Drink Package buy one get one half off

[closecruiser]

In my planner for 3 nite cruise they are offering the drink package for buy one get one 50% off.  Shows $77.99 for the price now.  Says price reflects discount. Regular price says $105.00  Just wondering if I can get a better price on board with my D+ discount.  Haven't sailed RCL in quite a bit, been sailing Celebrity and do the all inclusive.  

Thank you.....

[firefly333]

You get 5 drink vouchers free per day with D+. I havent seen a discount on the drink pkg. Just wine.

 

It was the same price onboard for me, first day was buy one, 2nd half off. ..so no biggie price.

[Surfguyxxx]

That seems high; with D+ as firefly suggested, I'd use that first.  After that you can buy regular and it would still be a heck of a lot cheaper.  🥂

 

[little britain]

10 minutes ago, closecruiser said:

In my planner for 3 nite cruise they are offering the drink package for buy one get one 50% off.  Shows $77.99 for the price now.  Says price reflects discount. Regular price says $105.00  Just wondering if I can get a better price on board with my D+ discount.  Haven't sailed RCL in quite a bit, been sailing Celebrity and do the all inclusive.  

Thank you.....

D+ get 30% discount off the on board price for the deluxe package. 
7n cruise incl 18% tips was $735.14 on Wonder and 30% bought it down to $514.60

Edited August 1, 2022 by little britain

[closecruiser]

11 minutes ago, little britain said:

D+ get 30% discount off the on board price for the deluxe package. 
7n cruise incl 18% tips was $735.14 on Wonder and 30% bought it down to $514.60

This is only a quick 3 nite cruise.  I just can't decide to buy it now or wait...Good savings for you though.

[poocher]

I would think it would be less expensive to just pay OOP for drinks over and above your 5 free D+ drinks.

[cruiseguy1016]

42 minutes ago, closecruiser said:

In my planner for 3 nite cruise they are offering the drink package for buy one get one 50% off.  Shows $77.99 for the price now.  Says price reflects discount. Regular price says $105.00  Just wondering if I can get a better price on board with my D+ discount.  Haven't sailed RCL in quite a bit, been sailing Celebrity and do the all inclusive.  

Thank you.....

 

Look at the final, all-in price. I'm betting it will be $77.99 per person. You won't get that 50% off the $77.99 price. $78 per person is an average price per person for the beverage package. Royal tries to be sneaky to trick you into buying it. They raise the price and then offer a discount so it looks like you are getting a huge bargain. When you add it all up, the final price per person is the same as it was before the price increase. At that price, you are going to need to drink 6 or 7 drinks per day IN ADDITION TO the 5 freebies you get as a D+ member.

Edited August 1, 2022 by cruiseguy1016

[Belgian fry]

I've had two mails about this and each time the system tries to bill me the full price!

[closecruiser]

50 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

Look at the final, all-in price. I'm betting it will be $77.99 per person. You won't get that 50% off the $77.99 price. $78 per person is an average price per person for the beverage package. Royal tries to be sneaky to trick you into buying it. They raise the price and then offer a discount so it looks like you are getting a huge bargain. When you add it all up, the final price per person is the same as it was before the price increase. At that price, you are going to need to drink 6 or 7 drinks per day IN ADDITION TO the 5 freebies you get as a D+ member.

I saw that when I put it in the planner....Sneaky is right. 

[poocher]

Buy one get one 50% off (of the full price) is the same as 25% off each.  A $100 package would then be $75 each using round numbers. This is pretty much in line with what I am seeing in the CP.  it also says “price reflects discount”.  So it’s not fuzzy math, it’s not deceptive.  It’s says exactly what it means.  Caveat Emptor!  We have to read!!

Edited August 1, 2022 by poocher

[flamingos]

Always look at the final price. Pay no attention to the 'sale'.

[twangster]

The key is the wording that the price shown includes the BOGO50 discount applied.  I know people don't want to see that, they want to assume the BOGO50 is applied to the price per guest that is displayed, but that is not how it works.    Words matter.  

 

Everything is relative to the onboard rate, not the last sale price someone saw last week or last month.  

 

$105 seems to be the new on board rate but that is subject to change.  Most ships offer the BOGO50 on board for day one only.  That does not combine with the onboard D+ 30% discount.  

 

Everyone pays the 18% gratuity on beverage packages in advance or onboard so that is not relevant to the math.

 

Doing the math...

 

Assuming no discounts were available, two regular guests buying the DX onboard @ $105 for 3 nights is  3 x $105 = $315 each or $630 total (before 18% gratuity).  This is the baseline price.

 

The BOGO50 is offered in the cruise planner and usually on board for day one.  BOGO50 has the first guest pay the full price $105 per night and the second guest pay half that or $52.50 per night.  Buy one at full price, get the second one half off.  The average price per night is $78.75 per guest for 3 nights, 3 x $78.75 = $236.25 per guest or $472.50 total (before 18% gratuity).

 

A price of $472.50 from the baseline $630 amounts to a 25% discount for two guests.

 

As a D+ buying it on board using the 30% D+ CAS discount...  assuming both people are D+, $105 per person per day less 30% = $73.50 per person per day, times 3 days = $220.50 per guest or $441 total (before 18% gratuity).

 

As expected $630 less 30% is $441.  

 

Yes there will be 18% gratuity added to all beverage packages either in the cruise planner or onboard.  

 

On the surface the D+ 30% discount does appear better than a BOGO50 in the cruise planner.  Your risk is the onboard rate going up by the time you get onboard.  Mariner onboard was $102 two weeks ago, on the current cruise it is $105 so the onboard rate can and will change at any time.  

[closecruiser]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

The key is the wording that the price shown includes the BOGO50 discount applied.  I know people don't want to see that, they want to assume the BOGO50 is applied to the price per guest that is displayed, but that is not how it works.    Words matter.  

 

Everything is relative to the onboard rate, not the last sale price someone saw last week or last month.  

 

$105 seems to be the new on board rate but that is subject to change.  Most ships offer the BOGO50 on board for day one only.  That does not combine with the onboard D+ 30% discount.  

 

Everyone pays the 18% gratuity on beverage packages in advance or onboard so that is not relevant to the math.

 

Doing the math...

 

Assuming no discounts were available, two regular guests buying the DX onboard @ $105 for 3 nights is  3 x $105 = $315 each or $630 total (before 18% gratuity).  This is the baseline price.

 

The BOGO50 is offered in the cruise planner and usually on board for day one.  BOGO50 has the first guest pay the full price $105 per night and the second guest pay half that or $52.50 per night.  Buy one at full price, get the second one half off.  The average price per night is $78.75 per guest for 3 nights, 3 x $78.75 = $236.25 per guest or $472.50 total (before 18% gratuity).

 

A price of $472.50 from the baseline $630 amounts to a 25% discount for two guests.

 

As a D+ buying it on board using the 30% D+ CAS discount...  assuming both people are D+, $105 per person per day less 30% = $73.50 per person per day, times 3 days = $220.50 per guest or $441 total (before 18% gratuity).

 

As expected $630 less 30% is $441.  

 

Yes there will be 18% gratuity added to all beverage packages either in the cruise planner or onboard.  

 

On the surface the D+ 30% discount does appear better than a BOGO50 in the cruise planner.  Your risk is the onboard rate going up by the time you get onboard.  Mariner onboard was $102 two weeks ago, on the current cruise it is $105 so the onboard rate can and will change at any time.  

Thanks for all the math....I really appreciate that you did that. My friend and I are going.  She is not D+, I should just bite the bullet and buy it now.  My luck is it will be higher when we get on the ship.  

Thanks again....

[twangster]

30 minutes ago, closecruiser said:

Thanks for all the math....I really appreciate that you did that. My friend and I are going.  She is not D+, I should just bite the bullet and buy it now.  My luck is it will be higher when we get on the ship.  

Thanks again....

 

Before the shutdown I was in a similar situation sharing a cabin with a Gold family member.  

 

I asked CAS how to proceed.  They suggested buying it in advance then once onboard asking the ship to refund just me and re-charge just me using my D+ discount.  The cruise was lost to the pandemic but it sounded very hokey and I wasn't at all comformatable the ship would understand and process it properly.  

 

At any rate you can purchase it now and email CAS about how to proceed.  

[poocher]

Or you could call & request the DBP for your friend & the refreshment package for you.  

[karena1]

6 hours ago, closecruiser said:

In my planner for 3 nite cruise they are offering the drink package for buy one get one 50% off.  Shows $77.99 for the price now.  Says price reflects discount. Regular price says $105.00  Just wondering if I can get a better price on board with my D+ discount.  Haven't sailed RCL in quite a bit, been sailing Celebrity and do the all inclusive.  

Thank you.....

D+ discount is 30% off, this is only 25% off.   So unless it goes to 30% off, I always buy it on the ship.  Base price is the same.

[chris153]

When you have a 5 night cruise, How many days do they charge you for the drink package?  Do they charge you for the day you board? or the day you leave?

[poocher]

Yes, the day you board, no the day you get off.

[Biker19]

9 hours ago, chris153 said:

When you have a 5 night cruise, How many days do they charge you for the drink package? 

5. 

[adolfo2]

22 hours ago, closecruiser said:

In my planner for 3 nite cruise they are offering the drink package for buy one get one 50% off.  Shows $77.99 for the price now.  Says price reflects discount. Regular price says $105.00  Just wondering if I can get a better price on board with my D+ discount.  Haven't sailed RCL in quite a bit, been sailing Celebrity and do the all inclusive.  

Thank you.....

Personally, I would stick w/included 5-free drinks and just pay extra if/when I wanted anything beyond that. It will be cheaper than the package

[myateam]

I would have loved for Twangster math to be accurate but RC does not agree. There is no 50 percent of the second person at all. It is truly a scam promotion. This is what mine is stating and yet two people are 875 plus 157 for gratuities =1033.53 at the 72.99 sale price. 
 

I thought it would be 1 at 437 and the other half off which would be 775 with gratuity! So misleading. Onboard it’s 98.00 a night so basically I’m saving 7 bucks getting it earlier smh

[firefly333]

On 8/1/2022 at 3:17 PM, poocher said:

Or you could call & request the DBP for your friend & the refreshment package for you.  

I was just reading on a certain blog about what sales we  might expect the week of Thanksgiving. I'm hoping for some special deals for planner items. Excursions could be up to 50% off instead of the regular up to 35% off and then the one I want is 15 or 10% off lol. But I think there will be some planner items on sale in a few weeks. Last year the soda pkg was super cheap.

 

He mentioned several sales for seniors on cruisefare too. 

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, myateam said:

I would have loved for Twangster math to be accurate but RC does not agree. There is no 50 percent of the second person at all. It is truly a scam promotion. This is what mine is stating and yet two people are 875 plus 157 for gratuities =1033.53 at the 72.99 sale price. 
 

I thought it would be 1 at 437 and the other half off which would be 775 with gratuity! So misleading. Onboard it’s 98.00 a night so basically I’m saving 7 bucks getting it earlier smh

Ours was the Buy One, Get one half off for MONTHS...$73.99 p/p. And then about two months before sailing, they finally dropped the price to $63.99 p/p.