How often do the drink packages go on sale?

[dswallow]

1 hour ago, MN_CRUISER said:

Reactivating this thread now that sailing will be starting up again soon.

 

I just booked Liberty almost a year and a half out and happened to check the DBP price in the Cruise Planner. What I found was $57 with no "sale" language at all (see screen shot). If this is an actual "regular" price, I don't think it's that bad, but would love to snap it up at 20% or more off. I could buy it now to be safe and watch for a later sale, but don't really relish the idea of shelling out $950 eighteen months in advance. We're all pretty confident they will hold routine sales, but for those with more experience than I, what is the likelihood this "regular" price would inch up as departure gets closer? And what's to prevent them from slapping a 20% banner on later and just leave it at $57? After all, the price range they cite for DBP's on their beverage info page is $63 - $89:  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/beverage-packages

For all I know, this is already a sale price. Advice?

 

 

Off-sale you can't count on any sort of accurate reflection of percent-off banners, or even their appearance at all, and current off-sale discounting on a sailing, moreso when the sailing is far out.

 

And most cruise planner sales tend not to extend that far out, either, so you'll probably not be able to tell exactly what the onboard price may be until closer to the sail date.

 

If you use any sort of ad blocker, the banners may be getting blocked by that. I've seen that happening recently with AdGuard, which is what I use. 

 

The best thing to do is simply make the decision based on your willingness to spend the money now vs later. BTW, $57/day is probably 20% off the onboard price, and 20% is a pretty standard discount in advance. That puts the onboard price someplace around $72/day ($71.25, but the discounts are ALWAYS at least the stated percentage, so they'll round to ensure they aren't falsely advertising -- yeah, cue laughter). That means the very, very best discount you might expect to see in advance would be 30% or $50/day, and ever so slightly better when paired with a VOOM package.

If it were me, I would wait. That much money up front just doesn't need to be spent yet. And you'll most likely see the same pricing on that sailing for a while, until it's well under a year out, and during various cruise planner sales. That doesn't mean I wouldn't occasionally look at the current pricing though -- mistakes do happen, as well as perhaps intentional random better discounting. Somewhere around 180-200 days out, start looking more seriously at it.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by dswallow

[cured]

On 8/13/2018 at 12:18 PM, landsear said:

How often do the drink packages go on sale?

For my upcoming cruise, the drink package switches between $46 and $61 approximately every 7-10 days. 

 

In over a year, it has not changed between these two prices including during Black Friday, except for one week recently where it went to $53. That week was the only price aberration in a very set pattern.  In August and October there were two 15 day periods where it stayed at $61. Otherwise, you could set your watch on every 8 days.

 

[RFerrington]

I've noticed that recently the prices on drinks, wifi and dining packages have gone up from what had been their "sale" levels.  Who knows if they will come back down or not.  I have already purchased everything that I could....only those sailings past the spring of 22 have not yet opened up in the CP.

[MN_CRUISER]

2 hours ago, RFerrington said:

....only those sailings past the spring of 22 have not yet opened up in the CP.

 

That's curious, my cruise in Sept 2022 is showing this DBP in the CP: Was actually a little surprised to see it this far out.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by MN_CRUISER

[NC State]

22 minutes ago, MN_CRUISER said:

 

That's curious, my cruise in Sept 2022 is showing this DBP in the CP: Was actually a little surprised to see it this far out.

 

 

Our window just open but then tomorrow is our 1 year date.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, MN_CRUISER said:

 

That's curious, my cruise in Sept 2022 is showing this DBP in the CP: Was actually a little surprised to see it this far out.

 

 

That may have just opened up.  My August 2022 cruise was not showing the drink package a week ago but it is now

[RFerrington]

Some of my 2022 cruises are now showing drink package pricing but nothing on dining yet.  I'm not buying now though...prices are sky high.  I will wait for the next "sale" and then see how they look.

[LadyBeBop]

Looks like I’ll be doing the lift and shift dance (from June 2021 to June 2022). 😪 I bought my drink package for the now-cancelled cruise on Black Friday. Just like the cruises in 2018 and 2019.  Do you think there will be a better time to buy for 2022?

[Ourusualbeach]

On 4/7/2021 at 9:41 PM, MN_CRUISER said:

Reactivating this thread now that sailing will be starting up again soon.

 

I just booked Liberty almost a year and a half out and happened to check the DBP price in the Cruise Planner. What I found was $57 with no "sale" language at all (see screen shot). If this is an actual "regular" price, I don't think it's that bad, but would love to snap it up at 20% or more off. I could buy it now to be safe and watch for a later sale, but don't really relish the idea of shelling out $950 eighteen months in advance. We're all pretty confident they will hold routine sales, but for those with more experience than I, what is the likelihood this "regular" price would inch up as departure gets closer? And what's to prevent them from slapping a 20% banner on later and just leave it at $57? After all, the price range they cite for DBP's on their beverage info page is $63 - $89:  https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/beverage-packages

For all I know, this is already a sale price. Advice?

 

The next sale is from April 14 to 20th 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Promotions/Snapshot_of_CruisePlanner_Offers.pdf

[MN_CRUISER]

13 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The next sale is from April 14 to 20th 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Promotions/Snapshot_of_CruisePlanner_Offers.pdf

 

Very helpful, thanks! These deals probably won't apply to my Sept 2022 cruise, but will this same link work when new sales get scheduled?

[Ourusualbeach]

7 hours ago, MN_CRUISER said:

 

Very helpful, thanks! These deals probably won't apply to my Sept 2022 cruise, but will this same link work when new sales get scheduled?

Yes, that link gets updated for all the new sales.

[LadyBerard]

Thanks for the heads up.  My Oct. 20, 2022 on Serenade is now available to purchase beverage packages.  Price for Deluxe Beverage package is $54 pp per day.  I purchased it for us and will monitor prices.