Drinks Package Questions

[D&N]

46 minutes ago, maggielou362 said:

Would that avoid the credit card surcharge on each transaction?

What credit card surcharge is that?

[Megabear2]

English sparkling wine is not a cheap drink to purchase anywhere.  Around here we have several producers and the starting price per bottle is between £25 and £30 a bottle.  Prosecco on the other hand can be bought for half that price.  The well known wine warehouse in the UK lists English sparkling wines from £19.99 to £185.00, with most being around £30-40.

 

Despite being a growing market it needs to be remembered that production of all English wines is fairly small and the vineyards do not mass produce.

 

With most wines in the Britannia restaurant being outside the $13.50 bracket any English sparkling wine would I assume automatically be outside the limit as well.

[Pushpit]

44 minutes ago, maggielou362 said:

Speaking of which, is it necessary to provide CREDIT card details for onboard accounts, or can one provide a debit card? Would that avoid the credit card surcharge on each transaction?

Australia is an unusual place with credit cards (and quite a few other things, but I must not digress). So credit card surcharges are legal and common in Australia but pretty much nowhere else. So Cunard charges you 1.1% surcharge on credit card spending, 2.75% on Amex, and zilch on debit cards.  But you also need to factor in what your bank will charge for USD to AUD conversions, given that all onboard spend is priced in dollars. So Brits and Americans don't have the 1.1% surcharge but our banks may charge quite a percentage on USD to Sterling spend. There are many ways around this, some of the new generation online banks just use the inter-bank rate, which has only a tiny percentage hidden.

 

So yes, if you can find a debit card that doesn't muck up your usual spending via pre-authorisation AND doesn't overload currency conversions then you would save the 1.1%. I know some people just have a card for this purpose and also for hotels and car hires, which also do hefty pre-authorisations and can't be bothered to clear them down after the final bill.

[NE John]

1 hour ago, alc13 said:

The included wines on those all-inclusive lines are squarely in the supermarket category.  And the prices for bottles were exorbitant on a recent "luxury line" cruise.  So yes, the profits from alcohol are carefully calibrated.

In defense of Cunard, I  would put Cunard’s vast variety of wine, beer, and ale offerings and Cunard’s prices against any other line - luxury or not. Cunard beverages offer better value too from what I get at local restaurants. I don’t want to go vacation to be offered the same stuff as I can get here. As for wines, Cunard has a world class wine list at reasonable prices for what they are. Lots of good bottles in the $60-80 range. Plus if you get good sommelier, he/she can add more value with advice (we got great advice to have German Riesling with spicy Indian food).  Even Cunard’s own branded beer and wine is very drinkable and mainly covered under both packages. Oh, and Fever Tree…good luck finding that on many cruise lines 

[D&N]

The August 2022 wine list had 150ml of Gusbourne 2015 at $12.30. A bottle was $58

The Main Bar Menu in May 2023 reduced the serving to 125ml but kept price the same, while the bottle increased to $59

The latest March 2024 lists are showing the 2021 vintage at $16, and a bottle st $76

 

When it fell within the package limit we were looking forward to tasting it. We've never tried an English wine. I can't find much in the way of online comparisons to suggest that the 2021 is way better than the 2015, although there are a few comments about Gusbourne moving upmarket. Apparently they released a top of the range sparkler at £195.

[alc13]

2 minutes ago, NE John said:

In defense of Cunard, I  would put Cunard’s vast variety of wine, beer, and ale offerings and Cunard’s prices against any other line - luxury or not. Cunard beverages offer better value too from what I get at local restaurants. I don’t want to go vacation to be offered the same stuff as I can get here. As for wines, Cunard has a world class wine list at reasonable prices for what they are. Lots of good bottles in the $60-80 range. Plus if you get good sommelier, he/she can add more value with advice (we got great advice to have German Riesling with spicy Indian food).  Even Cunard’s own branded beer and wine is very drinkable and mainly covered under both packages. Oh, and Fever Tree…good luck finding that on many cruise lines 

I agree about the wines!  

 

I'm making a note to try the Cunard branded wines, and the included Pinot Grigio that a couple of other people have mentioned, from the included list. 

[WantedOnVoyage]

You should be grateful that you even have a sommelier on Cunard... Holland America has included them in the neverending cutbacks all cruise lines are trying to get away with. Frankly, our past (and 15 years ago past) experience with HAL ones, they probably won't be much missed,

 

Most Cunard ones are excellent but I speak from only Grills experience.

 

Still, I often pine to be teetotaler if only to avoid the need to "game" these duelling drink packages, have them "gamed" by stewards and sommeliers or indeed feel I am being "played" by a conglomorate that can and will always win the match in the end.  It's what they do best. And Carnival does it better than most.

[D&N]

We had very capable sommelier although we didn't really need him. His work for us was mainly finding wines by the glass from what seemed to be rapidly depleting stocks in June 2022. He even had his work cut out getting us bottled sparkling water

 

On our return Eastbound crossing he was very busy, apparently the clients in that direction were drinking far more than on our Westbound. I didn't like that the waiters were very reluctant to bring us the wine list when I decided the glasses we had in front of us weren't suitable for the food dishes, and the sommelier was serving others. I had previously examined the list and had a few wines I would choose from but hadn't noted their names. However I was able to get the info from my phone as I'd already photographed every page of the wine list. So when the sommelier got to us I had the name of the wine I wanted ready for him.

[exlondoner]

41 minutes ago, NE John said:

In defense of Cunard, I  would put Cunard’s vast variety of wine, beer, and ale offerings and Cunard’s prices against any other line - luxury or not. Cunard beverages offer better value too from what I get at local restaurants. I don’t want to go vacation to be offered the same stuff as I can get here. As for wines, Cunard has a world class wine list at reasonable prices for what they are. Lots of good bottles in the $60-80 range. Plus if you get good sommelier, he/she can add more value with advice (we got great advice to have German Riesling with spicy Indian food).  Even Cunard’s own branded beer and wine is very drinkable and mainly covered under both packages. Oh, and Fever Tree…good luck finding that on many cruise lines 

Cunard’s house wines are very acceptable, and work out less than the house wines in a family hotel we often stay in in Devon. Incidentally, it asks gents to wear a jacket every night!

[Mudhen]

Forgive me if this has been previously covered in this thread but I think it’s a pretty simple question…

Who gets the service charge on drinks?

 I always thought it was the server, now I’m not so sure.

Please advise asap!

[napria]

1 hour ago, Pushpit said:

Australia is an unusual place with credit cards (and quite a few other things, but I must not digress). So credit card surcharges are legal and common in Australia but pretty much nowhere else. So Cunard charges you 1.1% surcharge on credit card spending, 2.75% on Amex, and zilch on debit cards.  But you also need to factor in what your bank will charge for USD to AUD conversions, given that all onboard spend is priced in dollars. So Brits and Americans don't have the 1.1% surcharge but our banks may charge quite a percentage on USD to Sterling spend. There are many ways around this, some of the new generation online banks just use the inter-bank rate, which has only a tiny percentage hidden.

 

So yes, if you can find a debit card that doesn't muck up your usual spending via pre-authorisation AND doesn't overload currency conversions then you would save the 1.1%. I know some people just have a card for this purpose and also for hotels and car hires, which also do hefty pre-authorisations and can't be bothered to clear them down after the final bill.

I’m in the U.S. and credit card surcharges are becoming more common at restaurants and retail establishments.  Another thing that we are now starting to see is automatic tips being added to restaurant bills.  I’ve been used to seeing automatic tips added for parties of 8 or more, but a few restaurants are now adding the tip regardless of the number of diners.  If you’re not careful, you end up adding a tip on top of a tip, which means for me, the first time this happened I tipped 38%!

[D&N]

11 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Cunard’s house wines are very acceptable

Totally agree. We drink very similar wines most days from boxes. Being in boxes doesn't make them any less quality. The shops usually sell the same stuff in bottles. It's slightly cheaper in the box and easier to keep. You can pour a couple of glasses and not need to worry about keeping the remains of a bottle.

 

But we had the Grenache / Syrah / Mourvèdre blend in front of us and had just been served Chateaubriand. The wine wasn't doing anything for the beef and I wanted a decent Bordeaux.

[napria]

12 hours ago, NE John said:

They will indeed keep your bottle(s) of wine for you for the next evening in Britannia. If you want red wine chilled for dinner, at lunch pre-order and ask the wine attendant for that. I’ve always liked and used fixed seating in Britannia because of the ease of this wine saving feature and getting a good rapport with the wait staff. Others could comment how it works for open seating because I have not been in Britannia since the introduction of open seating. 

So two questions regarding this…

 

If we purchase bottles of wine and have them kept till the following day, are there any extra charges, i.e. corkage or additional gratuity?

 

Our TA booked us in open seating.  Can we change this once on board?

[exlondoner]

2 minutes ago, napria said:

So two questions regarding this…

 

If we purchase bottles of wine and have them kept till the following day, are there any extra charges, i.e. corkage or additional gratuity?

 

Our TA booked us in open seating.  Can we change this once on board?

No extra charges.

 

I think you can change it now on the voyage personaliser if you want.

[NE John]

2 minutes ago, napria said:

So two questions regarding this…

 

If we purchase bottles of wine and have them kept till the following day, are there any extra charges, i.e. corkage or additional gratuity?

 

Our TA booked us in open seating.  Can we change this once on board?

There is no charge for wine storage and ask away. Again, someone else can fill in more information on changes. I’d imagine no problems in making changes. 

[Pushpit]

36 minutes ago, Mudhen said:

Forgive me if this has been previously covered in this thread but I think it’s a pretty simple question…

Who gets the service charge on drinks?

 I always thought it was the server, now I’m not so sure.

Please advise asap!

If you put a specific tip on a signed-for chit, it goes to the server. Ditto if you give a tip to room service. There isn't an expectation that you tip in either case.

 

For the 15% drinks service charge it goes to the collective of staff handling beverage.

 

The daily hotel service charge is shared with all staff onboard except senior management. 

[Pushpit]

28 minutes ago, napria said:

Our TA booked us in open seating.  Can we change this once on board?

You could try in my.cunard but it would not surprise me if it doesn't work. Your next chance is when you embark - go to the Britannia front desk on deck 2 (if QM2) before about 3pm and request a change there. Going from Open to Fixed tends not to be allowed, vice versa is usually OK, but if you have a specific reason for going to Fixed then that probably increases your chances.

[CC_WG]

Currently trying to calculate if there is any value in the drinks package for us. We think possibly not, as one of our sons doesn't drink, so that room would be paying for 2 drinks packages, but he wouldn't be consuming alcohol.

 

I've been thinking of booking the premium non-alcoholic package (approx $40 per day per person) Does anyone know if, for example, I ordered a G&T would I only be charged for the gin?

[Pushpit]

28 minutes ago, CC_WG said:

Does anyone know if, for example, I ordered a G&T would I only be charged for the gin?

Tonic of some sort is in all the packages and you wouldn't pay extra for that. If you were on the lower priced drinks package then it's just the fountain / nozzle tonic. The Premium Soft Drinks  package would get you premium tonic such as Fevertree but only makes sense if you are drinking the mocktails and quite a lot of premium tea and coffee, noting that standard tea and coffee isn't charged for at meals or in the Lido etc. Under PAYG then you can choose the cheaper mixers with G+T or the premium brands. The fountain tonic is $1.95, the small 200 ml tins from $3.15 (various brands) and Fever-Tree $3.45. If you don't say, you'll probably get the $3.15 tins on the whole. To those prices you have to add the 15% service charge if PAYG. 

 

Note that a large - 500 ml - fountain soda water / Pepsi, diet Pepsi is only $3.85 = $4.43 with service, 1 litre Harrogate water a few cents more, so some big drinks aren't too expensive.

[CC_WG]

6 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

Tonic of some sort is in all the packages and you wouldn't pay extra for that. If you were on the lower priced drinks package then it's just the fountain / nozzle tonic. The Premium Soft Drinks  package would get you premium tonic such as Fevertree but only makes sense if you are drinking the mocktails and quite a lot of premium tea and coffee, noting that standard tea and coffee isn't charged for at meals or in the Lido etc. Under PAYG then you can choose the cheaper mixers with G+T or the premium brands. The fountain tonic is $1.95, the small 200 ml tins from $3.15 (various brands) and Fever-Tree $3.45. If you don't say, you'll probably get the $3.15 tins on the whole. To those prices you have to add the 15% service charge if PAYG. 

 

Note that a large - 500 ml - fountain soda water / Pepsi, diet Pepsi is only $3.85 = $4.43 with service, 1 litre Harrogate water a few cents more, so some big drinks aren't too expensive.

Thanks @Pushpit! I was thinking this was the case, but just couldn't see it specified! Too much data! 😁

[Carnevale]

This has been a very useful discussion - thx to all who have posted. While we were convinced we’d get the full Bev pkg for our Nov Caribbean QM2 cruise we are now seriously revisiting that decision. We’ve had pkgs on several other lines recently and always enjoyed them but it sounds here that Cunard is missing the mark with its pkg.

 

We drink a lot of coffee and would like to confirm where there are bean to cup machines and whether there is any warm milk available with them. We will be eating in Britannia and if I recall someone mentioned that there are bean to cup machines there and in the buffet. Correct? Do these machines make cappuccino or just black coffee? What about other venues for mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffees or better yet, cappuccini? 

 

Also, while we enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail and a glass of wine with dinner along with a night cap, from the sound of things there are so few things in the $13.50 and under range that it will probably be very frustrating. I looked at the Britannia wine menu and unless we get the small pours very few reds are under $13.50 in the by the glass menu which I assume is what we’d be limited too. Correct? Since there have been many comments about the frustration of getting a sommelier we might end up with only a single small pour at dinner (which would reflect how we drink at home but not what we do on holiday). Does that sound about right?

 

If I have misunderstood anything in what I have noted above I would appreciate being corrected as I do want to understand things before finalizing a decision about the drinks pkg. 

 

Again, many thanks! CC is such a valuable forum for preparing for a cruise.

Edited August 18 by Carnevale
One more question

[Pushpit]

7 hours ago, Carnevale said:

We drink a lot of coffee and would like to confirm where there are bean to cup machines and whether there is any warm milk available with them. We will be eating in Britannia and if I recall someone mentioned that there are bean to cup machines there and in the buffet. Correct? Do these machines make cappuccino or just black coffee? What about other venues for mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffees or better yet, cappuccini? 

 

On QM2 the Britannia coffee comes from a bean to cup machine in the galleys. The beans are removed between every meal out of excessive hygiene, so the beans are freshly rotated. It produces the full range of drinks that you see on B2C machines, since there is a milk store in the machine, so yes cappuccino is available, minus the chocolate sprinkle. In other words it can do both brew coffee and an attempt at espresso coffee.

 

There is another B2C machine in Connexions by room 4 and 5 on deck 2, which is operational during the day. It is not exactly the same as the catering machines, but it is the same beans.

 

Kings Court uses powdered coffee, and it's a reasonable taste, particularly if you are used to drip/brew coffee, hundreds of people glug it back daily. It comes out just as black coffee but there's milk, cream and half-and-half available. On the gluten/lactose free counter of Kings Court there is non dairy milks.

 

There's also coffee making facilities in your stateroom, based on that vital instrument in Brits' + colonials' travel, the kettle. So you can bring your own coffee arrangement (e.g. French press) to go with that, it is present in every cabin on board. Club and above get a Nespresso like device designed to humiliate the user.

 

For mid morning, I would advocate going to Carinthia, and getting a proper Union coffee from there, which will cost around $4.50, to go with your zweites Frühstück pastry. But Connexions will be available as well. Or Sir Samuel's.

 

In terms of getting a second glass of wine in Britannia, there's a bit of a knack to it. The sommeliers have a reddish-gold waistcoat and you just need to catch their eye by raising your room card, which is used for charging purposes. Then they know they are needed rather than someone asking for a second bread roll. Or ask your server to get one over. It's not an impossible task if you get that knack, they are just unlikely to come over pro-actively unless you are a heavy tipper.

[maggielou362]

Pushpit, is there anything you DON'T know about Cunard?

I salute you.

[JT1101]

Nicely done Pushpit. 

I will say the King's Court coffee is also kept fresh during the day. I've been in there at odd hours and knocked back a cup and it was fresh and good. 

[Pushpit]

1 minute ago, JT1101 said:

Nicely done Pushpit. 

I will say the King's Court coffee is also kept fresh during the day. I've been in there at odd hours and knocked back a cup and it was fresh and good. 

Indeed you see people wandering the.promenade deck at all hours with a KC mug of coffee, at peace with the world.

 

I should clarify that it's pre-ground coffee, it's not instant soluble coffee.