First world "problem" but here is the Elite drinks question....

[basenji56]

9 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Yep, that's what I said in a prior post. Even in the DL in the evening during the CAS HH (5 to 8 PM). We use our 5 CAS drinks thru out the ship but mainly in the evening. Usually 1 bottle of water each and the rest for alcoholic type drinks. We don't drink soda. 

I use my drinks for lattes in the morning and afternoon.  And non-alcoholic drinks by the pool.  Sparkling water during dinner.  I cruise both Celebrity and Royal.  When I am on Celebrity again next month, I will have to plan a bit more.  I can get my latte at the Elite breakfast.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by basenji56

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, basenji56 said:

I use my drinks for lattes in the morning and afternoon.  And non-alcoholic drinks by the pool.  Sparkling water during dinner.  I cruise both Celebrity and Royal.  When I am Celebrity again, I will have to plan a bit more.  I can get my latte at the Elite breakfast.

 

If you don't have a BP you do have to get a little more creative with your drink schedule if you don't plan on purchasing drinks. 😉 Same with RC if you don't purchase a BP and only going to use the CAS drinks.  

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

Looks like you replied after I edited. But yes soda, bottled water goes against your CAS allotted drinks unless you tell the server different. Not included in the cruise fare. 

Yes I replied before your edit.  Thanks for the info.

I think X HH would work better for us as we could get our bottled water and sodas for use the next days plus a drink or 2 and carry wine to dinner. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by jelayne

[Georgia_Peaches]

1 hour ago, sdnich said:

Georgia_peaches We did a cruise in March without the package and our bill at the end of our 10 day cruise for beverages was $200 . We do enjoy our cocktails.We brought on 4 bottles of wine also bought a 2 of bottles of wine in Eden with 20%off. We also booked a cabana and received a bottle of vodka and mixers also 6 beers. Most of the vodka and a couple beers went back to our room to enjoy!! At HH we enjoyed a martini(or 2) then brought a glass of wine to dinner.A couple nights when we we went back to the martini bar we would have another glass .A few nights the did not charge us for our nightcap.Maybe because we always sat at the bar and got to know the bartender and we always tipped.?

Also enjoyed many cappuccinos that are included as elite plus .

Our next cruise next year we have the bev package booked before we did our BCC cruise but would not have a problem going without the bev package in the future.

also if you drink beer the sell them by the bucket and is much cheaper!

We also had one bottle of our 4 bottles brought on left that we enjoyed in our last night at the hotel!

Wow!  Thank you for this!!  I feel very encouraged...especially about the cabana rental.  I was looking at renting one for one of the port days but I didn't see that it came with a bottle of booze and beers.  Is this standard for all cabana rentals?  I think I may need to look into this option more closely.  Right now in the cruise planner it is discounted to $89.  My confusion is that the description says it's not a per person rate but when you add to cart, it says $89 pp.  One more question, if you don't mind...is the embarkation day allowance of wine still 2 per person or has that changed to 2 per stateroom...this will be a good option for us if we can get our UBER to stop at a grocery along the way.

[WestLakeGirl]

2 bottles of wine per person on embarkation day

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Wow!  Thank you for this!!  I feel very encouraged...especially about the cabana rental.  I was looking at renting one for one of the port days but I didn't see that it came with a bottle of booze and beers.  Is this standard for all cabana rentals?  I think I may need to look into this option more closely.  Right now in the cruise planner it is discounted to $89.  My confusion is that the description says it's not a per person rate but when you add to cart, it says $89 pp.  One more question, if you don't mind...is the embarkation day allowance of wine still 2 per person or has that changed to 2 per stateroom...this will be a good option for us if we can get our UBER to stop at a grocery along the way.

We booked on the Edge and price was $135 for 1/2 cabana for 2 people.    Booking instructions were to select 1 guest name to book the reservation.  
 

 

[sdnich]

Georgia _peaches we booked a cabana alcove on the celebrity solstice on a port day and I believe it was $99 and that included up to four people. On that cruise we had 4 people and the beverage package so we took the bottle of champagne. On the edge we took the Cabana for two people on sea day and I believe it was $175  well worth it with the extra perks when we did not have the beverage package ! And the bonus as we liked having a designated seating area that was comfortable and had a great service !! but it was only charged as a one person price if that makes sense. Even though it says per person.

We booked it for the third day (Edge)because we wanted to see where the cabanas were and if we were going to like it because we could cancel 24 hours in advance.

 

what shift are you on??

[miched]

They have free liquor tastings nightly  in the duty free shop.  
 

Most times you can get free drinks in the casino when playing or a promotion for a brand of liquor.  
 

Get a free glass of bubbly at the art auctions and some of the stores during a promotion. 

Buy a bucket of beer.  Get 6 for the price of 5.  Tell them you don’t want them opened.  
 

Sit at the Martini bar when they are doing their Flair Show and get one of the drinks  they pass out after. 
 

If you see me on a cruise follow me around as I leave many drinks after one sip.  😱🤗

I will try a beer and it doesn’t taste good, or get a drink from the menu and I don’t like it I will leave them.   
 

Go to the Elite Breakfast and get Bloody Mary’s, Sparking wine or a Mimosa.   I don’t remember if they serve Bellinis.  
 

Use a cane that is actually a flask filled with liquor. 👍🙄.  I often wonder if it would be possible to smuggle liquor on board by using a walker that is actually a flask filled with liquor.   
 

Many years ago I was at a NFL game.   There was 4 guys next to me and one of them asked for the binoculars because he wanted to get a closer look at the cheerleaders that were now in front of us.    He took the caps off  and put them to his eyes and ended up with liquor pouring into them.  He didn’t know it was a flask.  The other 3 guys couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the game and kept ribbing him.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

[miched]

1 hour ago, WestLakeGirl said:

2 bottles of wine per person on embarkation day

2 in the carry on and 2 in each checked.  👍

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Georgia_Peaches]

31 minutes ago, sdnich said:

what shift are you on??

Thank you for the info. Sounds like it’s a great deal. We are on Equinox. 

[jean87510]

3 hours ago, jelayne said:

Haven’t been on Royal in about 7 or 8 years, what about  cans of soda and bottled water?  Do you have to use your 4 free drinks for those or are they included in your cruise price?

It depends on the ship, bartender... In my limited experience as Diamond on 7 cruises, we were never charged for cans of soda or bottled water.  We also got drinks from Diamond lounge.  And our 1x in the Suite lounge.  

The first sailing I was Elite, it was a port intensive cruise where we were drinking on the island so I didn't mind a 2 hr cocktail hr.  But overall, Royal is hands down much better with the drink rewards.

[miched]

What category are you in?   Have you considered booking  AQ?   The price includes the internet, gratuities and classic drink pack, plus dining in Blu.  Sometimes the difference considering what you get isn’t that much more and changes  a nice cruise into a fantastic one.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[neverlaysup]

7 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

We are going to test the Elite breakfast and 5-7 cocktail hour (oh and the casino) to see how much that really offsets our dreaded bill at the end.

Don't forget to bring 2 bottles of wine per person, this should also help defray the cost a bit.

[neverlaysup]

5 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Excellent idea!  I've read a few reports of slow bar service in the MDR.  Wonder how/if this applies to the wine sommelier.  I suppose it will vary by ship but if I order a bottle of wine to drink with dinner, I'd like it to arrive prior to the starter.  Maybe this is where I'd be sure I had a glass of wine in hand when entering the MDR...just some keyboard musings...

On our TA in October (Silhouette), the wine service in the MDR was horrible. There was a night or two when I didn't have any wine until my halfway through my main course. We had a drink package and are Elite so I just visited the bar before dinner and got a couple of walkers because otherwise we may have died of dehydration. In all of our sailings post covid, this is the one area on the dozen or so cruises we have taken that has been pretty consistently bad. This has been in the MDR, BLU and Luminae so it's not just one dining room.

[Georgia_Peaches]

27 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

On our TA in October (Silhouette), the wine service in the MDR was horrible. There was a night or two when I didn't have any wine until my halfway through my main course. We had a drink package and are Elite so I just visited the bar before dinner and got a couple of walkers because otherwise we may have died of dehydration. In all of our sailings post covid, this is the one area on the dozen or so cruises we have taken that has been pretty consistently bad. This has been in the MDR, BLU and Luminae so it's not just one dining room.

This is exactly what I am afraid of!!  A result of still being understaffed?  Or do you think it was something else?

[miched]

I don’t know what others expect for drink service but I have never had a problem.  We were on the Beyond in March in  Luminae.   Did we get served drinks as soon as we sat down?  No.  It was no different that any land based restaurant.  It was in a reasonable time and we weren’t lacking.  The sommelier kept our glasses full after he got our order 

 

When in the buffet for lunch there  were times where the service could have been better but we eventually got served.   Sometimes longer than we wanted  but it is what it is.  They do a great job with all of the passengers they have to service and everyone can’t be served right now.  No matter what you think you are not their only customer,  they also have others to take care of.  After taking your order they may also have to deal with the service bar.  

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[jelayne]

48 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

On our TA in October (Silhouette), the wine service in the MDR was horrible. There was a night or two when I didn't have any wine until my halfway through my main course. We had a drink package and are Elite so I just visited the bar before dinner and got a couple of walkers because otherwise we may have died of dehydration. In all of our sailings post covid, this is the one area on the dozen or so cruises we have taken that has been pretty consistently bad. This has been in the MDR, BLU and Luminae so it's not just one dining room.

We have not been on the Silhouette but have had excellent to good sommelier service in Blu, Luminae and the occasions we have been in the MDR.

[sdnich]

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Thank you for the info. Sounds like it’s a great deal. We are on Equinox. 

I just saw my last post and glad you knew I was not wanting to know what shift you were on 🤣

[Georgia_Peaches]

17 minutes ago, sdnich said:

I just saw my last post and glad you knew I was not wanting to know what shift you were on 🤣

Have to admit, I LOLed!

[neverlaysup]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

We have not been on the Silhouette but have had excellent to good sommelier service in Blu, Luminae and the occasions we have been in the MDR.

I’m not sure if it’s a staffing issue or not. The service in BLU and Luminae was better than the MDR and it may just boil down to the fact they don’t have enough sommeliers. The last cruise was by far the worst to the point that I honestly felt ignored, despite trying to be as nice and friendly as possible. I did mention it a few nights into the cruise and my waiter started pouring wine for us. I also started bringing a full glass of wine in with me knowing that the somm was handing more tables than they probably should have. 

[the penguins]

17 hours ago, Aldeya said:

Agree completely! Much better at Royal. At Celebrity it would feel like you are sneaking a drink in against the rules!  Ridiculous rule for grown ups who earned this perk by cruising with this line...

You are over thinking this.

Bring a drink in to the MDR

Place your meal order.

Send your other half to get your next drink whilst you relax.

Repeat step 3 as needed or the time runs out.

😀😂😀

 

[smtcan]

9 minutes ago, the penguins said:

You are over thinking this.

Bring a drink in to the MDR

Place your meal order.

Send your other half to get your next drink whilst you relax.

Repeat step 3 as needed or the time runs out.

😀😂😀

 

Or until your other half runs out.😀😀😀

 

But seriously … after a couple of evenings, the waiter in Sky Lounge would come over with the Pinot Grigio bottle and fill my glass almost to the brim to take to dinner.  We booked 7pm dinner every night. We also got a couple of unopened cans of water each evening and friends got soda without any problem.

 

With that, and free lattes at Cafe al Baccio we had no need to get a drink package.

 

 

 

[the penguins]

21 minutes ago, smtcan said:

Or until your other half runs out.😀😀😀

 

But seriously … after a couple of evenings, the waiter in Sky Lounge would come over with the Pinot Grigio bottle and fill my glass almost to the brim to take to dinner.  We booked 7pm dinner every night. We also got a couple of unopened cans of water each evening and friends got soda without any problem.

 

With that, and free lattes at Cafe al Baccio we had no need to get a drink package.

 

 

 

The problem for the original poster is they have a very early dining slot so your system doesnt work for them. Personally as we don't drink any alcohol we never have to face this situation.

[smtcan]

9 minutes ago, the penguins said:

The problem for the original poster is they have a very early dining slot so your system doesnt work for them. Personally as we don't drink any alcohol we never have to face this situation.

If they see the Maitre d’ as soon as they board they can change their time if that is what they want. 

[horseymike]

if I wanted to take advantage of the elite HH I would reshcudule my dining time.

Bon Voyage.