Drink Package queries

[snaefell]

OK hardly a new topic,I am sure these questions have been asked before but I am struggling to find answers to them!

We are booked on Arcadia on her Med cruise starting May 14th,we have always avoided drink packages in the past as we have not considered them good value BUT this is a 19 night cruise involving 8 sea days,the price of two drink packages comes to £1500+ which at first seems obscene but if we each were to drink £100 worth on each sea day we would make it worth while & that doesn't seem entirely impossible but we have a couple of queries.

One is I don't drink alcohol(I don't drink soda or coffee either for that matter!) so I could use the £19.95 drink package which includes Low/Alcohol Free Beers which I do drink,does anybody know if it is permissable for us to have different drink packages,if I try to order on line it makes it the same for both passengers & P&O Customer Service have to date failed to reply to any of my emails on the subject(surprise eh!).

One more(possible stupid) question,is the price shown for the drink package a true price or is there a percentage to add on for tips?

Thanks in advance for any help,sorry to bore you with this subject again guys!

[Pine Man]

5 minutes ago, snaefell said:

does anybody know if it is permissable for us to have different drink packages,

All occupants of a cabin have to have the same drinks package.

 

7 minutes ago, snaefell said:

a true price or is there a percentage to add on for tips?

Compulsory tipping was abolished on P&O several years ago.

[jeanlyon]

I am trying to work out what somebody would consume to spend £100 per day each?  If you don't drink alcohol, it cannot possibly be worth it.  I know we are all different, but I have the occasional proper coffee.  We both have a drink in the bar before dinner and we have a bottle of wine with the meal.  Our bill at the end of 19 nights is about £700 roughly

 

So can you work it out using what you consume?  Doesn't sound likely that the package would be worthwhile.

 

also, what about if you have a day or two, either not well, or being off the ship.

Edited December 29, 2022 by jeanlyon

[FangedRose]

I'm guessing, with your reference to tipping, that you are new to P&O. Drink price are much lower than other cruise lines. I'm told that it's on par with London bar prices (but as I've never had a drink in a London bar I can't verify).

[snaefell]

Thanks for the replies guys.

We have been with P&O before but it was about 5 years ago now,I knew the daily tipping had been done away with but wasn't sure if there was still an amount added to drink prices.

As strange as it may seem it can be dearer to drink low alcohol/alcohol free beer than normal beer,it isn't unknown for bars to charge £8+ a pint for LA beer,,just 5 of those a day on a 19 night cruise would reach the price of the ultimate drinks package never mind the alcohol free one so maybe it isn't such a bad deal,trouble is if I was to do that every day I would be spending half the cruise in the bathroom!😂

[FangedRose]

I would add that there is no extra charge for drinks on top of those shown. (That is illegal here, the price shown is the price paid).

 

But, more importantly, there are numerous restrictions on the drinks included in the package. Only certain beers, very few cocktails included under the price cap, no sharing, only small glasses of wine, and a 15min 'cool down between orders. Anything ordered outside of the package is charged at full prce (with asmall discount), not just the difference. That's only a few of the restrictions that come to mind. I'm sure others will have more.

[BertieRulesOK]

Just jumping on this thread to ask a related question.  I'm trying to keep my on board spend as low as possible (within my OBC credit).  I am aware you can take a litre each of alcohol on board plus soft drinks.  Once you are on board, are there things like happy hours in some of the venues, or other pay-as-you-go drinks offers? 

 

NB I'm not interested in the drinks package due to the lack of choice and bad pricing.

[majortom10]

19 minutes ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Just jumping on this thread to ask a related question.  I'm trying to keep my on board spend as low as possible (within my OBC credit).  I am aware you can take a litre each of alcohol on board plus soft drinks.  Once you are on board, are there things like happy hours in some of the venues, or other pay-as-you-go drinks offers? 

 

NB I'm not interested in the drinks package due to the lack of choice and bad pricing.

To my knowledge there are no happy hours or drinks offers on P&O. The prices of drinks is exactly the same price whichever bar and at any time of the day.

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, majortom10 said:

To my knowledge there are no happy hours or drinks offers on P&O. The prices of drinks is exactly the same price whichever bar and at any time of the day.

I don't recall any happy hour events on P&O, but to be fair their drinks are well priced when compared to many other cruise lines, they did do a bucket of beer where 5 drinks were the price of 4 during the world cup.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, BertieRulesOK said:

Just jumping on this thread to ask a related question.  I'm trying to keep my on board spend as low as possible (within my OBC credit).  I am aware you can take a litre each of alcohol on board plus soft drinks.  Once you are on board, are there things like happy hours in some of the venues, or other pay-as-you-go drinks offers? 

 

NB I'm not interested in the drinks package due to the lack of choice and bad pricing.

No, you don't get offers. P&O gave us a voucher each for a free drink. We take on board a couple of bottles and some water/ soft drinks. We take a bottle,  or 2 on  board at port stops. You are supposed to declare then when going back on board......yeah..right😂

[Megabear2]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:32 PM, snaefell said:

Thanks for the replies guys.

We have been with P&O before but it was about 5 years ago now,I knew the daily tipping had been done away with but wasn't sure if there was still an amount added to drink prices.

As strange as it may seem it can be dearer to drink low alcohol/alcohol free beer than normal beer,it isn't unknown for bars to charge £8+ a pint for LA beer,,just 5 of those a day on a 19 night cruise would reach the price of the ultimate drinks package never mind the alcohol free one so maybe it isn't such a bad deal,trouble is if I was to do that every day I would be spending half the cruise in the bathroom!😂

There was hardly any low alcohol or free beer on Britannia in the last two weeks - it is of course bottled so a pint required 2 bottles.  Cannot speak for P&O drinks package but on Princess each bottle reduced the 15 drinks so maximum was 7 1/2 pints in a day.

 

We drink better quality wines onboard mainly around the £30 level but sometimes the £50 Cloudy Bay.  I also have 3 or 4 speciality coffees a day and my husband drinks fruit Tea Pigs.  A couple of G&Ts in the evening and one or two cocktails for me plus a few pints of Peroni for my OH gave us a balance of around £150 (plus our Christmas Dinner and an additional Limelight Club visit) on top of our £610 OBC.

 

A pint of Peroni (well at least until it ran out!) was £5.30 if I recall correctly.

[Thejuggler]

As P & O don't overinflate the prices of their drinks like US lines (by a factor of at least 2) you need to do your sums to see if the drinks package is good value for money.  

 

I don't think it is.

[zap99]

20 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

There was hardly any low alcohol or free beer on Britannia in the last two weeks - it is of course bottled so a pint required 2 bottles.  Cannot speak for P&O drinks package but on Princess each bottle reduced the 15 drinks so maximum was 7 1/2 pints in a day.

 

We drink better quality wines onboard mainly around the £30 level but sometimes the £50 Cloudy Bay.  I also have 3 or 4 speciality coffees a day and my husband drinks fruit Tea Pigs.  A couple of G&Ts in the evening and one or two cocktails for me plus a few pints of Peroni for my OH gave us a balance of around £150 (plus our Christmas Dinner and an additional Limelight Club visit) on top of our £610 OBC.

 

A pint of Peroni (well at least until it ran out!) was £5.30 if I recall correctly.

On Azura next month we have £350 obc for 7 nights.  That will pretty much do us. On Iona we will have £630. DW may need to go easy on the Bailey's in the second week.

 

[doog442]

We're on Arvia in Feb. We'll take on a litre of Gin and Jack D for evening pre drinks on the balcony. 

 

Is it best to get the mixers delivered to cabin ( tonic & Coke) or add to hand luggage on embarkation then top up in ports? Happy to pay bar prices on the ship for the rest.

 

I appreciate its a new ship but if I'm not on a drinks package I drink the ships water. The last time on Britannia (2017) I asked them to empty the fridge and chilled my bottles (helps with the taste)...any issue with doing the same nowadays.

 

cheers

[Son of Anarchy]

15 hours ago, doog442 said:

We're on Arvia in Feb. We'll take on a litre of Gin and Jack D for evening pre drinks on the balcony. 

 

Is it best to get the mixers delivered to cabin ( tonic & Coke) or add to hand luggage on embarkation then top up in ports? Happy to pay bar prices on the ship for the rest.

 

I appreciate its a new ship but if I'm not on a drinks package I drink the ships water. The last time on Britannia (2017) I asked them to empty the fridge and chilled my bottles (helps with the taste)...any issue with doing the same nowadays.

 

cheers

We take our own mixers on board and top as we go.

 

Assuming that you're boarding in Barbados, depending on which flight you're on, you should have time to get plenty of mixers at the cruise terminal.

[mabellloyd]

Going on Britannia 25th February thinking of having a drinks package. We drink vodka and tonic will that be one drink or two? 

[NightWoman]

On 12/29/2022 at 4:15 PM, FangedRose said:

I would add that there is no extra charge for drinks on top of those shown. (That is illegal here, the price shown is the price paid).

 

But, more importantly, there are numerous restrictions on the drinks included in the package. Only certain beers, very few cocktails included under the price cap, no sharing, only small glasses of wine, and a 15min 'cool down between orders. Anything ordered outside of the package is charged at full prce (with asmall discount), not just the difference. That's only a few of the restrictions that come to mind. I'm sure others will have more.

What sort of numerous restrictions? 

 

On other lines drinks packages are usually included in the price and we would normally make use of them but we haven't sailed with P&O for a few years and we were considering the drinks package on our next cruise and I am interested to know what is actually included in the package.

I did manage to find a few  menus and there appeared to be quite a lot of drinks cocktails, spirits, wine and even a prosecco at £6.95 or under, so am I missing something? 

[Megabear2]

12 minutes ago, NightWoman said:

What sort of numerous restrictions? 

 

On other lines drinks packages are usually included in the price and we would normally make use of them but we haven't sailed with P&O for a few years and we were considering the drinks package on our next cruise and I am interested to know what is actually included in the package.

I did manage to find a few  menus and there appeared to be quite a lot of drinks cocktails, spirits, wine and even a prosecco at £6.95 or under, so am I missing something? 

Draft beers are restricted to certain brands as is wine. The latter is only in small glasses. Soft drinks are from fountain only, no cans or bottles.

 

15 alcoholic drinks a day limit with 15 minutes between them.

[TinyDavid]

I also think the room service bottles of spirits are good value and worth a look 

[swanseaboy]

Just off Azura and I bought the drinks package. I've been cruising for years and have never before bought it but my cruise buddy wanted to buy it. It worked out good value - my 8.5% loyalty came off it onboard. I would have several costa coffees each day, followed by Pepsi's (although another poster has said it's fountain Pepsi only, they would open a can at the bar and serve that in a glass to me). I would then have pre dinner cocktails, wine with dinner and cocktails in the nightclub. I think I made a profit on them!!! 

[NightWoman]

19 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Draft beers are restricted to certain brands as is wine. The latter is only in small glasses. Soft drinks are from fountain only, no cans or bottles.

 

15 alcoholic drinks a day limit with 15 minutes between them.

I understand the size of the wine and the 15 drinks. But we'll wait until we board to see exactly what's included as the T&C state all drinks up to £6.95 no restrictions on what drinks you can have as long as it's not over £6.95, unless there's a different menu for the anyone with the package!! 

[Megabear2]

9 minutes ago, NightWoman said:

I understand the size of the wine and the 15 drinks. But we'll wait until we board to see exactly what's included as the T&C state all drinks up to £6.95 no restrictions on what drinks you can have as long as it's not over £6.95, unless there's a different menu for the anyone with the package!! 

I believe the lager was Fosters.  I did see a guy remonstrating he couldn't have Peroni but have no idea why that was.  Actually a large number of draft beers ran out so in the last 4 days it was take what you could get!

[Fionboard]

Drink prices have increased and, unfortunately, the cocktails I like are now over £6.95 so will continue to pay as I go!

[JeanieC,Aston]

On 1/24/2023 at 2:03 PM, Megabear2 said:

Draft beers are restricted to certain brands as is wine. The latter is only in small glasses. Soft drinks are from fountain only, no cans or bottles.

 

15 alcoholic drinks a day limit with 15 minutes between them.

I was on Britannia in November and I got cans for my Vodka & Slimline.

To answer another post above the V&T counts as one drink.

As for beers I found every beer drink on the ship was included as was the spirits.

I found only cocktails was restricted on choice.

I never saw one beer that was over the £6.95 limit,,,,indeed a pint of Peroni was £5.20.

 

My wife only drinks Prosecco,,,,at £6.25 a glass without pop or coffees or water she only needed x2 before dinner,x2 during dinner and x2 after dinner and it was quids in,and you don’t even reach half of your 15 drinks a day.

Dont forget you knock off loyalty discount,,so Atlantic at 7.5% means your DP is only about £36.50 pd.

Edited January 25, 2023 by JeanieC,Aston

[Guest ccpm]

I didn't find any restriction on wines in early January on Iona apart from not available owing to the price. If you use a bar regularly the crew seemed to get to know you I found that I could order my wine they put it though I assume but it came after approx 15 mins and they brought a large wine.