Price of soft drinks.

[Cruisin'allovertheworld]

Hello and thanks in advance, all.

 

In 25 days I'll be boarding the Queen Elizabeth and I am considering if a drinks package would be a good idea.

 

I don't drink alcohol, but I'd like to have 2ish cans (375ml) of soft drink per day (or equivalent) on my holiday.

 

Do all people in the same stateroom have to have a package if one person has one?

How much does a can or glass of soft drink cost onboard?

 

I will only drink sugar free varieties- are they available onboard? 

 

I assume it is American Dollars onboard? (I'm Australian)

 

Is it possible to bring your own soft drink?

 

Thanks,

Kathleen

 

 

[tv24]

12 minutes ago, Cruisin'allovertheworld said:

Hello and thanks in advance, all.

 

In 25 days I'll be boarding the Queen Elizabeth and I am considering if a drinks package would be a good idea.

 

I don't drink alcohol, but I'd like to have 2ish cans (375ml) of soft drink per day (or equivalent) on my holiday.

 

Do all people in the same stateroom have to have a package if one person has one?

How much does a can or glass of soft drink cost onboard?

 

I will only drink sugar free varieties- are they available onboard? 

 

I assume it is American Dollars onboard? (I'm Australian)

 

Is it possible to bring your own soft drink?

 

Thanks,

Kathleen

 

 

I can answer a couple of your questions.  You can bring cans of soda on board, if you don't mind managing the weight in your bag.  You can bring them on board in each port.  Charges on board arein US Dollars.

[Winifred 22]

Cans are about 4$ and everyone in the cabin has to have the same package . Canned soft drinks are not usually available on the cheapest soft drink packages. You have to have soft drinks from the fountain machine at the bar which are about 3$ for a small.

[majortom10]

Any drinks you bring onboard have to be consumed in your cabin and not around the ship.

[TouchstoneFeste]

Sugar-free drinks are available everywhere. Mostly you will see bottles, not cans. Two years ago right after the pandemic restart they actually ran out of bottled/canned but it was still available in the lounges from the "tap" (=fountain). This wasn't a problem on our most recent crossing.

[Pushpit]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Any drinks you bring onboard have to be consumed in your cabin and not around the ship.

Yes, but if you go around with a 500ml bottle of sparkling water or soda (e.g. to Insights or concerts) no-one is going to stop you. 

==

For the cheaper soft drink package, costing USD 10.80 a night at the moment. Yes that would have to apply to everyone in the same stateroom, including children. The thing to realise is that they are not bargains. Cunard makes a big margin from drinks and indeed drink packages. The well / tap / fountain / draught drinks are USD2.90 for a 250 or 300 ml glass, and there's a 15% service charge on top. So you need to be getting through 4 of these a day to make much of a benefit, and if you have some port days plus the last day, you will soon see that you have  to drinking a fair bit to make a package sensible, given a 25 day cruise - perhaps 6 such drinks a day? I am teetotal, but I do go for the soft drink package for sailings between 2 and 8 days, more out of convenience given my OBC, but it's not saving me money.

 

The Premium Soft Drinks is USD 36 per night, so you are going to be needing something like 4 coffees, 2 mocktails, 4 x Pepsi a night to break even on a longer sailing. As I say these packages are primarily to benefit Carnival's shareholders (of which I am one, so my thanks in anticipation), but not you. You do get sparkling water on this, rather than soda water.

 

For sugar free on the $10.80 per night package, that would be soda water and lemonade, also Diet Pepsi. The draught Pepsi does have sugar in the well / draught version, whereas the tins and mini bottles have sweeteners if taken from Southampton, Canada or USA (but sugar if sourced from some other locations). Tonic water I think is  saccharin as opposed to artificial sweeteners and if sugar is 7% sugars anyway compared to 12% or so for colas and similar. You also get orange and apple juice from concentrate (so natural sugar) and also orange and lime cordials and squash (sweeteners I think, but haven't checked). So you can ask for soda water and lime cordial, for example.

 

The $10.80 package is supposedly just for the 250-300ml glasses, but particularly at meal times the sommelier will generally supply a 500ml glass - less work for them I guess.

 

For the $36 package, the bottled drinks are from Fevertree and Fentimans - they are generally with sugar or natural sweeteners such as sucrose or fructose.

Edited December 28, 2023 by Pushpit

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Pushpit said:

Yes, but if you go around with a 500ml bottle of sparkling water or soda (e.g. to Insights or concerts) no-one is going to stop you. 

==

For the cheaper soft drink package, costing USD 10.80 a night at the moment. Yes that would have to apply to everyone in the same stateroom, including children. The thing to realise is that they are not bargains. Cunard makes a big margin from drinks and indeed drink packages. The well / tap / fountain / draught drinks are USD2.90 for a 250 or 300 ml glass, and there's a 15% service charge on top. So you need to be getting through 4 of these a day to make much of a benefit, and if you have some port days plus the last day, you will soon see that you have  to drinking a fair bit to make a package sensible, given a 25 day cruise - perhaps 6 such drinks a day? I am teetotal, but I do go for the soft drink package for sailings between 2 and 8 days, more out of convenience given my OBC, but it's not saving me money.

 

The Premium Soft Drinks is USD 36 per night, so you are going to be needing something like 4 coffees, 2 mocktails, 4 x Pepsi a night to break even on a longer sailing. As I say these packages are primarily to benefit Carnival's shareholders (of which I am one, so my thanks in anticipation), but not you. You do get sparkling water on this, rather than soda water.

 

For sugar free on the $10.80 per night package, that would be soda water and lemonade, also Diet Pepsi. The draught Pepsi does have sugar in the well / draught version, whereas the tins and mini bottles have sweeteners if taken from Southampton, Canada or USA (but sugar if sourced from some other locations). Tonic water I think is  saccharin as opposed to artificial sweeteners and if sugar is 7% sugars anyway compared to 12% or so for colas and similar. You also get orange and apple juice from concentrate (so natural sugar) and also orange and lime cordials and squash (sweeteners I think, but haven't checked). So you can ask for soda water and lime cordial, for example.

 

The $10.80 package is supposedly just for the 250-300ml glasses, but particularly at meal times the sommelier will generally supply a 500ml glass - less work for them I guess.

 

For the $36 package, the bottled drinks are from Fevertree and Fentimans - they are generally with sugar or natural sweeteners such as sucrose or fructose.

Well aware of pricing and T&Cs for drinks packages on Cunard.