Beverages on HAL

On our recent (11/15 Eurodam) cruise, DS & I each had a soda card. I drank diet or caffeine-free diet coke or club soda, he drank Sprite or orange soda (Fanta). When I asked for either of my diet cokes in a can (even paying extra) they said I could only buy fountain drinks on the soda card or use my room card to get the can - which I did occasionally because the fountain drinks weren't all that satisfying (too diluted?). Once, in the Lido, they asked if diet coke would be okay instead of caffeine-free diet coke (no, I drink a max of 1 caffeine drink/day).

On the last night, the lounge steward brought my club soda in a glass, and a glass of ice and can of Fanta for DS - the Fanta filled the glass (with ice) to the brim. Both were paid via the soda card.

I figured DS had been getting cans of soda all along and probably my caffeine-free soda was from a can (which is why the Lido steward tried to get me to agree to the substitution) and it was probably whole cans because the glasses were always the same size and filled to the top. If you think about it, it's unlikely that they would have every kind of soda in the fountain but you can buy every kind of soda they have via the soda card - many of them must be from cans.

We used up my card first and ended up never using his card - he got the $25 cost refunded at the end of the cruise. (This is a tip - they subtract the amount used on a card from the $25 cost and the difference is refundable. If we had used both cards, we'd have pretty much exceeded the costs of both cards and "lost" the amount of credit over $25.)

The biggest problem I had with the soda card, though, was availability of soda in the morning in particular - most of the lounge bars seemed to be un-staffed. I'd have to go up to the Lido to get anything to drink. For this reason alone, we will bring some of our soda and water on board with us.

I have cruised with friends who drank diet tonic and they got it in cans. They always got it after our trivia sessions in the Crow's Nest which was beginning happy hour soon after the games finished, so they got 2 cans for the price of one +$1 + gratuity. m--