Bottled water

[Summergee]

In the past we have been able to buy 6 bottles of sparkling water at a discount on the per bottle price. Is this still available? Thanks

[Pushpit]

Yes, for delivery in the stateroom. Now there is a bit of confusion here, since the room service menu has, for a long time, offered 6 bottle of Harrogate water (still, sparking or both) for US$23, which is a whole dollar off the $4 per bottle price. Then earlier this week I saw this in my QM2 stateroom, which I've not seen before, and gives a more meaty discount. PG and QG get a water bottle refill service, so this is for Britannia and Britannia Club passengers.

 

 

Edited May 16 by Pushpit

[Summergee]

Thank you

[aaaaa]

Are the bottles glass or plastic?

[Carnevale]

Is bottled water included in the beverage pkg?

[Pushpit]

8 hours ago, aaaaa said:

Are the bottles glass or plastic?

Glass.

1 hour ago, Carnevale said:

Is bottled water included in the beverage pkg?

Small bottles (330 ml) are in the premium packages, but not the 1 litre bottles. Moreover the packages don't cover the stateroom or room service, just the restaurants, bars and related venues. In the soda package then soda water from the bar fountain is included.

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, Pushpit said:

Glass.

Small bottles (330 ml) are in the premium packages, but not the 1 litre bottles. Moreover the packages don't cover the stateroom or room service, just the restaurants, bars and related venues. In the soda package then soda water from the bar fountain is included.

I love a silly question, so here goes:  Re the small bottles in the drinks package do I have to wait 15 minutes before ordering each one or if I drink one on site can I take another away?  Do these bottles have the lids on or do they remove them on delivery?

[Winifred 22]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I love a silly question, so here goes:  Re the small bottles in the drinks package do I have to wait 15 minutes before ordering each one or if I drink one on site can I take another away?  Do these bottles have the lids on or do they remove them on delivery?

If I recall you can request them unopened to take away. I am not sure about 15 min rule and how tightly it is imposed. 

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

If I recall you can request them unopened to take away. I am not sure about 15 min rule and how tightly it is imposed. 

Thank you. This drinks package thing is a whole new world to me on Cunard and a bit of a minefield everywhere! Celebrity let me have as many as I wanted with no 15 minute rules, on the other hand Princess said no limit but took the lids off.  

[Winifred 22]

28 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you. This drinks package thing is a whole new world to me on Cunard and a bit of a minefield everywhere! Celebrity let me have as many as I wanted with no 15 minute rules, on the other hand Princess said no limit but took the lids off.  

Yes I have definitely had them

lidded on P and 0 too I have only ever had the packages on both lines when I was not on my own and knew the friends I were with were big drinkers. I wouldn’t ever buy it when I was I my own as I just would not get the value from it. I just pay as I go now. One of my daughters always sails QG so has plenty included and my other daughter and husband love cocktails beer and Prosecco so always win out on the package. 

[Pushpit]

I've not seen the 15 minute rule applied, but talking to a bar staff member they do use it in the Golden Lion and sometimes Commodore out of concern for people who may be tanking booze. Like many Cunard "rules", usually the passengers are treated as sensible adults, thankfully, it's a rule that's there so that it doesn't need to be applied. That said, getting in two rounds of drinks within 15 minutes may be wishful thinking - the wait staff are often working flat out and work a circle pattern in their service, and so it wouldn't be unusual for there to be a 15 minute gap plus on that circuit particularly at busy times.

 

You can't rely on the caps being left on drinks, sometimes they get removed over the bar before getting to the wait staff. It's particularly annoying in Britannia restaurant if they take away the cap from the large sparkling water bottles at the start of the meal, since the cap keeps the water carbonated over the course of dinner. It only happens a minority of times.

 

That said the cost of the Harrogate large bottles is pretty good value, even without the discounts and if you mainly drink water rather than alcohol then it's unlikely a premium soft drink package is going to be cost effective. The 1 litre bottles are cheaper than the 330 ml coke bottles.

[Megabear2]

45 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

I've not seen the 15 minute rule applied, but talking to a bar staff member they do use it in the Golden Lion and sometimes Commodore out of concern for people who may be tanking booze. Like many Cunard "rules", usually the passengers are treated as sensible adults, thankfully, it's a rule that's there so that it doesn't need to be applied. That said, getting in two rounds of drinks within 15 minutes may be wishful thinking - the wait staff are often working flat out and work a circle pattern in their service, and so it wouldn't be unusual for there to be a 15 minute gap plus on that circuit particularly at busy times.

 

You can't rely on the caps being left on drinks, sometimes they get removed over the bar before getting to the wait staff. It's particularly annoying in Britannia restaurant if they take away the cap from the large sparkling water bottles at the start of the meal, since the cap keeps the water carbonated over the course of dinner. It only happens a minority of times.

 

That said the cost of the Harrogate large bottles is pretty good value, even without the discounts and if you mainly drink water rather than alcohol then it's unlikely a premium soft drink package is going to be cost effective. The 1 litre bottles are cheaper than the 330 ml coke bottles.

Thank you. Yes I will be buying the large bottles for my cabin but as I drink copious amounts of water and tea during a day I will be taking full advantage of my gifted from OH drinks package. I generally carry water with me everywhere and easily manage 2 litres a day so the small bottles will be very useful to accomplish this.

 

Not too worried about the alcoholic 15 minute rule as I take forever over my beer and wine.  Cocktails however ... oops!

[rakkor]

A little reminder for the copious water drinkers, in Britannia, without the Drinks Package is that Room service will provide a jug of Iced water on request that can then be put in the fridge - something we only discovered recently

Edited May 17 by rakkor
punctuation

[david63]

The 15 minute rule really is a joke anyway. If you have a drinks package then you can only have one drink every 15 minutes but without the package you can have as many as you want in 15 minutes, always assuming that you can get served - but there is nothing stopping you ordering six drinks at the same time!

[NE John]

I like the idea of a bar tab and each passenger can purchase as much or as little on the tab as each wants. Having both parties take the high-end drinks package is not fair. 
The more you put on the tab, the bigger a match the ship gives you. 
 

 

Edited May 17 by NE John

[Winifred 22]

5 hours ago, david63 said:

The 15 minute rule really is a joke anyway. If you have a drinks package then you can only have one drink every 15 minutes but without the package you can have as many as you want in 15 minutes, always assuming that you can get served - but there is nothing stopping you ordering six drinks at the same time!

You can only  order one drink at a time I have never been allowed to have more then one at one time. I cannot imagine they would let you have 6 in one go  without charge. 

[david63]

45 minutes ago, Winifred 22 said:

You can only  order one drink at a time I have never been allowed to have more then one at one time. I cannot imagine they would let you have 6 in one go  without charge. 

I never said anything about not charging. There is no reason why you cannot order several drinks at once - you may be buying drinks for some friends.

[Winifred 22]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

I never said anything about not charging. There is no reason why you cannot order several drinks at once - you may be buying drinks for some friends.

If you are on a drink package you can only have order one drink at a time of course I know if you are paying you can order what you like for whom you like. 

[Megabear2]

Presumably if you are two you need to show two cruise cards?

 

Many years ago I recall what was Disney World's nightclub venue insisting two wristbands to buy a drink so if you gad a table or seat you lost it.  I assume Cunard's waiters will be proactive unlike on my P&O cruise where a Wetherspoon approach was adopted on outside decks, ie queue at the bar to order and then queue to collect your drinks!

Edited May 18 by Megabear2

[Megabear2]

18 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

If you are on a drink package you can only have order one drink at a time of course I know if you are paying you can order what you like for whom you like. 

So I can't order a glass of wine and a bottle of water together? I drink water alongside the wine as a habit I picked up in Austria.

[david63]

10 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Presumably if you are two you need to show two cruise cards?

Only if you have the drinks package.

 

8 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

So I can't order a glass of wine and a bottle of water together?

if I am not mistaken it is only multiple alcoholic drinks that cannot be ordered at the same time.

9 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I drink water alongside the wine

I thought for one minute that you mixed the two together😉👎

[Winifred 22]

51 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Presumably if you are two you need to show two cruise cards?

 

Many years ago I recall what was Disney World's nightclub venue insisting two wristbands to buy a drink so if you gad a table or seat you lost it.  I assume Cunard's waiters will be proactive unlike on my P&O cruise where a Wetherspoon approach was adopted on outside decks, ie queue at the bar to order and then queue to collect your drinks!

Yes if you are ordering drinks for others with a drinks  package you have to show both or all cards if more than 2 

[Winifred 22]

50 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

So I can't order a glass of wine and a bottle of water together? I drink water alongside the wine as a habit I picked up in Austria.

I have never tried it but probably as one is non alcoholic you will be allowed. 

[RK-NC]

 

On 5/16/2024 at 3:58 PM, Pushpit said:

the room service menu has, for a long time, offered 6 bottle of Harrogate water (still, sparking or both) for US$23, which is a whole dollar off the $4 per bottle price. Then earlier this week I saw this in my QM2 stateroom

This 6-pack of bottles, are they 1.0 liter or 1.5 liter each?  Thanks so much!

[Pushpit]

29 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

 

This 6-pack of bottles, are they 1.0 liter or 1.5 liter each?  Thanks so much!

1 litre. It's the same as the bottles in the back of the photo in post 11.