Reporting Back: I upgraded from Have it All SBP to EBP onboard

[VMax1700]

43 minutes ago, bluesplayer said:

No Tanqueray??   Oh no..  they always had it in the Signature package.

If they have it onboard (which they did) and it is priced at $11 or less (which it was) then it is included (whether shown on the list or not). 😉

[bluesplayer]

what a relief!!   Thank you!..  

[ilv4cruising]

On 1/1/2022 at 12:46 PM, NengEuis said:

Before we sailed on NS on 12/19, I had a hard time figuring out the ins and outs/ pros and cons of upgrading a Have it All Beverage Package onboard, mostly because sailings had been paused and there weren't any recent trip reports to refer to. Instead of adding to page 9 of a two month old post, I thought I would share my experience so that others can make an educated decision. 

 

We are just off the Nieuw Statendam and upgraded from the SBP to the EBP when we got our first drink onboard. It's important that you do that because once you get a drink under the SBP,  you are locked in for the week. I got a little yellow slip that showed the upgrade purchase as proof, and it took about 15 minutes for the cards to be updated, according to the server. 

 

For a 7 Day Cruise, The cost for Have it All fares is $10 per person/day + 18% Gratuity = 82.60/pp charged to shipboard account. 

 

The per drink dollar amount covered for the SBP is $11, EBP is $15.  I think it is important to look at what the differences are in what you get when you upgrade and whether you yourself will spend $70.00 before gratuity if you don't upgrade. For us, it was worth it because I like to drink Miraval Rose'  - a $14 glass of wine. Included under EBP but not under SBP (I would pay $3 + 18% for each glass) I also like Oberon Cab Sauv - another $15 glass. My husband enjoys Glenmorangie 18 yr and Highland Park Scotches, and he loves the Smoked Cherry Old Fashioned at Ocean Bar. These are all covered under the EBP and not the SBP. 

 

Most people are totally happy with the SBP. I had to look at the differences to decide if it was right for us. I'll attach what we referred to when making our decision. I hope this helps others plan for their cruise. I think Holland America does an excellent job using the Seapass cards and making seamless transactions onboard. We were very impressed with Food and Beverage overall on this cruise. 

Hi there,

 

I'm not sure I followed how much more you paid to upgrade.  Was it $10 per person/day?  Based on the posting the difference in price between the 2 packages is only $5 per person/day.  Do you know why you had to pay $10 per person/day?  Thanks,

[NengEuis]

5 hours ago, Josie201 said:

I see (barely) in the fine print the language about the 15 drink maximum, seemingly including water and other non-alcoholic drinks.  Have you been able to test that theory?  At some point there was a report that on the EBP the non-alcoholic drinks were unlimited. 

I was told that the non-alcoholic drinks were unlimited and did not count toward the 15. Based on my experience, that is true. I got an aluminum bottle of water at a bar every time I walked by one, threw it in my bag, and then kept them in the empty minibar fridge. I'm sure I would have hit the limit on some days if they had counted toward the 15. 

[NengEuis]

3 hours ago, ilv4cruising said:

Hi there,

 

I'm not sure I followed how much more you paid to upgrade.  Was it $10 per person/day?  Based on the posting the difference in price between the 2 packages is only $5 per person/day.  Do you know why you had to pay $10 per person/day?  Thanks,

Because the SBP I had was "free" - part of the Have it All Promotion Fare. If one wants to buy the package outright as part of a regular fare, that is the per day cost - the difference is $5 per day. 

 

If I had purchased the SBP as part of my booking, then the upgrade cost would just be $5 per day. 

Edited January 2, 2022 by NengEuis

[LadyBerard]

I enjoy a couple martinis in the evening, usually an espresso martini.  There seems to be a very limited list of vodkas, and I'm not seeing other vodkas on the upgraded list.  Does anybody know the cost for a martini on board?  We cruise in March.  I would not use any of the vodkas I see listed on the signature package, and hope they would higher end vodkas on board, i.e. Ciroc, Stoli Elite, Grey Goose, etc.

[Overhead Fred]

4 minutes ago, LadyBerard said:

There seems to be a very limited list of vodkas, and I'm not seeing other vodkas on the upgraded list.  Does anybody know the cost for a martini on board? 

 

This link to Roger Jett's (aka Crew News) website might help, the bar menu is from October, 2021 -

https://rogerjett-photography.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Bar-Menu-2021.pdf

[Cruise Suzy]

12 minutes ago, LadyBerard said:

I enjoy a couple martinis in the evening, usually an espresso martini.  There seems to be a very limited list of vodkas, and I'm not seeing other vodkas on the upgraded list.  Does anybody know the cost for a martini on board?  We cruise in March.  I would not use any of the vodkas I see listed on the signature package, and hope they would higher end vodkas on board, i.e. Ciroc, Stoli Elite, Grey Goose, etc.

 

If you go to https://rogerjett-photography.com/  then select Bar Menu - All Bars you can see what vodkas should be available. He also has menus for specific bars that might be helpful. Martinis (House brands) are included in the SBP, so they are less than $11

 

 

 

I see @Overhead Fred also replied while I was typing.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Cruise Suzy

[DC1andDC2]

6 hours ago, NengEuis said:

Because the SBP I had was "free" - part of the Have it All Promotion Fare. If one wants to buy the package outright as part of a regular fare, that is the per day cost - the difference is $5 per day. 

 

If I had purchased the SBP as part of my booking, then the upgrade cost would just be $5 per day. 

Are you saying that if you receive a SBP as an included perk when you booked and if you want to upgrade the included SBP to EBP when on board, you cannot pay just the difference ($5 ppd) but instead, have to purchase the EBP outright at regular price?   I am finding your explanation a bit confusing as to why you didn't have to just pay the $5 ppd extra.  Surely an included perk as part of your booking should be treated no differently than if it was purchased outright as an added package. 

[kazu]

6 hours ago, DC1andDC2 said:

Are you saying that if you receive a SBP as an included perk when you booked and if you want to upgrade the included SBP to EBP when on board, you cannot pay just the difference ($5 ppd) but instead, have to purchase the EBP outright at regular price?   I am finding your explanation a bit confusing as to why you didn't have to just pay the $5 ppd extra.  Surely an included perk as part of your booking should be treated no differently than if it was purchased outright as an added package. 

 

If you have SBP with Have it All (or other promo), its’ considered priced at the online price where you can purchase before you cruise.  It is cheaper than if you buy the SBP on board.  If you bought the SBP on board and then upgraded the difference would only be $5 (why anyone would do that is beyond me)

So, the Have it All is considered as the pre-purchased package & the upgrade is more to reflect that.

 

Here is a screen shot from my 28 day cruise showing the difference in pricing if you pre-purchase versus buying on board.

 

 

And here is the pricing for the Elite package

 

 

Hopefully that explains it?

[DC1andDC2]

5 hours ago, kazu said:

 

If you have SBP with Have it All (or other promo), its’ considered priced at the online price where you can purchase before you cruise.  It is cheaper than if you buy the SBP on board.  If you bought the SBP on board and then upgraded the difference would only be $5 (why anyone would do that is beyond me)

So, the Have it All is considered as the pre-purchased package & the upgrade is more to reflect that.

 

Here is a screen shot from my 28 day cruise showing the difference in pricing if you pre-purchase versus buying on board.

 

<snip>

 

And here is the pricing for the Elite package

 

<snip>

 

Hopefully that explains it?

Yes....now I understand.  I am a bit slow sometimes, lol.

[mvfishing]

Can anyone tell me the price of a bottle of water?

[Electra 7]

On 1/1/2022 at 10:23 PM, visagrunt said:

Given that I will be aboard on Burns Night, I feel like the upgrade might just be required.

Hi hope you have a great Burns night onboard my Dad is past president of Burns world federation Gran always said he was Burns reincarnated

Can anyone tell me what wine we would get on the have it all package as we never had that package onboard last time

[CruiserBruce]

31 minutes ago, Electra 7 said:

Hi hope you have a great Burns night onboard my Dad is past president of Burns world federation Gran always said he was Burns reincarnated

Can anyone tell me what wine we would get on the have it all package as we never had that package onboard last time

Have you looked back up the thread to the menus?

[aliasyoshi]

Sort of a dumb question as I should remember, but do we need to mention that we have a drink package each time we order a drink? I've had drink packages in the past but don't recall if we needed to mention it or not...probably forgot after a few. 😉 

[kazu]

43 minutes ago, aliasyoshi said:

Sort of a dumb question as I should remember, but do we need to mention that we have a drink package each time we order a drink? I've had drink packages in the past but don't recall if we needed to mention it or not...probably forgot after a few. 😉 

 

No need on the cruises we were on.  there was a little sticker on my key card at the time that said SBP

[VMax1700]

51 minutes ago, aliasyoshi said:

Sort of a dumb question as I should remember, but do we need to mention that we have a drink package each time we order a drink? I've had drink packages in the past but don't recall if we needed to mention it or not...probably forgot after a few. 😉 

Only time that I needed to mention it was when the Lido ran out of the house merlot 😱 and said they would substitute another one.  I just reminded them that I had a package and did not expect to pay for the substitute wine.

[ilv4cruising]

On 1/3/2022 at 6:55 AM, kazu said:

 

If you have SBP with Have it All (or other promo), its’ considered priced at the online price where you can purchase before you cruise.  It is cheaper than if you buy the SBP on board.  If you bought the SBP on board and then upgraded the difference would only be $5 (why anyone would do that is beyond me)

So, the Have it All is considered as the pre-purchased package & the upgrade is more to reflect that.

 

Here is a screen shot from my 28 day cruise showing the difference in pricing if you pre-purchase versus buying on board.

 

 

And here is the pricing for the Elite package

 

 

Hopefully that explains it?

So I guess I'm really tired or not quite following.  Based on the amounts above here are the 2 options I can figure out.

 

1 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Prepay ($49.95) – Difference is $5

2 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Onboard ($59.95) – Difference is $15

 

How do we get to $10?

FYI - I phoned HAL to ask what it would be to upgrade onboard and they said $5.  I hope it is $5/per person/day when we try this 🙂

[kazu]

5 minutes ago, ilv4cruising said:

So I guess I'm really tired or not quite following.  Based on the amounts above here are the 2 options I can figure out.

 

1 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Prepay ($49.95) – Difference is $5

2 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Onboard ($59.95) – Difference is $15

 

 

 

How do we get to $10?

 

 

FYI - I phoned HAL to ask what it would be to upgrade onboard and they said $5.  I hope it is $5/per person/day when we try this 🙂

 

I don’t work for HAL but I believe they use the prepay Elite versus on board cost which is $10.

If you call Seattle three times, you’ll get three different answers -pick the one you like 😉. they aren’t on the ship and what they tell you isn’t always what happens.

 

I DO know that everyone who had reported here on CC (and there have been a number) have paid $10 plus gratuity to upgrade.  YMMV - I hope it does 🤞 

[NengEuis]

On 1/6/2022 at 1:50 PM, ilv4cruising said:

So I guess I'm really tired or not quite following.  Based on the amounts above here are the 2 options I can figure out.

 

1 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Prepay ($49.95) – Difference is $5

2 - Moving from SBP Prepay ($44.95) to EBP Onboard ($59.95) – Difference is $15

 

 

 

How do we get to $10?

 

 

FYI - I phoned HAL to ask what it would be to upgrade onboard and they said $5.  I hope it is $5/per person/day when we try this 🙂

There is a third scenario - the one where you don't Prepay for the SBP to begin with. That was my situation as the SBP was included in the fare as part of Have it All. (Just like Internet, the Shore Excursion Credit, the Dining Credit.)

 

We got to $10 because I was sitting at a Bar at a HAL ship 20 minutes after boarding and was told the cost was $10 for Have it All fares. If you prepay the SBP, it will definitely be $5. Although I don't know why you wouldn't just prepay the EBP if that is what you are wanting onboard. If you are going to prepay for a package, then just get the one you want. Seems like the easiest and most logical thing to do. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[terrydtx]

Thank everyone for the information, we usually sail on Celebrity and get their premium drink package with our suite bookings. We are on the Oosterdam in August for a 14-night Greek cruise, and we have the SBP as part of the Have it All promotion, is there any way to upgrade to the EBP before we depart? Either $5 or $10pp per day seems like a bargain for us, we like better wines by the glass and the premium spirts, like Maker Mark or Woodruff Reserve whiskey. Having to wait until we board at the first bar seems like a waste of time that first day. I know on Celebrity the upgrade can be done prior to departure.

[Kirsten T]

https://rogerjett-photography.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Bar-Menu-2021.pdf

Check out the prices - looks like Woodford and Maker's Mark are under the $11 limit for the Signature package, so you might not need to upgrade. We sail Celebrity a lot (just got off Reflection) and typically haven't felt like we needed to upgrade on HAL; the $11 and under selection is more extensive than X's standard package. The menus on Roger's site will give you a good idea of what's available.