Buying "Premium" drinks on Classic package.

[craig403]

1 hour ago, Hickeyclan1 said:

 

$10 x 11 = $110 more.  So you paid $110 each and received $150 OBC each?  So Celebrity paid you $40 each to get Premium????  What am I missing here........

Ok,  My wife tells me that I'm wrong and I'm not allowed to make anymore posts without her supervision.  We did not get any OBC.  We had $600 OBC and we used that to pay the $220.

My bad!   

[craig403]

1 hour ago, Hickeyclan1 said:

 Wich cruise was this?  We are on the March 28 sailing......

Yep.  We are on March 28 cruise.

[5waldos]

We are on an 8 day cruise with the Classic included. It was $66.50 (with Capt. Club discount) to upgrade for the entire trip to the Premium. And to go from the Classic to a Premium non-Alcohol it cost nothing. It was worth it to me just not to have to think about it once onboard. 

[chamima]

On 1/14/2020 at 8:02 PM, drakes2 said:

San pellegrino is $3.50 for small and $5.50 for large bottle. Evian $2.50 and $4.50 ,plus 20 percent gratuities.

 

 

So I did a search and found the above.

It's from 2020 (before the shut down) but is probably pretty accurate)

[chamima]

2 hours ago, esther e said:

LOL I don't even by it by the case here.  Too heavy to haul.  I buy the 6-pack.  If the large bottles were $5, that's a good price.  But if the smaller ones are, that's not good.  I can drink a smaller one in a minute -- the quarts take a lot longer.

 

On 1/14/2020 at 8:02 PM, drakes2 said:

San pellegrino is $3.50 for small and $5.50 for large bottle. Evian $2.50 and $4.50 ,plus 20 percent gratuities.

 

 

So I did a search and found the above.

It's from 2020 (before the shut down) but is probably pretty accurate)

Edited February 5, 2022 by chamima

[WorkerBee74]

On 11/14/2021 at 7:23 PM, Northern Aurora said:

If you order an item on the premium list you will not pay the full amount.  You will pay the price difference plus the 20% gratuity.

 

And welcome to the Celebrity Cruise Critic community.

Wow this is the greatest little secret ever! This works perfectly for us.
 

We were on the Infinity this fall on a 9 night Spain/Portugal that was cancelled and ended up on a 10 night Spain/France/Italy on Edge. Since we were able to lift/shift for same rate and keep our OBC and AI, I was told it would be a prevailing rate reprice to upgrade to the “Elevate” (Premium)  package vs just the extra $30/day which worked out to $3200 more for us (HAHA no WAY we could drink that much lol!!)

 

So no problem at all to just pay the difference for the few drinks we may want that are over $9. Our cruise is pretty port intensive in the worlds best wine countries, so not sure how much we will end up drinking on board but the two sea days will be great. 

[Rayhorn]

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that they liked having a bottle of sparkling water in the stateroom at all times. That got me thinking…we have a cruise coming up. We have the premium beverage package and are in an Aquaclass stateroom. Are we able to ask our stateroom attendant to keep a bottle of Perrier or Pellegrino in the room or would we need to go to a bar and order a bottle and bring it back each evening?

[chamima]

5 hours ago, Rayhorn said:

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that they liked having a bottle of sparkling water in the stateroom at all times. That got me thinking…we have a cruise coming up. We have the premium beverage package and are in an Aquaclass stateroom. Are we able to ask our stateroom attendant to keep a bottle of Perrier or Pellegrino in the room or would we need to go to a bar and order a bottle and bring it back each evening?

 

You'll need to get it from a bar and bring it back. I made it a habit to grab a bottle from the nearest bar whenever I was on my way back to the cabin .

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Wow this is the greatest little secret ever! This works perfectly for us.
 

We were on the Infinity this fall on a 9 night Spain/Portugal that was cancelled and ended up on a 10 night Spain/France/Italy on Edge. Since we were able to lift/shift for same rate and keep our OBC and AI, I was told it would be a prevailing rate reprice to upgrade to the “Elevate” (Premium)  package vs just the extra $30/day which worked out to $3200 more for us (HAHA no WAY we could drink that much lol!!)

 

So no problem at all to just pay the difference for the few drinks we may want that are over $9. Our cruise is pretty port intensive in the worlds best wine countries, so not sure how much we will end up drinking on board but the two sea days will be great. 

Too late now. You said you already had that AI.  Your assumption that the Elevate package you were quoted is the same a the Premium package upgrade was incorrect.  Assuming that you actually already had the AI (which included the Classic drink package), the premium drink package upgrade alone was $10 plus 20% gratuity a day per person.  (Without any discount).

 

it looks like you thought you needed to buy the Elevate package to get the Premium drink package?

 

it still might not have been worth it for you, but a much lower price, but the number was closer to $1000 for the two of you.

[WorkerBee74]

4 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Too late now. You said you already had that AI.  Your assumption that the Elevate package you were quoted is the same a the Premium package upgrade was incorrect.  Assuming that you actually already had the AI (which included the Classic drink package), the premium drink package upgrade alone was $10 plus 20% gratuity a day per person.  (Without any discount).

 

it looks like you thought you needed to buy the Elevate package to get the Premium drink package?

 

it still might not have been worth it for you, but a much lower price, but the number was closer to $1000 for the two of you.

 

This wasn't my assumption, this was what the person at Celebrity told me.  I wasn't given a plain drink package 'upgrade' option, just the Elevate package.

 

I'm going to wait it out for a while and maybe inquire again in summer as my cruise isn't until October.  The Elevate package had the $200pp shore excursion credit which was attractive as we would use it... but not at that price!  Will have to say 'forget the package, tell me the cost of the upgrade to the Premium Package - booze only' and then see what the difference really is.

 

Thanks 🙂 

Edited February 6, 2022 by WorkerBee74

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, WorkerBee74 said:

 

This wasn't my assumption, this was what the person at Celebrity told me.  I wasn't given a plain drink package 'upgrade' option, just the Elevate package.

 

I'm going to wait it out for a while and maybe inquire again in summer as my cruise isn't until October.  The Elevate package had the $200pp shore excursion credit which was attractive as we would use it... but not at that price!  Will have to say 'forget the package, tell me the cost of the upgrade to the Premium Package - booze only' and then see what the difference really is.

 

Thanks 🙂 

I thought you cruised already.  I seem to recall that you cannot upgrade from The Classic to Premium drink packages only after final payment.  (Someone else may confirm this fact).

 

The bottom line is that is you only want to upgrade the drink package to Premium you will be able to do this for the $12 a person per day.  Unless Celebrity has made a significant change that people have not noticed.  No reason to rush your decision.

Good luck.  

[chamima]

30 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I thought you cruised already.  I seem to recall that you cannot upgrade from The Classic to Premium drink packages only after final payment.  (Someone else may confirm this fact).

 

The bottom line is that is you only want to upgrade the drink package to Premium you will be able to do this for the $12 a person per day.  Unless Celebrity has made a significant change that people have not noticed.  No reason to rush your decision.

Good luck.  

 

You can upgrade to the Premium package anytime you want.

I have already upgraded for a 2023 cruise (there was a sale on excursions a couple of months ago and a phone rep told me that there was also a sale on upgrading so I did it for a cruise we had planned. Surprise, surprise - she was wrong and I only got the normal 10% off that I always get for upgrading precruise. )

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, chamima said:

 

You can upgrade to the Premium package anytime you want.

I have already upgraded for a 2023 cruise (there was a sale on excursions a couple of months ago and a phone rep told me that there was also a sale on upgrading so I did it for a cruise we had planned. Surprise, surprise - she was wrong and I only got the normal 10% off that I always get for upgrading precruise. )

Makes sense.  It has been a long time since I have needed to upgrade.  I must have been confused.  Perhaps you can only upgrade on line after the final payment or more likely I was just wrong.

[jagoffee]

It does not really explain why WorkerBee74 was mislead about the pricing to upgrade the Classic AI package to the Premium drink package.

[Veinless]

If booked through a TA, do you need to go through them to upgrade from classic to premium, or can you call Celebrity directly?

[bama4cruisin]

6 minutes ago, Veinless said:

If booked through a TA, do you need to go through them to upgrade from classic to premium, or can you call Celebrity directly?

No.  We book through a TA.  Last cruise we had the Classic which had been a perk at booking (before AI); I upgraded by calling Celebrity.