Beverages: RCL Soda Machines / Carnival Alcohol Packages / NCL... Lemonade?

[jame_g]

We've seen the recent posts about NCL adding lemonade and other flavored waters to some ships. Wonder if we will see other changes based on what other cruise lines are trying. If these go over well on other lines, then lemonade may not be enough since the beverage demands seem to a hotspot among cruisers. A lot of cruisers seemed to think that free fruit punch or lemonade was sorely overdue. So I wonder what others think about these announcements?

 

New soda machines on Royal Caribbean cruise ships are a hit

 

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/09/royal-caribbean-coke-machine-cruise/832730/1?loc=interstitialskip

 

 

Carnival expands test of unlimited alcohol package

 

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2012/09/carnival-cruise-drink-package/70000022/1?csp=tf

[bakerintn]

I like the machine idea but not the "smart cup" part of it...lots of people don't like the ship's cups and this would be an easy theft target. It sounds that if you lose the cup, you are out of luck....not way for the ship to "deactivate" a missing cup's id info and replace it.