Drinks Package with Every Bar (QM2)

[kshannon5]

Hello all,

 

Considering getting the drinks package because a) we like to not have to think about counting drink tabs b) we feel like we could have a lot of fun with variety, and c) we could prepay ahead of time to free money up for other things. The question is, do all bars/venues have items that fit the price criteria? Chart Room, Champagne bar, Sir Samuel's, etc.?

 

We love a quality drink, but it doesn't have to be "top top" shelf. We want to see if the package will exclude us from any place on the ship.

 

Thank you!

Edited March 21, 2022 by kshannon5
better word choice

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

We’ll be doing the same thing for the same reasons when we sail for Alaska in June. Having been on QM2 just before things shut down and having seen bar menus, I’d say for certain that there will be no area that doesn’t offer many choices within the confines of the drinks package.

 

it will be so much fun!

[GonzoWCS]

14 hours ago, kshannon5 said:

Hello all,

 

Considering getting the drinks package because a) we like to not have to think about counting drink tabs b) we feel like we could have a lot of fun with variety, and c) we could prepay ahead of time to free money up for other things. The question is, do all bars/venues have items that fit the price criteria? Chart Room, Champagne bar, Sir Samuel's, etc.?

 

We love a quality drink, but it doesn't have to be "top top" shelf. We want to see if the package will exclude us from any place on the ship.

 

Thank you!

Great question, anyone have any insight?

 

Cheers

[wenlyn]

You will be able to find something in every bar and usually a reasonable selection. I've not drunk champagne in the champagne bar and from memory I think  you may be limited on choice in there at the $12 price point.

[Mudhen]

We are just off the QM2 after the Feb. 22 Caribbean run. We had the drinks package. I enjoyed trying some of the craft cocktails selections in all of the bars (not the champagne bar, however). There are cocktails that are specific to each bar and there are many to choose from under the 12$ price. 

We'll be back on In mid May and I expect to continue my exploration of cocktails that I've yet to try!

[GonzoWCS]

15 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

We are just off the QM2 after the Feb. 22 Caribbean run. We had the drinks package. I enjoyed trying some of the craft cocktails selections in all of the bars (not the champagne bar, however). There are cocktails that are specific to each bar and there are many to choose from under the 12$ price. 

We'll be back on In mid May and I expect to continue my exploration of cocktails that I've yet to try!

Thanks!

[lissie]

Depends what you drink- being restricted to drinking wine by the glass means you have a very limited selection.  We like the expensive cocktails - starting with the queens gin perfect pour which are $14 . I'd find the drinks package a) limiting  and b) prohibitive - for $5k we could get another cruise LOL 

[kshannon5]

7 hours ago, wenlyn said:

You will be able to find something in every bar and usually a reasonable selection. I've not drunk champagne in the champagne bar and from memory I think  you may be limited on choice in there at the $12 price point.

So maybe skip that one. It never seems crowded in YouTube videos I've seen, though. Maybe not a great loss?

[kshannon5]

5 hours ago, lissie said:

Depends what you drink- being restricted to drinking wine by the glass means you have a very limited selection.  We like the expensive cocktails - starting with the queens gin perfect pour which are $14 . I'd find the drinks package a) limiting  and b) prohibitive - for $5k we could get another cruise LOL 

I understand we could get a smaller pour on wines to keep it in budget, is that not correct? I do love a nice glass with dinner.

[lissie]

42 minutes ago, kshannon5 said:

I understand we could get a smaller pour on wines to keep it in budget, is that not correct? I do love a nice glass with dinner.

When we cruised on QE in Feb 2020 - there was literally a book of wines by the bottle - I'm guessing from memory - maybe 30 pages - grouped by country. There was 1 page of wines by the glass.  I don't recall the  price  per a glass - the point was there weren't that many to start with.  We bought bottles - which could then be kept for us for another day if  we didn't finish them 

[lissie]

What you should actually do is nothing. You can buy the package on board on the 2nd day - so take the first day - to have a look around and price check what you want to drink and then make a choice. At least you won't be paying for the full package  for that first 1/2 day - even if you do decide that it works for you. 

[exlondoner]

7 hours ago, lissie said:

When we cruised on QE in Feb 2020 - there was literally a book of wines by the bottle - I'm guessing from memory - maybe 30 pages - grouped by country. There was 1 page of wines by the glass.  I don't recall the  price  per a glass - the point was there weren't that many to start with.  We bought bottles - which could then be kept for us for another day if  we didn't finish them 

From memory from 2019, there are perhaps 20 wines by the glass, available in 150cl and 250cl glasses.  Nearly all the former were under $12. Nothing to stop you having several.

[Liverpoolgirl175]

Isn’t there a limit to the number of drinks you are allowed each day?

[rakkor]

For me that would be self regulating, $69 per day would be 10 pints of Doombar.- I could manage that on occasion but not every day. To answer the original question I don't think there is.

[exlondoner]

You'd need 11 pints to turn a profit. Might be the last straw. 😀

[Mudhen]

1 hour ago, Liverpoolgirl175 said:

Isn’t there a limit to the number of drinks you are allowed each day?

Nope, I don't think so. We were just on the Feb. 22 cruise and had the package. Many drinks, many bars, no problem. Same as for glasses of wine at dinner. We'd often start with a flute of prosecco , then on to a red or white by the glass. We're hardly "experts", but we had no problem with the offered choices per glass.

[BigMac1953]

Yes there is a limit!

 

You're also limited to 4 drinks per hour.

[2Oldpeopleinlove]

The limits, which you can find in the fine-print description are 15/day and ten minutes between orders.

[D&N]

Think anyone interested needs to do their own sums based on what they will use. We'll take the packages as soon as we board. In 14 nights we expect to save at least $500 each.

Our minimum daily consumption per person will be:

5 x 150ml glasses of wine = 1 bottle. (2 at lunch, 3 at dinner)
1 x aperitif; Cava, Proseco, Aperol Spritz*, Kir Royale*. *not made with champagne.
1 x 1oz digestive; Grand Marnier, Brandy
4 x 500ml water (still & sparkling)
2 x Illy coffee

That leaves us another 8 alcoholic drinks per day if we want to have something added to the afternoon coffee or we fancy another drink at night, and as many mixers or soft drinks as we want.

We've identified plenty of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish wines by the glass that are likely suit our tastes.

 

[kshannon5]

On 3/21/2022 at 10:38 PM, lissie said:

What you should actually do is nothing. You can buy the package on board on the 2nd day - so take the first day - to have a look around and price check what you want to drink and then make a choice. At least you won't be paying for the full package  for that first 1/2 day - even if you do decide that it works for you. 

I was thinking of doing just this. I understand you have until the end of the second day to sign up? That would give us even more time to figure this out.

 

[kshannon5]

On 3/22/2022 at 1:28 PM, D&N said:

Think anyone interested needs to do their own sums based on what they will use. We'll take the packages as soon as we board. In 14 nights we expect to save at least $500 each.

Our minimum daily consumption per person will be:

5 x 150ml glasses of wine = 1 bottle. (2 at lunch, 3 at dinner)
1 x aperitif; Cava, Proseco, Aperol Spritz*, Kir Royale*. *not made with champagne.
1 x 1oz digestive; Grand Marnier, Brandy
4 x 500ml water (still & sparkling)
2 x Illy coffee

That leaves us another 8 alcoholic drinks per day if we want to have something added to the afternoon coffee or we fancy another drink at night, and as many mixers or soft drinks as we want.

We've identified plenty of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish wines by the glass that are likely suit our tastes.

 

Yes, this was our thinking as well, but hoped it wouldn't limit what bars we go into.

 

[Mudhen]

You can drink in any bar other than the Queen's Grill lounge. That lounge is only for grill class passengers. Having recently been there, you wouldn't be missing much. It was our least favorite...boring and pretty stuffy imho.

[david,Mississauga]

13 hours ago, Mudhen said:

You can drink in any bar other than the Queen's Grill lounge. That lounge is only for grill class passengers. Having recently been there, you wouldn't be missing much. It was our least favorite...boring and pretty stuffy imho.

 

Although the QM2 Grills lounge isn't particularly attractive, one thing I liked was that it is sometimes boring and stuffy - and you can almost always get a seat. On one voyage when we were in Britannia we could not get a seat in any lounge prior to the first sitting of dinner. (That was just one reason we no longer book first sitting.)

 

We find the Grills lounge on the smaller "Queens" is more attractive than that on the QM2. We do, however, like to have a drink in other lounges even when we are in the Grills.

[ClipperinSFO]

On 3/23/2022 at 3:58 PM, Mudhen said:

You can drink in any bar other than the Queen's Grill lounge. That lounge is only for grill class passengers. Having recently been there, you wouldn't be missing much. It was our least favorite...boring and pretty stuffy imho.

 

I wouldn't say the GL is stuffy and boring, so much as its just a relatively character-less room, esp in comparison to the much snappier CC or Chart Room -- both gorgeous and so full of character and style.  Still, the GL is conveniently located and usually always has a seat available, even on gala nights, when the cooler, prettier lounges fill up, even for we late diners.  That said, it's always worth trying for a seat in the CC for that pre-dinner martini.  

[starquake]

Our comment would be on the package having done a 10 night  on QE (with package) in December, and a 4 night to Hamberg in Feb (QM2) without is we managed to run up a bar tab as large as the QE trips package cost in the 4 night to Hamberg, well, close anyhow, the bill being $1600 on former trip, $1200 on latter.    We may have been enjoying my wifes Birthday and Valentines too much on latter and splurging and trying all the cocktails in the commodore club over 4 nights.

 

On that note, we probably will now be taking one of the packages (non alc or alc) for the longer cruise(s) we have booked this year.

 

I've noted on other threads, at least for us on the package the Sommalier on QE never stuck to 150ml at dinner delivering a very large glass at start every time.   He also opened and left the bottle nearby for topups.    Yes selection was more limited but was acceptable to our pallettes.

 

The only thing we missed was 1/ Champagne, and 2/ Certain cocktails, which we partook in the later QM2 cruise (as a lot of the commodore club specials are > 12).    It's worth noting that there are VERY good drinks available in terms of whiskey and port from many of the bars which are not on the small paper menus, that are "accepable" on the package.   I tried a vast selection of single malts as an example of this, I think only 3-4 of the whiskeys were over $12 in fact, and many doubles could be had for the $12 limit.