless it will be great to sail again. 

[Ronaldo807]

Do minors also get the drink vouchers for use on soda, mocktails, etc?

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Do minors also get the drink vouchers for use on soda, mocktails, etc?

 

Conflicting data so far. 

 

In the past, they did not

[smokeybandit]

3 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Conflicting data so far. 

 

In the past, they did not

As of July 24 they do (first hand experience). But the minor has to be diamond on their own C&A, not just in a cabin with parents who are diamond

Edited August 20, 2021 by smokeybandit

[davekathy]

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I really don't see them going back to unlimited. Pretty sure Michael Bayley confirmed that

Which isn't a bummer for us. We'll take it one cruise at a time and adjust accordingly.  If the C&A went back to pre covid DL I wouldn't complain either. 🍻

[cruisegirl1]

4 hours ago, De Colores said:

I enjoyed grabbing my voucher drinks and putting them in my room then going to Diamond Lounge. I guess that is over. 

You can get all your daily drinks ( what ever number that is) and put them in your room and still go to the D lounge.   Just no free drinks in the lounge.

M 

[cruisegirl1]

22 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

As of July 24 they do (first hand experience). But the minor has to be diamond on their own C&A, not just in a cabin with parents who are diamond

  A minor takes the C&A level of the parents so they are D.  If the parent is D, then the child is D.    Even if the child  is in a cabin with some other relative for that cruise, he/she is still D.  There is basically no way for a minor child of D parents, not  to be D.  "There is no such thing as D on their own"

M

 

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by cruisegirl1

[John&LaLa]

47 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

As of July 24 they do (first hand experience). But the minor has to be diamond on their own C&A, not just in a cabin with parents who are diamond

 

Could vary by ship, but I was referring to your experience as the outlier.

 

FWIW, I'm not Pinnacle on my own.😉

 

Getting close, though.😇

Edited August 20, 2021 by John&LaLa

[Hogbay]

Glad all the non drinkers are over the moon with this new system. I will sadly miss sitting at the CL bar having my well earned happy hour beers .☹ and for those to get a $13 water is mind boggling for me.

[tserface]

50 minutes ago, Hogbay said:

Glad all the non drinkers are over the moon with this new system. I will sadly miss sitting at the CL bar having my well earned happy hour beers .☹ and for those to get a $13 water is mind boggling for me.

 

You can still do this, although only in the CL if you are in a suite, you just only get a certain number of them.  If I drank 5 beers I'd be pretty messed up and kind of bloated.  You can also get beers spread out through the day so you don't have to cram them all in right before dinner.  We find that drinking a bunch right before dinner makes it difficult to have room for the great food.

 

I'm not a non-drinker, but I kind of like the new system.

[Ronaldo807]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

As of July 24 they do (first hand experience). But the minor has to be diamond on their own C&A, not just in a cabin with parents who are diamond

How do they differentiate between earned diamond and diamond by parent? Seems like a lot of effort and doesn't make a lot of sense since you could be diamond because of your spouse and still get all of the benefits.

 

How did you know that your minor had the free drink vouchers?

[AustinCruise]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

As of July 24 they do (first hand experience). But the minor has to be diamond on their own C&A, not just in a cabin with parents who are diamond

But a minor that is in a diamond family is always a diamond automatically. 

[Biker19]

33 minutes ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Seems like a lot of effort and doesn't make a lot of sense since you could be diamond because of your spouse and still get all of the benefits.

All children under 18 and one declared adult linked to a D are D. That’s the way RCI has designed C&A benefits. The children getting drinks like adults may or may not last. 

[firefly333]

2 hours ago, Hogbay said:

Glad all the non drinkers are over the moon with this new system. I will sadly miss sitting at the CL bar having my well earned happy hour beers .☹ and for those to get a $13 water is mind boggling for me.

No water for me but I might use some for a specialty coffee. I remember some set aside area of the dining room where I could get 2 kinds of specialty coffee that I read is no more. I like my coffee. 

 

No plain water for me, thanks.

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, Hogbay said:

Glad all the non drinkers are over the moon with this new system. I will sadly miss sitting at the CL bar having my well earned happy hour beers .☹ and for those to get a $13 water is mind boggling for me.

 

You down 5+ beers during happy hour?

 

Do you skip dinner?

 

Oh, and by the way. No more CL's most likely

Edited August 21, 2021 by John&LaLa