Uograde to Premium Beverage Package not worth the money

[bdstickks0944]

11 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

For the price they are charging, your expectations aren’t high enough, or is it because you are getting your moneys worth from the drink package?

I have every time.  That’s why we get it. 

[Luckiestmanonearth]

On 5/12/2022 at 5:42 PM, Fly and Sail said:

Since it has often been asked, here are the two different menus CLASSIC & PREMIUM.

 

I think as some stated above it depends what you usually drink. At the Martini Bar usually all drinks are made with Grey Goose or Ketel One. And I really wouldn't want to drink a Martini made with Smirnoff or Stolichnaya, maybe Tito's but yeah... $10 really makes the difference here.

What a farce !!

Jack Daniels and Makers are not premium bourbons.  May as well go with the Jim Beam

[Luckiestmanonearth]

On 5/27/2022 at 3:40 PM, JeanieC,Aston said:

Hi

I went into my local Asda supermarket today,the wine isle was bursting,the spirit shelves were full.

And the beer & Lager aisle the boxes were piled high.

 

And yet on my April Silhouette cruise never had one can of Brits/Irish staples of Guinness or John Smiths bitter,,they never had any on the cruise after either.

 

But someone fancied a tot of bourbon,,,,,

On our cruise in January, they ran out of different premium liquors halfway through the cruise (that should never happen).

I also don’t agree it’s a supply chain issue but one of cutbacks due to lower passenger counts 

[drakes2]

34 minutes ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

I also don’t agree it’s a supply chain issue but one of cutbacks due to lower passenger counts 

For sure its not a supply chain issue.  I live in Canada and get some fantastic Cali wines albeit sometimes quantities can be limited in certain stores but I can always hunt them down elsewhere. 

[Whinenowine]

1 hour ago, Luckiestmanonearth said:

What a farce !!

Jack Daniels and Makers are not premium bourbons.  May as well go with the Jim Beam

oh I fully agree!  Makers is what I drink as a last resort; not horrible of course, but not exactly setting the world afire.  But to be fair, I've watched the prices of wines, bourbons, tequilas, etc skyrocket over the last 3 years.  Suddenly even Blantons is 'rare' and allocated....used to pick it up for $60/bottle and now I'm lucky to see it at $100 (which I refuse to pay anyway)., The very nice Knob Creek 12 year was originally released at $45-50/bt 2 years ago and now it's hard to find below $65.  

 

Which is why X needs to add an 'ultra/super premium' drinks package for these more expensive (and I'd argue 'better') spirits.

[Whinenowine]

25 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

For sure its not a supply chain issue.  I live in Canada and get some fantastic Cali wines albeit sometimes quantities can be limited in certain stores but I can always hunt them down elsewhere. 

Drakes2--I hear you and (mostly) agree.  Much of the issues listed in this thread are due to.X trying to find their 'sea legs' when it came to partial capacity pandemic cruises, and then suddenly fully booked cruises.  They handled that shift....poorly, to put it mildly.  But I have to say as an 'avid' alcohol consumer that finding wines/spirts for me is doable but not easy, as you point out above.  Trying to find it for 20,000-30,000 people every week is several orders of magnitude harder. They can't scale up to those high volumes right now; at least not at a price that most people would pay.  I just wonder what we'll see in, say, a year's time when (god willing) both cruising and the supply chain are more normalized again.

[drakes2]

22 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

Drakes2--I hear you and (mostly) agree.  Much of the issues listed in this thread are due to.X trying to find their 'sea legs' when it came to partial capacity pandemic cruises, and then suddenly fully booked cruises.  They handled that shift....poorly, to put it mildly.  But I have to say as an 'avid' alcohol consumer that finding wines/spirts for me is doable but not easy, as you point out above.  Trying to find it for 20,000-30,000 people every week is several orders of magnitude harder. They can't scale up to those high volumes right now; at least not at a price that most people would pay.  I just wonder what we'll see in, say, a year's time when (god willing) both cruising and the supply chain are more normalized again.

I really miss the nice cabs from the past such as La Crema  which used to be on the premium package.  I once had a couple bottles left in my cabin  upon embarkation (November 2019). 

[Jokerkimmie]

Can anyone advise if the upgrade cost applies to the last day of the cruise when we disembark or it is charged to the last full day? 

[Seacrab]

5 minutes ago, Jokerkimmie said:

Can anyone advise if the upgrade cost applies to the last day of the cruise when we disembark or it is charged to the last full day? 

Last full day. Think of it as nights rather than days. 

[Jokerkimmie]

Thank you for the clarification 😀

[rachiem]

No Conundrum or Decoy on the Edge last week. 
we were offered Château Soverain as the alternative but it definitely wasn’t as nice. 
wont bother upgrading for our next cruise as we tend to do this for the red wines. 
now that we can take onboard 3 bottles each, we will do that instead 

[drakes2]

Just now, rachiem said:

No Conundrum or Decoy on the Edge last week. 
we were offered Château Soverain as the alternative but it definitely wasn’t as nice. 
wont bother upgrading for our next cruise as we tend to do this for the red wines. 
now that we can take onboard 3 bottles each, we will do that instead 

On our February Edge cruise they had lots of Decoy. At least they offered yet a decent replacement red. I was offered Morphe or Reservado from Chile and I paid for the Premium package.  This was on an 11 night Eclipse Hawaii cruise.

[Seacrab]

5 minutes ago, rachiem said:

No Conundrum or Decoy on the Edge last week. 
we were offered Château Soverain as the alternative but it definitely wasn’t as nice. 
wont bother upgrading for our next cruise as we tend to do this for the red wines. 
now that we can take onboard 3 bottles each, we will do that instead 

Château Souverain is grim. It’s like a $6, 85pt wine compared to Decoy which is a $15, 89pt wine. I wish celebrity would offer on-par substitutions

[rachiem]

1 hour ago, Seacrab said:

Château Souverain is grim. It’s like a $6, 85pt wine compared to Decoy which is a $15, 89pt wine. I wish celebrity would offer on-par substitutions

Yes, this was in Luminae too. He kept trying to sing it’s praises, 1st press etc but it really wasn’t as nice as previous wines. 

[cmoore5524]

25 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

On our February Edge cruise they had lots of Decoy. At least they offered yet a decent replacement red. I was offered Morphe or Reservado from Chile and I paid for the Premium package.  This was on an 11 night Eclipse Hawaii cruise.

 

Reservado is the worst.  The only Chardonnay offered in Oceanview Cafe at lunch was Reservado and I took one sip and couldn't drink it.  It's been on both the Summit and Equinox in February and March.  They need to find a better offering.  I put that in my post cruise survey on both cruises but not sure they care as I'm guessing they like the cost of it to them.

[zitsky]

I swear to God.  If Celebrity offers me another $20 glass of wine I think I’ll scream.  😱

[cmoore5524]

26 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I swear to God.  If Celebrity offers me another $20 glass of wine I think I’ll scream.  😱

I'm not sure I understand your thoughts behind your comment.  Are you upset that you have to pay above the $15 premium beverage package price or something else?

[padgman1]

What would people be willing to pay for a drink package that contained $30-40/ bottle wines and $ 50-70/ bottle bourbons and scotches as “all you can drink” selections?

 

The cost might be more per day than your room cost…in the Retreat.

 

I do agree with Whinenowine, a third drink package level with more interesting and appealing bourbons/scotches/whiskeys would be welcome.

 

Don’t knock Makers’ Mark too much or my father ( production manager in the 1990’s and early 2000’s) might haunt you from the grave…

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, cmoore5524 said:

I'm not sure I understand your thoughts behind your comment.  Are you upset that you have to pay above the $15 premium beverage package price or something else?

Last time they told me the premium wine was not available.  I said thank you so much!  I prefer the $5 wine.  /s

Edited May 29, 2022 by zitsky

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, padgman1 said:

What would people be willing to pay for a drink package that contained $30-40/ bottle wines and $ 50-70/ bottle bourbons and scotches as “all you can drink” selections?

 

The cost might be more per day than your room cost…in the Retreat.

 

I do agree with Whinenowine, a third drink package level with more interesting and appealing bourbons/scotches/whiskeys would be welcome.

 

Don’t knock Makers’ Mark too much or my father ( production manager in the 1990’s and early 2000’s) might haunt you from the grave…

I like the idea of a super premium level if they could try first to have their alcohol in stock before we start raising prices?

Edited May 29, 2022 by zitsky

[markeb]

 

 

8 hours ago, Whinenowine said:

oh I fully agree!  Makers is what I drink as a last resort; not horrible of course, but not exactly setting the world afire.  But to be fair, I've watched the prices of wines, bourbons, tequilas, etc skyrocket over the last 3 years.  Suddenly even Blantons is 'rare' and allocated....used to pick it up for $60/bottle and now I'm lucky to see it at $100 (which I refuse to pay anyway)., The very nice Knob Creek 12 year was originally released at $45-50/bt 2 years ago and now it's hard to find below $65.  

 

Which is why X needs to add an 'ultra/super premium' drinks package for these more expensive (and I'd argue 'better') spirits.

 

I'm trying to figure out what they'd have to charge for those. Bourbon has become allocated, and generally sells "at market". That's one of the few advantages of living in an ABC state. They may not get much of an allocation, but they sell it at a standard markup. Blanton's sells for 59.99, but it's rarely and randomly in stock. They're not going to get cases of it on the ship (or any highly allocated bourbon). So do they randomly put Wellers or Pappy on ships and charge market for it? Then everyone will be complaining that something that's never in stock anywhere isn't in stock on the ship!

[padgman1]

2 hours ago, markeb said:

 

 

 

I'm trying to figure out what they'd have to charge for those. Bourbon has become allocated, and generally sells "at market". That's one of the few advantages of living in an ABC state. They may not get much of an allocation, but they sell it at a standard markup. Blanton's sells for 59.99, but it's rarely and randomly in stock. They're not going to get cases of it on the ship (or any highly allocated bourbon). So do they randomly put Wellers or Pappy on ships and charge market for it? Then everyone will be complaining that something that's never in stock anywhere isn't in stock on the ship!

There is not enough of those bourbons to have any cruise lines stock them regularly, if at all.

 

Bourbons they could stock regularly (with multiple varieties) include Knob Creek , Four Roses, Elijah Craig, and 1792. Heck, even Wild Turkey 101 and Makers 46 would be nice. Then have one super premium bourbon like Col. Taylor, Bookers/Bakers, Blantons, or other and have a surcharge for it . 
 

 

[Whinenowine]

6 hours ago, padgman1 said:

 

 

I do agree with Whinenowine, a third drink package level with more interesting and appealing bourbons/scotches/whiskeys would be welcome.

 

Don’t knock Makers’ Mark too much or my father ( production manager in the 1990’s and early 2000’s) might haunt you from the grave…

god bless him!  I'm a wheated bourbon fan and Maker is ok--but I really miss Weller 12yr at $30 (or even $60)....I'm not paying $300 for it though!  I really (!) like the new Makers 101.  I prefer higher proof bourbons, but not quite barrel strength.  So Makers 101 and Blantons Gold are  my sweet spot. I'll go for a Bookers now and then but it'd better have a big rock in it or else I'll be under the table (or maybe dancing on top of it....which no one wants to see, esp not DW).  🙂

[Whinenowine]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

I like the idea of a super premium level if they could try first to have their alcohol in stock before we start raising prices?

Amen, brother!  That's a good first step.  I'd definitely pay another $20-30/day if they can consistently provide spirits/wines in that higher price range--like $50-60/bt.  Conversely, if they'd allow a single bottle of BYO spirts rather than wine, I'm fine w/ that too!

[markeb]

2 hours ago, padgman1 said:

There is not enough of those bourbons to have any cruise lines stock them regularly, if at all.

 

Bourbons they could stock regularly (with multiple varieties) include Knob Creek , Four Roses, Elijah Craig, and 1792. Heck, even Wild Turkey 101 and Makers 46 would be nice. Then have one super premium bourbon like Col. Taylor, Bookers/Bakers, Blantons, or other and have a surcharge for it . 
 

 

 

So, despite previous comments on this thread, there's a supply chain issue? Supply chain management begins with raw materials and goes to distribution to the final consumer. 

 

I just assume any Sazerac/Buffalo Trace product is allocated, although they're not all. And for the past two plus years the cruise lines have been a horrible customer, and retail sales of wine and spirits have grown. I'd have to guess that Celebrity (and most other cruise lines) have lost their place in line for allocations, and they're going to want a deal. If they don't want to pay what retailers will pay, I'd sell my product to Total Wine or the state ABC stores, frankly, and let the cruise ships stew!

 

Makers 46 would probably be the easiest add to up the whisk(e)y selection. I don't know about Four Roses or Elijah Craig's production, but I've seen both of them off the shelf around here at various times. Wild Turkey 101 "should" be available. And Wellers and Pappy are just an exaggeration.