Buying Alcohol Before Cruise vs During Cruise

[spny84]

I know I read a thread prior to our trip on the Pride out of Baltimore this past week but I can't find it now and just wanted to put our experience out because it was a question I had about taxes, gratuities, etc.

 

Prior to the cruise from the cruise line you can purchase a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin with a 6 pack of tonic water for $95. This would have been taxed at the Baltimore rate (think 6.5%) and supposedly would have been delivered to the room once on board (exchange a card I believe). We decided not to do this.

 

During the cruise you can call room service and order the Gin and tonic water. We did this when we were out at sea and room service said to call guest services and guest services said to call room service. So I went down to Guest Services, the lady disappeared for about 5 minutes; when she returned the problem was how we were asking for the alcohol. We kept saying the Gin and Tonic water package but once on the ship there is no more package. We were able to buy the Gin for $90 plus cans of tonic water. Each can was $1.95 plus the gratuity. No Gratuity on the Gin and no tax on either.

 

So in hindsight, depending on your Port and their tax, the package deal is probably better. Or if you are just buying the alcohol and no mixers then on the ship is the better way to go, just make sure you are out at sea.

 

Hope this clarifies for someone in the future.

Edited December 6, 2016 by spny84

[sparks1093]

Thanks for the info!

[crewsweeper]

Don't let the tax/tip tail wag the liquor dog. Assuming your tax rate for Baltimore is correct, buying on the ship cost you 1 more can of soda on the ship. Pretty much a wash, in my book. Also note the time and the hassle of using guest services to work this out versus having it in your room already. But agree that in some ports local sales tax and local/state liquor taxes, could potentially make waiting until out to sea a better deal, especially if you're buying more than one bottle and set up. Or just bring the setups and wait.

[easyboy]

Thanks for the tip.

[tayzia00]

We usually purchase 1-2 bottles before the cruise to be delivered to our cabin. I was not aware of ordering a bottle to be delivered by room service. Would we still be able to do this if we have preordered bottles in our cabin?

[WPTNGirl]

Sailing from New Orleans, if you order alcohol to be delivered AFTER leaving port (delivered first night or after) instead of having it in the room when you board, they do not charge sales tax. That may be the way from any port. We've never ordered from room service but read where you pay gratuities on that.

[smarks]

I have orders for cruises coming up and ask for first night delivery so no taxes charged. Just tell them you don't want to get charged taxes. Worked well for us.

[spny84]

We usually purchase 1-2 bottles before the cruise to be delivered to our cabin. I was not aware of ordering a bottle to be delivered by room service. Would we still be able to do this if we have preordered bottles in our cabin?

 

You should be able to order the bottles. I believe the limit is 2 per day per cabin, don't know if they have a cutoff after that (the 2 per day is in the cruise contract :-)).

 

The liquor Bottle is coming from room service (NO GRATUITY, other than what you want to give the room service person if any). The Tonic Water is considered a soda so they charge the BAR GRATUITY plus the price of the soda.

 

In a previous thread the big confusion (IMO) was there was no consensus on the gratuity part when onboard some implied it was on the bottle of booze. Now it is just a math equation for those who care to do it. In our case we it would have been a $1 or $2 difference. But Baltimore's tax wasn't that bad, if in a port with a 10% tax for instance, may wait or if I only want the bottle of booze I may wait. And obviously you have to buy individual drinks until the ship leaves port (which have the tax and gratuity on them); for us this was what some of the TA OBC was used for).

 

For the other person who said what we did was so much hassle, We were out at sea when I made the request (actually 10 am), Guest Services wasn't backed up waited 2 people ahead of me so not a big deal. I waited because I knew others had bought liquor onboard to drink. The actual bottle and soda was delivered within 10 minutes so no wait. Room Service on this cruise was excellent because we had to use it for ice everyday.

[Pyrate13]

Just curious, I read the contract on the website and do not see anywhere that it says you can purchase two bottles of liquor per day for your cabin (not that I would even consider it at the prices they charge, plus I couldn't possibly consume that much, or want to :p)? My (mis)understanding in the past was that it's a one time purchase of two bottles per cabin. :confused:

[spny84]

Could have sworn it was in some of the fine print I read prior to the cruise, and I just grouped all that with the Cruise Contract. It was definitely discussed in that previous thread I mentioned (and of course can't find now and which is why I started my research) that the 2 bottles pre-cruise was the limit until you got on ship and then you can order more at 2 at a time/day. I believe some higher levels can get bar set ups and have no idea how that is done or counts but this was our first cruise with carnival so we were just the average joe :-).

 

And I agree the prices are high and couldn't see buying 2 a day everyday :-D. I also brought an empty rumrunner to bring the extra booze home because at $90 we weren't leaving them a drop :-).