Complimentary All In Drink Package

[Sailaway John]

Both wife and I have been given a complimentary all-in drink package for our cruise in 2023. That package is I believe over $1000.00 per person. That is a total of $2000+ for the 13 day cruise. We could not drink that amount of Liquor, beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee at all in 13 days.

My question is Can I switch the package to say OBC?, Excursions, Stateroom upgrade, althouh we are already in a Mini Suite, or take 50/50 on the deal. 50% drinks and the rest on something else? Interested to hear what you say.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Which cruise line?

 

Regardless, I think it's highly unlikely you would be able to switch it out for anything else. The value shown against it is not what it would cost the cruise line for whatever drinks you have. Essentially it's no different to choosing to cruise of one of the luxury, all-inclusive lines where drinks are included. Just enjoy whatever drinks you do have without the hassle of having to pay for each individual one.

[Sailaway John]

5 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Which cruise line?

 

Regardless, I think it's highly unlikely you would be able to switch it out for anything else. The value shown against it is not what it would cost the cruise line for whatever drinks you have. Essentially it's no different to choosing to cruise of one of the luxury, all-inclusive lines where drinks are included. Just enjoy whatever drinks you do have without the hassle of having to pay for each individual one.

Thanks for your reply

[MicCanberra]

Sounds like it may be Princess, if that is the case, I doubt you can change the package

If it is NCL, and you don't  drink, you may want the drinks package removed as you get charged  a daily gratuity amount of $20 USD per person whether you drink anything or not.

[Aus Traveller]

4 hours ago, Sailaway John said:

Both wife and I have been given a complimentary all-in drink package for our cruise in 2023. That package is I believe over $1000.00 per person. That is a total of $2000+ for the 13 day cruise. We could not drink that amount of Liquor, beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee at all in 13 days.

My question is Can I switch the package to say OBC?, Excursions, Stateroom upgrade, althouh we are already in a Mini Suite, or take 50/50 on the deal. 50% drinks and the rest on something else? Interested to hear what you say.

 

I don't think there is any chance you will be able to switch the complimentary drinks for anything else.

 

However, I suggest you have a look at the fare you are on. If it is Princess, they have a base fare, then there is a 'Princess Plus' fare. Apparently, when someone starts the booking process, it is the Princess Plus price that is quoted. If you don't drink - or don't drink much - it might be advantageous for you to change your booking to the lower-priced alternative. The same thing might apply on other lines.

[OzKiwiJJ]

46 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Sounds like it may be Princess, if that is the case, I doubt you can change the package

If it is NCL, and you don't  drink, you may want the drinks package removed as you get charged  a daily gratuity amount of $20 USD per person whether you drink anything or not.

 

17 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I don't think there is any chance you will be able to switch the complimentary drinks for anything else.

 

However, I suggest you have a look at the fare you are on. If it is Princess, they have a base fare, then there is a 'Princess Plus' fare. Apparently, when someone starts the booking process, it is the Princess Plus price that is quoted. If you don't drink - or don't drink much - it might be advantageous for you to change your booking to the lower-priced alternative. The same thing might apply on other lines.

I don't think it's Princess. They don't push the Plus Fare over the base fare. You have to choose one or the other and the default is the base fare.

 

My guess is it's Celebrity which now includes a drinks package and internet with not choice to opt out, or Holland America and I'm not sure if you can opt out or not with them these days.

Edited November 7, 2021 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

I don't think it's Princess. They don't push the Plus Fare over the base fare. You have to choose one or the other and the default is the base fare.

 

My guess is it's Celebrity or Holland America, both of whom include drinks packages with no choice to opt out.  

Two different TAs I got prices from for the WC, both quoted the Princess Plus, then when I queried it, both said that the Princess website automatically gave them the higher fare until they clicked the option of the base fare.

 

If it is Celebrity or Holland America, then all I can suggest to the OP is that they enjoy their drinks. 🙂

Edited November 7, 2021 by Aus Traveller

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Two different TAs I got prices from for the WC, both quoted the Princess Plus, then when I queried it, both said that the Princess website automatically gave them the higher fare until they clicked the option of the base fare.

 

If it is Celebrity or Holland America, then all I can suggest to the OP is that they enjoy their drinks. 🙂

I've booked at least five cruises online directly with Princess since they brought out the Plus fare and every time I had to choose the Plus fare as the default was the base fare. I think those TAs were bulldusting you.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

I've booked at least five cruises online directly with Princess since they brought out the Plus fare and every time I had to choose the Plus fare as the default was the base fare. I think those TAs were bulldusting you.

Could be.

[john2003]

In North America we can certainly not include the drinks package but would also drop the other components. This is often a good idea for us.

[portcbob]

Short answer is NO guys.

[Russell21]

13 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I've booked at least five cruises online directly with Princess since they brought out the Plus fare and every time I had to choose the Plus fare as the default was the base fare. I think those TAs were bulldusting you.

All the searching I've been doing on Princess uses the plus fare up until they give you a choice some way into the process. This is on their site. Another thing is I don't think you will find the $20.00 a day service charge for the drinks package on an Aussie based cruise.

[OzKiwiJJ]

17 minutes ago, Russell21 said:

All the searching I've been doing on Princess uses the plus fare up until they give you a choice some way into the process. This is on their site. Another thing is I don't think you will find the $20.00 a day service charge for the drinks package on an Aussie based cruise.

I tend to not take much notice of the fares, other than as a very broad guideline, until I reach the point where you choose between base or plus fare. 

 

I think the drinks service charge is a Holland America thing. It's definitely not Princess or Celebrity.

[MicCanberra]

As I posted, it is NCL where you get a 'free' drinks package but have to pay the $20 grats on the package anyway. It is still worth it if you have at least 3 or 4 drinks per day.

[possum52]

16 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

I don't think it's Princess. They don't push the Plus Fare over the base fare. You have to choose one or the other and the default is the base fare.

 

My guess is it's Celebrity which now includes a drinks package and internet with not choice to opt out, or Holland America and I'm not sure if you can opt out or not with them these days.

Sorry to disagree Julie,  when I changed over from our cancelled cruise to the alternative for next year, the invoice we received was for Plus Fare, even though cancelled fare wasn't and I hadn't requested it. I just emailed back and it was changed to base fare.

[OzKiwiJJ]

6 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Sorry to disagree Julie,  when I changed over from our cancelled cruise to the alternative for next year, the invoice we received was for Plus Fare, even though cancelled fare wasn't and I hadn't requested it. I just emailed back and it was changed to base fare.

That was a bit naughty of them!

[possum52]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

That was a bit naughty of them!

Very! As soon as I read it, I realised that they were charging us for the Plus Fare. It was changed straight away though.

[NSWP]

23 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Very! As soon as I read it, I realised that they were charging us for the Plus Fare. It was changed straight away though.

They just want as much revenue in as they can get, Leigh.

[possum52]

17 minutes ago, NSWP said:

They just want as much revenue in as they can get, Leigh.

Sounds like it Les.

[sewgood]

Thanks for this Leigh as I have just transferred across from the base fare and will now make sure that I check the invoice when it comes though.

I just assumed that they would automatically put me on the same fare. I should know by now not to assume anything.

[possum52]

9 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Thanks for this Leigh as I have just transferred across from the base fare and will now make sure that I check the invoice when it comes though.

I just assumed that they would automatically put me on the same fare. I should know by now not to assume anything.

Yes, do check it. Hopefully all will be fine.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, possum52 said:

Very! As soon as I read it, I realised that they were charging us for the Plus Fare. It was changed straight away though.

It could have just been a simple mistake though. Perhaps the person processing your moveover request had just done a whole heap of ones with the Plus fare and didn't check yours properly.

[boeckli]

7 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

As I posted, it is NCL where you get a 'free' drinks package but have to pay the $20 grats on the package anyway. It is still worth it if you have at least 3 or 4 drinks per day.

 

As mentioned above by @Russell21, this does not apply to NCL cruises from Oz. I had both a premium beverage and a specialty dining package on my Dec 2019 Norwegian Jewel cruise and the service charge for both was $0.00.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, boeckli said:

 

As mentioned above by @Russell21, this does not apply to NCL cruises from Oz. I had both a premium beverage and a specialty dining package on my Dec 2019 Norwegian Jewel cruise and the service charge for both was $0.00.

I remember looking at a NCL cruise around 2017 and I think at that time they were still charging the service charge on the drinks package so it must have changed after that. That was also around the time that gratuities started being included in the fare for Australian cruises on Celebrity and RCI.

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 hours ago, Russell21 said:

All the searching I've been doing on Princess uses the plus fare up until they give you a choice some way into the process. This is on their site. 

I'm not going mad! I just checked a couple of cruises and the initial "from" fares shown against each cabin class were the Saver fare not the Plus fare. I took a snapshot of one of them:

 

I have always seen them come up this way on my laptop.