Hey NCL, Carnival just raised the bar on the beverage package.

[Love my butler]

Gee, I got my answer sooner than I thought. NCL jacked up the price to $79/day and lowered the included beverages to only $11 and under.

 

Well done NCL, well done.

[bruadhin]

Gee, I got my answer sooner than I thought. NCL jacked up the price to $79/day and lowered the included beverages to only $11 and under.

 

Well done NCL, well done.

 

You are half right. It is $79/day, but still $15 and under.

 

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/beverage-packages

[fritolayNY]

OMG isn't that expensive. I just logged on to our specialty dinning packages and they just went up too! I wish I'd bought mine earlier.

 

 

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[ready2cruzagain]

Gee, I got my answer sooner than I thought. NCL jacked up the price to $79/day and lowered the included beverages to only $11 and under.

 

Well done NCL, well done.

 

You are half right. It is $79/day, but still $15 and under.

 

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/beverage-packages

It was showing $11 and under but they just changed it to show $15 and under.

 

I guess Carnival changing theirs didn't bother NCL, they just jacked up the price LOL.

[bruadhin]

OMG isn't that expensive. I just logged on to our specialty dinning packages and they just went up too! I wish I'd bought mine earlier.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I curious how many people are paying to eat in the speciality restaurants now. When it was a 20 cover charge, that was perhaps reasonable. Now that it is a la carte, the cheapest you can possible get out of Le Bistro is 18.97. And of course that assumes you get the cheapest appetizer, entree and dessert. Many entrees push 20 all by themselves.

 

They claim that passengers wanted a la carte... Even if that were true, they certainly didn't want a la carte to cost even more than the previous cover charge. Also, has the food improved since the change?

[backsbanny]

At this time there are great offers at celebrity with really nice perks..The food at celebrity wins ncl hands down maybe ncl corporate havent discovered that yet...They just jack up prices everywhere their product remains the same thus bringing less value to the customer and crews are getting really tired and overworked thus bringing service issues...Seriously i dont know where all of this is going but i am truelly sad about all of these changes..Ncl was really going well and always had loyal guests..I could be describer as an ncl cheerleader 2 years ago.Not anymore...I wish that in few years from now i will board an NCL ship and see the good old NCL..Until then thanks to mr Del Rio i had the chance to taste other cruise lines and i am so happy about this..I cant wait to board celebrity equinox this september!!!

[3XX1XY]

I'm 4'9" and not allowed to drink the rest of the year because of my job. I do all my drinking for the year on my cruises. 15 drinks a day won't last me till dinner. Not sure what taller or more male folk would do with this package... buy 2 of them?

[bruadhin]

At this time there are great offers at celebrity with really nice perks..The food at celebrity wins ncl hands down maybe ncl corporate havent discovered that yet...They just jack up prices everywhere their product remains the same thus bringing less value to the customer and crews are getting really tired and overworked thus bringing service issues...Seriously i dont know where all of this is going but i am truelly sad about all of these changes..Ncl was really going well and always had loyal guests..I could be describer as an ncl cheerleader 2 years ago.Not anymore...I wish that in few years from now i will board an NCL ship and see the good old NCL..Until then thanks to mr Del Rio i had the chance to taste other cruise lines and i am so happy about this..I cant wait to board celebrity equinox this september!!!

 

I wish that was an option for me. Unfortunately Celebrity, etc. do not cruise the Caribbean in the summer when school is out.

[NurseDave]

I think some of these responses are funny. Get upset if they raise the price, but get upset if there is a limit on it. 15 drinks won't possible get me through the day. They aren't going to make a program they are going to lose money on overall.

[bruadhin]

I think some of these responses are funny. Get upset if they raise the price, but get upset if there is a limit on it. 15 drinks won't possible get me through the day. They aren't going to make a program they are going to lose money on overall.

 

Quite frankly, I'd like to see them all go away at this point.

 

The whole idea was to increase bar revenue by getting marginal drinkers to buy it, maybe drink a bit more than usual, but definitely get a lot more bar revenue from them.

 

Sadly now, they are beyond scared (legitimately or otherwise) of the heavy drinker. So they keep raising prices, put limits on it, etc. So the marginal drinker loses interest in buying it. Meanwhile, they are raising the prices of the drinks and maybe the marginal drinker says, "Eh, I'll just wait until I get to port. Tons of cheap drinks there."

 

I knew people back in 2008 and earlier that would go on a Carnival cruise and come back with a bar tab that was more than their cruise fare. Cheers, UBP, etc. was a godsend to them.

 

I really think the cruise lines sometimes suffer from "change-itis". They want to change something for the sake of changing it without really examining if it improves the product or their profit.

[NurseDave]

Quite frankly, I'd like to see them all go away at this point.

 

The whole idea was to increase bar revenue by getting marginal drinkers to buy it, maybe drink a bit more than usual, but definitely get a lot more bar revenue from them.

 

Sadly now, they are beyond scared (legitimately or otherwise) of the heavy drinker. So they keep raising prices, put limits on it, etc. So the marginal drinker loses interest in buying it. Meanwhile, they are raising the prices of the drinks and maybe the marginal drinker says, "Eh, I'll just wait until I get to port. Tons of cheap drinks there."

 

I knew people back in 2008 and earlier that would go on a Carnival cruise and come back with a bar tab that was more than their cruise fare. Cheers, UBP, etc. was a godsend to them.

 

I really think the cruise lines sometimes suffer from "change-itis". They want to change something for the sake of changing it without really examining if it improves the product or their profit.

 

Agreed. As you can see we've only sailed Disney in the past and coffee, juice and sodas are all included in the cruise. Alcohol you pay for just like on land. We took the package for NCL because I'll have a couple of drinks and don't want to have to pay for soda etc and got the package for "free" but I'll drink more than I normally would just to feel like I got my "free" package' worth. I'd much rather everyone pay their way with the alcohol.

[bruadhin]

Agreed. As you can see we've only sailed Disney in the past and coffee, juice and sodas are all included in the cruise. Alcohol you pay for just like on land. We took the package for NCL because I'll have a couple of drinks and don't want to have to pay for soda etc and got the package for "free" but I'll drink more than I normally would just to feel like I got my "free" package' worth. I'd much rather everyone pay their way with the alcohol.

 

Yes, I sometimes question if I should have taken the UBP or gotten something else. I seriously doubt our combined bar bill from previous cruises was 100. Not that we don't drink, we just choose to do it on shore excursions at the beach resort instead.

 

I know I will easily drink more than the service charge by myself, much less what my wife does. But I would never, ever pay for it at these prices. I would have bought Cheers from Carnival on our last cruise when they had pricing which was discounted for longer cruises. As soon as they went back to full price regardless, I said no way.

 

I like change, when it is an improvement. But change for the sake of change is silly. When I said on the Carnival boards I was planning to try NCL, I got some grief over it (which I couldn't careless what someone on an internet forum thinks about me). And there are plenty of upset people on the NCL forum. I looked over at the Carnival forum today, now apparently Carnival is going to once a day cabin service versus twice a day. But the tips are still the same. On our last cruise I had to ask for ice in our room. There are no ice machines on cabin decks, why in the world do I need to ask??? Either give me a nearby ice machine or put ice in my room.

[NLH Arizona]

Agreed. As you can see we've only sailed Disney in the past and coffee, juice and sodas are all included in the cruise. Alcohol you pay for just like on land. We took the package for NCL because I'll have a couple of drinks and don't want to have to pay for soda etc and got the package for "free" but I'll drink more than I normally would just to feel like I got my "free" package' worth. I'd much rather everyone pay their way with the alcohol.

I also get free soda when I cruise on Crystal, but just like Disney the fares are considerably more expensive, which, if you think about it, pays for the sodas. I'd like NCL to keep their fares lower and let me choose if I want soda.

[Golfin55]

Quite frankly, I'd like to see them all go away at this point.

 

The whole idea was to increase bar revenue by getting marginal drinkers to buy it, maybe drink a bit more than usual, but definitely get a lot more bar revenue from them.

 

Sadly now, they are beyond scared (legitimately or otherwise) of the heavy drinker. So they keep raising prices, put limits on it, etc. So the marginal drinker loses interest in buying it. Meanwhile, they are raising the prices of the drinks and maybe the marginal drinker says, "Eh, I'll just wait until I get to port. Tons of cheap drinks there."

 

I knew people back in 2008 and earlier that would go on a Carnival cruise and come back with a bar tab that was more than their cruise fare. Cheers, UBP, etc. was a godsend to them.

 

I really think the cruise lines sometimes suffer from "change-itis". They want to change something for the sake of changing it without really examining if it improves the product or their profit.

 

 

Where do you get your facts from???

[bruadhin]

Where do you get your facts from???

 

Do you have trouble differentiating between facts and opinions?

 

If you really believe UBP exists out of the kindness of NCL's heart and they don't care whether they make money or not, you are deceiving yourself.

 

It exists to make money and all changes have been made in an effort to make even more profitable. It is possible they are losing money on it, but I doubt it.

 

It makes the cruise feel more inclusive and ideally it gets people to spend more on alcohol than they otherwise would. Remember, their marginal cost on another mixed drink is a small fraction of what they charge. Only bottled beer has costs near what a bar sells it for.

 

If they can get someone to go from 4 or 5 drinks for 30 a day to 10 or so for 69 a day, that is a huge win.

[TheDougOut]

Sadly now, they are beyond scared (legitimately or otherwise) of the heavy drinker.

 

If NCL was scared (legitimately or otherwise) of the heavy drinker, would they have installed a leader board in their newest lounge? :)