Beverages on cruise ships

[JeffC]

We are going on a Royal Caribbean Alaska cruise this month. This is our first cruise in 25 years. RC offers a prepaid beverage option of $55/ppday. I can't find the actual cost of drinks on the ship to see if it pays to use this option. Does anyone have any recent experience on cruise ships with pros and cons. According to RC the option offers unlimited beer, wine, soft drinks, bottled water, coffee and tea. I am a moderate drinker of alcohol and my wife doesn't drink alcohol. We both drink a lot of water on vacation. Thanks in advance for your help.

Jeff

 

[dioxide45]

The Royal Caribbean forum on Cruise Critic may be the best place to confirm recent drink prices on the ship. I suspect they can be in the $8-$15 range with perhaps beers closer to $5-6. I would suspect you would have to drink 8-10 drinks a day to make it pay for itself. Also take in to consideration time off the ship. A day in port will cut in to the amount of drinks you will consume where perhaps sea days you may drink a few more.

 

[Jan M.]

We are going on a Royal Caribbean Alaska cruise this month. This is our first cruise in 25 years. RC offers a prepaid beverage option of $55/ppday. I can't find the actual cost of drinks on the ship to see if it pays to use this option. Does anyone have any recent experience on cruise ships with pros and cons. According to RC the option offers unlimited beer, wine, soft drinks, bottled water, coffee and tea. I am a moderate drinker of alcohol and my wife doesn't drink alcohol. We both drink a lot of water on vacation. Thanks in advance for your help.

Jeff

Our son just asked me a question about the beverage option. His wife doesn't drink anything alcoholic. He thought there were two different beverage options, with different prices, one with and one without the alcoholic beverages and was wondering if you could select different options or had to take the same thing for both adults in the cabin.

 

[rapmarks]

I know several people who got upgraded to the beverage option, they drank fancy mixed drinks with the option, and said they had about ten a day. You don't even mention the mixed drinks for $55 a day. I know you pay for soft drinks, but do you have to pay for water on a cruise, or coffee or tea with a meal?


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[Passepartout]

Alcoholic drinks are about $7.50 to $12.00 per. PLUS 15% gratuity. Water is also a charge, as is iced tea and fruit juices. Most beers are $7.50. We are modest drinkers, and find the drink packages just don't pay. Even with a package, there are limitations like on 'top shelf' brands or craft beers. iirc it's at $8, and you can't just pay the difference. So like in the dining rooms, you're limited to some fairly basic wines by the glass- unless you buy one (or a package of) bottle and use it meal after meal. No problem doing that. They allow you to bring aboard 2 bottles of wine (in your carry-ons) per cabin at embarkation- but not at subsequent stops.

Jim

 

[Passepartout]

I know you pay for soft drinks, but do you have to pay for water on a cruise, or coffee or tea with a meal?

No. Water, tea, are no charge at meals. There is a charge for 'fancy' coffees.

 

[md8287]

No. Water, tea, are no charge at meals. There is a charge for 'fancy' coffees.

Water and tea are charged if not with meal.
Ignore the service charge piece as they will hit you with that whether you buy individually or as a package.
We did it our last cruise as we were allowed to have one person do it and not the other. This made it worth it due to high water price of all things.

 

[PStreet1]

For us, the drink packages don't pay. Many people we've known wind up with the "have I drunk enough today to pay for the package?" syndrome, and that doesn't seem like a good thing. There are threads on Cruisecritic.com about the drink packages and how to compute whether they work for you--check under the general threads for Royal. We know people who always get them and people who never get them--not having to pay the service charge they automatically add to individually purchased drinks is a bonus for the package, but you'll still be tipping the waiter individually who brings them.

 

[Icc5]

We just came back from a 15 day Panama Canal Cruise on Celebrity. We don't do the drink package.
It is rare that we drink liquor. Coffee,tea, water with meals and we usually hit the buffet for lunch and each bring a glass or two of water to the room. Even in Mexico the cruise ship had large containers of ship water to get cups of off the ship. The only thing we didn't have was bottled water. Not a worry in most places because you can usually buy some in most stores.
Drink packages and Internet just seem like huge ripoff sunless you are a big drinker. Most of the people on our cruise didn't do the Internet package and those that did mostly had problems with slow internet,couldn't connect much of the time and said they'd never buy the package again.
Hope this helps.
Bart

 

[Luanne]

On our one and only cruise together dh and I didn't get the drink package. The most I might have in an evening was two drinks, one before dinner and one with dinner. We were able to get coffee, tea and water free of charge at any time. We don't drink soft drinks. We did pay for a few "coffee" drinks, but I don't even know if those would have been included. For us it's just not worth it.

 

[pedro47]

Cruise beverage package are a good deal if you are going to drinks 4 glasses per day every day on your cruise.
average cost is about $9 dollars for vino and about $10 dollars for liquor + gratitudes.

 

[Talent312]

On the cruiselines we've been on (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Holland America), there are free dispensers for water, tea, coffee (plain-ol' coffee), and lemonade, in the buffet area. On one cruise (I forget which), we got a free bottle of wine, but otherwise I did not miss the booze.

OTOH, I have a friend who is rarely without a beer in his hand. His idea of a good port of call is one with a Senior Frog's at the dock. I'm sure he uses the option.

.

 

[Passepartout]

On one Celebrity cruise, we were comp'd basic drink pkg for two. It was a long cruise, and I won't kid you, we enjoyed it, cold beer(s) and fancy, 'umbrella' drinks around the pool, pre-dinner cocktail hour, wine with meals, cappuccino after dinner, a cocktail at the evening show, but even this was barely a break-even, for WAAAY more alcohol than we ordinarily consume.

Tightwad that I am, on embarkation, I try to find a liquor store and get a couple of boxes of wine to tuck into our checked bags (they don't check those in the rush of boarding). There may or may not be the allowed 2 bottles in carry-ons. That is enough for an in cabin pre-dinner glass of vino as the cruise progresses. This cuts down on the consumption of high priced profit center cruise line booze.

Jim

 

[rickandcindy23]

I liked that Disney cruises have soft drinks available all of the time on the upper deck by the pool, but none of it tasted great, like it does at McDonald's. Someone said it always tastes a little funny on cruise ships. I don't drink much alcohol but do love my pina coladas in Hawaii. I would never pay for a beverage package. Iced tea at dinner would be good enough. Plus, I took bottled water onto our cruise, several bottles per suitcase.

 

[pedro47]

On Celebrity Cruise Line you need to be Elite and above to received free drinks in the Michael Club Lounge. Also, you can received a free bottle of champagne or you can it exchange it for a bottle of vino on embarking.

 

[silentg]

We just got back from a cruise to Bermuda on Anthem of the Seas. Water, IceTea, Coffee, hot tea and lemonade are complimentary. Also Fruit juice is complimentary with breakfast. We don't drink very much, but we bought a bottle of wine and they kept it for us for the next day since we didn't drink it all at once. I bought a drink at the Scooner Bar and paid $7 dollars. Unless you are a heavy drinker it's not worth buying. They also offered a soda plan and a gourmet coffee and tea plan too. We found there was plenty of drinks that were complimentary. We went on Royal Caribbean
Silentg

 

[rapmarks]

Our neighbors go on cruises constantly, probably ten or more over the winter. They get comped the drink package, but are not drinkers. She says they get bigger bottled water, fancy coffee drinks, and have one fancy cocktail a day. Another friend goes on six or so cruises a year, and finds a way to get comped drink package. They will drink as many as they can.


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[isisdave]

They certainly do inspect checked luggage, looking for alcohol but also for security threats. Google "naughty room" or search Cruise Critic.

Some lines require all adults in the same cabin to buy the package if one does, to prevent sharing one plan. When we had three in a cabin on Norwegian and had two "free" packages, they didn't do that. It was a 12-day cruise, and the way they priced the package it was "worth" almost $1000. We had to pay 18% of the "value" as gratuity, about $15 a day, which is more than I, an almost non-drinker, would have spent on drinks.

The package covered drinks up to a list price of $15 and gave some discount on bottles of wine. There was a super-premium add-on available. There is always a non-alcohol drink package, which covers WAAAY more soda than you want your child to have. This package covered bottled water. Ship's water is fine, we just fill bottles from the sink.

All of this will be found on your cruise line's website, as they now try to sell this stuff before you get on board.

 

[pedro47]

Last year we sailed on RC ANTHEM OF THE SEAS we were DIAMOND loyalty members on ANTHEM and their Diamond lounge served the very, very best free drinks at sea (no limits on your drinks) (time frame 5PM - 7PM0 every night .

 

[Passepartout]

Last year we sailed on RC ANTHEM OF THE SEAS we were DIAMOND loyalty members on ANTHEM and their Diamond lounge served the very, very best free drinks at sea (no limits on your drinks) (time frame 5PM - 7PM0 every night .

Did your Diamond level loyalty membership come from your Celebrity Captain's Club or did you earn it from RC nights? We are Celebrity Elite and enjoy the comp'd evening cocktail hour(s) too. We know that Celebrity & Royal Caribbean's loyalty awards transfer equally.

Jim

 

[PStreet1]

Royal allows two bottles of wine PER CABIN to go onboard. If there are two bottles of wine in the suitcase, that's not a problem. I can't imagine that they group all the bags going to a particular stateroom and then inspect them to make sure that there aren't more bottles in another suitcase that is going to the same room.......and then, if you're willing to wheel one around the ship until your room is open, there's your carryon.......

If you take a bottle to a dining venue, there's a $15.00 corkage fee. If you drink a glass in your room, of course, there's no fee.

 

[pedro47]

Did your Diamond level loyalty membership come from your Celebrity Captain's Club or did you earn it from RC nights? We are Celebrity Elite and enjoy the comp'd evening cocktail hour(s) too. We know that Celebrity & Royal Caribbean's loyalty awards transfer equally.

Jim

We earned it by sailing Celebrity. In the Diamond Lounge we ordered prem. drinks every night. Plus, There was no additional charges. Celebrity also allow two (2) bottles of vino when boarding their ships.

Did you rec'd your Diamond Pin?

We are looking forward to booking the New Edge Ship when things cool down.

Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Azamara loyalty awards transfer equally.

 

[PStreet1]

We're Royal Diamond Plus and Celebrity Elite. I'm really surprised you didn't get charged for premium drinks in the diamond lounge----somebody must have liked you a lot.

 

[LisaH]

We are on Holland America now. The corkage fee is $18 per bottle.

 

[pedro47]

Service in the Diamond lounge was just outstanding. This is a do not missed lunge on Anthem of the Seas.