beverage cards

[irishjim]

looked on HAL site to price these cards and they want $90 for a $100 dollar value,can anyone confirm if the price has gone up? As I recall I paid just under $80 on my last cruise in April.

Thanks in advance.

Jim.:D:D:D

[Linda&Vern]

looked on HAL site to price these cards and they want $90 for a $100 dollar value,can anyone confirm if the price has gone up? As I recall I paid just under $80 on my last cruise in April.

Thanks in advance.

Jim.:D:D:D

The "new" cards were just introduced fleet wide on October 5, 2010.

[jtl513]

As I recall I paid just under $80 on my last cruise in April.

Are you thinking of a 20-glass wine card for $77.63? If so, those are extinct.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Those prices you see on HAL's web site are correct for the new Beverage card.

We found them very convenient on our cruises.

[moonlady6]

Another "dumb" question from a first-time cruiser: does buying a beverage card make each drink cheaper, or are drinks the normal price and with a card you just don't have to fish out cash to pay?

[RuthC]

Another "dumb" question from a first-time cruiser: does buying a beverage card make each drink cheaper, or are drinks the normal price and with a card you just don't have to fish out cash to pay?

With the beverage card, the drinks are the same price as without the card. The value is in the "bonus" charge allowance. When you pay $45 for the card, you can purchase $50 worth of beverages. The $90 card gets you $100 worth of beverages.

Eleven percent more drinking free! :D

[Bill B]

Eleven percent more drinking free! :D

Yes, but only if one uses the entire value of the card. If one doesn't use at least the amount paid for the card, there is no discount.

 

So... if you have a card... drink up... cheers!

[catl331]

Yes, but only if one uses the entire value of the card. If one doesn't use at least the amount paid for the card, there is no discount.

And once the residual balance falls below the price of a can of soda that money is lost. You can't use two cards (either two bev cards, or one bev card and your room key card) for the same transaction, and you can't turn in the bev card at the front desk for a refund of the balance because you've used more than the purchase price. :(

 

We won't buy one, but will use any given us by our TA! :)

[deneen716]

How does the beverage card work?

[Bill B]

Essentially, it's a pre-paid debit card and the price of what you order is subtracted.

[tjcox9]

And once the residual balance falls below the price of a can of soda that money is lost. You can't use two cards (either two bev cards, or one bev card and your room key card) for the same transaction, and you can't turn in the bev card at the front desk for a refund of the balance because you've used more than the purchase price. :(

 

We won't buy one, but will use any given us by our TA! :)

 

Very recently on the Volendam, we were able to use the remaining portion of the card and put the remainder on our onboard account. Actually, we did this twice. Perhaps this varies from ship to ship...............

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

An example -- we each buy a Grey Goose on the rocks at $6.95 -- that equals $13.90. Then there is the 15% gratuity that is added on -- for $13.90 that is $2.09. So each time we each ordered a Grey Goose on the rocks -- $15.99 was subracted from the Beverage card.

Whenever we saw that the amount left on the Beverage card was getting low (you always get a receipt) -- we would buy another another.

We bought 5 cards for 14 days -- really should have known more about this the first couple of days of the cruise -- could have saved more than the $50 that we did save. The Ryndam even allowed you to use the card to buy bottles of wine.

[catl331]

Very recently on the Volendam, we were able to use the remaining portion of the card and put the remainder on our onboard account. Actually, we did this twice. Perhaps this varies from ship to ship...............

 

How much was your balance? They told us if we used, say, $30 worth we could get back $15 from the $45 price, but once we used more than $45 worth there was no more refund. This was on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

[RuthC]

And once the residual balance falls below the price of a can of soda that money is lost. You can't use two cards (either two bev cards, or one bev card and your room key card) for the same transaction,

Like tjcox9, I was able to supplement the small balance on my beverage card by charging the difference to my on-board account. This was in October on the Veendam.

 

I suspect that the procedure is so new that there is a learning curve as to how the cards are supposed to work. Eventually, there will be a uniform understanding.

[KirkNC]

Very recently on the Volendam, we were able to use the remaining portion of the card and put the remainder on our onboard account. Actually, we did this twice. Perhaps this varies from ship to ship...............

 

 

We did the exact same thing on the Noordam, we went through several cards on out 17 day cruise and always ran them down to $0.00.

 

Kirk

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did the same thing on the Ryndam. On the last night of the cruise we had a few dollars left on our last Beverage card -- went ahead and used it to partially pay for our final drink of the cruise and used our regular ID card to pay off that final drink -- which was only about a couple of dollars.

[Bill B]

They told us if we used, say, $30 worth we could get back $15 from the $45 price, but once we used more than $45 worth there was no more refund.

That's correct... but tjcox9 was not getting a refund - they were using a combination of the remaining ballance on the Beverage Card (to bring it to $0) and a charge to their onboard account to make up the difference in the price of their order.

[deneen716]

Does this work on soda too?

[RuthC]

Does this work on soda too?

Mine did for me on the Veendam in October. YMMV. Mine was an "all purpose" beverage card that worked for (apparently) everything except bottled water (didn't try that).

There's also a soda card, which is a better bargain if you drink a lot of soda. You pay $25 to get $50 worth of soda.

[deneen716]

Thanks. How do you purchase one? Is it a fountain soda or can?

[RuthC]

Thanks. How do you purchase one? Is it a fountain soda or can?

The new soda card is for cans. It can be purchased from any lounge steward or bartender, so long as the ship has started with the new cards.

Some people may get them as gifts from their TA. My beverage card was such a gift (and a great one, too, imo).

[catl331]

That's correct... but tjcox9 was not getting a refund - they were using a combination of the remaining ballance on the Beverage Card (to bring it to $0) and a charge to their onboard account to make up the difference in the price of their order.

As I said before, on the Nieuw A they wouldn't let us use two cards for a single transaction. We had two $50 bev cards given to us by our TA, and once the balance was below $2 or so, they wouldn't let us use that card in combination with the other beverage card or our key-card or get a refund. I guess from other's experiences, the Nieuw A was doing it wrong in early October. :( But at least it was our TA's few bucks, not ours, that was lost.

[Bill B]

...and once the balance was below $2 or so, they wouldn't let us use that card in combination with the other beverage card or our key-card or get a refund. I guess from other's experiences, the Nieuw A was doing it wrong in early October.

You're more complacent than I. Given the same situation, I'd be screaming 'bloody murder' - "I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS... OR TWO BUCKS WORTH OF BOOZE!"

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks. How do you purchase one? Is it a fountain soda or can?

 

You can purchase the Soda / Beverage cards either online or at any bar once you are on the ship.

[Krazy Kruizers]

As I said before, on the Nieuw A they wouldn't let us use two cards for a single transaction. We had two $50 bev cards given to us by our TA, and once the balance was below $2 or so, they wouldn't let us use that card in combination with the other beverage card or our key-card or get a refund. I guess from other's experiences, the Nieuw A was doing it wrong in early October. :( But at least it was our TA's few bucks, not ours, that was lost.

 

The first time they do that to me I would be at the front office screaming!!

No way are they going to make money off me.

Hope you wrote that down on your Comment Card at the end of the cruise.